Focus Magazine - Fall 2016 - 31

FEATURESTORY Ask managers how much eﬀort they and their reps put into pre-visit planning, and you may be surprised to hear, "Not much." What a missed opportunity! A recent survey of life sciences managers revealed that only 30 percent felt their pre-visit planning was eﬀective. Some admitted that all they asked the rep to do was list the oﬃces they'd be visiting and the product they were going to highlight. Considering the heavy emphasis on pre-call planning for reps, it's ironic that managers don't do more pre-fieldvisit planning. Like a sales call, a field visit is an appointment to sell something - that something isn't a product or a service, it's better performance. With new report forms in the cloud, more companies are including a field visit plan as part of the report structure. Having it there is one thing; using it eﬀectively is another. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the most successful managers get the coaching process oﬀ to a good start with a solid pre-visit plan in writing. For these people, it's just a part of what they do every week. Pre-Visit Planning Has to Be Easy Lots of managers say, "I don't have time to do what I'm doing, let alone add another task to my to-do list." at's why pre-visit planning has to be easy. Ideally, the rep and the manager should decide on a plan together. at could be as simple as an email from the manager to the rep with two questions: * What do you want my help with? * Is there anything in particular you want me to look for? Or, the manager can put the monkey on the rep's back and ask for a brief plan for the day. Suppose a rep tells the manager the plan is to see FOCUS | FALL 2016 | www.L-TEN.org four physicians who are good candidates for using XYZ. e manager can then turn the conversation to behavior with a directive response like this: * Based on what we discussed in our last ride-along, have you prepared targeted questions for each physician? I will be looking for .... e manager's coaching response might only be one or two sentences. It's not the length that matters - it's the strength. ere's no reason to leave field visit planning for a discussion first thing in the ride-along morning. is can all be taken care of in writing ahead of time. at allows more time for both selling and coaching. * Fact: Top salespeople focus on "how" in each call. * Parallel: Top sales managers focus on "how" in their field coaching reports. It would be absurd to sell a product simply by saying, "My product is great. You should buy it." Top salespeople sell by explaining the "how." * How the product has worked. * How the customer can use the product. * How it will benefit the customer. In field coaching reports, managers can explain: * How a rep's behavior worked or didn't work. * How to do something better next time. * How specific actions will benefit the rep. The most successful managers get the coaching process off to a good start with a solid pre-visit plan in writing. Incorporating More 'How' in Field Coaching Reports What two words start most field coaching reports? "Nice job!" If the next comment has something that defines what made the job "nice," and the comment aer that gives some direction, that's not a terrible way to start a report. Far too many reports, however, don't give the specifics that are necessary aer "nice job." During a recent field coaching report training session with 20 experienced managers reviewing two of their own reports, all 20 found at least one "good job" or "nice job" or "excellent job." More revealing, however, is that 15 managers found more than 10 in just two of their reports! Here's an example one manager shared with the group: * "You had an excellent call at XYZ Center! You also did a good job interacting with the XYZ team. Overall, this was a very good day!" What's the impact of content like that in a report? Almost zero. It's just 31 http://www.L-TEN.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Focus Magazine - Fall 2016