Five Disruptive Forces that are Shaking Up Indian Pharma!

“R
eading a recent book on the topic of corruption in
healthcare in India, written by two Doctors, with tes-
timonies from several other honest doctors, a ques-
tion struck my mind: if there was a hierarchy of professions
corresponding to ‘needs’ in society (much like Maslow’s
pyramid), where would Doctors figure?
Right at the base of the pyramid I would imagine (the phys-
iological level in Maslow’s terminology). Yet, it suffers from
an ‘image’ problem (mind you, not a ‘reputation’ problem).
Is it a behavioural issue or an expectation mismatch? More
of an expectation mismatch than a behavioural one I be-
lieve.
I recently had an interesting conversation with a Professor
at a premier B-School. During an executive training, the
topic veered towards healthcare and the topic of “Doctors
fleecing patients”.
I am not a Doctor, but I have worked closely with Doctors
owing to my professional background (and I somehow en-
tered the discussion taking their side).
I asked the students a simple question: “Students studying
in this college will expect a seven digit starting package and
an eight digit package in a decade, while a medical graduate
gets a pittance during internship and is well into his or her 30’s
when before establishing a practice.
Students at this B-School live in lavish hostels while most
medical students’ hostels are a mess.
Many times medical students work over 18 hours a day on
duty and do not have the luxury of vacations!
Don’t Doctors have the right to a good living and earning just
like other professionals?”
The silence in the room was answer enough.
The truth, I feel, is that there are moral expectations from
Doctors, although they too are professionals paying taxes.
The Hippocratic oath - the ‘reputation driver’ for Doctors
that brings respect and admiration for them - is often un-
dermined by the market economy that we are currently in.
Without getting into the structural changes taking place in
the medical profession, suffice to say that there are indeed
Doctors who are ruining the image of the profession. But,
equally, there are those who go far beyond their responsi-
bilities under the Hippocratic Oath.
MEDICINMANField Force Excellence
July 2016| www.medicinman.net
Indian Pharma’s First Digital Magazine Since 2011
TM
DOCTORS STILL CONSIDERED
NOBLE BUT IMAGE NEEDS A
MAKEOVER WITH GESTURES OF
MAGNANIMITY.
GUEST EDITORIAL
Noumaan Qureshi
“The truth, I feel, is that there are moral
expectations from Doctors, although
they too are professionals paying taxes.”

I had a personal experience when my sister was
wheeled into the emergency room due to a
stroke, at a respected private tertiary care hos-
pital.
It was a Saturday. The neurologist was a good
soul who waited for more than four hours, being
present throughout the tests and scans till she
was put in the ICU.
As her stay in the hospital continued for months,
on many occasions he did not charge fee for his
visits. I know other Doctors as well who have hu-
manity as their first priority.
While many times Doctors defend the profes-
sion, claiming there are black sheep in every
profession, there is one quality - magnanimity -
which I believe can bring lot of positivity to the
Doctor’s image.
Doctors enjoy respect in society: their reputa-
tion is intact; but their image keeps fluctuating.
A bit of behaviour change will course-correct
this distortion.
HAPPY DOCTOR’S DAY!
GUEST EDITORIAL by Noumaan Qureshi
2 | MedicinMan July 2016
Noumaan Qureshi is a PR professional.
Views expressed are personal.
“
Doctors enjoy respect in society:
their reputation is intact; but their
image keeps fluctuating.
A bit of behaviour change will
course-correct this distortion.

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MEDICINMANField Force Excellence
LEARNINGON-THE-GOWITHTHETHOUGHTLEADERSOFPHARMA

CONTENTS
MedicinMan Volume 6 Issue 7 | July 2016
Editor and Publisher
Anup Soans
Chief Mentor
K. Hariram
Editorial Board
Salil Kallianpur; Prof. Vivek Hattangadi; Shashin
Bodawala; Hanno Wolfram; Renie McClay
Executive Editor
Joshua Soans
Letters to the Editor: anupsoans@medicinman.net
1. Five Disruptive Forces that are Shaking Up
Pharma ...............................................................6
A curtain raiser on a few disruptions that will
permanently alter the pharma marketing landscape
in the near future.
Piyush Agarwal
2. The Dangers of Labelling Your Sales Team
Members and Having a Closed Mindset ........12
It is easy to label your sales team members as inept
but it closes the doors to improvement and progress.
K. Hariram
3. Leadership Lessons for Frontline Managers:
Building an E2
Team ........................................17
How the pharma frontline manager can develop a
high-performance team by fostering Empathy and
Excellence in the team.
Vivek Hattangadi
4. How to Hire a Future-Ready Field Force ....22
As the pharma industry undergoes rapid change, the
job roles and job descriptions of the sales force will
also change. Hiring Managers need to keep this in
mind.
Anjali Sharma and Chandan Kumar
5. Handling Sales Rejections Professionally ..26
How to handle sales rejections as a business problem
to be solved rather than a personal affront.
RB Balakrishna
6. Deciding on a Business Expansion Strategy
by Weighing the Risks and Gains ....................28
An introduction to the use of the Ansoff Matrix to
weigh the risks and the benefits of pursuing a
particular growth strategy.
Connect with Anup on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter
Anup Soans is an L&D
Facilitator, Author, Pharma
Consultant and Editor -
MedicinMan
Visit: anupsoans.com
Meet the Editor

NOWAVAILABLEON
(click on the books to purchase on
flipkart)
SuperVision for the SuperWiser Front-line Manager is a tool to help pharma pro-
fessionals transition from super salesmen to great front-line managers and leaders.
The book will equip front-line managers to Manage, Coach, Motivate and Lead their
teams to deliver outstanding performance. An engaging read, filled with examples
and illustrations, SuperVision for the SuperWiser Front-line Manager has been used
by thousands of managers across the industry.
HardKnocks for the GreenHorn is a specially crafted training manual to enable
Medical Representatives to gain the Knowledge, Skills and Attitude needed to
succeed in the competitive arena of pharma field sales. Medical Representatives
joining the field are often not aware about the key success factors of their job and as
a result they get discouraged when things don’t go as planned. HardKnocks for the
GreenHorn is a powerful learning and motivational tool for field sales managers to
build their sales teams.
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“ 6 | MedicinMan July 2016
Increasingly, industry executives
are of the view that pharma’s age
old marketing models are no longer
returning predictable outcomes as they
did in the past.
T
imes are tough for pharma marketing and they
will get tougher. Increasingly, industry execu-
tives are of the view that pharma’s age old mar-
keting models are no longer returning predictable out-
comes as they did in the past.

DISRUPTIVE
FORCES
SHAKING
UP PHARMA
A curtain raiser on a
few disruptions that will
permanently alter the pharma
marketing landscape in the
near future.
Hanno Wolfram
5
Piyush Agarwal

“
Piyush Agarwal | 5 Disruptive Forces Shaking Up Pharma
In the past, marketing teams worked to create
eye-grabbing communication while sales teams
sweated it out to attract customers to the top of
the physician funnel. For ages, pharma marketers
excelled at managing systems that ensured mes-
saging consistency and in-clinic foot-falls.
However, the past is increasingly becoming irrele-
vant in a world of constant disruption. Return on
investments made in traditional models have be-
come unviable.
The take-home message is that pharma marketers
are going to fail if they continue to make decisions
based on intuition that was acquired a decade
back. A clear need of the hour is to go back to the
drawing board and redesign business models so
that they give us a unique advantage to sustain
growth in the future when these disruptions reach
maturity.
DISRUPTIVE FORCE NUMBER 1:
THE DIGITAL DEMOLITION
It took about 75 years for the telephone to connect
50 million users but the Internet achieved this fig-
ure in four years and Facebook in just two. Today
apps like Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Angry
birds and Candy Crush have already been down-
loaded on more than a billion handsets.
The fact is,‘Androidization’of products and services
is virtually demolishing every previously held be-
lief and business intuition. Mobile is connecting
the world in a manner and at speeds beyond hu-
man imagination.
Physicians today are relying far less on Medical
Reps and receiving more customized and quality
healthcare information on their hand-held devices.
Android services and start-ups are not just helping
physicians connect with their peers but also in-
creasing their referrals and consultations.

The take-home message is that
pharma marketers are going to fail
if they continue to make decisions
based on intuition that was acquired
a decade back.

“
If our customer acquisition blue-prints still lack dig-
italengagementstrategies,wemaywellbeburying
our heads in the sand. The android platform opens
up infinite possibilities for creating new marketing
capabilities and execution platforms that can lever-
age efforts in implementation, awareness, diagno-
sis and treatment in times to come.
THE CHANGING REGULATORY
REGIME
Let’s face it. Healthcare has always been a highly
regulated industry the world over and it is bound
to remain so in future. India being a developing na-
tion, it is only natural that time-and-again we find
ourselves in the docks with the regulators.
The government imposed an overnight ban on
fixed-dose combinations, slashing a whopping
3,000 crores at one go. The intention is good but
the manner of implementation of the legislation is
questionable.
The Kokate committee shortlisted 963 combina-
tions but only 344 have been banned at present.
One can expect more bans to come sooner or later,
likely sooner. For a healthcare marketer, the writing
on the wall is clear: be proactive so as not to get
caught off-guard.
Pharma marketers need to ponder on how they
will cushion the loss when brands are forced to
vanish from shelves overnight and what it will take
to mitigate the risk of losing valuable customers
and patients.
The Indian industry has seen a phenomenal adop-
tion of combination drugs in contrast to developed
nations. But as we increasingly align ourselves to
global healthcare standards, the focus may well
shift back to the use of single molecules or primary
therapies over a period of time.

If our customer acquisition blue-
prints still lack digital engagement
strategies, we may well be burying
our heads in the sand.

“
A SUDDEN ETHICAL DETOX
For diverse reasons, the implementation of an eth-
ical code in pharma has been continuously post-
poned. It is learnt that the government is now busy
giving final touches to a set of binding principles to
check malpractices in healthcare.
UCPMP will be one of the biggest disruptive forces
in modern times and ‘transactional’ sales models
will witness a sudden-death syndrome. Companies
will be forced to seek alternate strategies to keep
their customers engaged. Without a doubt, busi-
ness is bound to suffer in the near term but the
onus is on marketing and sales teams to redefine
the rules of customer engagement and continue to
deliver long-term growth.
DISRUPTIVE FORCE NUMBER
4: THE CHRONIC ILLNESS OUT-
BREAK
India is sitting on a cadio-metabolic time bomb.
With increasing longevity and awareness of life-
style diseases, the diagnosis of such diseases is aid-
ing growth much more than the acute segment.
Companies who identified the chronic opportunity
early on are reaping the benefits today and now
occupy formidable positions in these segments.
However, competition is intensifying at the top of
the pyramid. Further growth in these segments
needs to be driven by moving down the customer
pyramid to the mass markets by creating aware-
ness, aiding diagnosis and impacting outcomes.
A case in point is Gliptins. They have already shat-
tered long held dogmas and myths. In terms of val-
ue, Gliptins have become the top group of drugs
beating the age old Glim-met combinations to the
second place. And this despite the fact that A1C
reduction achieved by Gliptins is less than half of
a Glim-met combination. The Diabetes treatment
algorithm stands reshaped by an intelligent game
plan.

UCPMP will be one of the biggest
disruptive forces in modern times
and ‘transactional’ sales models will
witness a sudden-death syndrome.

“
SFE INEFFECTIVENESS
Traditionally, pharma has remained focused only
on the physician as the single-point decision mak-
er for generating demand. However since 2010, the
rising power of alternate stakeholders in health-
care is opening up newer targets in a Multi-Chan-
nel Marketing (MCM) environment.
For instance, about 85 per cent of the market value
is contributed by the retail segment today. How-
ever, they will be severely challenged by the phe-
nomenal rise of the corporate and chain hospitals
who are aggressively making plans to penetrate at
least 100 cities in the near term.
Creating a differentiated space in the future would
now involve acquiring new skills to partner and ne-
gotiate with a variety of agencies and service firms
who are impacting drug consumption. Undoubt-
edly, the sales force that would win battles in the
future will be the ones who bust their own myths
and open-up to face competition in the disrupted
landscape. Of course, the training leaders will have
to play the enabling role in injecting and nurturing
a new SFE culture and rejig teaching modules to
give the sales force new skills:
1. Shift the focus of training from managing
‘transactions’ to implementing long-term sci-
entific engagements.
2. Train the field force to create new markets
through a business development approach.
3. Re-train for partnering and negotiating skills
with a wide set of new stake holders.
4. Reset managerial KPIs from chasing month-
end target numbers and start measuring activ-
ity-based customer enrollments.
5. Redesign compensation and reward systems
based on multi-channel complexities and tal-
ent requirements.

...training leaders will have to play
the enabling role in injecting and
nurturing a new SFE culture and
rejig teaching modules to give the
sales force new skills.

“
CONCLUSION
There are no magic bullets to win in the new dis-
rupted landscape. However, a few fundamental
actions will set the ball rolling to your advantage.
First, it is important to recognize existing strengths
and then begin to innovate and prepare for disrup-
tive times. Understand that the focus of innovation
will have to shift from messaging and coverage ex-
cellence to how brands can prove to be innovative
solutions to an existing need-gap.
Second, attracting customers to the top of the
sales funnel will no longer serve the purpose of cre-
ating a loyal prescriber. Unless customers are kept
engaged throughout the solution value chain, they
will be lost to competition mid-way.
Third, stop looking at the world through a rear-
view mirror. Decisions based on intuition and
gut-feelings of the past will lead to costly mistakes.
In the new world, executives, leaders, and individu-
als will need to boldly reboot their hard-drives and
upgrade to the latest operating systems. This will
become undebatable for organizations that have
enjoyed great success so far and aim to do so in the
future as well. M

There are no magic bullets to win
in the new disrupted landscape.
However, a few fundamental
actions will set the ball rolling to
your advantage.
Piyush Agarwal is AVP –
Business Strategy at Intas
Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
piyush3110@gmail.com

R
ecently, I was in a coaching session with my
coachee client who is a General Manager – Mar-
keting & Sales in a petro chemicals company.
The conversation veered around to some of his current
challenges. He exclaimed in frustration: ‘My sales peo-
ple just don’t get it! What can I do about them?”
I went about the session trying to help my coachee
find direction with certain clear action points based on
my practical coaching experience to a group of phar-
ma Frontline Managers (FLMs) a few weeks ago.
Let me share one of my recent interactions with a
group of FLMs and how the coaching took place. Here
is a list of familiar questions posed by them:
“How do I…
Make my team members more responsible and account-
able?
Work on under-performers effectively?
Motivate my team members during challenging situa-
tions?
Know when and where to train and when to coach?
Make my team members stick to their commitments –
especially the senior ones?”
And many more…

THE DANGERS OF
LABELLING YOUR
TEAM MEMBERS
AND HAVING A
CLOSED MINDSET
It is easy to label your sales team members as
inept but it closes the doors to improvement and
progress.
K. Hariram

“For me these are‘COACHING”moments. So my typ-
ical way of going further on this is to ask:
“Can you tell me more about it?”
If someone is handling a team of senior members
(by age) or chronic underperformers, then the re-
plies usually are:“they cannot be coached”,“the con-
versations are not productive”, “they do not listen”,
etc.
When such feedback comes up in a group setting
with other FLMs present, it is not uncommon to see
them nodding their heads in agreement and look-
ing helpless.
My next question is “do you mean these people are
not coachable or cannot be changed?”
A unified“YES” is usually the response.
I follow this with the question:“Tell me, why is there
a feeling of helplessness? I am eager to know.”
This usually results in a lengthy explanation of all
the efforts made and the gross reluctance of the
under performer to take the help or support from
the concerned manager.
Having understood the situation my next question
is,“so based on all what you have experienced, would
I be right in saying that you have come to the conclu-
sion that they cannot be coached?”
“YES, absolutely”, comes the answer, with confi-
dence. The others nod their agreement.
My next question is, “Okay. So, what other issues
might we be dealing with here?”
This results in stony-faced silence.
Here it becomes clear that they are out of ideas and
nothing is likely to change their beliefs.
For me this is a Eureka! moment. A change in ap-
proach is what is required and that is what I did.
I asked,“Have you ever been in a situation where you
or your Reps were making a difficult physician call
and your Reps believed, with great certainty and con-
viction, that there was no way the physician would
prescribe the product?”

If someone is handling a team
of senior members (by age) or
chronic underperformers, then the
replies usually are: “they cannot be
coached”, “the conversations are not
productive”, “they do not listen”, etc.
K. Hariram | The Dangers of Labelling Your Team Members and Having a Closed Mindset

“As anticipated, this question was answered in the
affirmative.
I continued, “Have you ever dealt with a situation
which your Reps thought was hopeless, as a chal-
lenge?DidyouplanyournextvisitalongwiththeRep,
look at this problem as an opportunity, and convert
the physician into a prescriber?”
Again, a nod of agreement.
“WHY do you think this happened and what made
you look at the situation as an opportunity rather
than an insurmountable problem?”
One of the FLMs jumped on his feet and replied,
“Because the Rep had developed some pre-con-
ceived notions based on his earlier experience and
had closed his mind about the physician. That simply
wasn’t acceptable to me.”
“Why do you think your Rep did that?’, I asked
The FLM replied, “Reps tend to make incorrect as-
sumptions based on past interactions with physi-
cians.”
“So what makes you convert these problems into op-
portunities?’”I questioned.
“’Sir, good question. We tell our MRs not to make as-
sumptions because it limits their ability to make an
effective call again. All past experiences are not nec-
essarily permanent and learning from the past and
readjusting the approach may help in converting the
physician to a prescriber. Am I right?”
As I looked around, I could see the FLMs in the
room starting to fidget, as many of them started
identifying their own gap and learning moment.
They could now relate to their earlier conversation
and see how the assumptions they make about
others based upon their own judgment and past
experiences impact their communication, relation-
ship, and level of trust with their Reps.

... They could now relate to their
earlierconversationandseehowthe
assumptionstheymakeaboutothers
based upon their own judgment
and past experiences impact their
communication, relationship, and
level of trust with their Reps.

“Conclusion:
There is a human tendency to put limitations on
progress by labelling people or situations as un-
changeable. An awareness and understanding of
this tendency is the first step in overcoming seem-
ingly impossible obstacles.
This results in:
1. Change in approach and disposition
2. Change in communication resulting in better
interpersonal engagement
Then you can create new opportunities, new pos-
sibilities and positive outcomes. In effect, you be-
come an effective coach and move forward to be-
come a transformational leader.
“Labels shape more than our perception of color;
they also change how we perceive more complex
targets, like people.”
In my earlier write up on COACHING for sales ex-
cellence (refer to MedicinMan March 2016), I had
mentioned that, by definition, COACHING is “THE
ART OF CREATING NEW POSSIBILITIES”. M

There is a human tendency to put
limitations on progress by labelling
peopleorsituationsasunchangeable.
An awareness and understanding
of this tendency is the first step in
overcoming seemingly impossible
obstacles.
K. Hariram is the former
MD (retd.) at Galderma
India.
He is Chief Mentor at
MedicinMan and a regular
contributor. khariram25@
yahoo.com

FFE + CEO ROUNDTABLE
AND BRANDSTORM 2017
will be held in Mumbai in the month of February 2017.
More details to follow.
Field Force Excellence conference + CEO Roundtable
is targeted at senior industry professionals in all func-
tions. The CEO Roundtable is the highlight of the event
and features some of pharma’s most well-known leaders.
Past topics include:
• Practical Issues in Sales Force Effectiveness (SFE)
implementation
• Role Clarity from Front-line Manager to National
Sales Manager
• Role of Technology as a Field Force Multiplier
• Social Learning for the Field Force
• Data Analytics: Actionable Insights for Segmented
Marketing
• Role of Marketing, Medical, HR and L&D in Building
the Rx Capabilities of the Field Force
• Navigating UCPMP, MCI Guidelines and other regula-
tory issues
• Reinvention of Doctor-Field Force interaction
through Digital and Social
Past Speakers include:
• Sanjiv Navangul – Managing Director, Janssen India
• K. Shivkumar – Managing Director, Eisai
• Sujay Shetty – Partner, PwC India
• CT Renganathan – Managing Director, RPG Life-
Sciences
• YS Prabhakar – CEO, Sutures India
• Ali Sleiman – General Manager India, Merck Serono
• Darshan Patel – Partner, PwC
• Vikas Dandekar – Editor Pharma, ET
• Shakti Chakraborty – Group President, Lupin
• Ganesh Nayak – (fmr) CEO and Executive Director,
Zydus Cadila
• Bhaskar Iyer – Divn VP, India Commercial Operations,
Abbott
• Narayan Gad – CEO, Panacea Biotec
• Girdhar Balwani – Managing Director, Invida
BrandStorm is the annual MedicinMan event for Brand
Managers. The event features thought leaders in pharma
brand management addressing the hottest topics of the
day.
Past topics include:
• UCPMP & MCI Guidelines – Implication for Pharma
Marketing
• Brand Building: Case Studies from the Indian Pharma
Market
• Unleashing the Power of Digital Marketing – Case
Studies
• From Brand Management to Therapy Shaping
• Marketing to Hospitals
• Case Study: Zifi-AZ
• Field Force – Doctor Interaction through use of Digi-
tal and Social Media
• How to Optimize Healthcare Communication Cre-
ative Agency Services
Past Speakers include:
• PV Sankar Dass – CEO & Director, CURATIO
• Darshan Patel – Partner, Pricewaterhouse Coopers
• Daleep Manhas – General Manager & Associate Vice
President at McCann Health
• Praful Akali – Founder-Director, Medulla Communi-
cations
• Pankaj Dikholkar – General Manager, Abbott
• Salil Kallianpur – Brand Director, Europe, GSK
• Deep Bhandari – Director-Marketing & Sales Excel-
lence, UCB
• Shiva Natarajan – General Manager, GSK
• Shashank Shanbag – Business Unit Director, MS
• Nandish Kumar – DGM and Head – Marketing, FD
• Dr. VK Sharma, AVP at Unichem Labs
To partner at the event contact:
anupsoans@gmail.com | +91-968-680-2244

A
n E2
-TEAM is one that is both highly En-
gaged and committed to Excellence at
the workplace.
Before you start building an E2
-TEAM, ask your-
self a few questions:
?? Is your team personally and emotionally at-
tached to the organization?
?? Does your team take pride in endorsing the
organization as a good place to work?
?? Does your team feel a close connection with
the organization?
?? Does your team excel in their job roles?
?? Does your team have confidence in you as a
leader?
If even one answer is in the negative, your team
members are disengaged.

LEADERSHIP
LESSONS FOR
FRONTLINE
MANAGERS:
BUILDING AN
E2
-TEAM
How the pharma frontline manager can
develop a high-performance team by
fostering Empathy and Excellence in the
team.
Vivek Hattangadi

“
Vivek Hattangadi | Leadership Lessons for Frontline Managers: Building an E2
-Team
Here are the five steps to build an E2
-TEAM. The
foundation of an E2
-Team is‘Trust’.
STEP I – TRUST PEOPLE
Trust is the cornerstone of an E2
-TEAM. Here are
some ways for you to grow trust in your team.
üü Listen to your team members with full re-
spect and attention. Show empathy and sen-
sitivity to their needs. Trust grows when you
understand your team members and relate to
them.
üü Display proficiency and competence. Know
your subject well. Whenever you do not have
an answer to a query, admit that you don’t
know. Explain that you will find out and get
back. Nothing builds trust more effectively than
admitting that you don’t know, when you don’t
know.
üü Set high expectations and proceed as if you
believe your team members are capable of liv-
ing up to them.The demonstration of your faith
in their abilities will likely result in superior per-
formance.
üü Act with integrity. Keep commitments. If you
cannot keep a commitment, explain the rea-
sons without delay.
üü Praise and recognize team members. A cul-
ture of genuine recognition can be a very pow-
erful tool to improve trust leading to excellence
at the work place.
STEP II – VALUE PEOPLE
The next step is to demonstrate that you value your
team members. One of the most important ele-
ments of building an E2
-TEAM is that every member
should feel valued. How can you demonstrate this?
üü Give constructive feedback. While praise is to
acknowledge good work, feedback is meant to
be constructive to help team members devel-
op and progress. Constructive feedback makes
an individual feel valued. Giving feedback is an
art which you can develop. Honest, meaningful
feedback with the aim of helping your team
members to develop, will engage their hearts
and minds.

Nothing builds trust more
effectively than admitting that you
don’t know, when you don’t know.

“
üü Apply the principles of Servant-Leadership.
True leaders serve. Says Robert Greenleaf, “The
servant-leader is servant first… It begins with
the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to
serve first. Then conscious choice brings one
to aspire to lead.”1
Your team members will be
personally and emotionally bound to the leader
and the organization.
üü Take interest in their interests. If people know
that you are genuinely interested in their wel-
fare and career progress, they will feel valued.
This will take them to the next level of engage-
ment. Feeling valued is an important piece of
the employee’s assessment of their workplace
according to the American Psychological Asso-
ciation (APA)2
. Those who feel valued are more
likely to report being and feeling motivated to
do their very best for their employer whereas
those who do not feel valued are less likely to
recommend their place of work to others and
more likely to report wanting to find a new job
in the future.2
üü Communicate. If people are to be engaged
and make the best possible contribution to
the team, they need information that is timely,
direct, honest, and easily understood. People
crave for clarity in communication.
STEP III – PULL YOUR TEAM TO-
GETHER
Pull your team members together towards a com-
mon goal. Without a team, you limit yourself only
to the effort each individual can make alone. Here
are a few tips to remember.
üü A good team player can be an introvert. Be sen-
sitive towards your team members’s unspo-
ken feelings and emotions. Understand what
is not being said.
üü Build trust and cooperation amongst your
team members. This is as important as the indi-
vidual relations you have with them. Take steps
to encourage communication, cooperation,
trust, and respect in those relationships.
 Vivek Hattangadi | Leadership Lessons for Frontline Managers: Building an E2
-Team
True leaders serve. Says Robert
Greenleaf, “The servant-leader is
servant first…

“
üü Showing respect is critical to maintain rela-
tionships. Treat everyone in the team with re-
spect and dignity. For this, you need to develop
empathy.
üü Encourage social interaction amongst team
members. Man is a social animal. Hence it
makes good sense that he would want to be
social at work, and be friends with the people
he is spending so much time with. This in turn
will help in building a strong team. Social rela-
tionships between colleagues is at the root of
an employee’s willingness to take on responsi-
bilities beyond their formal job description.3
üü Spend time with your team members. Have
lunch and tea breaks together. Speak to them
about sports, IPL, Olympics and about other
non-work related things or something which
you have in common.
STEP IV – NURTURE A CULTURE
OF EXCELLENCE
üü Move ahead from merely engaging your team
members, to creating and building workplace
excellence. Highly engaged people gravitate
towards, and stay with leaders who encourage
excellence at the workplace.
üü Provide your team members with a compelling
vision of your organization and goals. Make cer-
tain that your team members understand the
objectives and results they are accountable for
achieving – make them look beyond numbers.
üü Make sure you have the right people – includ-
ing people who are better than you. Says David
Ogilvy‘If each of us hires people who are small-
er than we are, we shall become a company of
dwarfs, but if each of us hires people who are
bigger than we are, we will become a company
of giants.”4
üü Hunt for the thoughts and opinions of your
team members on how to improve team per-
formance. Truly great ideas come from the peo-
ple doing the actual work.

Move ahead from merely engaging
your team members, to creating and
building workplace excellence.
-Team

STEP V – BECOME A TRUE ‘SER-
VANT-LEADER’
Although the concept of servant-leadership new
and has its roots in India, it is Robert Greenleaf
who took this concept to the next level. “The ser-
vant-leader is servant first… It begins with the
natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve
first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to
lead.”1
üü Focus on the growth and well-being of the
team.
üü On the Blake-Mouton leadership grid, become
a 9,9 leader. Have high concern for the people
and an equal concern for performance.
üü Recall the inverted pyramid of hierarchy? Your
team members are at the top of the hierarchy.
Your frontline employees, the medical repre-
sentatives are at the top of this pyramid. This
is the leadership mindset which can take your
company to the top.
üü Become a One-Minute-Manager. Set SMART
Goals, praise people when they achieve these
goals, and reprimand them in the correct way if
the goals are not achieved. Follow this import-
ant principle: “Catch people doing things right
or even something approximately right”.5
A blend of all these qualities and actions, makes
you a perfect servant leader.
Why should you care about an E2
-TEAM? High lev-
els of employee engagement lead to lower attri-
tion since there is a close link between company
image and individual self-image in highly engag-
ing workplaces. Without close attachments to the
workplace, people feel alienated, may not excel in
their jobs and eventually may seek greener pas-
tures elsewhere.
Building an E2
-TEAM is not a single one-time activ-
ity. It is a process. Keep these activities moving. M

References:
1. Greenleaf, R. (1970)The Servant as Leader.
Westfield:The Greenleaf Center for Servant
Leadership:.
2. Harris Interactive.Workplace Survey. American
Psychological Association. Available from: https://
www.apa.org/news/press/releases/phwa/work-
place-survey.pdf [Accessed 30th May 2016]
3. Shriar, J. 10 ESSENTIAL PILLARS OF EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT. E-Edition. Available from: http://
hs.officevibe.com/hubfs/ebook/10-essential-pil-
lars-of-employee-engagement.pdf? [Accessed
30th May 2016]
4. Ogilvy, D. (1985). Ogilvy on Advertising. Ran-
dom House: NewYork.
5. Blanchard, K and Johnson, S. (1983) London.
Harper Collins
-Team
Vivek Hattangadi is a
Consultant in Pharma
Brand Management and
Sales Training at The En-
ablers. He is also visiting
faculty at CIPM Calcutta
(Vidyasagar University)
for their MBA course in
Pharmaceutical Management.
vivekhattangadi@theenablers.org

“
I
n the pharma industry, the quality of Medical Reps
is a critical ingredient for achieving standout sales
performance. However the industry often falls sig-
nificantly short of having competent and motivated
individuals who are suited to perform sales functions.
Hiring for the pharma industry continues to be a chal-
lenge as only about 30% of graduates from Pharmacy
and Management institutions possess the skills sets
needed by the industry.
Some of the talent acquisition in the recent past goes
to show that the pharma industry is now simply seek-
ing Reps who can obtain sales from healthcare practi-
tioners by any means.

HOWTO HIRE A
FUTURE-READY
FIELD FORCEAs the pharma industry undergoes rapid
change,thejobrolesandjobdescriptionsofthe
sales force will also change. Hiring Managers
need to keep this in mind.
As per the current system of recruiting
MedicalReps,recruitersandfunctional
managers follow an elementary rule—
“hire to fit” policy—that compares
candidates with certain customary
roles and descriptions for the sales
position. These roles and descriptions
might have been formulated ages ago
and not be relevant today.
Anjali Sharma and Chandan Kumar

“As per the current system of recruiting Medical
Reps, recruiters and functional managers follow
an elementary rule—“hire to fit”policy—that com-
pares candidates with certain customary roles and
descriptions for the sales position. These roles and
descriptions might have been formulated ages ago
and not be relevant today.
The industry should understand that Medical Reps
should have an effective blend of scientific and
business skills. The Industry as a whole should for-
mulate “must have” competencies to choose the
right entrants for the industry, based on qualifica-
tion and technical and soft skills. Formulating these
standards will not only decrease the turnaround
time between screening and selection but will also
ensure a quality recruitment.
Talent acquisition is one of the vital aspects and
poses a big challenge for pharma companies be-
cause frequent job change is a common practice –
Medical Reps tend to do this to get quick monetary
benefits. The cost of hiring new Medical Reps and
then training them for practical skills and acclima-
tizing them to the culture is astonishingly high. A
Rep who leaves in six months is actually a financial
loss to the company.
In the current scenario, the mammoth challenge to
the pharma industry is “attrition,” which is increas-
ing, and causing a severe dent to the industry in
terms of image as well as commercially. Though
there may not be any perfect recipe to curb it, it
can be reduced by providing a friendly atmosphere
– something that is not difficult to implement, pro-
vided the leadership is ready to understand the
challenges faced by the bottom line.
Adequate “rewards and recognition” programs are
crucial for employee retention, but they should not
just be restricted to mere commendations and cer-
tificates. Rather, they should help in engaging reps
through skill development and creating alignment
between management and field force.

The industry should understand
that Medical Reps should have an
effective blend of scientific and
business skills. Industry as a whole
should formulate ‘must have’
competencies to choose the right
entrants for the industry, based on
qualification, technical and soft skills
Anjali Sharma and Chandan Kumar | How to Hire a Future-Ready Field Force

“Strategies for hiring an ideal candidate for pharma:
EMPHASIZE YOUR USPs
You need to make potential hires aware of your
company’s best practices and employee-friendly
policies, which is as important to them as any other
aspect of their sales job. So do not simply describe
what you need but also what you as a company
have to offer them!
HIRE POTENTIAL BRAND AMBAS-
SADORS
Because of regulatory norms, Pharma companies
do not have the option of high-profile publicity
or social media promotions. Medical Reps are the
most important channel to promote products to
customers. So you want your brand to be repre-
sented by knowledgeable and refined profession-
als, not by Ken and Barbie clones!
DO YOUR HOMEWORK
Prior to sourcing or job-posting, bring together the
entire recruiting team, HR, and functional manag-
ers to define an appropriate job description. For
example, if you are seeking for some specialty
pharma sales function, such as oncology and gas-
troenterology, then brainstorm what key attributes
candidates must possess to perform their function
in a particular specialty. Simultaneously, under-
stand what kind of constraints exist that hinders
the performance of these functions efficiently and
how as an organization you can provide the right
environment to retain top-notch talent.
GIVE IMPORTANCE TO SCIENTIF-
IC ACUMEN
Doctors need Medical Reps to give them the latest
scientific and clinical data related to drugs and dis-
ease management. To achieve this, you need a Rep
who can display an in-depth understanding of the
basic sciences like anatomy, physiology, and other
biochemical functions. This will shorten the hire-
to-results cycle.

MedicalRepsarethemostimportant
channel to promote products to
customers. So you want your brand
to be represented by knowledgeable
and refined professionals, not by
Ken and Barbie clones!
Anjali Sharma and Chandan Kumar | How to Hire a Future-Ready Field Force

DESIGN A PROPER TESTING
& EVALUATION PLATFORM
Every Pharma company conducts screening tests
beforetheinterviewprocess,butthesetestsarenot
standardized. The current testing system is more
or less confined to basic sciences and some apti-
tude questions. The need of the hour is to design a
proper testing and evaluation platform, where not
only science and general aptitude is evaluated but
and in-depth profile of the candidate is obtained
through psychometric testing, case studies, and
solving a real-time situations.
EXPERIENCE SHOULD NOT BE
THE ONLY YARDSTICK TO MEA-
SURE TALENT
Recruiters and Functional managers should look
for talent over experience. Hiring experienced can-
didates comes with its own risks and challenges as
these veterans are always being at risk of being
poached by competitors. These candidates might
also behave like stars and be resistant to learning
and coaching. A frontline manager or HR personnel
should not shy away from roping in young profes-
sionals with a fresh perspective. Often someone
from a different segment may possess better skills
than an old-timer who has been associated with
pharma and has been doing the same thing.
In closing, the key to hiring and retaining top-
notch talent is to differentiate by seeking and of-
fering greater value to professionals. For acquiring
a robust field force talent pool, the pharma indus-
try has to stand out and move away from old ways
of thinking, which may sound difficult initially but
will ease all the hurdles in hiring and retaining the
desired talent. M
 Anjali Sharma and Chandan Kumar | How to Hire a Future-Ready Field Force
Anjali Sharma is a Human
Resource Generalist with
experience in acquisition and
retaining candidates from IT,
FMCG & Pharmaceutical sector.
anjalisharmagbrc@gmail.com | in.linkedin.com/
in/anjali-sharma-148645ab |
@anjalis2304
Chandan Kumar is working in
healthcare publishing as an Acqui-
sitions Editor. His area of Interest
is Healthcare Marketing & Value
Innovation.
ckumar21@in.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/pharmtech
@pharmacrat

“My job starts when the Doctor says “NO”. I am
ready to face this challenge and taste success in
my pharma sales career.”
This should be your attitude in handling a Doc-
tor Call rejection.
‘NO’ does not always mean ‘NO’. Usually, a rejec-
tion means that your Brand was not what the
prospect needed at that point. Perhaps his pa-
tients could not afford it.
In any case, it is hardly personal, so don’t take
it personally. Instead, ask yourself: “Why is the
prospect rejecting or putting off writing my
Brand?”
There is nothing wrong in asking the prospect
the reason for rejection. But remember, the way
you ask matters a lot. Often the reason given and
actual intention could be different. Share the de-
tails collected with your field friends, colleagues,
peers and mentors and get their feedback. By
this you can sharpen your selling skills.
Eventually you will get a clue as to why your
brand was rejected. Before the next visit, learn as
much as possible on the medical and marketing
aspects of your brand. Share the same with your
close prescribers and observe their response. By
this time, your will be confident enough to meet
and probe the prospect to open up even more.

HANDLING SALES
REJECTIONS
PROFESSIONALLY
How to handle sales rejections as a business
problem to be solved rather than a personal
affront.
RB Balakrishna

RB Balakrishna | Handling Sales Rejections Professionally
Handle the objection after understanding the
reasons for rejection fully. It will take time, but pa-
tience is a virtue. Be persistent. Resilience is an im-
portant feature of a successful sales professional.
Eventually the prospect will open up. If the pros-
pect cannot support your brand fully, ask for share
of prescription and be a second option, next to
your competitor. If the prospect makes a medical
or logical objection, deal with it with the utmost
care. Take the help of the Medical and Marketing
team at Head Office to convince and convert the
prospect to a prescriber.
Thank the prescriber. Build rapport by understand-
ing his profile and by this you can convert the pre-
scriber to a loyal doctor and from there to an advo-
cate, so that he can recommend it to his peers and
colleagues. M

RB Balakrishna is
in PMT at a reputed
pharmaceutical company.

T
he Product-Market Expansion Grid was
developed by H. Igor Ansoff and first pub-
lished in the Harvard Business Review in
1957, in an article titled“Strategies for Diversifica-
tion.”
The tool is used by marketers and business lead-
ers to systematically evaluate different strategic
options to grow business. All of us know that for
sustainable long-term growth, one cannot live
in status quo mode even when things are hap-
pening as desired. We need to find new ways to
increase top and bottom lines by reaching new
customers.
Pankaj Mehrotra
DECIDING ON
A BUSINESS
EXPANSION
STRATEGY BY
WEIGHING THE
RISKS AND GAINS

An introduction to the use of the Ansoff
Matrix to weigh the risks and the benefits of
pursuing a particular growth strategy.

Pankaj Mehrotra | Deciding on a Business Expansion Strategy by Weighing the Risks and Gains
Before committing resources, it is important to
evaluate risk and gain. The Matrix outlines four
possible avenues for growth with different risk and
gain parameters:
1. Market penetration
2. Product development
3. Market development
4. Diversification
To use the Matrix, the options are analyzed, classi-
fied in 4 categories for plotting in the appropriate
quadrant.
MARKET PENETRATION: The safest option is to
increase sales of existing product in existing mar-
ket. The familiarity with the product and the mar-
ket minimizes the risk. Customer loyalty is used to
increase returns.
Market or Need-based Segmentation is used to
reposition the brand to target different customer
segments (different age, gender or demographic
profiles).
Some commonly used tools are:
Loyalty scheme: Display, bonus, gifts and freebies
Increase your sales force coverage and reach
Buy a competitor company with strong marketing
and/or distribution network in existing markets.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: Slightly risky as com-
pany introduces a new product into an existing
market. The new product may be a brand expan-
sion or launch of a new brand to meet customer’s
related needs.
Product development is one of the most popular
methods used as it enables a company to use its
leverage with existing customers to increase re-
turns per customer. Examples include: Brand ex-
tensions and variants like new dosage forms, com-
binations.


“
Portfolio expansion - allied products can be in-
troduced for same customers- Diuretics brand by
a company marketing cardiac products and an-
ti-hypertensives; Respiratory antibiotic along with
cough and cold range.
Examples of companies using innovative methods
to augment current offerings include GlaxoSmith-
Kline and Novartis, who swapped their oncology
and vaccine assets to enable both to focus on their
core strengths.
MARKET DEVELOPMENT: Expands the custom-
er base into new market by launching an existing
product in an entirely new market.The new market
may be new geographies or a new user segment.
New User segment such as Patients and Physicians:
One can add new features or benefits like new
SKUs, tastes, strengths and innovative product
variants.
New Geographies: A company can use franchisee
model to minimize risk and develop familiarity
with new market.
DIVERSIFICATION: Most risky, as introduction
of a new, unproven product into an entirely new
market which is not fully understood, has its own
surprises and roadblocks. You do not have advan-
tage of using existing leadership and expertise or
economies of scale.
The resources used may divert the attention and
energy from core strengths.
Acquisition of new brands and companies may ex-
pand the brand basket and reduce the new prod-
uct development lead time. Indian market has seen
plenty of acquisitions in recent past. E.g. Abbott
and Piramal Healthcare, Torrent and Elder and Dai-
chii and Ranbaxy
To minimize risks, one can explore possibility of
alliances: different sales channels, such as online,
agents or intermediaries.

Examples of companies using
innovative methods to augment
current offerings include
GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis,
who swapped their oncology and
vaccine assets to enable both to
focus on their core strengths.

“
Diversification enables business expansion and re-
duces risks by spreading risk across different seg-
ments – if one segment is under adverse circum-
stances, the other one may compensate.
You will agree that external factors like competitive
intensity and regulatory environment needs to be
evaluated before taking decisions. An evaluation
of the challenges associated with each option en-
ables you to develop an appropriate contingency
plan to plan for growth.
There are rewards and risks associated with each of
the 4 growth strategies. In a nutshell, the analysis
has following 3 steps:
1. Analyze all Options: Take feedback, listen to
others
2. Risk management: Protect core, allocate re-
sources judiciously
3. Choose the Best Option: Assess core business
leaders risk appetite
Important factors:
1. Market size and growth
2. Competition intensity
3. Management risk appetite
4. Resource allocation between core and new
segment
Additional reading:
1. SWOT
2. PEST Analysis
3. Risk Impact and Probability Chart
4. Decision Matrix Analysis M

Diversification enables business
expansion and reduces risks by
spreading risk across different
segments – if one segment is under
adverse circumstances, the other
one may compensate.
Pankaj Mehrotra is a
Product Group Manager
at GlaxoSmithKline
Pharmaceuticals.
His views are personal.

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