In the pharmaceutical industry it is tricky to close a sale as there is “no immediate sale” –there is no tangible product that is exchanged and no money that passes hands so a close and commitment becomes tougher for the role of the Pharmaceutical Representative

We also know that Doctors do not like being pushed into a corner and asked to make decisions to change prescribing AND over the years have learnt to just say “yes” or “I’ll bear it in mind” so the representative leaves quietly and no one is upset. This has been likened to “groundhog day” as the Doctor often says “I’ll bear it in mind” and the Representative often accepts this as the norm and walks away not knowing how to move things forward

The overall aim therefore is to get commitment to action from the Doctor which is appropriate, realistic and owned by them so they are more likely to take action rather than an obliging “yes” that never materialises into any change. This is critical to the success of any product or project and is probably the one skill that when developed can make the biggest difference to success

We know from well researched facts (the rule of consistency and commitment by Prof R Cialdini) as well as anecdotal evidence that if we volunteer and own a commitment we are much more likely to take action than an agreeable “yes” that is easy to say and not do…

What did we do?

• We looked at what a large sample of Pharmaceutical Representatives were doing currently and found that less than 50% were closing a call or gaining any commitment from their customers. This is quite typical of the norm from anecdotal evidence across the industry
• Breaking the habit – We rolled out a series of creative workshops and National interventions looking at “why” it’s tough to get a commitment and how to change the habit of shying away from a close
• We developed National incentives and regional competitions to reward the change in behaviour and identify quick successes from Representatives and Managers
• Calls were transcribed and  recorded over a 12 month period to monitor the change in this skill area

Results

ü  Collected over 70 examples of success of where Representatives had gained a commitment from a customer as a result of their interaction

ü  An increase in engagement of Representatives in calls – measured by feedback

ü  An increase of 30% in the skill of gaining closing and gaining commitment over a 12 month period

ü  Sales results exceeded 120% of a stretch target as this strategy started to demonstrate results

Learning’s

• We know that the skill of closing is uncomfortable for some Representatives and we need to find a way of doing this that is comfortable, realistic and adds value to our customers and us
• Customer feedback states that they like to be asked for commitment
• Managers have to be on board with this as their coaching in the field is critical to the success of the skill development
• We know a habit takes 21 days to change and it requires engagement, desire and will to want to change – what needs to happen to engage Representatives to want to start closing and gaining commitment? – this needs consideration and thought in line with your company culture
• This is a simple yet extremely effective  skill and behaviour change strategy that needs keeping simple yet engaging – it also needs to be implemented over time to gain the full effect – A 2 year period for embedding as a minimum to gain significant results

Emotional Resilience is one of the buzz words of the year, even Gordon Brown has been referred to as having “emotional resilience” Before we start, what do we really mean by “emotional resilience and how is it broken down? 

Last week I talked very briefly about the key things you can do to build your emotional resilience. Physical exercise , food and rest, having the right mindset and ability to create a positive vision and giving to others, empathy and connection. Over the coming months I hope to share in more detail how you can build your personal resilience over time. 

Today I wanted to share a few more things you can do to build your emotional resilience, building your own self relationship, self awareness and acceptance. 

Self Relationship

 This is probably one of the toughest to crack as most of us are typically overly critical of ourselves, and unkind. This takes its form in critical self talk, not giving ourselves what we need (sleep, rest, recreation etc) and at an extreme not even liking ourselves. I often say to people would you treat your best friend the way you treat yourself?

 Remember the old saying “you can’t love others unless you love yourself” and this is true. Without a good relationship with yourself it is tough to have good relationships with others.

 Self Awareness – Getting to know yourself… 

Firstly you have to have self awareness to know where you are, where your strengths are, why you respond the way you do. Hold a mirror up to yourself and ask yourself useful questions about your own strengths and what your good at. Look at how you can use your strengths to build upon what and how you do things.

 Do you see yourself as others do? Do they see you in a more positive light? For me this is getting the focus right and in the right place. How many people have you met that are unconfident and you know and can see they are capable of so much and have every reason to be full of confidence. If only we were able to see ourselves with the unique strengths that we have.

Acceptance

We have to develop appreciation and respect of ourselves, we need to accept ourselves for what we are and learn to love the foibles rather than disliking them. Give yourself a break when you make a mistake and stop beating yourself up for stuff that doesn’t go that well. Accept that as human beings we can’t be perfect and those that make no mistakes learn nothing. Focus on your strengths rather than what your not good at. There is a wealth of research in the area of building on strengths and the benefits and results this can give.

 We are what we are, learn to understand and engage in what your good at, focus on it and start treating yourself with the respect and kindness you deserve.

 Next week I will share how to make a change & creating an individual and work plan to pull through these changes..

 In order to cope with stress as well as prevent it we need to build our emotional resilience

Emotional resilience is partially inborn, but it can be learned and developed. If you’d like to be able to handle life’s challenges (both major and minor) with greater ease, to grow from adversity, and to turn potentially negative events into positive ones we have some simple strategies to help you.

The key to preventing and dealing with stress is underpinned by some simple strategies that you can develop within your own lifestyle and career. Take action now so that you can start taking charge of your life rather than it controlling you

Physical Exercise, Rest and Food

We all know that when we sleep well, eat well and exercise we feel like a different person. Make a commitment today to do something to change some of your physical habits so that you start feeling better immediately. You may go to bed early, go for a long walk or even change how much you drink or eat. Whatever it is, just make a change and see the immediate impact.  

Mindset – Calm, Confident and Visualisation

This is a tricky one as our lifestyle and working habits do not generally support this. This takes time and commitment to build.

Start by thinking what it would take you to become more calm and confident, what would you need to do today to become calm and confident? Maybe some more time for yourself, a walk in the park or even a meditation CD. What could you do that would make you more confident in who you are and what you do?

Visualise the things that you want and NOT about the things you don’t want. If your thoughts are negative and not helping you, think about how you can shift these to thoughts that are kinder and more helpful for you. Our thoughts are critical to our happiness

Social – Giving to Others, Empathy and Connection

When was the last time you gave something of value to another person? We know that kindness in itself can have huge benefits not only to others but also to ourselves (increases of the right chemicals in the brain that increases happiness and feelings of well being)

Do you truly listen to others and genuinely want to understand them?

Have you connected with those around you or are you in your own bubble? Think of people that you would like to connect with and connect with them, you will feel so much better.

Next we will be sharing with you some tips on Self Relationship, Self Awareness & Acceptance, Creating new & Sustainable habits to make a change & Creating an individual and work plan to pull through these changes

The challenge for us all is building and maintaining trust whilst under the pressure of our own goals and objectives, is it as simple as Warren Buffet suggests?

I was at a client event very recently where I had the pleasure of hearing Ruby Wax’s perspective on building trust and communication within teams, a topic very dear to my heart and one that I am currently researching.

It seems that trust and communication are the core fundamentals of any relationship both in our working and personal lives. Trust and (honest) communication go hand and hand, you can’t communicate honestly with someone you don’t trust and vice versa. Here are some of the questions I am keen to get some answers to:

 “What enables trust and communication in a team, what is the missing ingredient when trust is not there and what does it take to build trust and communication in a team when it’s not there?”

 It seems we are all in desperate need of trust and communication to make teams work well and perform at our best. When trust and communication is present in our working relationships our performance seems to rise and we feel like we would do anything for that person. On the other hand when it’s not there we feel cheated, undervalued, protective and suspicious ourselves.

 Trust and communication is the foundation of any relationship but when you have a busy, high performing team, it is often the thing that is not valued. Investing time in building trust and communication within a team doesn’t immediately give individuals the results they are measured on or indeed want for themselves.

Many of us (and I include myself) become very focused on achieving individual objectives and goals and actually measure their own success on the achievement of these. When individual success is such a key driver in our society it is difficult to see the value in building true trust and communication with team members or indeed others we are having relationships with.

Ruby Wax approaches this topic from her role as a Leadership Development Consultant and Executive Coach.  She has spent that last few years studying Psychology and Neuro Science to gain some understanding of why we behave the way we do and what we can do to have more insight into ourselves.

Her style as always was very entertaining as well as engaging. More importantly I learnt from her insights and perspective and have already applied them in my daily life. She talks around the 4 key areas, Self management (how you manage your responses, body language etc), self awareness (know when you are bullshitting yourself), social awareness, and social management, some of the cornerstones of EQ and many Psychology based theories.

She elaborates on these using two way real life discussions up front which demonstrate the responses of people when put under pressure. A great way of bringing things to the forefront quickly and demonstrating this live.

Some of the learning’s:

• You have to be genuinely interested in others to build trust
• People feel safe when they know something about you
• You can’t trust someone you don’t like – so find something you like about them!
• Think of what we really look like to the outside world to increase our self awareness.
• Trust and communication are built by having a genuine interest and curiosity about other people (not just yourself!)
• How do you communicate honestly – give negative feedback (rather than avoid)
• When you get “out of control” (anger, tearful, overly emotional etc)) it is good to take control of your own emotions and “take time out” she suggested holding a white flag to give yourself space which I thought was a great idea. Also finding a place where you can centre yourself such as holding your feet to the floor, noticing external noises, something that takes you away from your own emotions and calm down.

All in all I loved the insights she offered and in such an honest and engaging way. But for me this discussion has only just started and I am very interested in what others think about this topic. Please write a comment and let me know.

We treat your business like our own, with the same ownership for excellence in whatever we do. We are obsessed with meeting your needs and see our role as serving you to help you get the desired results you want.

Please click here to read more about how we can help

Does your boss make you feel better about yourself by encouraging and developing you?

(Do you encourage your team and invest time and resource in developing them?)

Do they help you understand how and why you are capable of more than you once thought?

(Do you help build the potential in others so they achieve more than thought possible?)

Do you trust them to do the best for you and they have your best interests at heart?

(Do you trust them and have their best interests at heart?)

Do they help you set inspiring stretch goals that help you grow within yourself and career as well as perform better at work?

(Do you set team, organisational and individual goals with others so people are engaged and focused on shared as well as individual goals?)

If the answer is yes to most of these questions they you probably have an inspiring leader as a manager or indeed you are most definitely inspiring others.

 Many studies over the years have shown that a “good” boss is often the most significant factor that makes people happy at work. We all know when we are inspired by our boss we perform at a significantly higher level on many levels

Within our Executive Coaching and Leadership Programmes we examine and help develop a number of well documented and researched qualities and competencies that leaders have enabling them to inspire and motivate their teams to achieve higher performance and significant bottom line results – are you an Inspirational Leader or would you like help in developing this skill?

Contact us directly or Find out more on our pages

Inspired Results and Rubicon have joined together to form Y Change, a set of programmes to change mindset, skill and behaviour.  Most organisations are looking to change how they do things in order to become more productive, efficient and get better results.

We realised that people within organisations want ownership to make the changes themselves and make the difference in the right way. We found that many people wanted to up skill and develop their own people however often found it difficult to get the immediate skill and expertise in certain topics in house.  It was from this that we decided to launch a set of high quality programmes that we could train organisations to deliver themselves

What is Y change?

Y Change is a set of programmes that are designed to change mindset, skill and behaviour. This is brought to life both in the design and the delivery.

They impact at every level of the organisation and the programmes fall into three categories, Leadership, Team and Individual

They are designed and delivered to help individuals and organisations make the changes they want quickly and effectively  

We can deliver these programmes OR we can train you to deliver them and have total ownership, our Train the Trainer option.

All the programmes are designed by us to enable you to roll out within your organisation. This allows us to share all of our years of experience as well as intellectual property that we know will make a difference to you and your business.

Why are we different?

We have years of experience in organisational change and people development. We have some of the highest standards of training and design so all of our programmes are planned and delivered to this high standard.  We take the time to train you “how to train” and have the experience ourselves to enable us to do this. Our aim is to share our success and standards with others so these programmes can be implemented by you and owned by you, something many training providers do not do.

Get in contact and let us know how we can help you make the changes you want in your organisation

We all have an assumption that actually people do want to listen to us. Think of the last time you were in a social situation. How much of the time were you listening to others verses talking yourself? How many times have you spent hours sharing your views, not taking a breath to listen to others?

Often we are so passionate about getting our view across we don’t even think about stopping for a moment and actually asking the other person a question. We also have a terrible habit of interrupting others as we are desperate to say the next thing with little true acknowledgment of the other person.

Think for a moment how do others really see you? Do you genuinely care about what others views are or are you more interested in getting your point across? Are you interested or curious in others? The most effective and influential people are NOT those that push their views and don’t take time to listen but those that are genuinely interested and curious in others. It is your genuine interest as well as the fact you actually care about the people that you are communicating with that makes the difference, not how much you can talk or how loud you can project your voice!!