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The Pharma Career Ladder · The first-line manager · Step 5: Motivating and building the team · Lesson 1

The 70% manager

Why the first-line manager decides whether a sales team is engaged

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

The best rep on the team is not always the best manager for the team.

We promote the top performer, hand him twelve reps and a target, and call it a career step. Then we are surprised when the district goes quiet.

Gallup studied 2.7 million employees across 100,000 teams and found that the direct manager accounts for at least 70% of the variance in team engagement. Not the salary. Not the company name. The person who runs the Monday meeting.

Six things make up that 70%, and none of them are complicated.

  • Clarity. Does every rep know the one thing that matters this month?
  • Equipment. Samples, a detail aid, an app that works, a car that starts.
  • Strengths. Are they spending the day doing what they are good at, or being corrected?
  • Recognition. Specific praise in the last seven days. A named call, a named doctor. Not "well done team".
  • Care. Do you know what is happening at home? The rep whose child is sick sells nothing.
  • Development. Is anyone talking to them about their progress, not just their number?

Selling skill is not managing skill. A first-year manager needs coaching as much as a first-year rep, and almost never gets it.

“Reps leave managers, not companies. Fix the manager and the number follows.”
The 70% manager: Why the first-line manager decides whether a sales team is engaged

Lesson 1 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 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 18Managing a rep older than youAuthority without seniorityLesson 19The rep who wants your jobDeveloping a successor, not a rival

Motivating and building the team, in RepPharma

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