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The Pharma Career Ladder · The country manager · Step 3: Money, pricing and forecast · Lesson 13

The month that was bought

Recognising a number that was loaded

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

Some of the best-looking months I have seen were the worst months for the business.

The sales line jumped. Everyone felt good. And the market had not moved at all.

In my experience, a month like that is usually bought, not earned. Stock was pushed into the distributor to close a gap, and the pharmacies and hospitals took no more than they did the month before.

The pattern is easy to see if you look for it.

Sell-in up. Sell-out flat. Distributor stock up.

Three different numbers, telling one story. The stock that went in this month is next month's sales, already spent. Then come the quieter costs: short-dated stock, returns, and payments that slow down.

So in my teams we read the three numbers side by side, every month, together.

And when a month does look bought, the conversation is about learning, not blame. How did it close? What pressure made it feel necessary? What would we do differently next time?

Loading the trade never solves a gap. It only moves it forward, and makes it bigger.

“A month you bought is a month you will pay back.”
The month that was bought: Recognising a number that was loaded

Lesson 13 of 17 in Step 3: Money, pricing and forecast, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.

More lessons in step 3: Money, pricing and forecast

Lesson 1Sales, profit and cashThree different questions about one businessLesson 2Reading a P&L as a commercial leaderThe five lines that matterLesson 3Gross margin is a strategyVolume without margin destroys a planLesson 4Working capital in pharmaStock, receivables and the cost of slow moneyLesson 5Forecasting you can defendAssumptions written down, not numbers inventedLesson 6Sell-in, sell-out, inventoryThe three numbers leaders confuseLesson 7Price is a decision, not a reactionHolding your net price under pressureLesson 8Bonus versus discountProtecting the price while moving volumeLesson 9Trade terms that do not leakRebates that stay under controlLesson 10Return on promotionWhat a call, a meeting and a sample really costLesson 11Cost per callThe number that reframes coverage decisionsLesson 12Budgeting without guessingZero-based thinking for A&PLesson 14IQVIA data used properlyWhat it can tell you, and what it cannotLesson 15Market share versus growthWinning ground in a shrinking marketLesson 16The cost of complexityToo many SKUs, too many promisesLesson 17When to invest in a losing brandDecide on what is ahead, not what is spent

Money, pricing and forecast, in RepPharma

Targets split by rep, product and month

Yearly targets are split by rep, product and month, and sales credit can be moved between reps without changing the company total.

Distributor stock and sell-out

Distributor stock and pharmacy sell-out side by side, with short-expiry lots flagged up to 90 days ahead.

One system for the whole field force

Visits, plans, forecasts, samples, expenses, leaves and approvals, with role-based access from rep to country manager.

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