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The Pharma Career Ladder · The first-line manager · Step 5: Motivating and building the team · Lesson 18

Managing a rep older than you

Authority without seniority

By Ahmed El Menshawy · 20 years in pharma, from medical rep to country manager in the UAE. Founder of RepPharma. LinkedIn
Published

Most new managers meet this early.

A rep with more years in the field than you. More doctors who know them by name. Sometimes more product knowledge too.

The title on your contract does not settle it. What you do in the first few weeks does.

What I have found works:

  • Meet them first, alone, and ask how they see the territory.
  • Ask for their advice, and use it where it is good.
  • Name what they do well. Out loud, and specifically.
  • Agree together how you will work: field days, one-to-ones, updates.
  • Remove what slows them down. Samples, stock, approvals.
  • On a double visit, ask what they saw before you say what you saw.

And two things that protect the relationship.

  • The standards are the same for everyone. Experience earns respect, not an exception.
  • If you disagree, do it in private. Never in front of the team.

The mistake I see most often is a new manager trying to prove themselves by correcting the senior rep on the very first field day. It rarely ends well for either of them.

“You do not need more years than them. You need to be useful to them.”
Managing a rep older than you: Authority without seniority

Lesson 18 of 19 in Step 5: Motivating and building the team, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.

More lessons in step 5: Motivating and building the team

Lesson 1The 70% managerWhy the first-line manager decides whether a sales team is engagedLesson 2What actually motivates a repFixing frustrations is not the same as building driveLesson 3Money is not the whole answerWhat an incentive can do, and where it stopsLesson 4Autonomy, mastery, purposeThree drivers, applied to a field teamLesson 5The one-to-one that is worth the hourAgenda, ownership and follow-throughLesson 6Knowing what is going on at homeCare as a management skillLesson 7Trust is built in small promisesThe manager who does what they saidLesson 8Recognition on a zero budgetFive things that cost nothingLesson 9Recognising effort when results lagProtecting motivation in a bad quarterLesson 10Emotional intelligence for managersKnow yourself, manage yourself, read your teamLesson 11Six leadership stylesChoosing the style the moment needsLesson 12The team meeting nobody dreadsStructure, timing and everyone talkingLesson 13Psychological safety in a sales teamWhy reps hide bad newsLesson 14Stages of a new teamForming, storming, norming, performingLesson 15When two reps do not get alongMediating without taking sidesLesson 16The difficult conversationPreparing, opening and staying in itLesson 17Radical candour in a field teamCare personally, challenge directlyLesson 19The rep who wants your jobDeveloping a successor, not a rival

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