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The Pharma Career Ladder · The first-line manager · Step 5: Motivating and building the team · Lesson 2

What actually motivates a rep

Fixing frustrations is not the same as building drive

By Ahmed El Menshawy · 20 years in pharma, from medical rep to country manager in the UAE. Founder of RepPharma. LinkedIn
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When a rep is unhappy, most managers reach for the same fixes. Samples on time. Expenses paid faster. A CRM that works.

All of those matter. None of them will make a rep want to do more.

Herzberg's two-factor theory splits work into two lists, and I find it one of the most useful models for a field team.

  • Hygiene factors stop people being unhappy.
  • In a field team: fair pay, samples on time, a working CRM, expenses paid promptly. When they are missing, you get complaints, distraction and, in the end, resignations.
  • Motivators make people want to do more.
  • A skill mastered. A difficult doctor won over. Recognition that is specific. Room to grow. When they are missing, you do not get complaints. You get quiet reps doing exactly the minimum.

That second group is the one that fools managers. Nobody is complaining, so everything looks fine.

My rule: fix hygiene fast and without a lecture. Then build motivators into every week, because they do not arrive by themselves.

“Fix what frustrates them. Then build what motivates them.”
What actually motivates a rep: Fixing frustrations is not the same as building drive

Lesson 2 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 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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