On-job fearlessness: a necessity
The most important quality among sales personnel
is fearlessness. A pharmaceutical Medical Representative (MR) has to
knock on clinic doors of the most qualified medical personnel. It can be
intimidating! Yet the MR has to do it with elan, smile, authority,
confidence (fearlessness) and tactfully. Getting the message across to
prospects and committed doctors, who are sophisticated, highly qualified,
wealthy, intelligent, dedicated to superordinate goals … is a challenging task,
the essential requirement for this job - being confidence (fearlessness).
People work due to various motivations, an entire
body of literature is available on this issue, most popular being the Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs. It is safe to surmise that people work constantly to
be in a state of perceived security (absence of fear of loss or absence of
need).
In any case, day-to-day working takes place due
to several factors including:
a)
Dutifulness
b)
Habit
c)
Fear
d)
Greed
e)
Need for subsistence and meeting family requirements (including
children’s education)
f)
Desire for high level experiences (eg., luxuries etc)
g) Emotional bonding with co-workers or with the institution (where work is
being performed)
h) Work ethic: where work opportunity itself is seen as a reward rather
than being an instrument for meeting one’s material and other needs
i) Work as an engagement for joy, keeping oneself from boredom and ensuring
mental well-being (psychosomatic health), for many being away from productive
work contributes to negative thoughts, depression and lack of self-worth (loss
of self-love)
j)
Need to be secure and comfortable in present and future time
k)
Superordinate goals or higher ideals (eg., workers in NGOs)
Yet the most important quality for performing any
job is fearlessness (a response behavior characterized by confidence).
On-job fearlessness has many benefits:
a)
On-job fearlessness is not being a contrarian, anarchist, Mr. Blunt,
irreverent or an upstart … it means being comfortable with oneself and others,
ensuring effective on-job communication and transactions
b)
On-job fearlessness is infectious and positive: healthy confidence makes
others confident. In sales personnel, on-job confidence, gives an appeal
to the salesman’s persona. It makes the prospects and doctors comfortable
- their confidence level too gets a boost.
c)
On-job confidence (absence of fear) is required for success: fortunes
favour the bold! A courageous salesperson will create confidence in
prospects and customers about his or her product. This confidence in the
customer or prospect creates the prescribing decision in doctors, or purchase
decision in customers. Generating confidence in customers and influencers
like doctors, is the key for success events
d)
On-job confidence creates a base for adaptability: Learning from
experiences is a key to career growth and ability to contribute. On-job
confidence gives a person the drive for learning and apply them in situations,
including critical ones, such as during crisis management
e)
On-job confidence is a morale booster: being confident in the work-spot
means having presence of mind and even-mindedness in the face of risks,
uncertainties and volatilities
In day-to-day activities, experience of fear and
greed are commonplace happenings. The intensity of these emotions varies,
which depends on the person’s psychological profile and actual
circumstance.
Ability to manage these emotions, unlocks
opportunities. A MR may get intimidated with a doctor’s in-clinic
intellectual aggressiveness and authoritarian bearing. The MR may cower
down and avoid such doctors – settling to meet less – intimidating (but
less business potential) doctors. Hence, the MR’s fear has created loss
of opportunity in this scenario.
If a doctor is intimidating, one can ‘fight or
flee’. Another approach is getting a grip on these emotions and
participating in the transactions to ensure win-win relationship.
This comes through training and knowledge (wisdom and experience). Hence,
it is said by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the
head is held high … where knowledge is free…
Lack of confidence, also hampers doctor-call
efficiency and effectiveness of a MR. A less-confident MR will likely
make a postman-call, with very minimal impact. A confident MR or
executive will have more elan.
Fear and greed are facts of life! They are
key emotions to help us understand the situation. However, using one’s
reasoning, patience and imagination, one can control the response behavior to
replace fear with cautious confidence, and greed with tempered desire, so that
various achievements can be notched up in a balanced way.
Confidence is not being flamboyant … such
sales-personnel are often hollow, covering their inner fears with a cloak of
aggressive flamboyancy.
The pharmaceutical industry is an ocean of
opportunity for confident participants. People who know how to manage
their fears are exploiting the market opportunities. In post-independent
India, over the 60 plus years, many pharma personnel and institutions have
gathered experience, learning, knowledge and hence fearlessness, it is translating
into major growth for pharma organizations. The Rs. 88,110 crores Indian
pharmaceutical industry is having a MAT growth 14.1%. Welcome to
confidence, welcome to opportunity … here is the Indian pharmaceutical
industry.
