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A ready reckoner for pharma sales people
 Title:
Empowering Pharma Field Sales Manager
Author: Purushottam Chitale
Published by: Pharma Consults, Pune
Pages: 244
Price: Rs 350
With an aim to provide a ctrl+alt+delete combination (used to restart the computer)
to the pharma sales people to restart their sagging careers, the book Empowering
Pharma Field Sales Manager is a ‘Do it Yourself’ handbook.
Authored by Purushottam Chitale, the book is written as a memoir of the author’s
effort to guide the pharma sales people. Though, there is no dearth of books
on pharma sales management, the book acts as a working manual and a ready reckoner.
The medical representatives (MRs), area managers and the seniors will find the
book a dependable companion. Students desiring to make a career in pharma marketing
will find the book equally useful and will get an inside view of the nitty-gritty
of field sales management. This book will also be rewarding for the professionals
practicing consumer marketing.
The author has adopted a modular approach covering each field
sales management function as stand alone chapter allowing the reader to follow
the sequence he prefers. The chapters are grouped function wise in two parts.
Part I deals with the managerial job functions. This covers: Selection process;
Training & Development; Territory planning; Sales budget; Key Result Area
(KRAs); Sales control system; Performance evaluation; Do not glance — Please
see through; Sales meeting; Effective field sales manager; Time management;
Distribution; Leadership; Motivation and Customer Relationship Management.
Part II covers the jobs to be performed by a MR. This covers:
AKHS Principles; Job functions of Medical Representative; Prescription Audit
RCPA; Planning for field sales people; Detailing — The soul of product
presentation; Personal order booking; Handling sales objections and Sampling
— Theprecious promotional tool.
In the chapter on Distributuion, the author writes that the
field sales people must understand the rationale of distribution policies and
procedures adopted by the company and should ensure whole hearted acceptance
of the channel choice made by the company. Infact, they are the ones who should
help the company to make the right choice of the distributor /super stockist/C&F/CA
agent. Companies rely and rightly so, on their field sales people once the type
of distribution set up desired by the company is finalised.
Field people have to religiously prepare ‘‘25 block plan’’
in which they write the names of doctors to be met on each day as per planned
visit frequency. Such plan helps to maintain desired call frequency and coverage
of all doctors on contact list, Chitale advises in the chapter Planning for
Field Sales People.
Various charts/forms and diagrams make the book easy and interesting to read.
Though the book lacks simple editing, it still makes a ready reckoner/guide
for the pharma sales people.
—Chetna Rathod
chetnarathod@expressindia.com
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