MSL Manager Ride Alongs

Discussion in 'MSL Board' started by Anonymous, Aug 13, 2009 at 10:35 PM.

Tags: Add Tags
  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    How often does your manager ride along with you? Does your company have a metric for MSL manager ride alongs?

    My old company my manager rode maybe once a year tops. At my new company they want do this quarterly as per head quarters. Is this normal? New company is west coast big biotech.
     

  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I work for midsize pharma and have been here more than three years. My manager (same one for entire time) has always worked with us two to three times a year. However, it was mostly to touch base, upgrade the MSL's development plan. There would be maybe one call when we worked together.

    However, there are rumours at this company about metrics. We really never have been metric'd (sp), but with the economy being what it is, I think those marketing and sales types want some idea of what value the MSL teams bring to the company. The sales and marketing types have sales numbers, reach and frequency numbers, share points, etc. as gospel and almost regard it as a religion. I think they know what we do cannot really be measured in the same way, so the leadership in the MSL departments are struggling to show the value we bring and may be forced into some sort of metric system. Remember, if the field MSLs go, so do the leadership.

    So, I keep doing my job the way I always have, and eventually this sort of silliness will settle down.
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Sorry, the metrics are here to stay especially for your new west coast biotech. What these co. don't understand is that the numbers will become the goal not the development of the territory.
     
  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Three times a year if you are new, then it drops to twice a year. Not really the best use of anyone's time, but we don't have much say.
     
  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    It's no big deal. Like they say 2-3 times per year TOPS. As long as they are descent it is not bad at all. I've had some that were very fun AND they actually gave me some really good suggestions and tips about how to work more efficiently.
    However, I also had real douche bag new manager for a short period of time. He had short man syndrome and made it clear there was a new sheriff in town. He said he wanted a real field day with no BS. I picked him up at the hotel at 6:45am for a 1&1/2 hour drive to our first meeting, (breakfast, lunch, and dinner meetings with 1:1s in between) then we spent the entire day making about a 300 mile circle and dropped him off back at his hotel at 10pm that night.
    He was supposed to spend the next morning with me as well, but had some urgent mandatory conference calls and couldn't go. Funny, he talked about coming to spend time with me again, but never actually scheduled another field visit for the rest of that year and then he was gone...
     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    The team leaders at Novartis yell "Stay on message!" and "Make your numbers!" We have more metrics than I could list. Regional medical directors will not say we have call quotas, but it comes down to that. Woe be to you if you do not make those numbers, and you will be put on a PIP if you don't.
     
  7. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I have not had a manager ride along with me for the last five years. My manager is required to spend some kind of time observing me at my work. Usually, this ends up being observation of presentations at internal meetings and/or WebEx training calls. Otherwise, face to face meetings with the manager are rare. The trigger for a field visit can be different depending on where you work. In my group, one of the triggers seems to be not making your numbers. Personally, I think it's important to measure what you do in some way to demonstrate value. The problem is when the leadership becomes number-centric in articulating the value of the MSL. Then you face the same issues that the salesforce deals with when they make their number - you're rewarded with increasing metric targets in subsequent years. And when managers don't spend time in the field and face some of the same customer issues you deal with every day, they become more disconnected from the actual work (long-term relationship, true partnering and collaboration) and are left with enforcing metric goals as the only means to "managing" your performance. Wish there was a better way, but it seems to be the same everywhere.
     
  8. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    my manager is msoking hot and she "rides" me often
     
  9. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Great post. When I was a MSL, I never had one of my many managers watch one of my presentations. We had a base salary and our bonus was based on a type of survey which no one really could completely understand. It was a statistical survey and we know how easy it is to manipulate that data. That concern was mentioned. However, it was the CEO's decision to implement it that way. As a result we lost about half of our team and all of us were top performers.

    The reps. also were so concerned with how we dressed! As professionals for presentations I always dressed well and conservative. While the reps. frequently dressed like someone you would see on street corners. I was embarrassed for them as but if that is what the company wanted then it was not my business. One anonymous comment on the survey was I should dress in the formal attire that reps. dress up in. Really? I'm sorry but did you want me to dress like a tramp?
     
  10. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Our director never rides along. I work in a very niche area of medicine and everybody at the company knows all of the KOLs and the up and comers. If he wants to talk to someone, he just picks up the phone and dials us in on a three-way. He's very cool and doesn't like to tell us how to do our jobs.

    I could give a flying hoot what the sales reps think about how we dress. We never see them except at meetings, and all they do is moan and whine that we don't have sales quotas and we no longer attend their stupid awards dinners. Rah-blah-blah.

    Most of the time I'm in business casual because that what my KOLs prefer. The sales reps show up wearing a tie and they wonder why the window witch just turns 'em away. DUH.
     
  11. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Managers only do ride-alongs if they have doubts about your performance. I invite mine to come along so they can see that I am actually doing the work and not sitting at home doing nothing.

    Most MSL managers have G&O that tell them to do ride-alongs. If they trust you, they will leave you alone. If you are low performer, expect lots of ride-alongs and extra training to cover your useless carcass.