Time’s up! Pharmaceutical experts offer reps needed time management tools
Time management is one of the most important things a pharmaceutical sales representative can master. In this MedZilla article, sales consultants and representatives in the pharmaceutical space give their input about the time management process and tools that help reps focus on what’s important and eliminate what’s not.
MARYSVILLE, WA (PRWEB) July 30, 2004 -- You have lots to do: pre-call plan
the next day, see doctors, write reports, answer emails, eat lunch (at some
point) order samples and more. Without a plan or time management skills, your
days as a pharmaceutical representative become an unproductive
blur.
“Time management is essential in any type of sales job, and it’s
particularly crucial in pharmaceutical sales where relationships are key and
pressure and competition are high,” says Frank Heasley, PhD, president and CEO
of MedZilla.com, a leading Internet recruitment and professional community that
serves biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and science.
Time
management is a process, some turn to technology to streamline their processes.
There’s more to time management than gadgets, says Seleste Lunsford, senior
product manager for Tampa, Fla.-based AchieveGlobal’s sales portfolio. Time
management is as much about process as it is about tools. Clearly you can use
wireless technology to communicate with the office between sales calls and take
advantage of downtime. You can use software systems for reminders, call
scheduling and more. But even with all the tech gadgets, you can be a big time
waster if you don't have the right processes, she says.
Lunsford says
that these tips will help you to make the best use of your time in
pharmaceutical sales:
-Manage your territory pro-actively. Act based on a
clear view of your pipeline.
-Classify accounts and
opportunities.
-Evaluate your progress towards goals and milestones and
re-plan as needed.
-Use your goals to prioritize activities. Call on the
accounts which will help you achieve your goal, not the ones that are easy to
call on.
-Increase time spent on goal-directed activity.
Decrease the
time spent on necessary activities not directly related to your goals, and
eliminate the time wasters.
-Never skip pre-call planning to save
time.
Recognize the impulse to procrastinate, figure out where it comes from,
and then eliminate it.
Teresa Castro, a former sales representative and
trainer for Merck & Co., and author of The Dark before the Dawn: 70 Secrets
to Self-discovery, agrees that pre-call planning is an integral part of the
successful rep’s day.
“Pre-call planning is the number one key advice to
anyone who is in pharmaceutical sales when they are looking for time management
advice,” she says. “Many representatives perceive that pre-call planning takes
too much time because it involves effort. Yet this extra bit of effort in
reality saves them a great deal of time.”
Castro says that there are
several important pre-call planning elements:
Know the physician’s
prescribing habits – Are there any trends? Does the physician prescribe many
drugs in that therapeutic class? Does the physician prescribe a particular drug?
Is the prescribing the same or does it fluctuate?
Know the best times to
see each physician – Every physician has a “best” time to see them.
Representatives need to ask the nurse and receptionist when the physician is the
least stressed and the most likely to spend time with the representative. Many
times, this “best time” information is documented in the profile of the
physician that other representatives have collected in the past. Don’t just
ignore this information – use it! Castro says.
Review notes from past
calls – Every representative should look at the “call history.” This call
history might have key information that comes from other representatives in
their prior calls. Reading the histories can save you time and help you avoid
annoying physicians by asking them what previous reps have asked.
Know
the patient population – It is important to reflect on the patient population
before walking into the physician’s office. A particular product might be used
for children and adults, yet the doctor might not see children in their
practice.
Logistically plan your day –For this plan to work, a
representative should create a schedule that is based on the “best times” to see
the physician and also take into account drive time. Representatives lose too
much time driving around from place to place.
Mark Ellwood of Pace
Productivity training and consulting, Toronto, Canada, conducted a time study
last fall for a major pharmaceutical company. In it, reps reported working about
49 hours a week and spending 11 hours a week or 22% of that time traveling. They
did 28 trips per week on average, with each trip taking an average of 23
minutes.
He recommends bunching visits in close proximity.
“There are some software programs that allow you to do route planning,”
he says.
Waiting time is downtime for some frazzled reps; while it is
productive work time for others. Castro suggests using the time you spend
waiting to see clients as an opportunity to respond to email, study the latest
medical articles and pre-call plan the next day.
Administration
time—doing paperwork, ordering materials and getting sample, writing reports and
more—can consume about 18% to 25% of your precious time, according to Ellwood.
Automate and make reporting more efficient where possible and eliminate extra
reporting when you can.
One of the most overwhelming trends for
time-starved reps is reading and answering email. Get yourself off all the lists
you can, Ellwood says. And make good use of filters.
“Time management
skills are important whether the representative is out on the road marketing or
looking for a job. We find that the successful job seekers in pharmaceutical
sales are often those who also were successful in sales because they know how to
keep a lot of balls in the air without dropping any. They have good planning
skills,” says MedZilla’s Marketing Director Michele Groutage.
About
MedZilla.com
Established in mid 1994, MedZilla is the original web site to
serve career and hiring needs for professionals and employers in biotechnology,
pharmaceuticals, medicine, science and healthcare. MedZilla databases contain
about 10,000 open positions, 13,000 resumes from candidates actively seeking new
positions and 71,000 archived resumes.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/7/prweb145248.htm