article from Forbes top 8 ways companies crush the soul of their employees. http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2014/01/20/8-common-causes-of-workplace-demotivation/ 1. Micromanagement Being held responsible for metrics on spreadsheets that everyone knows are pointless. Oh yeah, how about those call averages on high decile targets. 2. Lack of progress Pipeline good at getting approval of products no one wants like Liptruzet, Juvasync, Grastek, etc. 3. Job insecurity Push out the greys and constant threat of layoffs for everyone else. 4. No confidence in company leadership Peter, Ken, Bob, Adam, Willie, Riad, every DCO and many CTLS, all interchangeable failures. 5. Lack of recourse for poor performance Protect the old CTLs, MGAMs, NAEs, and lay off the top reps. 6. Poor communication We'll tell you as little as possible on a need to know basis. Until then keep working. 7. Unpleasant coworkers You fill this one in. 8. Boredom Face it, you have a ficticous job. Managed care plans dictate who wins and loses so keep faking those calls!
I'll DRINK TO THAT !!! THIS DESCRIBES MERCK PERFECTLY ! THE REPs THAT GET LET GO WILL BE THE LUCKY ONES !!!!
10 years ago forbes probably highlighted the value of metrics etc. This magazine is only a shill for corporate America
Interesting point. At least half the tactics they "criticize" are from the Jack Welch school of management. The very same guy that Forbes has worshipped and praised for years. The one whose scorched earth policy of mistrust, intimidation, and continuous layoffs has served as a model for Merck..and many other dysfunctional companies. Of course it is easy to see why this management model has such staying power in old, stodgy, paranoid corporations whose best days are behind them (e.g. Merck). The Jack Welch model allows incompetent CEOs, CFOs, and other executives to hide their utter lack of creativity from shareholders under the guise of cost cutting and Six Sigma. Long gone are the days when these so-called leaders dared to innovate, inspire, imagine. Today's strategy is simple: cut, slash, and burn...and then cut, slash and burn some more. Until there is nothing much left to salvage. Then deploy your golden parachute and sail away from the burning heap of emptiness you've engineered. Pretty cool, huh?
Don't forget abuse: speaking to and about reps as though they are stupid, fire drill meeting preps that they never use. fake business reviews that take hours of work. encouragement of backbiting and tattling. Picking favorites that don't know Januvia from peanut butter. harassment letters, changing policies without notifying reps, ignoring certain reps in group discussions, the "rankings" that turn out to be gossip fests and do not necessary pick the best and the brightest. No way to give feedback to jackass ctls dcos, heck we don't even sigh yer anymore or have the op to write something on the documents, changing the bonuse3 calculation continuously, assigning reps to dog territories after building successful ones, the so called management are sick, depraved and just plain mean
Yup, yup, yup, etc. Have to shake my head for even messing around with corporate sales. I put up with it for about 15 years, and I now finally have the confidence to get out. Its a mind F, for sure. I knew during my first year, that it was a mess. But, I didn't have a clue how to get out. The answer, if you want to stay in sales, is look for a small private company with a decent product that can at least compete. That is all you need. The money is probably not going to be as good, but you are still going to make more than about 80 percent of the population. Not bad. In hindsight, I wish I had gone to school for PA, nurse, or pharmacist. (still might do it).
Great observation on ( " guru"?) Jack Welch. Look at GE. It would have some short term gains under Welch that would get everyone excited ( Wall Street loves layoffs) but the would slide back to mediocracy. This is absolutely the sales model Merck follows, it's why Merck loves the Bell curve. Ignore top performers, they'll probably leave eventually anyway no matter how you reward them, always cut the bottom 10%. Manage toward the middle. So everyone arrives to be mediocre, no one wants to an outlier in either direction. The most successful people I saw at Merck were the ones that flew under the radar and you didn't even know they were there . If you spoke up with any kind of idea you were squashed and became a target a threat. The problem with the sales management at Merck is because sales is subjective in pharma it allows a lot of leeway for managers to come up with a lot of fiction for people they don't like or perceive as a threat. It's all favoritism , outright nepotism, constant maneuvering for position, turf wars etc. at Merck your true customers were your internal customers and direct reports. You had little time for real customers and a big win became a target for who in hierarchy could assume credit. Claim credit, deflect blame that was the whole game, so it was really better to really not do anything. I was at a district meeting right after I had produced a formulary win for Januvia at a major hospital in my territory. The regional manager happened to be in the room as the district manager quickly, matter of fact reported it, the regional didn't even acknowledge it and the meeting quickly went on. No " atta boys" or " walk us though that" it was almost as if they were embarrassed that someone had produced a sale. It was right then I understood that " sales" at Merck is not a real sales organization and I left soon after. The entire model is broken and in the ditch and no one knows it better than the salespeople themselves. It needs to be thrown out, most, if not everyone is sales fired, and start over. It is all so screwed up that in this case the Welch model might be the only one, for starts, but not a trimming around the corners but a wholesale mass firing and rebuild from scratch. First thing: fire all district managers. That would eliminate all the favoritism and silly time wasted on trying to sell them instead of real customers. They don't really do much anymore anyway, admin. Is all automated, they don't hire or fire, the can't or won't train. They are supposed to " coach" and most of them are horrible at that. This old " fuller brush, door to door" sales model absolutely doesn't work, hasn't worked for over 15 years and the only thing to do is execute a brand new model. People have been trying to guess the % of upcoming cuts. I would recommend 100% and then very selectively, slowly begin to re- hire. Merck will do no of that. It is married to the Welch model till death. The inability to change will strangle it. It's like the entire industry is starting to re tool with Lexus and Merck still wants to compete with Kia's.
You know that now that they have announced layoffs that they will put out all the rhetoric they can think of to put out a " aura of false hope" to try to keep you engaged and in the field ( out of desperation to save your job they assume) to squeeze the last ounce from you. They will do this right up to the moment you hand them your car keys.
