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Role
of a manager in territory management
Hari
Krishna Maram gives a low-down on the make up of a successful manager
A manager
is one who uses his discretionary capabilities while making use
of the resources available to him. While exercising this discretion,
he can materially improve or influence results of the project.
Main
objectives of a manager
The
main objectives of the manager include:
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To support and ensure the achievement of organizational objective
in terms of area revenue generation and customer services.
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To improve the competence of team members in their present job
by providing on the job training.
The
three dimensional approaches of a manager include:
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Revenue generation
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Customer service
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Developing competence of team members
Primary
responsibilities
Among
the various responsibilities of a manager, he has to constantly
aim:
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To ensure the achievement of rupee-wise product-wise objective
of the assigned area
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To constantly improve the customer service in the assigned area
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To constantly improve the competence of team members in the present
job
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To development information intelligence and feed-back system.
Ensuring
achievement: In order to enable the manager to carry out the
first responsibility he needs:
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To study historical sales data and analyze the overall trend
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To set challenging but attainable objective for the area in consonance
with the company and regional objective
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To decide/finalise the contribution expected from trade and institutions
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To allocate month-wise rupee-wise and product-wise objective for
the area - To set rupee-wise, product-wise objective for each
territory. This should be in conformity with the territory potential
and area objective
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To decide strategies for the achievement of these objectives
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To communicate these objectives to the team members to get their
commitment
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To ensure implementation of strategies and plans - To measure
the performance of each individual against the set objective on
the month to month basis
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To identify/find out the causes for negative/positive variances
and take corrective steps in time to time
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To monitor the responses of the corrective actions and modify
actions wherever necessary without delay
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Proper implementation of marketing plan developed by product management
team
Customer
services: This is one of the major factor of a manager’s
functioning. Customer service consists of regular visits along with
product promotion including providing up-to-date scientific information.
To
achieve this following things are critical:
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To ensure preparation of list of doctors under coverage
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To finalise standard tour plan
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To finalize monthly tour plan
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To scrutinize daily report to ensure customer coverage as per
plan
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Call average and frequency of visit to important core customers
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Proper product promotion to various categories of doctor after
complete chemist survey
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Proper resource utilisation
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Personal order booking from each customer
Improving
competence of team
Improving
competence of team is the third responsibility of a manager. To
achieve this, he needs:
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To develop the competence of team member by providing on the job
training
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To carry out field work with team members on the regular basis
with objective
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Providing on the job training through demonstration
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Improving their effectiveness in the clinic (in clinic performance).
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Improving their selling skills and product knowledge
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Supplementing their efforts at the market place
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Supporting their selling efforts wherever required
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Resolving the problems beyond their control
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Motivating team to get the required result
Development
of
information system
Development
of information system has assumed greater importance in the current
business scenario. In order to understand this it is necessary to
understand the meaning of the terms.
Information:
Any statement or processed data which indicates the happenings at
the market place/environment and that has or will have an impact
on our performance and which calls for an immediate action is termed
as information. Intelligence: It is an advanced or anticipated information
on competition or environment which will have an impact on our performance,
dictionary meaning of intelligence is ‘collection of information
on enemy activities secretly.’ It is futuristic in nature it
is cent per cent external. It requires preparation to offset the
threats or capitalize on the opportunities provided by competitors.
Feedback
Feedback
is a process which indicates the impact of the actions initiated
or taken by managers. The actions may include new strategies, promotional
plans, policies and procedures amongst others.
The
proposes of information, intelligence and feedback are:
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To ensure achievement of planned performance goals
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To identify deviations/variances and develop alternatives to consolidate
the situation
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To identify and capitalise on the opportunities provided by the
competition
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To foresee the problems and develop a suitable action plan
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To review the progress and modify action to bring performance
in line with plan
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To train and develop team members in the areas of product knowledge
and selling skills
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To identify the areas where he/she is doing well and areas which
need improvement develop a specific action plan for improvement
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To monitor his/her performance in the identified areas and modify
the plan wherever required To impart training at every possible
opportunity during field work
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To impart training on finalization of call objectives
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To conduct detailing session regularly
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To ensure effective use of promotions
aids
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To show him/her how to
handle objections in doctors clinics.
The
writer is with Novartis India Ltd, Bangalore and can be contacted
at hkmaram@yahoo.com
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