ROLE EXCELLENCE

‘Role Excellence’ means a raised quality of life, whatsoever

may be your role, hardly matters. In ‘Role Excellence’, what
matters is, what you do with your role and how well.
Yes, ‘Role Excellence’ is a choice, you can choose to be
excellent in your role regardless of constraints. ‘Role
Excellence’ is striving for perfection in the activities you
are performing.
If you do things differently, distinctly, you will walk that
extra mile. You will go a little beyond the call of duty, your
behaviour will stand out and there will be a distinct touch
of grace in you.
The pursuit of excellence is not static. It is dynamic. One
better each time should be your objective, as excellence
is not a destination, it is a journey. Pursuit of excellence
also makes good career sense. When you excel in your
role the resultant joy begins to mean everything to you
and you find your days richer for ever. ‘Operational
Excellence’ becomes your style. The world around you
takes much more than appreciative notice of you. You
get picked up for higher levels of responsibilities. Hence
you must respect your role. Taking more and more
interest in your day-do-day work, will help you to earn
more and more recognition.

•
“Great opportunities await those who give more than what is
asked. I encourage you to put the uncommon touch on even
the most common task. We may never have the opportunity to
do great things in a great way, but we all have the chance to
do small things in a great way.”
 TOWARDS ROLE EXCELLENCE

The first step towards achieving ’Role Excellence’ is to

analyse your own self. This can be done by asking yourself
three basic questions i.e. why, what and how?
1. Why am I living? What is the aim of my life? What
goal have I set for myself? Life without a goal is like a
boat without a sail or a ship without a rudder. Your
goal may be to earn more and more recognition or to
earn more money or any other things you need. But
your goal should clearly define your ambition in life
to yourself. This is the goal of your life that offers
aspiration for living. Once you have set your aim/goal,
you should ask yourself the next question.
2. If this is my goal, what efforts am I putting in to achieve
it? Are they substantial?
3. Once you have analysed yourself on these parameters,
you may effectively plan how you can further improve
yourself. It is this sense of achievement of a goal that
brings happiness and satisfaction in your life.
So once again ponder for a while. Are you in a career you
wanted to be in or..? If your answer is ‘Yes, I am in the
right profession’, go ahead, start investing time, money
and efforts for yourself, as you are the greatest asset of
yourself. Train, groom and encourage yourself to climb
the highest peaks of selling profession.

•
“Plan your career for Ahead, Concentrate on a single GOAL.
Keep your eye on the winning post.
Be the man who made it, Not the man who almost made it.”
 SELLING PROFESSION

THE ADVANTAGES
Someone has rightly said, “even the sky is not the limit there
is space to go further”. But everyone can’t be an ‘Astronaut’.
Congratulations to all of you, who have either chosen or
are in the process of choosing ‘Selling’ as a career because
only this profession gives you an opportunity to become
an ‘Astronaut’, that too being on earth. This is the
profession where the boundaries/limits of your individual
success are determined by you yourself. Here what you
achieve is entirely in your hands. It speaks for you in
proportion to that and promotes you professionally.

Even the sky is not the limit.

Get Set & Grow 4

STIMULATES PERSONAL GROWTH

The selling profession is the one that stimulates your
personal growth. Here your growth is directly proportional
to your competence. Contrary to this, people working in
other professions find themselves trapped in the
circumstances which not only limit their potentials but also
make them professionally impotent. Even though they want
to do more work they do not get the right opportunity to do
so. They cannot use their latent qualities which may lead
them towards greater success. But it is not so in this
profession.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
In the selling profession you have freedom of
expression. You can express yourself in a much better way
and can do whatever you want to do. Here you can utilize
your individual initiative up to the fullest point, which
will give you not only the satisfaction but will also ensure
maximum rewards you deserve and aspire for. Here each
day as sun rises, a new challenge leaps up in front of you.
Each moment is filled with thrill and adventure, as one
day you find yourself on the top of the world and on the
very next day you may find yourself nowhere. But this is
the excitement which gives a lot of courage to an
individual.

“It is not enough to have an interesting or a good job.

To live a total life, YOUR WORK MUST ALIGN WITH
WHO YOU ARE.”
 5 Get Set & Grow

SELLING! WHAT IS IT?

THE OLDEST PROFESSION

In fact, selling is one of the oldest professions in the world.
Each and every person is a salesman, in some way or the
other, be it a kid asking for a toy or a boy trying to convince
his parents to buy a bicycle for him, a teacher teaching a
class or a politician campaigning for election. Though all
are trying to sell their ideas yet by far and large they are
not considered as salespersons. Only those persons who
sell a particular product or provide a service, to earn their
livelihood, are considered to be salespersons. Basically
anyone, who is engaged in exchange of goods, services or
even an idea with money, is a salesperson.

SELLING - WHAT IS IT?

You have already shown your capability of selling an idea.
Yes! All of you reading this article just try to recollect what
exactly you had done when you appeared in various
interviews during the course of selection. You had tried to
sell your personality, your image, your ideas. You had
convinced the interviewers that you can perform the job
better than others, and ultimately you were selected. This
way you have sold yourself to the employer. It is truly
said “A successful salesman is a person who can sell himself”.
It means, he can convince others about what he presents.
He becomes a reliable person for them. Whatever he says
for his product, idea or even about a service which he
Get Set & Grow 6

can offer seems to be good or required by them. It is this

feeling that ultimately leads to a successful sales call. A
salesman does not sell his product but convinces his
customers that his product will satisfy their needs which
may be present or forthcoming.
Specially in the present scenario there is a rush of ‘me too’
products (same products marketed by different
companies). Hence the role of a salesman becomes much
more crucial. Today what is more important is, to first
identify the needs of a customer and then to project a
particular product in such a way so as to convince the
customer that the product has been designed, just to meet
his needs only.

PHARMA SELLING
In selling, there are two prime factors—one a ‘Salesperson’
and the other a ‘Customer’. He may be a wholesaler, retailer
or even a consumer directly. (In case of a salesperson selling
his products door-to-door.)
But as far as the selling of pharmaceutical specialities is
concerned, the situation is a bit different. Unlike the selling
of consumer disposable/durables where a company
reaches its customers directly (may be through a
salesperson or through advertisements) and tries to satisfy
their needs, here a company has to be dependent on one
more factor—its indirect customer i.e. a doctor. That is the
reason why pharma selling is called ‘Indirect Selling’.

You

Sto ckist
&
D o cto r C hem ist
 7 Get Set & Grow
Field of indirect selling is a triangle where you, as a
salesperson, are at one corner and your direct customer
i.e., your stockist/distributor (who buys your product from
the company) is at second corner, and on third corner you
have your indirect customer that is the doctor (who helps
to liquidate the stocks). So it is equally important for you
to maintain your relations with both the customers.
In order to make it a profitable business for both you and
your stockist, it becomes your prime responsibility to
ensure the fast liquidation of stocks from your stockist’s
shelves, by generating demand in terms of prescriptions.
Though your direct customer is a stockist yet a retail
chemist too, plays a vital role by giving you the valuable
information regarding doctor’s prescribing habits, keeping
adequate inventory and honouring the prescription of your
products. Hence a retail chemist too is not an outsider to
your business. He is an integral part of your business.
To sum up, every customer of yours has got his own
importance. So they all must be given the most courteous
and attentive consideration.
Since the field of ‘Pharma Selling’ is a triangle, let us first
move to that corner, where as a Medical Representative
‘YOU’ are getting ready to take off to climb the highest
peaks of ‘Pharma Selling’.

“Some men see things as they are and say why,

I dream things that never were and say why not.”
Robert Kennedy
Get Set & Grow 8

You can sell, any time: any where.

 9 Get Set & Grow

GETTING EQUIPPED
THOROUGHLY

GET
Get Set & Grow 10

Are they Identical?

 11 Get Set & Grow

YOU

Like any other living organism, God has gifted to all human
beings the unique power i.e.’ Reproduction’ which enables
them to produce a new ‘human being’ that is identical to
them.
But are they really identical? It leaves a big question mark.
No doubt upto some extent physiologically as well as
morphologically they may be identical but there is one
thing which differentiates them from each other i.e. their
‘Mind’. Now what is ‘Mind’ is a debatable topic. According
to the Greek philosopher, Pythagoras (6th century B.C.)
“brain is the organ of mind.” Someone has rightly said : “What
we call mind is a product of the brain.” Synonymous for the
mind we may include soul, sentiments, judgements, choice,
inclination, desire, will, likings, impetus, memory etc.
In my opinion the mind is the propelling force behind any
human brain. Mind provides the power/ability to guide
and train the brain so that one can achieve what he wants
to achieve in his/her life. Mind is in sum all that the human
body is. It is the mind which determines the identity of an
individual and power to utilise his or her brain effectively.
Everyone born with the absolute raw brain, knows
nothing about life. But after coming into existence the
race for survival begins. Developing your brain is an
ongoing process. This learning process starts right from
the day one. When you were a baby who told you to cry
to attract your mother’s attention and indicate that you
were hungry? Was there anyone whom you might have
seen crawling? But you started crawling of your own
Get Set & Grow 12

and after some time started walking and this process of

learning continued. Everyday you look, hear and read
many things but how much you are able to retain with
you is up to you. All human beings possess an almost
identical ability to store and recall the same amount of
information. What makes a difference is, your ability
to gather and store information in a proper way, place
and time. In fact the brain gets more sharper the more
efficiently it is used. The ability to solve problems
correctly increases with every correctly solved problem.
Your memory works better, the harder it is made to
work. So it is up to you how effectively you utilise your
brain. There are plenty of examples available around.
For example, two brothers having absolutely different
natures – one is kind, simple, well behaved while the
other is quite arrogant and rude though their upbringing
was similar. In a class of 60 boys a boy gets first position
while another gets poor marks though the teacher was
same for both of them.
Similarly in a company where there are thousands of
workers, only a few get promoted while others keep on
doing the same old job though the opportunities were
available for them also.
No doubt, factors like family, teacher, friend, society,
economic status and environment influence the
behaviour of an individual. But whether to get
influenced or not, solely depends upon an individual.
You are an individual too.
Today whatever you are is because of you. Since you
wanted to be a ‘Medical Representative’ so you have
become a Medical Representative. Now to transform
yourself into a successful medical representative is once
again in your hands.
Start realising the power of this wonder word ‘YOU’, which
 13 Get Set & Grow
can make all the difference to you. Not only in your
professional but in your personal life too, this magic word
‘YOU’ has got its own importance. After realising the
power of you, let us see, who is next to you.

“If you keep waiting for just the right time,

you may never begin.
Begin now! Begin where you are
with what you are.”
Get Set & Grow 14

YOURSELF
It is very essential to have good friends in your life. They
are the ones with whom you can share your happy or sad
moments, whose opinion matters to you so that while
solving a problem you can weigh your opinion against
theirs. They are the ones whom you want with you while
having fun or discussing a matter. Specially when you are
confused or want to enquire about a truth, you can rely on
them.
But if someone asks you who is your best friend? It will be
very difficult for you to answer because every human being
has got some qualities which are liked in general by others
while some are disliked. Sometimes an individual has got
some likes and dislikes of his own and your friend too
may have some. Under these circumstances no one can
come up to your expectation. For whom can you say, “I
like everything in him”? Basically friendship is a mutual
adjustment between two individuals where most of their
likes are similar and dislikes if any, are overlooked.
But I can certainly name a person for whom your answer
will be -”well, I like him the way he is”. Who may this
person be? Yes! ‘you’ can be the best friend of yourself,
provided you start forgiving some of your human
imperfections and taking care of yourself. Have you ever
realised that it is you who is always with you everywhere.
It is ‘you’ whom you find always on your side, when even
your friends are not there. There can be only one person
on earth who would never like you to be let down in any
situation and he is ‘You’. Someone has rightly said. “No
one can make you feel inferior without your consent”. It is you
who like a good friend will always ensure that you get
your share.
 15 Get Set & Grow
So bring yourself out, whenever you feel alone, make your
life as happy as any good friend of yours would like to
make. Be as kind and nice to yourself as anyone you know.
For being good to yourself, you need to take time for
yourself, everyday. This time you can call your own
because this is the time you would like to spend just
doing the things which make you happy. These are the
moments when only you are with yourself. You have
been gifted with the most precious gift and that is your
brain, which serves the dual purpose i.e. of a VCR and
of a TV. So recall some peaceful thoughts and pleasant
memories which will make you happy. In your daily
routine include this special time for yourself. This will
keep your outlook fresh and new.
Now if someone asks you the same question i.e. who is
your best friend? Say with confidence “It is me”.

It is good to take time out for yourself and

the job you are performing but at the same
time it is your moral obligation to fulfill all
the responsibilities of your family too. So never
neglect them in the course of your worklife. While
planning your day, do keep sometime for your family.
If your parents/wife/children want to be with you,
keep sometime for them in your schedule in such a
way that it does not disturb your working schedule
at the same time providing some precious moments
with your family.

•
“Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers,
why not plant your own garden.”
Get Set & Grow 16

HAPPINESS
Happiness is a state of mind, which does not occur by
itself. This needs willful efforts with persistent endeavour.
It is you, who can cause it happen to you. It is your choice
to be happy or unhappy in life, or to be content with the
life you have got. It is up to you how you relate yourself
with the life‘s events and determine your joy as well as
misery.
How about your feelings? Are they mean or kind? How
do you feel when someone does good to you or when
someone does something that hurts you? Do you start
feeling the same for him or do you give it a second thought
as to why you were treated so? This attitude towards life
is the key to happiness. If your attitude is negative then
even a good thing around you, will not bring happiness to
you. You need not go anywhere in search of happiness. It
is everywhere and right inside you. The only thing required
to get it, is a positive attitude towards life. As the saying
goes:
“Happiness is all around
it is in the morning‘s sunshine
and the evening’s quiet hours,
it is in all that is bright and beautiful.
In rainbow, field and flowers,
it is in warm and tender moments
and in special feelings too,
all the simple, little joys
we gather all life through.”
 17 Get Set & Grow
You can make up your mind to be happy and you will
find your life more rewarding. Do not get disturbed with
little obstacles and worries that come your way. You can
be as happy as you have decided to be. ‘The Joy of Living’
has been well expressed in these words.
“To know the joy of living
is to know life’s worthwhile things.
The satisfaction of work well done,
the pleasure friendship brings,
courage after doubting
understanding after sorrow,
learning from your yesterdays
and looking towards tomorrow.
It is measuring our happiness
not just by the years we have spent,
but by the joys we have given others
and by our own heart’s content.”
Today you are a self-reliant person who knows how to
remain happy but an overall personality development
lends credence to your work.

“I know you have an impressive wardrobe. But of all the

things you wear, your expression is the most important.
If someone remembers your suit and not your smile,
you didn’t smile enough.”
Get Set & Grow 18

PERSONALITY

“Personality is to a person what perfume is to a flower”. Hence

you must work hard at grooming your personality, to
create the right impression of yourself. Because without
personality a person is like a moving mass.
The way you walk, talk, and interact with people, reflects
your personality. Moreover this adds to the impression
created by your look and dressing up. Specially looking
good is an integral part of your personality. The way you
dress gives an instant impression about what you are.

So, are you on a professional call?

 19 Get Set & Grow
ART OF LOOKING GOOD
As a Medical Representative, it is important for you to be
well dressed so as to create a right impression of yourself.
This impression can be created to a great extent by clothes.
Your clothes must exude an element of confidence, comfort
and a clean feeling. It is better to be dressed conservatively
i.e. you should avoid using gaudy colours or sport shirts,
shoes, jeans etc. while working. Shirt sleeves should be
buttoned or properly folded. A half unbuttoned shirt can
create disturbing impressions about your entire
personality. Similarly, if you have dressed properly but
your shoes are not polished it may create the same
impression. After dressing up you must view yourself with
‘others’ eyes. Whatever look you exhibit it must reflect a
distinct touch of your personality.

ART OF TALKING GOOD

Your ability to speak well helps you in communicating
your message precisely and effectively. Both in your social
as well as professional circle, your voice and its ability to
communicate the right message serves the purpose of
looking good. It is the voice and its tone which attracts or
distracts attention and confidence of others to what you
say. Hence before speaking you must be aware of the
following points:
(1) Do you speak too fast or too slow?
(2) Do you give long pauses between two sentences?
(3) Do you use appropriate words?
(4) How is your pronunciation?
You can certainly overcome these problems, if any, by
using simple words and making one point at a time. So
before speaking you must take a moment to think what
you are going to say and how?
Get Set & Grow 20

BE YOUR OWN HERO

Apart from these tangible aspects of personality through
which others assess you, there is another hidden aspect of
your personality and that is to have faith in yourself
whereby you can be confident of achieving all the goals
you have set for yourself. But to say this, you should have
a positive and healthy self-image.

ART OF FEELING GOOD

A negative and unhealthy self image will only contribute
to your being victimized in life. The moment you start
thinking that you cannot, that you are not attractive, or
that you are not intelligent enough, chances are there that
others too will see you that way. Never say ‘no’, never say
‘I can’t’. Assess your potential, you will find everything in
you which is required to accomplish your chosen mission.
 21 Get Set & Grow
Now the question arises what you should do to groom
your personality so that it impresses you first.
1. First of all you should learn to welcome changes rather
than fear them. Change is a part of life. If you do not
change yourself you will remain where you are. You
cannot expect any improvement in you. Many times
changes are not pleasant, but you have to cope with
them to be an acceptable and healthy social being.
2. Your self-image should not be an exaggerated one as
instead of helping you to succeed it may put you in an
embarrassing situation where chances are that once
again you might start thinking negatively about
yourself. So before saying, ‘I can do it’ you must
visualise different aspects and then do an elaborate
preparation followed by able execution along with
persistent efforts and will-power. You will find
yourself on the top of the success ladder. There in no
short cut to success. Only those persons succeed who
think they can do and then work religiously, diligently
towards the goal.
3. A strong positive self-image does not mean that you
are perfect. It is to accept yourself as you are with an
effort towards correcting your weaknesses.
So always give due importance to what others say
and then act according to your best judgement.
4. It is said “Failure is a stepping stone to success” Do not
consider yourself as a failure if you fail in performing
a particular task or assignment. It may provide a mirror
to your faults and help you learn from your mistakes.
“To err is human”, but when it is repeated it becomes a
mistake. Never blame yourself. At this juncture instead
of repenting for a mistake try to find out an alternative
course of action. Your approach should be, “I will persist
until I succeed”. Here is something to guide you
through:
Get Set & Grow 22

“When things are not going well for you

and times are not what they should be
just focus on the positive
and think about what could be
acknowledge what has happened,
do not lose sight of lessons past,
but do not allow the negative
distracting thoughts to last.
Take what you have learnt and start from there.
Draw strength from your frustration
and let this added sense of purpose
be your new foundation.
It is hard to follow any plan
precisely to the letter.
Though life right now is difficult
things in time will get better”.
Now that you have learnt to exude a positive self-image
for others as well as yourself, you need to focus on some
vital qualities of the medical representatives i.e. a strong
character, will power, initiative and punctuality.

“Work needs to FIT your personality just as a shoe needs

to fit your feet.”
 23 Get Set & Grow

CHARACTER

Success of a ‘Medical Representative’ is directly

proportional to the strength of his character, personal
qualities, and professional competence.
The most important attribute of character is ‘Courage’. This
is the most admired human virtue in all societies. To be a
human means to be courageous. A courageous person is
one who always keeps an ideal higher for himself. Often it
has been observed that people hesitate from an action
which may benefit more to their organisation than to
themselves. For example, any representative who has
completed his task/target/budget may not place an order
for additional sales. Though there may be a demand in
the market and for that additional sales probably no
additional efforts are required from his side. It is seen that
it does not burden the person concerned, but the company
loses sale at that very moment. A medical representative
can consolidate and build up his moral courage, only if he
has the necessary selflessness. Remember your success is
tied with the success of your company.
Sometimes people hesitate to give a frank opinion about a
market problem to their superiors, instead they start
presuming that it may adversely affect their career. What
is worse is one’s cool acceptance for implementing a
strategy or performing a task, not showing hesitation
before their superiors while in fact they have their own
mental reservations. What follows is a time consuming
process of their being at task and at the end confronted
by dismal performance and poor results. What if you
had been frank then?
Get Set & Grow 24

I remember an anecdote. Just after the 2nd

World War was over, all the three admirals of
American, French and British Navy, while
basking on the deck of a warship, started
praising their officers. The American admiral claimed
that this battle had been won because the American Navy
was a disciplined force. The other two admirals objected
to it. “How can you say that only your people are
disciplined?” At this the American admiral called an
officer of American Navy, who was passing by and
ordered him “Go to the top of this ship and jump into
the sea”. The officer without hesitation carried out the
order. With a smiling face the American admiral boasted
to his counterparts, “Look this shows discipline.” The
French admiral said “Ah! It is not only your officers who are
disciplined, mine are too”. He also called an officer of French
Navy and ordered him to do the same. With some
hesitation the French officer also did it. The British
admiral who had kept mum till then, quietly called one
of his ordinary sailors and asked him to do the same. The
British sailor instead of going for that humbly asked,
“Sir, will you please tell me, why I should do it? Is it
going to help you or me in any way?” Though everybody
got stunned the British admiral firmly said, ‘This is an
example that not only discipline but also courage is
essential for winning any battle.”
Though this is an anecdote, it does convey the
meaning of courage. The meaning of ‘courage’ must
not be misinterpreted, as courage never means
insubordination, but gives you a right to seek
clarification if any doubt arises in your mind.
Another situation where courage matters is accepting
your own faults as nothing is perfect in this world.
As the saying goes “Nothing makes one seem more foolish
or impotent than the inability to admit a mistake”.
Everybody commits mistakes but a person, who
instead of feeling shy about it, asks his seniors,
friends, elders about the remedial measures gets on
to succeed.
 25 Get Set & Grow
Courage is equally important to one’s personal life as it is
to your professional career. There are situations when a
person feels helpless or finds no solution and hesitates to
take a step forward. But instead of sitting back he must
ask himself a question as to what is the worst that may
happen? Once he identifies the worst he should think how
he can stop this from happening and undertake suitable
actions. He should be ready with different options. Even
after such an exercise, if the worst does take place, it will
not discourage the person concerned, as he was already
prepared for it. Moreover strong spiritual faith makes a
person courageous.

Courage is a must to win.

Get Set & Grow 26

WILL-POWER
An important attribute to a man’s character is will-power.
Though a Medical Representative is a person who
implements the strategies designed by his company, there
are certain decisions which he has to take on his own. For
example, he has to make a daily plan of action, and then
to ensure that he really implements it. It is the
implementation which needs will–power. Normally there
are a number of hurdles that come in the way of
implementing a plan of action, such as shortage of time,
non-availability of planned customer, non–receipt of
desired inputs in time etc.
But a representative who possesses strong will-power will
always find an alternative mode to implement the plan of
action, designed by himself. Though these hurdles work
as a friction on his well oiled machine, yet they should
not slow down his speed. Specially a person who wants to
accomplish something worthwhile in his or her life, should
try to reduce these frictions with courage and will-power.
A strong positive image of self, automatically generates a
great amount of will-power in a person. Then the habit of
fulfillment of duty further builds up the will-power. The
ability to carry out an assigned task and to do it completely
fortifies the will-power. On the contrary, a person who
believes in short cuts to success, misses the opportunity of
fortifying his will-power and gets off the track.
It is the will-power that keeps you alive and insists that
you try and try again till you succeed because failure is
not always something below one’s ability. Any successful
person may suffer setbacks. For a forward looking person
these setbacks work as a persuasive force, to evaluate past
performances and plan accordingly. Success comes to the
people who never stop dreaming, but trust that their
dreams come true by utilising each new opportunity that
each new day brings. This attitude of ‘try and try again’,
will not only ensure success for an individual but the efforts
will help him to strengthen his will-power. Last but not
the least to undertake challenges for producing higher than
the expected results, builds up will-power.
 27 Get Set & Grow

A WORD OF CAUTION

Any person whose faith in a higher ideal is not deep and

who is ignorant of his limitations or who is ambitious
beyond his potential is bound to experience feelings of
sheer frustration.

INITIATIVE
To have intelligent anticipation, to think of tomorrow and
then even without asking of someone, work on a plan of
action which will help in achieving the assigned task is
‘Initiative’.
It means only those representatives succeed, who, instead
of waiting for superiors to come and tackle the problem,
themselves take appropriate steps in advance. This step
may be just informing about the problem to the superior
or to the concerned authority. Because a person who
requires spoon feeding in every situation will be
considered an immature person.
A representative can develop initiative by fore-thought.
Whenever a task is given to him, he must visualise what
may go wrong or what hurdles may come in the way.
When any of these actually occur, he should be ready to
adopt an alternative course of action.
“I will find a way” would be the conviction and approach
of the representative, who has necessary courage, will-
power and initiative. It is this attitude that brings success
in one’s career.

•
“Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.”
Get Set & Grow 28

PUNCTUALITY

An important quality that a Medical Representative must

possess is punctuality. Apart from keeping you on your
time schedule, punctuality also reflects your initiative,
interest and sincerity towards the job. In fact, I would even
put punctuality first in the list of qualities.
Anyone who cares for his job and is sincere, would like to
complete the job in time and for completing a job in given
time, punctuality is a prerequisite. Suppose anyone misses
his train or bus while going on a tour, can he complete the
job? ‘No’. It is obvious, if you are late in reaching any
interior or planned market, you may not visit all the
customers as per their convenient timings. Some might
have left their clinic and you lose the call for another
month/phase or cycle. This way the gap between two calls
will be increased. In this competitive age your competitors
may take full advantage of your absence by developing
rapport with your customers. On the other hand,
punctuality does not mean reaching before time.

I remember a very interesting incident. I was an

absolute fresher at that time, hardly having worked
for ten or fifteen days in the field. The day when my
executive came for the first time to my territory for
joint working, I was very enthusiastic to begin the day. In over
enthusiasm I got ready by 8.30 a.m. Though the time to meet
him was 9:30 a.m. Since I was ready I started early and reached
the contact point around five past nine. I was just sitting on my
scooter seat, waiting for my executive to come. The moment the
hands of the clock reached nine and six, I saw my executive
coming in. He came and asked me, “How long have you been
waiting?” I said,” Only for last 25 minutes”. He did not say
anything and we moved out for the working.
 29 Get Set & Grow
Next time again he visited my territory and found me waiting
for him. When the third time also the same thing happened, he
told me quietly, “Mr. Mehrotra, ‘Punctuality’ does not mean
reaching before time. It means reaching on time”.
Then he started telling me the benefits of punctuality.
He told me that instead of reaching early and waiting,
this time could be utilised for some other job, even
personal work. So one must plan the whole day in such
a way, that he/she may carry out his/her professional as
well as personal responsibilities correctly and completely.
They must adhere to their plan and time schedule.
Specially on the day when they have to work with their
superiors, one must keep a strict time schedule, as any
delay may not only disturb one’s own programme but
also of the superior, though five minutes may not be bad
as no one can predict, what may happen or can come in
the way.
Of course by foreseeing some of the common aspects i.e.
traffic jam at roads, conveyance, etc. by keeping a correct
idea about the distance and probable time to reach there,
one can be punctual. If one has one’s own conveyance then
he/she must ensure that it is in sound condition i.e.
appropriate fuel and air pressure are maintained or not?
Today you possess all those qualities which a successful
medical representative must possess. But remember
you are in the business of communication. Hence the
most important prerequisite for you is to be good in
communication.

•
“Achievement can be yours through development of
qualities which made others successful.”
Get Set & Grow 30

COMMUNICATION

What is communication?
Some might say, ‘It is to convey a message, may be written
or verbal’. Some other would say, ‘It is to express an idea
or oneself’. Though the real meaning of communication is
not only to convey or express but to get the message
understood correctly by the person with whom you are
communicating. Remember, your communication is not
completed till it is rightly perceived by the other person in
the same manner (with whom you are communicating) in
the way you wanted it to be.

Aha! so, you don’t like my tune.

 31 Get Set & Grow
VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Always keep in your mind the need and limitations of the
person, with whom you are going to communicate. For
example, if you are talking in English with someone who
does not understand it, you are conveying a message to
him but not communicating as it will not be understood
by him. So ‘being a Salesman you should always try to speak in
the customer’s language’.
Another aspect of verbal communication is how effectively
you communicate. Your efficiency depends upon certain
factors, such as flow of talking, correctness of text,
pronunciation of different words, modulation of voice and
above all your confidence. You can master all these factors
provided you are clear in your thinking of what exactly
you have to talk. When your words come out of your
mouth instead of mind, you take less time to deliver the
same. Hence flow comes in your talking automatically, text
is already taken care of, modulation of voice itself
improves. Of course, if you practice how to pronounce a
particular work, it will lead to no disruption in your talking.
All these things put together will build your confidence.

During my college days, I was attending the

Republic Day camp at New Delhi, I had a novel
experience. As per the fixed routine the
inauguration of the camp is done by the Vice-
President of India and one male cadet gives the welcome
address. After the speech of the guest, a female cadet reads the
vote of thanks. Though I was not a very good orator but at the
same not too bad, I offered my name for the welcome address.
In my competition another cadet was from Delhi who was a
casual announcer of ‘Yuvadarshan’ (an evening weekly
telecast from Delhi T.V.). Naturally being an announcer he
was much more fluent and confident than me. Obviously he
was selected. Fortunately, for me and unfortunately for him
the camp commandant was well versed in most of the Indian
languages. The moment he listened to him, he found out a
Get Set & Grow 32

few wrong pronunciations. Though in the camp, cadets from

all over India were present, the speech was to be delivered in
‘Hindi’ and so he ordered the concerned officer to call a boy
from U.P. Contingent. With some hesitation the officer
proposed my name as I was from U.P. I was called and asked
to deliver the speech once again. After listening, very politely
he asked me, “Do you remember, the table of thirteen?” I was
surprised but when he asked me to recite it, within a moment
I managed to do so.
Then he asked me, “Can you memorise the text of this speech?”
“Yes, of course”, said I.
“How much time will it take?” he asked.
“Half-an-hour” I replied.
“Come after an hour but you should remember each and every
word of it just like you remember the table of thirteen” he
demanded.
After an hour when I delivered the same speech it was difficult
for me even to believe that it was me who was addressing. I
was selected as Camp Announcer. More than that this tip
later helped me to become an effective detailer.
This experience of mine, I felt worth mentioning. As apart
from detailing this will help you while attending sales
conferences, meetings etc. If you do not remember exactly
what you have to say next, you will take some time in
collecting your thoughts which will unnecessarily bring
pauses in between your two sentences or words, which
may even change the meaning of the whole sentence. For
example, read the following sentence carefully and check,
pause at comma.
“Go, slow work is in progress”
“Go slow, work is in progress”
Just by changing the pause the whole meaning of the
sentence is changed.
Sometimes, it may so happen that even after preparing
and practicing vigorously you may miss some words or
 33 Get Set & Grow
pronounce a word wrongly. Do not get disturbed, instead,
say sorry, repeat it correctly and continue with rest of the
detailing or speech.

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
A successful Medical Representative not only
communicates verbally with his customers but he needs
to be good in written communication as well. This gives
you an opportunity to express your personality, specially
to those you have never met in person. For example,
your superiors from Head Office, Branch, Depot etc.
This also helps you in expressing your feelings and
emotions while communicating with your customer,
friends and relatives.
Unlike verbal communication, one has to be very careful
while communicating in writing because here the person
whom you are addressing, is not in front of you. So you
may never know the mood in which he will be reading
your write-up. Specially if you are communicating with
someone whom you have never met in the past, it becomes
difficult for you to identify his needs and limitations.
Therefore, your write-up should be very clear as well as
simple and written neatly. For this, first of all you should
be very clear in your thoughts about what you want to
communicate. Then before completing a final write-up, it
is advisable to prepare a draft. Sometimes due to shortage
of time, you may just plan the sentences and their sequence
in your mind. Of course, it is not necessary for you to be a
good ‘Calligrapher’ but if your letter is written neatly it
will not only leave a good impression on the other person
but also help him to understand the text easily and
correctly.

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Apart from communicating verbally or in writing, we
human beings quite often use another approach to
communicate and that is through our body signals. You
Get Set & Grow 34

might have noticed that when people around you are

happy they smile, when they are sad or angry, they frown
or scowl. Nodding the head is almost used to indicate ’Yes’.
Similarly, shaking the head from side-to-side is used to
indicate ‘No’. It is not only the adults who use such gestures
but these gestures are well learned in childhood. For
example, when a baby has enough milk, he turns his head
from side-to-side rejecting his mother’s breast or a bottle.
Researches confirm that the verbal component of a face-
to-face communication is less than 45 per cent and over 55
per cent of communication is done non-verbally.
They say that the verbal channel is used primarily for
conveying the information while the non-verbal channel
is used for negotiating interpersonal attitudes. Hence this
art of reading other’s thoughts through their gesture is
known as ‘Body language’. For a successful Medical
Representative, it is very important to be well versed with
body language because it will help him to develop a better
understanding of complex human behaviour, specially
during a face-to-face encounter.
The need to know body language is very essential. With
the help of body language you can come to know the real
meaning of the words used by a person. Like any other
language, body language too consists of words, sentences
and punctuations. Each and every gesture is like a word,
giving different meanings. It is only when this word is put
into a sentence along with other words, you can
understand its full meaning. Research shows that non-
verbal communication carries about five times more
impact than a verbal one. This is the reason why you need
a careful reading of body language. These gestures can
tell you the truth about a person’s feeling or attitude
provided you know how to read non-verbal sentences
accurately and then to match them against the person’s
verbal sentences.
It is up to you how accurately you interpret the
message and get your message across. So start
reading carefully the gestures of those with
whom you are interacting. A public place gives you the
 35 Get Set & Grow
best opportunity e.g. cinema hall, railway station,
restaurants, social functions. These are the places where
you will get an entire spectrum of human gestures as
people openly express their eagerness, anger, sorrow,
happiness, impatience or any other feeling.
Sometimes you can turn down the sound of your
TV set and just try to understand what is
happening on the screen or guess the dialogues
of the characters by their expressions. In between for a few
seconds you can turn up the sound to check how correct
your non-verbal reading was. Sometimes with conscious
effort, you should try to read your own gestures standing
before a mirror.
Apart from all these qualities what you need to possess is
a sound knowledge of your job and its basic functions
which you have to perform on a day-to-day basis.
Let us first try to know more about the functions you will
be performing in a doctor’s chamber.

“Success is 50% what you know and 50% how you

communicate what you know.”