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The Pharma Career Ladder · The first-line manager · Step 5: Motivating and building the team · Lesson 8

Recognition on a zero budget

Five things that cost nothing

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

"We have no budget for recognition this year."

I have heard it many times, and I understand it. But most of the recognition that actually moves a rep never needed a budget.

One of Gallup's Q12 engagement questions asks whether you were recognised for good work in the last seven days. Seven days. Not at the annual awards dinner.

Five things I use that cost nothing:

Say it the same day. Name the behaviour while the rep still remembers the call. "The way you asked about her hardest patients changed that conversation."

Say it in front of peers. One specific story at the cycle meeting. Not "well done, team".

Tell your own manager. Name the rep upward, and then tell the rep you did. That second part is the one they remember.

Ask them to teach it. "Show the team how you won that hospital account." Being asked to teach says you are good at this, louder than any certificate.

Give them first choice. A new account, or a project they care about. Trust is a form of recognition.

None of this replaces fair pay. It does the part pay cannot.

“You do not need a budget to tell someone exactly what they did well.”
Recognition on a zero budget: Five things that cost nothing

Lesson 8 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 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 18Managing a rep older than youAuthority without seniorityLesson 19The rep who wants your jobDeveloping a successor, not a rival

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