Face-to-face selling hits a wall

By understanding the new normal, you can recalibrate your sales machine to become even more productive

How will you sell your exciting new equipment to a potential customer if he or she refuses to let you into their office? Not that they are rude or not interested in your offer, simply because their new corporate policy says “no visitors”.

How will a medical representative (MR) promote your new brand to a doctor if the latter is not permitting any medical representative to enter his/her chambers?

Those trained in the personal selling skills (PSS) pioneered by Xerox in the 1970s will be aware that equipment sales does not happen in one step. There is a pipeline that you need to fill. The Xerox model presented a seven-step process called SPANCO: Suspect, Prospect,

Approach, Negotiation, Closure and Order. The company instituted a PSS selling training for all their sales personnel and they had to go through this six-day programme every year. The sales machine was organised in a way to monitor not just sales, but customers at each stage of the pipeline. For instance, in India I remember they used to keep “demonstrations given” as a key metric; it probably fits between A and N in the SPANCO model.

When it comes to MRS, the situation is one of making 10 doctor calls per day with each call lasting anything between 10 seconds and 5 minutes. Often the poor medical representative spends more time waiting to see the doctor than face to face with the doctor. But those 10 seconds matter. And the tipping point is when the MR takes his boss to the doctor and the latter not only remembers the name of the MR. but also the key brands being promoted. You can imagine the smile on the face of the MR as he leaves the doctor’s chambers.

But all this has hit a pause button. For equipment and raw material suppliers to big businesses making deals, face-to-face meeting was critical. Also important were the numerous trade shows and exhibitions that created an excellent buyer-seller meets. I remember visiting the DRUPA exhibition at Dusseldorf some years ago and getting blown away by the printing and imaging equipment on display. It was and is the Mecca for the entire printing or should I say publishing industry.

All that may not happen for the next six months or more. What will be the result of this pause?

In an interesting webinar hosted by the SPJIMR MDP Cell, pharma marketing veteran Gauri Chaudhari and Bijender Vats, head of human resources at MSD India, were in conversation with me on the challenges being faced by the Indian pharma sector. A few interesting conclusions emerged.

Pharma and Rx selling may be hitting a tipping point this year. A few signs were already evident. There are probably over 10 lakh doctors in India, but no company manages to reach more than four lakh through their MR field force. The uncovered doctors, a large number, may be per-capita poor prescribers, but there is no simple means of reaching them. Indian medical journals and magazines have a very small circulation base. But we now have digital technology and I am told that interesting platforms are emerging that can connect pharma companies and brands with all the 10 lakh doctors.

If a doctor does not meet the MRS, what happens to his prescriptions? Chances are they stay frozen in time. They will continue to prescribe what they have been doing. Here the conclusion was that the bigger brands will end up benefiting. Often doctors oblige friendly MRS for a few days after the call; now there is no call. So that temporary support may vanish.

In one era MRS used to be highly respected, almost mini-doctors. But over the last two decades smarter pharma and biology graduates have opted out of this tough job. There will be a need for companies to see how they can upgrade the skills of their MRS and maybe go for an overhaul. What if you only want them to make four calls a day, but good quality calls? What if each MR needs to be digitally savvy and be able to connect with their doctors on digital platforms? How competent are they to organise webinars and online sessions? The old-model MR may not be able to do all this, unless they go through intense re-training.

Finally, the brand manager has to become more digitally savvy. From being a brand manager who creates a visual aid that is used for three months, a pharma brand manager will have to become a brand content manager literally. They should be able to feed their smart MRS with material that can be shared with the top doctors almost every week. These could be white papers, videos, podcasts.

If the above are potential solutions for the pharma industry, I think similar solutions have to be sought out for all B2B sectors. The old model of selling is not going to come back in a hurry. The use of webinars, special Whatsapp groups, podcasts may be the way to go. But can your standard MR or sales engineer do all this?

Connecting with customers digitally has become the de rigueur of all B2B selling . And what I heard from someone who is based out of a SouthEast Asian country, selling an industrial raw material to over 30 countries is this: Customers are keen on meeting vendors and are more than ready to engage digitally.

Let us not forget an MR or a sales engineer is an important element in the life of the doctor or the buyer. They bring new concepts and new ideas (though most of the time is spent on the same old), and customers look forward to the information. Not to forget the human connection.

By understanding the new normal, you can recalibrate your sales machine to become even more productive. As they say, get ready to jump over the way because it makes sense not to waste a bad crisis.