In the competitive world of pharmaceutical sales, effective coaching and field support are critical. Joint field work offers a unique opportunity for sales managers to not only evaluate but also mentor their teams ensuring that both managers and medical representatives are aligned in driving success.
What is Joint Field Work (JFW) and why is it Needed?
Joint field work involves managers and medical representatives visiting Healthcare Professionals (HCPs), Chemists or Pharmacists to make sales calls together. It helps both managers and reps in many ways including:
- Observing how med reps conduct themselves during HCP visits like introduction, behavior and attire.
- How effectively they are implementing the action plan and using the technology to transform the sales process.
- How well they are building relationships with HCPs, chemists or pharmacists.
- How much knowledge they have attained on the brand or products and how confidently they are demonstrating their benefits and usage to healthcare professionals.
- Are representatives making HCPs comfortable during the meetings.
- Able to ask questions to identify the need and answer their queries regarding the product and clearly deliver marketing messages.
- Adhering to regulatory guidelines and industry standards while interacting and doing promotional activities.
- Gain information on competitor’s products and activities and also sales trends in different markets.
- Help managers develop relations with the sales team and key customers which will further boost sales.
- An opportunity for sales representatives to enhance their skills, improve their knowledge and ratings.
The Significance of Joint Field Work for Sales Managers
Sales managers should conduct JFW regularly, ideally every month to observe the improvement of the reps. Consistent Joint work will also help managers to build a good rapport with the sales team and customers. They should work as a team, teach them their experiences and make representatives feel good about themselves while doing so.
However, is JFW Alone Enough to Ensure Success?
While JFW plays an important part for a sales manager, it is not a complete solution. A Sales manager should provide constructive feedback to med reps on their strengths and areas which need improvement. They should give feedback on various aspects like communication skills, presentation skills, product knowledge and also personality development.
Coaching after JFW is important for a med rep to improve his overall performance. The manager should actively participate in the rep’s growth by providing necessary training materials, helping them to improve in weak areas and setting timelines for progress.
Coaching Tools for Managers
To streamline the process of feedback and coaching, we have developed a fully configurable coaching module in Kea CRM for managers. This module allows managers to:
- Provide detailed feedback and ratings based on JFW
- Rate the med rep’s performance in various categories
- Create a timeline for improvement and provide resources for skill development
- Analyze performance and progress through analytics and reports
The main objective of the joint field work is to assist and motivate representatives to establish strong and long-term relationships with their customers. As the saying goes “A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.” by combining JFW and structured coaching sales managers can create a capable, confident and customer focused sales team which indeed will give better sales results.
Author
Sushma Imami
Sales and Marketing
sushma@vsmsoftware.com