This document outlines a training program for first line sales managers. The training covers key responsibilities and skills needed for first line managers, including translating corporate strategy to sales teams, organizing and directing salespeople, and supporting and developing talent. It discusses the differences in roles between first, second, and third line managers. The training aims to help first line managers better understand their management and leadership roles to improve performance.

1. Management & Leadership Training
for
First Line Sales Manager
Prepared by :
Md. Anwar Morsalin, Asst. General Manager (Sales & Marketing), Gaco Pharmaceuticals
May 2013

2. Purpose of the Training Program
First-Line Managers make important decisions on a daily basis that are
critical to the execution of company’s strategies and satisfaction of its
customers.
This program is geared to train the basics of leadership and
management to individuals in this critical position, supplying them
with the tools they need to make optimal decisions that are aligned
to the organization’s strategy and lead their teams in execution.
This one day (8 hours) training program will help them in understanding
their basic management & leadership roles in the organization.
After this session they will be able to focus better their roles &
responsibilities.

3. Contents ______________________________________________
Management & the Managers
Who is a First Line Manager (FLM) ?
The Role of the First Line Managers (FLMs)
What does Responsibility mean?
Core responsibilities of 1st line sales mangers
A Strategy-Based Approach to First-Line Sales Managers’ Responsibilities
Differences in 1st, 2nd & 3rd line sales managers’ roles
Five things first-line managers should know
Managerial Skills
Leadership Skills
Managers vs Leaders
Managers have subordinates
Leaders have Followers
Motivating MPOs
Joint Sales Calls : An important guiding tool for MPOs
Managing Vacant Territories
Sales Activity Monitoring (SAM)
Transactional Analysis in sales
Case Study

4. What is Management ?
A set of activities (planning, organizing, leading,
controlling and decision making) at an
organizational resources (human, financial,
physical, information) to achieve organizational
goals in an efficient & effective manner.
Who is a Manager ?
A manager is a person who is primarily
responsible to carry out management process.
Who is an Ideal Manager ?
The ideal manager for an
organization must be both
EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT.
Effective Manager : Who makes right
decision and successfully implement
them to achieve the objectives.
Efficient Manager : Who achieve the
objectives in a cost effective way.
Management & the Managers

5. Who is a First Line Manager (FLM) ?
First line managers are those directly responsible for the day to day work of a team
of employees.
They will report to second line managers who are
responsible for the day to day work of many teams
each with a first line manager.
Traits of successful First Line Sales Managers
A. They understand MPOs and manage them wisely
B. They leave sales to the MPOs (most of the time)
C. They align MPOs in the field with company goals
1st line sales managers are the key to any successful operation. A
person who is hardworking, sincere, with strong leadership quality
can change the scenario completely.
He is like a player, coach, mentor, or teacher to his team members.
He has to sell performance to his own people through right
direction, delegation and control.

6. The Role of the First Line Managers (FLMs)
FLMs undertake a balancing act working as an intermediary
between senior management and team members.
FLMs are required to be able to plan, prioritise and
monitor performance and progress.
They need to be able to identify performance issues,
understand how to evaluate the behaviors and
performance of both teams and individuals and take
action to address performance issues.
FLMs need to take responsibility not only for their
performance, but the performance of others as well.

7. What does Responsibility mean?
Responsibility is the ability to respond.
Ability implies there is a need for certain knowledge, skills and tools and response
implies some form of action needs to be taken. The effectiveness of an FLM is
directly linked to their Ability to Respond.

8. Why sales people fail ?
When they believe that business will come to them, they
fail. In selling profession, business does not come, we have
to go out and have it by doing hard work.
Lack of follow up in a timely manner, which makes the sales
people and the organization lose credibility.
Lack of commitment of the sales force toward achieving
sales target due to lack of proper motivation by the line
managers.
Lack of clarity & consistency of goals, objectives & direction make the sales
people disorganized.
Lack of proper monitoring of the sales processes.
Miscommunication and lack of coordination between sales & marketing activities.
Lack of proper selling skills (sales training) make sales people fail.

9. Core responsibilities of 1st line sales mangers
They manage the sales target given to his
MPOs, remove obstacles to selling, conduct
joint sales calls and win/loss reviews, conduct
bottom performer management and identify
opportunities for efficiency.
They lead the team, motivate, inspire and
execute the sales strategy by translating
strategies into actions.
They ensure the team has a common understanding
of individual and team sales mission.
They coach sales people. They train sales people
continuously with real-time examples.
They recruit, develop an internal and external
network to continuously attract talent.

10. A Strategy-Based Approach
to First-Line Sales Managers’ Responsibilities
First-line sales managers are the key link between
an organization’s strategy and the day-to-day
activities of the sales force.
The first-line sales managers are uniquely positioned to play a critical role
in driving the decisions of senior management as the direct connection
from senior sales managers to the field.

11. A Strategy-Based Approach
to First-Line Sales Managers’ Responsibilities
A. Directing the MPOs
The first responsibility of the first-line sales
managers is clarifying and explaining the
Business strategy to the MPOs.
They plays a critical role in translating and
reinforcing those decisions throughout the
MPOs.
They need to focus the MPOs on the right
customers and areas.
They need to guide MPOs with necessary selling techniques
considering the customers’ attitudes & importance.

12. A Strategy-Based Approach
to First-Line Sales Managers’ Responsibilities
B. Organizing the MPOs
The first line sales managers must organize (coordination among team
activities & performance toward company policies) their respective MPOs
based on marketing and sales strategies; like day to day activities, sales time
allocation based on customers’ importance, team efforts, and administrative
issues etc.

13. A Strategy-Based Approach
to First-Line Sales Managers’ Responsibilities
C. Executing the Strategies
The Execution area is typically the focus of first-line sales
managers.
Educate MPOs on achieving target: They can influence the
degree to which targets provide the highest level of focus and
motivation for the MPOs.
Measure and manage performance: First line managers needs
to measure performance of his team. Managers must also
coach their MPOs through regular activities such as one-on-one
meetings, phone calls, and traveling with MPOs to
customer sites to transcend poor performance.
Communicate for sales compensation: It is their role to
explain, communicate and give examples of how an MPO can
earn incentive under various performance scenarios.

14. A Strategy-Based Approach
to First-Line Sales Managers’ Responsibilities
D. Supporting the MPOs
First-line sales managers offer the MPOs with the right
messages, as well as recruiting and training talent, which will
determine the MPOs ultimate success in selling.
Provide the right messages: First-line sales managers should
ensure each MPO has the right messages to identify leads,
sell solutions and develop a compelling value proposition to
customers.
Develop sales competencies: They can help identify talent
short-falls and methods for filling those gaps. Clarifying to an
MPO the types of skills required and where they may need to
develop goes a long way in building an MPO’s ability to be
effective.

15. Differences in 1st, 2nd & 3rd line sales managers’ roles
The role of first line managers is basically supervisory in
nature, they supervise the activities of MPOs and ensure that
all the plans of the company are implemented by the grass
root workers (MPOs).
This role can be played only by first line managers as they are
close to the MPOs most of the time; second line managers can
not be with every MPO every week so they can not ensure
implementation by each MPO.
The first line managers are implementers of the company's
strategies, their job is to see that an MPO implements the
company‘s strategies in the field. They play very minimum
role in planning.
The second line managers and above come under senior
managers. They play key roles in business planning which is
supposed to be implemented by first line managers and
MPOs.
So the basic difference between 1st & 2nd or 3rd line managers
is that the first is implementer while the second and third line
mangers have to do lot in terms of planning, and ensure
execution.

16. Effective Management Skills
Productive and effective management is not an innate
quality, management skills can be cultivated, developed and
learned.
Some managers inspire, some motivate, and others fail
miserably to engage their employees.
When employees choose to leave a position, it's often because
of their manager or relationships with people in their working
environment.
People quit people, not jobs.
First line sales managers must motivate their team to make them
productive & reduce turn over of sales talent, and also to support &
train to improve performance of average MPOs.

17. Five things first-line managers should know
They are the first contact point between line workers and management
Polish business communication skills (verbal & written)
Learn how to think strategically
Get comfortable with complexity and uncertainty
Improve management and leadership through personal mastery
Invest in professional development programs

18. Communication Skills
Guidelines for effective communication
1. Stop talking
2. Put the talker at ease
3. Show a talker that you want to listen
4. Remove distractions
5. Empathize with a talker
6. Be patient
7. Hold your temper
8. Go easy on argument and criticism
9. Ask relevant questions
10. Stop talking

19. Communication Process
Develop
Idea
Encode
Message
Bridge of
Barriers
Transmit meaning Receive Decode
Feedback for two-way communication
S
E
N
D
E
R
R
E
C
E
I
V
E
R
Accept Use

20. Managerial Skills
Technical Skills : The skills needed to understand and do tasks relevant to
the organization.
Interpersonal / Human Skills : The ability to communicate, understand, and
motivate both individuals and groups.
Conceptual Skills : The ability to think in the abstract.
Diagnostic Skills : The ability to observe the most appropriate response to a
situation.

21. Managerial Skills
Diagnostic Skills
Interpersonal /
Human Skills
Conceptual Skills
Technical Skills
Top Managers
Middle Managers
First Line Managers

22. Leadership Skills
Interpersonal /
Human Skills
Conceptual Skills
Technical Skills
First Line Managers Middle Managers Top Managers

23. Managers vs Leaders
Managers are persons who get the job done by
others.
Leaders are those who have followers.
The biggest difference between managers and leaders is the way they motivate the
people who work or follow them, and this sets the tone for most other aspects of
what they do.
Many people, by the way, are both. They have management jobs, but they realize that
you cannot buy hearts, especially to follow them down a difficult path, and so act as
leaders too.
"To truly lead one's people, one must also truly know them." ~Nelson Mandela

24. Managers have subordinates
Managers have subordinates and their power over
others comes from formal authority.
Authoritarian, transactional style
Managers have a position of authority given by the
company, and their subordinates work for them and do
as they are told because they have been promised a
reward for doing so.
Work focus
Managers are paid to get things done, often within tight constraints of time and
money. They thus naturally pass on this work focus to their subordinates.
Seek comfort
They tend to lead normal and comfortable lives. This leads them to be relatively
risk-averse and they will seek to avoid conflict where possible. In terms of people,
they generally like to run a 'happy ship'.

25. Leaders do not have subordinates, when they are
leading. When they want to lead, they have to
give up formal authoritarian control, because to
lead is to have followers, and following is always
a voluntary activity.
Leaders have Followers
Charismatic, transformational style
Telling people what to do does not inspire them to
follow you. You have to appeal to them, showing
how following them will lead to their hearts' desire

26. Leaders have followers
Seek risk
Leaders are risk seekers, although they are not blind thrill-seekers.
When pursuing their vision, they consider it natural to
encounter problems and hurdles that must be overcome along
the way.
People focus
They are always good with people, and quiet styles that
give credit to others (and takes blame on themselves) are
very effective at creating the loyalty that great leaders
engender.
This does not mean that leaders do not pay attention to
tasks - in fact they are often very achievement-focused.
What they do realize is the importance of enthusing
others to work towards their vision.

27. Managers vs Leaders : an overview
Subject Leader Manager
Essence Change Stability
Focus Leading people Managing work
Have Followers Subordinates
Horizon Long-term Short-term
Approach Sets direction Plans detail
Decision Facilitates Makes
Power Personal charisma Formal authority
Appeal to Heart Head
Dynamic Proactive Reactive
Persuasion Sell Tell
Exchange Excitement for work Money for work
Likes Striving Action
Wants Achievement Results
Risk Takes Minimizes
Rules Breaks Makes
Conflict Uses Avoids
Direction New roads Existing roads
Concern What is right Being right
Credit Gives Takes
Blame Takes Blames

28. Motivating Sales Team
What is Motivation ?
Motivation is a psychological feature, that makes a person to act towards a
desired goal and elicits, controls, & sustains certain goal-directed behaviors.
Motivation is the purpose or psychological cause of an action.
In one day,
1. your MPOs may want to work as hard as possible to achieve the objective or
2. to work hard enough to avoid a reprimand or
3. to do as little as possible.
The goal for a first line manager is to maximize the
occurrence of the first incident and minimize the
occurrence of the last incidence.
The face of any organization is the sales force. Companies spend a considerable
amount of time and money on sales force rather than on any other promotional
activity. However, sales force is expensive and companies are looking forward to
managing them in an efficient and effective manner.

29. Motivating Sales Team
How do I motivate my sales team ?
How do I retain top sales talent ?
MONEY is not the only way to motivate the salespeople ;
ENGAGEMENT is the way, it is a bigger motivator than money
In a survey, 78% employees cited RECOGNITION as a motivating factor in their career.
Facts behind keeping your team motivated
69 %work harder if they are better recognized
52 %are not satisfied with their current recognition
49 % leave as they would be recognized by another company for their efforts
39 %do not feel appreciated at work
72 % feel they are disengaged
18 %disengaged employees undermine co-workers success

30. Motivating Sales Team
2 proven principles that work well in motivating salespeople
1. Recognition and 2. Appreciation
• Be specific about the objectives, goals, strategies etc.
• Be focused about the tasks (including the sales process)
• Update the MPOs about compensation plan (sales incentives, reward etc.)
• Give public recognition
• Recognize something besides sales
• Involve the family / friends
• Match the FPs talents with company’s objectives
• Build personal & trusting relationships with co-workers
• Encourage open & frequent conversations to avoid disengagement
• Train salespersons continuously
• Help salespersons in career development
• Give feedback immediately
• Show respect

31. Joint Sales Calls : An important guiding tool for MPOs
• The joint fieldwork gives you an excellent opportunity to:
• Help the team members perform better
• Establish your leadership
• Train, develop and assess the professional competence of your team
members on-the-job.
• Assess the movement and availability of different products
• Develop rapport with KOLs (key opinion leaders)
• Assess sales trends and competitors’ activities in different markets
• Plan your work to ensure optimum utilization of time.
• Based on the observations made during joint fieldwork, identify areas for
the team member’s development.
• Demonstration can be used to show how something could be done.
• This provides an opportunity to the team member to identify the areas that
need improvement.

32. Managing Vacant Territories : 1st line manager sales managers’ focus
A 1st line sales manager should be on the constant lookout for
good prospective candidates in each territory.
Till a suitable replacement is selected, maintain the sales of the
vacant territory by ensuring the regular coverage of all the key
doctors.
Be in touch with the important customers of a vacant territory
either by phone or physical sales calls.
Keep the vacant territories active by selling products &
generating prescriptions by your own until a suitable candidate
is found.

33. Sales Activity Monitoring (SAM) :
Essential of Pharmaceuticals Sales Management
What to monitor ?
MPOs daily activities & outcome
Cold sales calls and warm sales calls
MPOs performance & sales growth
Customers’ Feedback
How to monitor ?
Verbal Monitoring : Daily communication over cell phone to tract his every
movement in the market place & day’s outcome.
Monitoring by documents : Observing DCRs, TPs, sales performance,
utilization of resources, sales calls frequency etc.
Meetings : Analyze outcome & next strategies to overcome difficulties.

34. Transactional Analysis in sales
Transactional analysis is a theory about personality,
personality development and communication.
An Ego state is a consistent pattern of feeling and
experience, and normally associated with particular patterns
of behavior.
The three ego states are Parent, Adult and Child:
The Parent state : Caring & Protective
The Adult state : Organized, & Logical
The Child state : Natural, Spontaneous, and Emotional
Relationship Pattern
Parent & Child relation - Protective & Emotional
Adult & Adult - Logical & Logical
Adult & Child - Logical & Emotional
Physicians & Salesman - ?
ASM & MPO - ?

35. Roles of a 1st line sales managers : a brief
The role of a first-line sales manager is a juggling act.
They have to close sales, coach and motivate their team to be customer-relationship
specialists.
They should know how to develop and execute a successful sales strategy.
The pressure is on their shoulders as the success of the sales department is largely
dependent on how well they can handle these multiple priorities.
A 1st line managrt is a trusworthy motivator , team leader
and 100% positive result oriented person for the
organisation, he should be good communicator having
good product knowledge and most important he should be
frank ,open and passionate . He can lead his team by
motovating the team members in positive way that they
should acheive their goal every month with the help of
company's strategy which should be 100% implementing in
the field .

36. Case Study
Find out 3 difficulties in your area regarding MPOs’ productivity
improvement in Gaco Pharmaceuticals.
Explain the reasons behind these difficulties.
Suggest suitable solutions to overcome these difficulties.
What are the managerial steps will you take at your end next in
this regard ?
A prescribed format will be used in the case study, where
common difficulties will be mentioned to help them to
study the case. Moreover, open discussion session will be
conducted to learn about the case study.

37. Q &A
Thank You