Previously, we've explored tips that Pharmaceutical sales rep can use to score in their product test. You're also aware of the fact that product test is one item on a rep key performance index (KPI). There are other items on the KPI also, and one of them is a sales call report.
Or you can just call it Call Report ...
It's a tool that Sales Managers (and their managers) use to manage reps.
In this article, we're going to look at what a near perfect sales call reporting system should have when it comes to the Pharmaceutical industry. This can be a guideline for companies that still looking for format for their reps' sales reporting. You are welcomed to add or subtract any item we discuss here.
My aim is just to provide you with a framework. The rest is up to you.
I am about to open my laptop and report my sales to call for today. Before I do that, I just want to jot down a few thought regarding a perfect (or at least near perfect) system for folks in pharma industry.
Since I got started in the pharmaceutical industry a decade back, I understand the reason for reporting a call only as a tracking exercise. Managers are doing it to see that reps really go out on the field and do what they suppose to.
How else, I thought, they could monitor you?
If you're right in front of their eyes all the time, then that would be a different story.
Of course, there's only so much that they can do, right?
Then my understanding evolves as times pass.
I got to know about the performance management process, scientific management and all those complicated and annoying kinds of stuff. But the fact remains that it is a tool for tracking and monitoring!
For the sales rep out there, try answering this:
Have you ever got a promotion or a better salary because of a sales report?
Have you?
Next question:
How many times when you go for an interview with another pharma company did they ask for your call report performance?
If call reporting is utmost important, then why its role seems to be minuscule compared to the performance report or how many sales you bring in? Why?
So here comes the practical part.
In my personal opinion, the sales call is a part of the customer management process. There are more to customer management than just reporting what happens when a rep sits eye to eye with a customer, but it's the starting point.
What if I were to tell you that simple practice of recording or documenting a call did steer an envelope company from not known too well known, would you buy it?
If you're not, I invite you to pay a visit to your nearest bookstore and look for a guy named Harvey McKay who wrote How to Swim with the Shark without Being Eaten Alive.
It is real folks, and his secrets revolve around knowing all he can about his customer or instead McKay Envelope Corporation's customers. He designed McKay 60 which mostly a series of questions aimed to get to see a customer intimately. Harvey could not contribute his stellar success to a more significant factor than those questions.
Honestly, that's why I feel reps need to record their call: it's to support them, not supporting the company against them in trying times. Agree?
Which brings us to...
I'll summarize them in three simple phrases:
I'll explain to them some other time or perhaps in my next paid report :)
All the pieces of stuff that we need to key in as of now. I see minimal relevancy or value added to sales call effectiveness with what rep typically need to key in.
Agree?
I mean, whenever I need to analyze a customer, I only need to extract that customer out and put them on another program, like Excel.
So what's the point?
Worst: If I need to see the whole area picture, the amount of extraction is a LOT! A lot!
What's the point?
I might as well create an Excel template and record every single data in it. When the time comes, I only need to extract one time.
See?
As a final note, before I start pounding the keyboard for my call report, sales call reporting system will be as useful as a company wants it to be.
If they see it as a tracking tool, then a tracking tool it is. If it is seen as a customer management tool (CRM), then that is what it is. The expected outcomes depend heavily on the objective (and could make the difference between cents and dollars profit!).
Or you can just call it Call Report ...
It's a tool that Sales Managers (and their managers) use to manage reps.
In this article, we're going to look at what a near perfect sales call reporting system should have when it comes to the Pharmaceutical industry. This can be a guideline for companies that still looking for format for their reps' sales reporting. You are welcomed to add or subtract any item we discuss here.
My aim is just to provide you with a framework. The rest is up to you.
Thought on what to include or exclude in a sales call report
I am about to open my laptop and report my sales to call for today. Before I do that, I just want to jot down a few thought regarding a perfect (or at least near perfect) system for folks in pharma industry.Why report a sales call?
Since I got started in the pharmaceutical industry a decade back, I understand the reason for reporting a call only as a tracking exercise. Managers are doing it to see that reps really go out on the field and do what they suppose to.
How else, I thought, they could monitor you?
If you're right in front of their eyes all the time, then that would be a different story.
Of course, there's only so much that they can do, right?
Then my understanding evolves as times pass.
I got to know about the performance management process, scientific management and all those complicated and annoying kinds of stuff. But the fact remains that it is a tool for tracking and monitoring!
For the sales rep out there, try answering this:
Have you ever got a promotion or a better salary because of a sales report?
Have you?
Next question:
How many times when you go for an interview with another pharma company did they ask for your call report performance?
If call reporting is utmost important, then why its role seems to be minuscule compared to the performance report or how many sales you bring in? Why?
Why actually sales rep need to report sales to call?
So here comes the practical part.
In my personal opinion, the sales call is a part of the customer management process. There are more to customer management than just reporting what happens when a rep sits eye to eye with a customer, but it's the starting point.
What if I were to tell you that simple practice of recording or documenting a call did steer an envelope company from not known too well known, would you buy it?
If you're not, I invite you to pay a visit to your nearest bookstore and look for a guy named Harvey McKay who wrote How to Swim with the Shark without Being Eaten Alive.
It is real folks, and his secrets revolve around knowing all he can about his customer or instead McKay Envelope Corporation's customers. He designed McKay 60 which mostly a series of questions aimed to get to see a customer intimately. Harvey could not contribute his stellar success to a more significant factor than those questions.
Honestly, that's why I feel reps need to record their call: it's to support them, not supporting the company against them in trying times. Agree?
Which brings us to...
Things to be included in the sales call record
I'll summarize them in three simple phrases:
- Psychographic
- Demographic
- Technographic
I'll explain to them some other time or perhaps in my next paid report :)
Things to be excluded
All the pieces of stuff that we need to key in as of now. I see minimal relevancy or value added to sales call effectiveness with what rep typically need to key in.
Agree?
I mean, whenever I need to analyze a customer, I only need to extract that customer out and put them on another program, like Excel.
So what's the point?
Worst: If I need to see the whole area picture, the amount of extraction is a LOT! A lot!
What's the point?
I might as well create an Excel template and record every single data in it. When the time comes, I only need to extract one time.
See?
As a final note, before I start pounding the keyboard for my call report, sales call reporting system will be as useful as a company wants it to be.
If they see it as a tracking tool, then a tracking tool it is. If it is seen as a customer management tool (CRM), then that is what it is. The expected outcomes depend heavily on the objective (and could make the difference between cents and dollars profit!).
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