Professional Sales Reps - the Future

In 2015, I was told that being called a Sales rep was the highest insult. I found this shocking. In response, I wrote an article called “Sales Rep – the highest insult” where I asked how this could be? I went on to explain my version of what constitutes a professional rep, especially in healthcare where I spent 22 years. Nearly 19 000 people have read that article and you can read it here. www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/sales-rep-highest-insult-colleen-qvist

Fast forward to 2021 and life has changed courtesy of a global pandemic and widely used terms like lockdown, frontline workers, essential services, social distancing, flattening the curve and the need for repeated negative test results. I wondered if the skills and behaviours in the original article were still valid and indeed they are, however some of them have become more prominent and others have taken a back seat. Some of the currently needed skills and behaviours that immediately come to mind are adaptability, resilience, empathy, being tech-savvy, mental wellness and problem solving with different thinking.

The list seemed rather familiar to me and I realised that it fits in rather well with the list of skills published by The World Economic Forum in their Future of Jobs report 2020. You can download the report www.weforum.org/reports/jobs-of-tomorrow-mapping-opportunity-in-the-new-economy

 The report talks about skill sets which are emerging for the future of work to allow digital and human to work in tandem. The World Economic Forum estimates that 50% of employees will need to be reskilled by 2025.

The top ten skills fall in one of four categories.

A.     Problem Solving

                                I.           Analytical Thinking and Innovation

                              II.           Complex Problem Solving

                            III.           Critical Thinking and Analysis

                           IV.           Creativity, Originality and Initiative

                             V.           Reasoning, Problem Solving and Ideation

B.     Self-Management

                                I.           Active Learning and Learning Strategies

                              II.           Resilience, Stress Tolerance and Flexibility

C.     Working with People

                                I.           Leadership and Social Influence

D.     Technology Use and Development

                                I.           Technology use, Monitoring and Control

                              II.           Tech Design and Programming

Back to those professional Sales Reps whose worlds have been turned upside down. Many have not been able to see customers. From a fast paced, many kilometres, many-people-kind of day they have had to become armchair reps. From selling a highly sought after and used product, to those products now sitting on the shelf. From being managed by call rate, units sold, specific customers seen, theatre time, doctors’ tearooms and kilometres travelled to now becoming the taboo of sitting in an office or even worse sitting at home.

I have heard many members of the public saying that sales in healthcare must have hit record numbers. Well that all depends on what you sell. If you sell products for routine procedures, or trauma then your sales data is probably looking rather dismal. The pressure is probably on you now to catch up on those numbers.

On the flip side, if you have never stopped being in the field, you could have felt a whole host of emotions – fear of facing the virus every day, resentment about working so hard when colleagues are in that “armchair”, stress from running out of stock and exhaustion from adrenaline pumping as it feels like you have run the marathon on your own.

Sales people have puzzled over how to detail medical professionals who do not want to be seen in person and who have also shied away from virtual connection. They have tried to work with medical professionals who have had changed priorities like no patients, financial worries, Covid positive patients, positive staff and colleagues and even being positive themselves. How can sales reps have empathy and show that they care in an industry that has almost gone to the extreme of legislating not caring and not connecting? A case in point here, an ICU doctor’s wife shared with me that her husband was puzzled that reps were trying desperately to see him. He had shared that it would mean so much more to him if those reps had checked in on his wife.

Let’s look at the cracks in mental wellness from being ripped out of a comfort zone, losing identity, changed routine, repeat tests, isolation, death of customers, colleagues, friends and family, pressure from management to make those numbers, compromised communication, reduced or no salaries, no commission or incentives, reduced, forced or no leave, virtual screen exhaustion and retrenchments of self or family. The list seems endless and the level of connectedness, bounce-ability, empathy and problem solving are now key.

That all sounds rather doom-filled and heavy, but it isn’t really so long as we adopt a new way of working. We need to accept that the old way won’t be returning. Our old ways of repping and managing may no longer work in our new world. The initial approach is to persist in making them work, but that may end up causing more damage.

What can you do?

I would like to invite you to organise an obligation-free virtual coffee with me.

What else could you do?

We could arrange for you and your team to –

1. Check in regularly with me for Group/Team coaching.
2. Sign up for the Reskilling your Employees’ Workshop series.
3. Attend a facilitated strategy session – “Let go and let come” - letting go of the past and what no longer works and embracing what is needed for the future.

You are welcome to contact me on [email protected] or call or send me a WhatsApp +27825503568

Colleen Qvist is a Master credentialed Life Coach and Business Coach, Mentor, Facilitator and Director of CQ Associates (PTY) Ltd which is home to CQ Consulting, 44, The Pink Diamond Club, and Discussing Parenting.