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R.K.Laxman's Common man!

Sales Forecasting

The Pharma Dialogue - Covid Times

Crystal Ball : Pharma & Healthcare


2020 AC  After Covid19
Seven commonsensical predictions
  1. Pharma : Two clear roles in near future – the Sales Rep and "Medical" Rep
  2. Pharma's new buzzword will be "Diversify" 
  3. Chemist chains and e-pharmacies will embrace tele-medicine to sell more 
  4. Tele-Medicine kiosks new Business opportunity for pharamcists and Nurses
  5. More Pointofcare diagnostics & Wearables sales will reach newer heights
  6. Tele-medicine beyond boundaries – new medical regulation will emerge 
  7. Medical tourism : Temporary decline but steadily will increase 

WFH & Pharma - a dozen do-ables















What Medical representatives can do at home?
  1. Learn how to search using Google and Learn how to search for Medical information 
  2. Download apps - Use them: 
    • Kindle; Podcasts ; IQVIA sales view; Ted and Ted-ed ;  Flipboard; Microsoft office; Digilocker; Google Drive; Khan Academy; Microsoft ToDo; Google Keep Slide share  and Linkedin 
  3. Learn Top Basics of Excel and PowerPoint 
  4. Join a MOOC - Finish a course for yourself and your satisfaction 
  5. Correct doctor's List/ Address / Phone Nos / Pin-code / Collect Info - Doctor's Profile (key interests) 
  6. Therapy Challenge - Challenge your colleague with a good Video detailing or a Minute speech on your favourite brand and Therapy/disease 
  7. Share an Idea with the company - be an intrapreneur/ share success stories to learn from / Listen to colleagues 
  8. Think...write down - what can be stopped and still be productive 
  9. Eat Moderate - Start exercise - Meditate a bit 
  10. Watch a film a day with your family 
  11. Give time to the doctor to recoup with Corona stress - contact only if you have personal rapport. enquire about their safety. sincerely appreciate their efforts - ask if you are of any professional help - Do not sell your products! 
  12. Read about Coronavirus and COVID 19 and challenge Fake news on social media - Your Non-pharma Friends and relatives will respect you. 
What organizations  can do: 
  1. Communicate internally - Communicate to give clarity - assure people – Do not communicate - only to give work! 
  2. Do not pressurize FF on digital reach - if you cannot..they also can not 
  3. Do not over Do training and testing people knowledge and skills 
  4. Think for next 3 Months – give the training that’s useful 
  5. Teach some meditation online! Find out ways … 
  6. Ask for ideas - conduct Interviews - learn how can you be a better Employer – recognize good contributions 
  7. Conduct internal interviews – a good time for better assessments 
  8. Show them some fun free stuff like – High 5 Test 
  9. Genuinely extend professional help to the doctor 
  10. Gamify - enjoy the games – do not use games for assessments 
  11. Do a Webinar Star award... Do a Talk show with Leadership-Champion your Values? 
  12. Don’t think how to cut people – but optimize vacancies – Optimize un-productive work. Let your people know that you value them. Tell them that digital is additional support, touchpoint to Human interaction, and make them partners in future digital initiatives
What Brand Managers can do? 
  1. Go Back to Basics: If you can not answer 2 out of these 3 Ques- Go back to Basics
    1. Difference between - Pandemic, Epidemic, and Endemic?
    2. Define: Prevalence and Incidence?
    3. Explain the Hierarchy of evidence
    • Learn Excel
    • Learn PowerPoint
    • Master the formulae for metrics  - Learn to write a Business Plan
    • Learn to create P&L for your brand
    • Learn a bit of Stats - a Major part of Marketing is Mathematics
    • Learn Data visualization techniques
    • Watch Ted  and More  of Ted-ed
    • Read and follow Pharma KOLs
    • Read More about Evidence-Based Medicine
    • Read and Learn about Corona Virus and Covid-19 seriously 
    • Complete courses on digital - start with free courses 

    10 Check points : Health of a Sales organization for Sustainable performance

    1. Planned, Progressive, and Profitable Sales.
    2. Company’s relative Market Share %
    3. Mix, Span and Consistency of its brand's performance
    4. Risks and mitigation plans
    5. Basic selling processes and adherence to compliance
    6. How many hours of training each employee gets to improve them?
    7. Execution in short term, Strategy for midterm and values in long term
    8. Leadership that displays Authenticity and cares for the growth of employees
    9. How many employees are Happy Employees-Happy to work and have a sense of achievement and are being recognized for their contribution? 
    10. The organization earns profits - genuinely keen to give back a portion to the community 

    Medical Representatives – Can they be Corona Warriors?

    ~ 4 Lakh Medical reps work in India :
    • They know the basics
    • They are trained
    • They have personal report with doctors
    • They know how the health care operates

    Can the Pharma organizations and government use their services to serve in this difficult situation to contain Coronavirus spread? Can OPPI /IDMA / IPA  and Other associations get into talks with Govt and offer their help and services through Med reps ?

     What is to be done?

    • Reach out to organizations – Reach out to associations – Reach out to Trade unions.
    • Request their permission to give their field force to serve the Public under the guidance of Doctors.
    • Invite and Join the sales force on Video conf . Give them One-day training on how to contain Corona Virus
    • Give them a skill. They will learn it fast
    • Certify them as trained Corona Volunteers to serve the public at large
    • Provide them all disposable protective gear.

    What can Medical Reps Do?

    • Deploy them at clinics to screen Patients and identify possible corona infections.
    • Deploy them to offer public education on social media.
    • Deploy them with doctors to help healthcare professions.
    • Deploy them and certify them to Manage the supply chain of essential medicines.
    • They can be used for the transport of samples and medicines since all of them have personal transport
    • Each rep will be given a list of 200 houses to monitor on a weekly basis. Anyone showing symptoms of Covid will be picked up and informed by government agencies
    • Daily allowance to be paid by the government. Salary by employers.
    • All they need to be given is personal protection clothing and IR temperature monitor. 
    • If IR not available Digital devices to be used

    Of course, everyone should be given a choice to volunteer or not to - leave it to them to decide!

     Credits: Parthasarathy Ponguri

    Best apps to Learn and be Productive

    Here is the list of Apps for Medical Reps and Other Sales professionals
    • Google Primer
    • SlideShare  to Learn from presentations
    • Kindle to read books on a smartphone
    • Google Podcasts  to listen and learn
    • Ted Videos - to get motivated !
    • Flipboard  for News around the world
    • Microsoft office - for the docs on the go
    • Digilocker  - for your Personal docs - Govt of India 
    • Google Drive  - Your document repository 
    • Office lens  - Scan / whiteboard Photo 
    • Microsoft TO-DO  - ToDo list - sync with your list on your computer!
    • Google Keep - Lists and reminders
    • LinkedIn - Connect and Learn
    • Khan Academy : Learning on the go
    • Any Books  : Free books on Mobile 
    • HBR Idea Cast  : HBR Podcasts 
    • High 5 Test : Know your key strengths
    • MOOCs - massive open online course.
    • Youtube - one of the best learning app!
    • Games apps : Peak - Brain games and Training
    • Games apps : Elevate
    • Pharma

    Deployment of Field force,S&T and KPIs

    Sharing my Presentation during MedicinMan Anup Soan's "How to create winning Sales Organization' conference on 20th Dec 2017 In Mumbai

    Workshop Leader : Mr. Deep Bhandri
    Section: Understanding Territories and Deployment
    Topic : 
    How to Deploy Field force, Segmentation, and targeting of customers and key performance indicators.

    Keep Calm and Measure Run Rate

    It is important to review sales progress periodically and assess the possibility of reaching the objectives by year-end and act accordingly.
    If the progress is good, one may have to maintain the trend else take corrective actions by planning interventions to ensure that the sales objective is achieved.
    Among many techniques used, one important technique is measuring run rates.
    Run Rate simply gives you the average sales achievement for
    • Last 3 Months ( 3 Month Run Rate)  or
    • Last 6 Months  ( 6 Month Run Rate)  or
    • Last 9 Month ( 9 Month Run Rate) or
    • Last 12 Month (12 Month Run Rate) or
    • YTD run rate ( Start of the year - till this month Run Rate) and also
    • Expected Run Rate or YTG (Year to Go) Run rate.
    This simple analysis gives you an idea about the probability of you achieving your annual Sales objectives. Depending on the analysis, you can plan your interventions.
    One important point to note is that well-established seasonality exists in sales of some products /Brands and this seasonality may have to be taken into consideration while assessing the probabilities.

    Here is a simple tool, to help you assess your  Run rates in short term ( 3 Months ) , Mid-term( 6 Months ) , Long Term( 9 months ), and Loong term( 12 Months ). It also provides you YTD and YTG Run rates for your assessments.
    The Excel-based tool is simple to use. Download the Excel file here.
    Instructions to use MS-excel are given in the Excel file itself.

    Hope you will find the simple tool useful.
    Download the Excel file Here

    What is the size of each slide in my presentation ?

    Identifying the slides that are increasing the size of my presentation

    You have just finished a 'killer' presentation with lots of “Images” , “Logos” and about to send the presentation to your boss.
    You realize that it’s quite a big presentation in size and is about 20 MB.
    You cannot send such big files on mail !!

    Now , you need to understand and modify the slides to ensure that the size does not exceed 2-3 MB.
    What do you do ?
    Go slide by slide and compress pictures?

    There is an easy way out….
    Try this…
    Go to File >> Save &Send >> Publish Slides >> Publish Slides
    Once you Publish the slides, each slide gets published as a presentation itself so you will be able to know the size of each slide.
    Identify the slides and compress the images.
    For step by step details take a look at the presentation.
    Try a Bonus Link: How to Give a Killer Presentation  : HBR