Last week, I was sitting in a workshop where the theme was a customer-focused selling program.
Now I’m all for customer focus in every aspect of business. That’s what it’s all about. But something was sticking in my craw as I sat through this session (which had to do with a customer-focused selling methodology in the pharmaceutical industry).
Here’s what it boils down to: is this “customer-focused” approach an end in itself? Or is it just a means to an end?
Let me explain. A pharmaceutical sales representative succeeds by promoting the usage (hopefully, by promoting the properly defined usage) of his/her company’s products. Fair enough. But how is success actually MEASURED? Is it customer satisfaction?
Actually, a few of the key tangible measures of success by which a sales rep is held accountable are the following:
- 1. Increased prescription business
2. Number of calls made per day
3. Promotional actions correctly taken (samples delivered, dinner meetings set up, etc., etc.)
These are company-centric, quota-centric, performance-centric measures. And, in fact, these more tangible, objective activities and outcomes are more easily measured than something such as customer satisfaction.
I’m not saying that any of these are unimportant, or shouldn’t be tracked. What makes me uncomfortable is that the real goal ends up being what is measured. Teachers “teach to the test.” And reps perform to the yardstick to which they are accountable.
All of which makes a “customer-focused” selling program seem like a means to an end, not an end in itself. There is the whiff of hypocrisy that seems to hover over the whole thing. Are companies rolling out these programs because of a core belief in being customer-centered? Or because they “work” better toward the real end, which is better numbers? Is it, ultimately, just another form of manipulation, albeit based on good selling principles?
Is it a core commitment? Or just another technique? You see, I absolutely believe in customer focus. I practice a consultative approach, as everyone knows who knows me. What I’m driving at is belief and motivation. Do I/we do it because it is right? Or just because it works?
I should conclude this post by saying that I have been in sales – in one form or another – for 20+ years. The times when I have been most uncomfortable as a salesman are when I’ve seriously questioned, in my own heart and conscience, whether what I was offering was really the best choice for the customer. Does slathering a “customer-focused” technique over that cognitive dissonance make one a better salesperson? Or just another peddlar, trying to make a buck any way possible?
Or am I just being too cynical?
As a customer, “customer focused” means to me that I am be given unbiased, relevent clinical information needed to help me solve my patients problems. I need that information given to me in the way that I think and in the way that I am used to receiving and processing information.
As all doctors are trained to be skeptical, it is up to me to question, object and demand proof for the information given. It’s what I have been trained to do. If I believe what patients say without a healthy dose of skepticism then I am not doing what must be done to be a good doctor (as “House” always points out, patients lie).
The same goes if I let a sales representative influence my clinical behaviors and prescribing habits without a healthy dose of skepticism.
The more “customer focused” the industry is, the more sucess they will have with us doctors.
Yes you are being cynical, but so are many doctors. Better to be skeptical!
Maybe you are just being too cynical. In light of the perception that our customers hold of our industry, taking a customer-centric approach to sustain performance is not some kind of evil plot to dupe customers. If both parties get what they want, how can that be bad? Sure, a customer-centric approach is a means, but done well (as opposed to “slathering”), all parties benefit.
It’s better that the industry is focusing on customer-based selling than if it is not. The concept is worthwhile, but ultimately the company has to find a way to measure whether a worthwhile concept like “being customer focused” can pay off for the company.
For the individual sales representative, on the other hand, a focus on the customer may be beneficial for the long term satisfaction one personally derives from a profession that is only getting tougher every year.
Perhaps it may eventually make sense to tie in HR metrics with sales based metrics to see whether a focus on customers work to enhance the bottomline from both the sales angle and from an employee retention/acquisiton angle.
Jane Chin
(By the way, where is the craw located?)