From a Medical Representative to a Successful IT Company Sales Manager

I am a Sales Manager. I help my company find leads, motivate our sales team to perform, close deals, and increase their sales. And this is my story. I started my career as a medical representative in a well-known pharmaceutical company in 2007. After 7 years of hard work and perseverance, I became a District Manager handling medical representatives in a given territory in 2014. Four years later, I now work as a sales manager in an IT company which developed the innovative application called PocketWISE from eScience, the game-changer that helped me and my field sales reach our goals.

With more than a decade of sales experience in the pharmaceutical industry, I have already seen every nook and cranny of the sales process that led to success, or even failure, of pharmaceutical companies. After a decade, I realized that I wouldn’t have survived field sales if not for perseverance, hard-work, patience, attitude, and the right tools like PocketWISE that helped me throughout my sales career.

How does it feel to be part of the sales force in the pharmaceutical industry? Tough competition. If you are not resilient in Sales, it will be difficult to thrive in this competitive pharma industry. I'll share with you how I survived, and even thrived, when I was still working as a district manager using the innovative application called PocketWISE.

Before the Customer Visit

The moment I wake up for a typical workday, the first thing I have in mind are the goals for the day. The tasks I must accomplish, the field sales I monitor, and the decisions needed to be made. Good thing that all my medical representatives are already using PocketWISE on their iPad, that guides them in their work. The PocketWISE dashboard gives my Med Reps a high-level picture of their territory, it shows where the gaps are, the KPIs (sales, call rate, reach, concentration, etc), and even suggest better ways of covering their territory, just like an effective assistant. What used to take days to manually compute their performance vs KPIs, is now done automatically through PocketWISE. Less time on paperwork, more time with customers! Since our company started using PocketWISE I don't have to closely monitor my reps since the application already tells them where they stand compared to their goals.

After a sip of my morning coffee, I review all the plans and schedule of my medical representatives using the PocketWISE manager application installed on my iPad. This includes the itinerary of my reps, and the joint visit to the doctors we are seeing that day. By viewing the planned customer visits of my reps, I can check if they are in-line with the goals we have set for the month. I would check their pre-call notes and make sure that they have set the right objectives for the visit and loaded the correct product presentations. Note that since we started using the iPads, our company already switched our detailing aids to electronic and interactive, which impressed the doctors. The reps love it too since they don't have to carry all the bulky presentation materials now that all our marketing materials are stored on the iPad.

The PocketWISE application allows me to review if the planned route my reps or the day is optimized, and does not involve too much time travelling or waiting. We even have a stat that computes travel time vs face time with doctors. One of the most important aspects of effective sales work is to maximize the face to face time with the customer. You don't want to see your sales force squandering most of their time on the road, or tied up with lots of paperwork.

Like an effective assistant, PocketWISE recommends to the med reps which doctors may be better covered based on his/her location, itinerary, doctor schedule, and those important customers they missed in previous days. This makes decision making in the field much easier and faster. And it also helps my reps who are not yet familiar with the territory make the correct decisions. It’s hard to make the right decisions if you don't have all the information in your hands.

Now I am ready to do my first joint call with my medical representative. Upon arrival at the hospital or clinic, I would usually observe my rep on how he/she will present during the call and give her some tips from time to time. The PocketWISE application I am using on my tablet allows me to rate the performance of my team while on-the-go. I can even view previous ratings given to the rep to see if there is any improvement in his/her performance.

During visit

After the hi’s and hello’s with the doctor, my rep took out his/her mobile tablet, and started the presentation to the doctor using PocketWISE. The interactive detailing aid of the application allowed the doctor choose which part of the presentation or product he/she prefers to discuss. With ease, my rep presented an eye-catching interactive presentation to the doctor that engaged him, especially when the doctor has to interact with the material on the tablet. There was even time to entertain questions and elaborate on our products. The medical rep was able to follow our marketing plan and even gave product samples based on the plan. After the call, the doctor signed on my rep’s mobile tablet to confirm the visit for today. This proves the visit was made and the doctor acknowledges the samples given, and the presentation made. A GPS location stamp also confirms the location of the customer visit.

After the visit

After the visit, the data from the visit were synchronized to my application and to the management in our main office. Note that PocketWISE also works offline and is helpful when visiting offices that have limited mobile network coverage. Once our visit was done, I was able to rate my rep’s performance right away and discuss the good points of the call plus the areas that can still be improved. The final score or rating is computed automatically by the PocketWISE manager application. I also included my comments in the post-call notes. We parted ways and it was not even lunch time yet when we said our goodbyes.

Plot twist

How did we accomplish everything?

Not a single drop of ink was used nor any piece of tree skin. No letter, form, or handout. Everything was paperless. We scheduled calls without a personal calendar, and we listed the doctors in the area without a planner or organizer. Lastly, we presented a detailing aid without the need for bulky and heavy presentation materials.

How is it possible?

PocketWISE mobile application has guided me throughout my entire sales career in the Pharma industry. It has been our companion in the field all these years giving us the edge we need to compete with other pharma companies. Less paperwork and more time with the doctors were a few of the main benefits we got from PocketWISE. And as a Sales Manager, it delights me to see my reps working more productively. We saw an increase of 15-20% in their overall productivity due to PocketWISE, and this translated to increase in our sales volume, increase in motivation, more satisfied customers and a winning team.

As PocketWISE version 8.2 unveils, I am even more excited to try and share with other pharma representatives, especially its new call routing feature, and map views powered by AWS and Google Maps.