Pharma Managers Must Know the Difference between Leading & Managing

W
hat is leadership? How does it differ from
management? I found one of the best answers
in a TED Talk by Bob Davids, an intrepid
entrepreneur. In his TED Talk,
Davids narrates how General
Dwight Eisenhower would, at
times, use unorthodox methods
to train his officers during the
second World War - he would
take a chain with several links
and place it on the table and
ask his senior officers, “Which
direction will the chain go if
it was pushed from one end?”
Each gave different answers - the
correct answer of course was that
nobody really knew!
To drive home his point, Davids
demonstrates by pulling the
chain and walking around with
the chain following him. Davids
makes it clear that a leader must
never push people because
when you push them, deep
down inside, you really don’t
know which way they will go.
AccordingtoBobDavids,managementisaboutcontroland
there are only three things that can be controlled - Time,
Quality and Money (TQM). Whichever of those three takes
precedence, the other two will suffer. If you want quality,
you will have to spend more time and money. If you want it
faster and with good quality, then cost will go up. If money
(profit) is most important,
then quality and time will
have to take a back seat.
Davids calls TQM, the triple
constraint of management.
Where do people fit in TQM?
People do not come under
TQM as people cannot be
managed or controlled.
People can only be led.
Elaborating further on
leadership, Davids goes on to
say that power comes when
team members give you their
support. When that support
comes to you, that is power.
Team members give you
that power and watch your
behavior. If you deflect that
power back to them, they
begin to trust you and give
you more support. But if you
take that power and keep
it, then team members will
stop giving you more power (support) and your leadership
begins to falter and fail.
Are you aware of what to manage and how to lead? -Editor
MEDICINMANField Force Excellence
TM
December 2015 | www.medicinman.net
Since 2011
According to Bob Davids,
management is about control and
there are only three things that
can be controlled - Time, Quality
and Money (TQM)... People do
not come under TQM as people
cannot be managed or controlled.
People come under leadership.
”
Connect with Anup Soans on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter
Anup Soans is an Author, Facilitator and the
Editor of MedicinMan.
Write in to him: anupsoans@medicinman.net
Meet the Editor
THEM.
EDITORIAL
MANAGE
PEOPLE.
YOU CAN ONLY
LEAD
YOU CANNOT

Click here to download the
Prospectus for 2015-2016
or paste the following link in your browser: goo.gl/tZgGRf

1. Fieldwork and the Brand Manager .............8
Getting on the field will provide the Brand Manager
clarity about the ground reality of the brand and
also help her develop empathy for the MR.
Vivek Hattangadi
BOOK REVIEW: Total Communication by Vivek
Hattangadi .......................................................12
A complete guide to verbal and non-verbal
communication for the pharma professional.
Anup Soans
3. What You Measure is What Gets Done .....14
The KPIs followed by pharma demonstrates where
its heart lies - with patients or profits.
Hanno Wolfram
4. What is the Role of a Performance
Manager? .........................................................17
Lack of understanding about the role can will lead
to much frustration both the manager and his
team. Here’s what is expected from him.
K. Hariram
5. Rock Star Resolutions for Product
Managers .........................................................20
New Years’ Resolutions for Product Managers that
will lead to Star Performance.
Soham Wagh
6. Qualifiers and Modifiers in Incentive
Planning ...........................................................24
Two foundational elements in incentive plan
designing explained.
Amit Jain
CONTENTS
MedicinMan Volume 5 Issue 12 | December 2015
Editor and Publisher
Anup Soans
CEO
Chhaya Sankath
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
Istarted my pharmaceutical career thirteen years ago as a
medical representative in Glenmark and was promoted as
to Area Sales Manager (ASM) in 2011-12.
In this thirteen-year career, I have won 5 Star Awards - two
as a medical representative and three as ASM.
It was a great feeling to receive this award in front of all the
star performers with my family watching. It was also special
to receive the trophy from the emerging icon of Indian
pharma industry - Mr Glen Saldahna!
- Jay Kansara
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
Jay Kansara - Area sales Manager in Glenmark receiving the Star Award
from Glen Saldahna - Chairman & Managing Director of Glenmark
(L) Navneet Kumar of UCB Pharma being given his first award
for performance at UCB Pharma. Seen in the picture is Deep
Bhandari (Center) Head of Business Unit - Multiple Sclerosis, UCB.
Won an award for performance? Send
us a picture with a 50-word write up and
we’ll publish it in a forthcoming issue.

                 
                 
                
                
                 
                 
                
                
                 
                
                
                 
16TH
(Tues)AND17TH
(Wed),FEBRUARYATTHECOURTYARDMARRIOTT,MUMBAI
Every year, MedicinMan brings together pharma's biggest thought leaders for 2 days of sharing
and deliberating on the most important issues facing the field force. The event begins with a
CEOroundtablethatsetsthetonefortherestoftheevent.Scrolltoseesomeofourpastfaculty.
THE CONVERSATION
STARTS HERE
FFE&BrandStorm2016


16TH
(Tues)AND17TH
PREVIOUS
CEO ROUNDTABLES
FFE&BrandStorm2016
Sanjiv Navangul
Managing Director,
Janssen India
Sujay Shetty
Partner, PwC
Shakti Chakraborty,
Group President, Lupin
Ganesh Nayak,
COO & Executive Director,
Zydus Cadila
Bhaskar Iyer
Divisional VP, Abbott
Shrihari Shidhaye
Director Sales and
Marketing, Abbott
K. Hariram
MD (retd.), Galderma
Girdhar Balwani,
Managing Director,
Invida India
Narayan Gad
CEO, Panacea Biotec

16TH
(Tues)AND17TH
PAST FACULTY
FFE&BrandStorm2016
Amlesh Ranjan
Sanofi
Satya Mahesh
Assoc. Director and
Head of SFE, Merck
Sai Kumari
Head-Center for Excel-
lence, Himalaya
Jagmohan Singh Rishi
Asso. Vice President,
Wokhardt
Pankaj Gursahani
Director, Sales Train-
ing at AstraZeneca
Deep Bhandari
Director- Marketing &
Sales Excellence at UCB
Salil Kallianpur
Brand Director, Classic
Brands Europe, GSK
Bhagwat Deora,
Manager, Risk Advisory
Services, PwC
Sunder Ramachandran
Head - Training, Pfizer
Shashank Shanbhag
Senior Director, MSD
Shiva Natarajan,
General Manager, GSK
Nandish Kumar
DGM and Head –
Marketing, FDC
Praful Akali
MD, Medulla Com-
munications
Amit Akali, Creative
Consultant, Medulla
Communications
VK Sharma
Associate Vice Pres-
ident, Unichem
Anup Soans
Editor, MedicinMan

REGISTRATION
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8 | MedicinMan December 2015
A
desk is a dangerous place from which to view
the world” said John le Carré (David John
Moore, his real name), the British author on
espionage work. And this quote is apt for pharma
brand managers too.
Fieldwork is an immensely valuable source of learning
for the brand manager.
Importance of Fieldwork
The most important objective of fieldwork for a brand
manager is to collect market data and ultimately use
her critical thinking and analytical skills for building
her brand. This can help her during brand audit to as-
sess the health of her brand. Regular fieldwork gives
her a better understanding and clarity of the market
place.
Fieldwork provides the pharma brand manager a
means of contextualizing her learning and contrib-
uting to the brand building process. It gives her the
opportunity to experience“real”research which is
often as important as the data received from market
research agencies.
E
Vivek Hattangadi
FIELDWORK AND
THE BRAND MANAGERGetting on the field will provide the Brand Manager clarity about the
ground reality of the brand and also help her develop empathy towards
the MR.
Vivek Hattangadi is a Consultant in Phar-
ma Brand Management and Sales Training
at The Enablers. He is also visiting faculty
at CIPM Calcutta (Vidyasagar University)
for their MBA course in Pharmaceutical
Management.
vivekhattangadi@theenablers.org

Vivek Hattangadi | Fieldwork and the Brand Manager
Fieldwork time is also a golden opportunity for a brand
manager to develop sensitivity toward the foot-soldiers
- the Medical Representatives and their lieutenants, the
First-line Leaders. The most important learning for her
is empathy, which is useful during strategy formulation.
Listening to the‘Voice of People’is mandatory for the
success of her brand. Informal conversation with field per-
sonnel during fieldwork is certainly valuable.
Regular fieldwork helps the brand manager to under-
stand the opportunities for strategically growing brands.
Data from Fieldwork to Build Competitive
Advantage
The brand manager can amass important information,
facts and figures related to her brand during fieldwork.
Organizing and analyzing this data, interpreting it, and
then blending it with data from retail and prescription
audit research organizations can give her a deep insight
into the brand. This insight can be converted into a
strategy. She will then be able to establish realistic and
rational goals for her brand both on a short and long-
term horizon.
Real data gathered from fieldwork will enable her to
know upfront, the levels of strategy execution. She will
know if there is a gap between intended strategy and
what is attained in the field. Effective execution of strat-
egies necessarily needs the genuine involvement and
commitment of the First-line Leaders.
She can also learn first-hand the strategies, tactics and
the activities of competitors. She will be able to gauge
the perception of her brand in the doctor’s mind and also
of competitors.
She can use all this data to build a strong competitive
advantage. (See Fig. 1)
A pharma brand manager must be out in the field at least
60% of her time - although I would quickly say 75%. Field
work should involve not only joint fieldwork with the field
sales personnel, but also independent work. Working
independently will help the brand manager to connect
with markets, it involves direct face-to-face contact with
the customers – both doctors and retail chemists. Inde-
pendent fieldwork helps a brand manager to empower
herself. It can help her know the characteristics and the
needs of the customers.
”
Fieldwork time is also a
golden opportunity for a
brand manager to develop
sensitivity toward the
foot-soldiers - the Medical
Representatives and their
lieutenants, the First-line
Leaders.
Fig. 1

Sharpening Analytical and Critical Thinking
Skills
Analytical and critical thinking skills are the pre-requisites
for a brand manager to analyze and interpret the data
collected during field work and convert it to information.
Many readers may recall the small verse from Rudyard
Kipling’s poem Six Honest Serving Men:
“I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.”
Of all the serving-men, Mr. How is the only one who ac-
tually does anything! Mr. How, therefore, is the one who
has to be managed very closely. Managing Mr. How is
what brand manager is paid to do: it’s her job.
After field visits, to analyze and think critically, ask these
six questions:
1. What am I doing for my brand which others are
not doing?
1.1 What shall I do next which is really different, yes,
really different?
1.2 What is stopping me from doing something really
different?
1.3 What is the most important thing which I should
do for my brand?
2. Why did I do what I am doing now?
2.1 Why is this problem with my brand happening?
2.2 Why is it important for me to try differently?
2.3 Why not give the new idea a try?
3. When did I notice the problem?
3.1 When will I start working on the problem?
3.2 When will I finish?
4. Where will I get all the information to get there?
4.1 Where will the brand go if I don’t get the information?
4.2 Where else can I get the data required?
”
Field work should
involve not only joint
fieldwork with the field
sales personnel, but
also independent work.
Working independently
will help the brand
manager to connect with
markets, as it involves
direct face-to-face contact
with the customers.
What the Pharma CEO
Wants from the Brand
Manager
A Book by Prof. Vivek Hattangadi
Available on Flipkart
(click to purchase)

5. Who says this is a problem?
5.1 Who will solve the problem?
5.2 Who will benefit the most from this?
5.3 Who shall I involve to take me there?
6. How will I achieve what I want to achieve?
6.1 How shall I get there?
6.2 How do I know I am on the right track?
6.3 How will I get others interested?
Getting answers to these six questions can really help a
brand manager to get answers to all the critical questions
required to build a strong brand. She can convert Real
Field Work Data to nurture her brand. Brand Managers
who use analytics well, outperform those that don’t.
Good Fieldwork Data = Good Marketing. VH
Author’s note:
There is no gender bias in this write-up. In all my writings, I use the
female gender while referring to brand managers and the masculine
gender while referring the field personnel.
”
Analytical and critical
thinking skills are the pre-
requisites for a brand
manager to analyze and
interpret the data collected
during field work and
convert into information.

I
f there is one skill that can give pharma sales pro-
fessionals exponential return on investments on
their efforts, it is the skill to communicate effec-
tively with doctors. Yet, this is the least developed skill
among Medical Representatives and their Front-line
Managers.
The remedy by Vivek Hattangadi comes spread over
ten Sunday brunches by way of Total Communication.
Like the delightful Sunday brunch, Total Communica-
tion is a wholesome diet for those who have always
wanted to develop proficiency in this vital skill. All
the ingredients of verbal and non-verbal communica-
tion have been laid out in an appetizing format that
illustrates the concept with a narrative and visuals to
stimulate both right and left hemispheres of the brain
– ensuring effective learning.
By giving the format of ten Sunday brunches, Vivek
Hattangadi has made learning possible even for those
who are reluctant to pick up a book citing various
commitments that keep them busy. Total Communi-
cation is an on-the-go learning manual that one can
E
Anup Soans
TOTAL
COMMUNICATION
A book by Prof.Vivek Hattangadi
BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW | Total Communication - a book by Prof. Vivek Hattangadi
”
The crucial time for a
Medical Representative is
the waiting time just before
he enters the doctor’s cabin
for a two to three-minute
interaction on which the
success of the call hinges.
Total Communication is
a tool to sharpen his skill
and build his confidence
by using waiting time
effectively.
skim through leisurely and still gain complete knowl-
edge about the essential ingredients from listening
skills to assertive communication.
The crucial time for a Medical Representative is the
waiting time just before he enters the doctor’s cabin
for a two to three-minute interaction on which the
success of the call hinges. Total Communication is a
tool to sharpen his skill and build his confidence by
using waiting time effectively.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and
Total Communication uses this paradigm to rein-
force the concept of continuous learning for Medical
Representatives and their Field Sales Managers in this
important skill area.
Take the ten Sunday brunches; you’ll have not only
an insight into what effective communication is, but
receive practical tips that can be applied daily at the
workplace.
Bon apptit! AS

A
n often used word in the pharmaceutical in-
dustry is the word‘performance’. Many people,
managers and pharmaceutical representatives
talk about and believe in their Key Performance Indica-
tors. Yet the definition of performance is missing and
the word is used in a negligent and sloppy way. Perfor-
mance may be something between input (i.e. effort)
and output (i.e. result). Despite this lack of definition,
KPIs heavily affect the entire company in the following
ways:
1. KPIs impact strategy execution
2. KPIs are the basis for bonus
3. KPIs impact people’s habits
4. KPIs affect mind-set
E
WHAT YOU
MEASURE IS
WHAT GETS
DONE.
Hanno Wolfram
The KPIs followed by pharma demonstrates where its
focus lies - patients or profits.
Hanno Wolfram, is the founder and owner
of www.Innov8.de, a Germany based
company offering consulting projects for
pharmaceutical companies.

Hanno Wolfram | What You Measure is What Gets Done.
1. KPIs impact strategy execution
During a discussion with a Global Head of Training, he
said:“We are fully convinced that this training program
will solve serious problems affecting our field force.
But our Medical Reps will not be attending the training
program because they will miss their KPI called“number
of calls”.
An HBR article asks an important question“Does Your
Company’s Incentives Reward Bad Behavior?”The article
discusses a car manufacturer’s conflicting KPIs about
cost and safety, having contributed to fatal car accidents.
Once the cost-KPI prevails, KPIs around safety degenerate
to becoming mere lip-service.
There are many parallels in pharma – companies talk
about“patient-centricity”. If your KPI is“sales”, patient-cen-
tricity will not be of any significance in practice.
Sometime strategists invent a novel approach to the
market in an attempt to change for the better. But their
attempts to change anything or becoming better is
destroyed by KPIs existing in silos. Examples are many - a
sales director was asked if he would do something to
improve“patient-compliance”. His answer was -“this will
not work, as we lack data and we cannot pay bonus or
incentivize such approaches.”Traditional KPIs suppress
novel approaches in pharma business.
2. KPIs are the basis for bonus
There is ample scientific evidence, that the attempt to
deliver extrinsic motivation by paying bonus on KPIs reg-
ularly backfires. The idea of man as an intelligent human
being running after a carrot, has been proven wrong time
and again.
Pharma had painful experiences in the recent past - mea-
suring and incentivizing the wrong KPIs led to jail term
and poor reputation. One consequence is the European
Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations
(EFPIA) code. In Europe, incentives for health-care provid-
ers meant to influence their professional decisions, can be
legally prosecuted as corruption from January 2016.
KPIs like“Sales growth”will then become obsolete. Sales,
growth, market share etc. will soon be pushed back to
what they essentially are: a line in the balance sheet and
an operating figure, important to manage a company.
3. KPIs impact people’s habits
William Hewlett, the founder of HP, said,“You only can
manage what you measure and what you measure gets
done!”
KPIs drive the efforts of people toward the measured
direction. You can easily test this yourself: Change the dis-
play of your car’s computer from indicating“average km/
hour”to“l hour/100km”. It changes your driving habits!
”
Sometime strategists
invent a novel approach to
the market in an attempt to
change for the better. But
their attempts to change
anything or becoming
better is destroyed by KPIs
existing in silos.

Hanno Wolfram | What You Measure is What Gets Done.
Consistency with strategic objectives and an inner coher-
ence of each metric along the KPI-detection-ladder will
heavily impact your organization. The sentence“What
you measure gets done”is proven to be up-to-date,
significant, and powerful. Caveat: it is not the money you
pay, it is about what you measure.
Consequently, you need to measure patient-centricity
if your company’s strategy includes patient-centricity. If
your company’s objective is shareholder-value, you will
indeed measure something very different. The execution
of your strategy and operational plans are determined by
what you measure. KPIs make the difference.
4. KPIs align mind-set
As long as metrics show an inner logic and coherence,
people will understand and believe in them. Getting buy-
in from people for such projects is usually not a problem.
When you talk about team-playing but measure individ-
ual performance, you initiate a huge problem. It is not
only showing managerial inconsistency but people will
get lost and decide for themselves. This will drive many
different mind-sets. The organizational region being hit
most powerfully by losing out on guidance and replacing
it with their own ideas is the field force.
Never forget: the field-force is the largest part of any
pharmaceutical organization with all doing the same job.
It is also the part of a pharmaceutical company where
almost all are working alone and individually by them-
selves. You cannot check or even police what they do in
the field.
Once metrics and KPIs are established professionally, re-
flecting vision, mission and company objectives, only by
this exercise you may experience a powerful change and
alignment of mind-set and subsequently aligned efforts
of all involved, from assistants in the office to managers.
Developing KPIs is a vitally important and rewarding
project, if you can make sure that all people pull the same
rope at the same end into the same direction. HW
KAMinPharma3.0
Available on Amazon
(click to purchase)
by Hanno Wolfram
The must-read book on Key Account
Management in Pharma

I
n the recent past, the good old‘Bell curve’and the
conventional‘performance management system’has
been in the limelight, more for what it does not do
rather than does. To add to this, some of the leading or-
ganisations such as Yahoo, Google, Accenture, etc. and
in the Indian context Infosys, Hewlett Packard etc. have
already taken the step of doing away with it.
Further, the WHY, HOW and WHAT of it is being ques-
tioned. Its relevance in the current context of infor-
mation, knowledge and intelligence era is being hotly
debated.
My thoughts jumped to the Indian context and more
importantly to the sales force related performance
management approach. My mind automatically con-
nected with the familiar happening in the quarterly
cycle meetings.
Some unasked questions:
1. Are we still following the age old approach when it
comes to sales performance management?
2. Do we still start the quarterly sales meetings with
a performance review and do we continue to say
“pull up your socks’to the under-performers?
3. How much time is spent on‘post postmortems’
without pinpointing the actual deviations?
4. Do we still end up the review meetings with‘I want
to see an improvement in your performance’or‘it is
time you perform’statements?
5. Are the frontline Managers (FLM) ready to pitch in
and say,‘I am there with you to support and help
you to perform’?
6. Is it not the responsibility of Line Managers to
review this on an‘on going’basis?
E
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF A
PERFORMANCE MANAGER?
Lack of understanding about the role can will lead to much frustration
both the manager and his team. Here’s what is expected from him.
K Hariram
K. Hariram is the former MD (retd.) at
Galderma India.
He is Chief Mentor at MedicinMan and a
regular contributor. khariram25@yahoo.com

I have always wondered as to‘why’a sales performance
review or a call coverage or frequency review is done
after 3 to 4 months in a meeting where the‘way for-
ward’and‘strategy’unfolding is the priority.
Today, the contemporary sales force automation tools
which are fast catching up has enabled the MR to
‘self-manage’or‘self-direct‘his day to day effort areas,
be it calls, frequency or time spent on relevant brand
promotional activities.
More importantly, the FLMs have access to these tools
and the relevant‘dashboards’for‘ON TIME’review is at
the click of a button or key and that too on a tablet or
the smart phone. Hence, course corrections including
re-directing the behaviours of their team members to-
wards improved performance can be done close to the
event. This also gives greater opportunity to COACH
than merely direct. This results in‘proactive’approach
and reduces the‘reactive’mode fostering greater align-
ment and improved collaboration.
My simple understanding of sales force performance
management is summarised as under-
Do:
ØØ Take action as soon as possible — the sooner you
intervene the better
ØØ Consider how you might be contributing to the
performance issues
ØØ Make a concrete, measurable plan for improvement
ØØ On the job coaching – very important in joint field
work
ØØ Follow through - monitor their progress regularly
and closer to the event.
Don’t:
ØØ Forget to follow up and no timely feedback
ØØ Getting into directive mode when coaching is
required
ØØ Being vague about things and not doing the neces-
sary homework
ØØ Talk about some one’s performance issues with
others on the team
Sales Performance is an ongoing activity. It’s every day,
after every customer interaction. It’s very dynamic.
People want to know on an ongoing basis,‘Am I doing
right? Am I moving in the right direction? Do you think
I’m progressing?’Nobody’s going to wait for 3 to 4
months after the cycle is over to get that feedback.
K. Hariram | What is the Role of a Performance Manager?
”
I have always wondered
as to why a sales
performance review or a
call coverage or frequency
review is done after 3 to
4 months in a meeting,
where the focus should be
on the ‘way forward’ and
‘strategy’ unfolding.

Now it’s all about ON TIME performance management
and more importantly, performance achievement.
It is time for the sales management to focus more on
relevant facts and evidence and less on benchmarking
and unexamined conventional wisdom.
“Performance management is a process by which man-
agers and sales people work together to plan, monitor
and review the sales person’s work objectives and over-
all contribution to the organization. Also, Performance
management is the continuous process of setting
objectives, assessing progress and providing on-going
coaching and feedback to ensure that the sales person
is meeting his objectives and career goals.”-KH
K. Hariram | What is the Role of a Performance Manager?
”
Performance management
is a process by which
managers and sales
people work together to
plan, monitor and review
the sales person’s work
objectives and overall
contribution to the
organization.
Time and again, I have heard the senior
members of Pharma companies talking
about the quality (or the lack if it) of MRs
including the status of their not getting
proper time in the‘in-clinic’situation.
What baffles me is that everyone keeps
talking about it and no one is willing to
do anything about it. I can understand if
industry outsiders talk about it. However,
the insiders talking about it is bordering on
helplessness and accepting the‘status quo’.
Is it so difficult to have quality MRs?
Is it impossible to make the‘ordinary’to
‘extraordinary’?
Is it the fault of MRs, if they lack the quality?
Has the current selling and marketing ap-
proaches contributed to this deterioration?
Who is responsible?
Read the complete article here.
The Current
Scenario of
Pharma MRs
K. Hariram, former MD (Retd.) at
Galderma and Chief Mentor at
MedicinMan, regularly speaks his
mind on LinkedIn. A few trending
posts have been excerpted.
LINKEDIN
LEADERSHIP
FROM K. HARIRAM

P
harmaceutical Product Managers are a compet-
itive lot, they have the swagger when you see
them strut in the company head office, they are
a bunch of energy when they fly to a remote city for
field work, they are the center of attraction when they
conduct quarterly cycle meetings but even they have
their fair share of frustrations and challenges. There are
times when Pharmaceutical Product Managers come
across as Mythical Unicorns and there are times when
these Mythical Unicorns probably feel like beasts of
burden as well. I am sure my Product Manager breth-
ren understand what I am indicating here.
With the New Year just around the corner almost
everyone will be making New Year resolutions for 2016.
Rather than resolving to just become a better Product
Manager why not aim to become a Rock Star of your
Business Unit, better still your Company or even the
Pharmaceutical Industry?
The Pharmaceutical Product Manager to Rock Star
transition isn’t that difficult, the opportunities are
already on the table, just go and grab them.
E
New Years’ Resolutions for Product Managers that will
lead to Star Performance.
ROCKSTAR
RESOLUTIONS FOR
PRODUCT MANAGERS
Soham Wagh
Soham Wagh is a Pharmaceutical Marketing
professional based out of India. Soham
likes to write about easy to implement self
improvement tips and other contemporary
issues affecting business. The opinions
expressed here are his own and does not reflect
that of any other organization or individual.

”
1. Turn quarterly Cycle Meetings into your
personal concerts
Very few Pharmaceutical Product Managers will
ever publicly admit this but a combination of frantic
running around for approvals, million revisions to
the cycle meeting presentation, back-to-back flights
and meetings that rarely follow agenda make many
a Product Manager hate the quarterly cycle meeting
affair.
Did the World Cup ever made Sachin Tendulkar think
“not again”? Did Metallica ever feel bored to perform
“Nothing Else Matters”in front of a crowd? Does an
election rally ever tire PM Modiji?
In 2016 turn the quarterly Cycle Meeting into your
personal concert. If your career is on an upswing, use
the cycle meeting as a platform to further cement
your perception as a star performer amongst your su-
periors and sales colleagues. If your career isn’t mov-
ing in a direction that you desire, deliver a presen-
tation so impactful that people are forced to notice.
During breaks connect with the sales colleagues who
matter. Practice your presentation so many times that
your delivery is flawless. Cycle meetings offer a cap-
tive audience where you can create a lasting impact.
In 2016 when you speak to your office colleagues
rather than cribbing about cycle meetings tell them
how excited you are to conduct the forthcoming one.
2. Make“Proactive”your middle name
In 2016 aim to be so proactive that your manager nor
any other stakeholders should ever come and remind
you of anything. Brief the agency for your deliver-
ables before your manager asks you do so, ask the
Regional Sales Managers whether their regions have
received all campaign materials on time and wheth-
er they need any additional support from your side
before they call you with their issues and challenges.
Identify which deadlines are to be met on a regular
basis and beat them consistently – be it the Monthly
Brand Review Slides, the Samples allocation plan,
Accruals, etc. Present your field work plan to your
manager before you get that reminder email. Al-
though all these points individually look insignificant
collectively they can be force to turn you into a Rock
Star, a professional who will be quoted as example to
others.
In 2016 turn the quarterly
Cycle Meeting into your
personal concert. If your
career is on an upswing,
use the cycle meeting as
a platform to further
cement your perception as
a star performer amongst
your superiors and sales
colleagues. If your career
isn’t moving in a direction
that you desire, deliver a
presentation so impactful
that people are forced to
notice.
Soham Wagh | Rockstar Resolutions for Product Managers

3. Master SOPs, Codes and Policies
Times are changing and marketing acumen and great
execution are not the only requisite skills to make
you stand out as a marketer in your organization. No
matter how boring they might seem but SOPs, Codes
and Policies are here to stay and a marketer who can
master them before being forced to learn them the
hard way can come out on top in any organization. Just
like a cricketer cannot afford to not know what is a“No
Ball”,“A Free Hit”or“A Wide”is while playing cricket, a
modern day Pharmaceutical Product Manager should
know the relevant SOPs, Codes and Policies at the
back of hands. A Pharmaceutical Product Manager
who masters these is bound to be acknowledged as a
Rock Star by key stakeholders from Marketing, Medical,
Compliance, Sales, MCM and Finance.
4. Leverage other Functions like never
before
If there is one advice that I received during the early
part of my career as a Product Manager that I would
like to flush down the toilet is“A Product Manager is
the CEO of the Brand”, the“Product Manager has to
own all responsibility for the brand”. In this age of com-
plexity even a super human being cannot accomplish
everything on their own. This is the age of collabora-
tion and the sooner Pharmaceutical Product Managers
realize this, the sooner they can turn into Rock Stars.
Take an inventory of your current situation and assess
which are the areas where you can leverage the
strengths of other functions like Medical, Finance,
Business Excellence, Supply Chain, MCM etc better for
your brand/portfolio. At times without formal authority
over other functions it is difficult to make your priori-
ties the priorities of other as well. But who said being
a Rock Star is easy, at least making an attempt has its
own merit.
The Oxford Dictionary defines a Rock Star as“A person
treated as a celebrity, especially in inspiring fanatical
admiration”. Most probably these were the reasons why
you might have decided to become a Product Manag-
er - to become a celebrity in your arena of work and to
inspire sales colleagues to achieve the impossible for
the brand you manage. Then why wait? The time to
become a Rock Star is now, go for it. -SW
Soham Wagh | Rockstar Resolutions for Product Managers
”
In this age of complexity
even a super human
being cannot accomplish
everything on their
own. This is the age of
collaboration and the
sooner Pharmaceutical
Product Managers realize
this, the sooner they can
turn into Rock Stars.

xxx | yyy
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NOWAVAILABLEON
(click on the books to purchase on
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is a tool to help pharma professionals transition from
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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.
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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.
GET YOUR PHARMA CAREER OFF TO A FLYING START!

G
ood incentive plan design is the one which is
created based on agreed upon core business
principles and objectives after discussions
with different stakeholders such as Sales, HR, Finance,
Legal, Operations & IT. Varied elements can be incor-
porated as part of detailed plan design to address dif-
ferent business situations / strategies. There is always
a trade-off between the number of elements to be
included vs. plan simplicity to ease understanding and
communication. At times, the various options available
at hand is overwhelming and it may be challenging
to identify which specific options should be used for
different business scenarios.
At the heart of the pharmaceutical incentive plan
design, there are specific foundational elements that
needs to be determined after reviewing the plan par-
ticipant responsibilities, sales cycle structure and the
lifecycle stage of each portfolio product:
Performance Measure / Determiners – volume or dollar
sales, share and share change etc. As a secondary
process these performance indicators can be measured
against a goal or ranked for relative performance.
ØØ Plan Type – lookup curve, commission, matrix, etc.
ØØ Qualifiers / Constraints – performance of primary
product, activity adherence etc.
ØØ Modifiers / Multipliers – behavioural MBO, nation
performance etc.
ØØ Plan Calculation Parameters – plan measurement
period, interim payout caps, payout frequency.
E
QUALIFIERS & MODIFIERS
IN INCENTIVE PLANNING
Two foundational elements in incentive plan designing explained.
Amit Jain
”
Amit Jain is Co-founder and Director
of Operations at Aurochs Software, an
incentive compensation solution specifically
designed for the pharmaceutical industry.

A combination of these foundational elements in plan
design determines sales rep engagement and pro-
motes desired behaviour from the salesforce.
In this post, we will focus on qualifiers and modifiers
and how they can be used effectively.
Qualifiers
Qualifiers are generally known as riders in Indian
companies. These are generally constraints / conditions
in the plan design which determines the IC eligibility
of the plan participant / payee for a payout on any
particular plan component. The idea is to add the set of
threshold conditions to the plan design which enables
the designer to zero out the incentive payment for
that component irrespective of the performance of
the participant on the plan measure. Qualifiers can be
defined to meet specific business needs and can fall
into various categories :
1. Behavioural – Qualifiers to enforce certain core
sales rep behaviours like completion of product
training, administration process adherence, thresh-
old on customer satisfaction survey score, number
of coaching sessions / conferences etc.
2. Activity Adherence – Qualifiers to encourage
adherence to their call plan. Measures like per-
centage attainment to defined prescriber call plan,
percentage call attainment to high value target
prescribers
3. Product/Portfolio Focus – Qualifiers to reinforce
the primacy of the lead product in the portfolio.
No other plan component will pay out unless a
threshold has been attained on the lead product.
Some examples threshold performance on pri-
mary product, threshold performance on product
portfolio for a more balanced performance.
4. HR Based – Qualifiers to enforce HR rules. For
example the employee may be on a performance
improvement plan or a rule may be that he/she be
employed on the last day of plan period or a rule
for zero unpaid vacation etc.
5. Data Based – Qualifiers to check gaming of sales
numbers. For example the difference in reported
data from primary and secondary data sources.
6. Company/Team Performance – Qualifiers to
encourage teamwork. For example a threshold
on national performance or a threshold on team’s
performance will encourage the team to help each
other out.
Amit Jain | Qualifiers & Modifiers in Incentive Planning
”
Qualifiers and modifiers
are a very useful plan
design component to
configure the plan to meet
any specific strategic need.
The same performance
measure can be used
for different purposes
depending on the business
situation.

Modifiers
Modifiers are usually known as multipliers in the phar-
maceutical industry. This is a design feature that allows
the plan designer to accelerate or decelerate a plan
participant’s incentive based on one or more perfor-
mance measures. These can again be categorized as:
1. Behavioural – Modifiers on behavioural metrics
like say the Physician Satisfaction Survey Score or
the Pharmacy engagement score
2. Company / Regional Performance – Modifiers on
company or regional performance. If the company
beats quota everyone’s payouts are accelerated.
If it does not everyone’s payouts are decelerated.
These also help in budget management.
3. Portfolio Performance – Modifiers for balanced
performance on product portfolio. An additional
kicker based on product portfolio performance is a
good example.
4. HR Based – Modifiers for HR exceptions like new
hire, military leave of absence, written warning etc.
5. Data Quality Measures – Modifiers to improve
data quality like a modifier on the difference be-
tween gross and net dollars
Qualifiers and modifiers are a very useful plan design
component to configure the plan to meet any specific
strategic need. The same performance measure can be
used for different purposes depending on the business
situation.
When designing a new incentive plan, the first step is
to identify the guiding principles and then determine
the behaviours and outcomes you wish to promote.
Once these have been identified, discuss and select the
combination of design elements that support these
desired outcomes. Always keep qualifiers and modifi-
ers in your plan design back pocket to tweak the plan
to meet your exact needs. -AJ
Amit Jain | Qualifiers & Modifiers in Incentive Planning
”
When designing a new
incentive plan, the first
step is to identify the
guiding principles and then
determine the behaviours
and outcomes you wish
to promote... Always keep
qualifiers and modifiers
in your plan design back
pocket to tweak the plan to
meet your exact needs.

Pharma Managers Must Know the Difference between Leading & Managing

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