Diagnosis
Current rep assessments don't take the whole picture into account

Prescription
The doctor's perspective will help give you a clearer understanding of performance

Sales managers have difficult jobs, which are made harder by the fact that they must inspire, direct and coach their sales personnel to enhance sales force effectiveness (SFE).

SFE is directly linked to a manager's ability to affect change in sales force behaviors, and those behaviors lie in the realms of selling skills, product and clinical knowledge.

What is very clearly missing in this equation is the perspective of the customer – the doctors the representatives call on; specifically, the doctors' perception of which behaviors they value and will change their clinical behaviors and prescribing habits. Without an understanding of how, why and what a doctor needs to use a product and apply products to patient problems, no member of the team can expect to change or sustain changes in clinical behaviors and prescribing habits.

We conducted a retrospective study from more than 350,000 doctor-representative interactions surveyed by Metamorph Doctors. Two very compelling outcomes have emerged from our analysis:

First, doctors consistently rate representatives much differently than the sales mangers – even when using the same set of criteria (selling skills and knowledge). In many cases, skills that are rated higher by managers are rated lower by doctors. The result is that doctors indicate representatives are not bringing value to the call, therefore access to the doctor becomes limited and no change in clinical behavior takes place.

Second, doctors consistently rate top sales performers – those who exhibit best-in-class behaviors – in the middle to upper-middle of the rankings when judged on the behaviors that will change their clinical behaviors and prescribing habits. Thus, the traditional use of experienced and top performers' best-in-class practices as models for coaching for success may need to be reexamined and modified.

This article will address the first outcome above and explore new coaching methods that need to be applied to ensure that managers are aware of, and are coaching, the precepts of doctor-focused selling.

Traditionally, managers ride with their representatives and observe a call with a doctor. They assess the representatives' behaviors using the company-taught topics of selling skills, messaging, and use of promotional materials and clinical evidence – and sometimes the best-in-class behaviors of top performers – as the basis of their critique. Managers observe, assess and coach to behaviors, not necessarily to outcomes, using checklists that provide for presence, absence and/or degree of observed behaviors.

The challenge is to help managers align themselves with the needs and requirements of their customers – the doctors. The most effective solution is to have doctors and managers participate in a real-world exercise of evaluation and coaching. This way, managers can learn directly from observing and applying the precept of doctor-focused coaching.

We have introduced a unique model that is enabling managers to improve those sales representative behaviors that doctors have positively responded to, and that have been proven to change their clinical behavior. Central to this program, which is called "Coaching to the MD Mindset," is understanding that doctors perceive and rate representatives' behaviors differently than managers and trainers. The coaching model offers a direct comparison between doctors' and managers' ratings of sales representative performance, so the manager can see where he or she differs from the doctor.

In this coaching model, managers observe some of their representatives conducting real product calls with real doctors. After the call, the manager and doctor measure the representative's presentation using identical performance criteria. The doctors then give the representative verbal feedback on the call, explaining why they rated as they did. Separately, the manager and the instructor analyze the differences that exist between the two measurements and review the feedback. The manager is shown not only the difference between the two perspectives, but also gains insight into why and what needs to be done differently.