Many Filipino companies today have changed the title of Professional Medical Representative to Territory Manager. Is there a difference or is it just a title? Being the manager of your territory is no joke. In the true sense of the word, what happens in your territory is your full accountability. You cannot blame anybody if the results go ill, but you can congratulate yourself if the performance is spectacular.
Territory Management is the utilization of industry factors that directly and indirectly affect your business in your area of assignment where time, effort and resources are maximized to arrive on a result that meets or exceeds the qualitative and quantitative standards of the company.
On your first day in the territory, you will be given with a list of customers that you will visit. The list may contain a structure already that you may choose to follow. But the question remains: Is the process involved in that hand-me-down territory plan accurate?
Territory Management starts with a thorough understanding of the territory. There is a progressive pattern to follow in order to arrive at a workable area plan. First, you start with the Scanning Phase. Prepare a list of all the doctors in the territory regardless of any parameters. Once you have the list, you can proceed with the Assessment Phase. You will assess the physician’s potential using various parameters which includes but not limited to:
- Area of specialization
- Patient profiling
- Practice volume
- Influence
- Current relations to your company
Influence is another key factor. Influential doctors maybe an established Key Opinion Leader or any person of authority that can influence the prescribing decisions of his or her peers. Last but not least are doctors who have an established relationship with your company. If they enjoy a continuous beneficial relationship, they will reject your competitors. These are the customers you may not want to upset.
The third part is the Recording Phase. In here the data were to be sorted out and analyzed, leaving relevant customers to be targeted. You will then have to assign frequency of visits, the primary, secondary or tertiary product to promote, as well as the type of promotional message per specialty. You will also design your daily, weekly and monthly itinerary or routing plan. The routing plan allows your manager to immediately ascertain your whereabouts.
The fourth the series of steps is the Planning Phase. This pertains to the utilization of marketing strategy or directions brought down by the company, via its author, the Product Manager, to the field force. In here you will identify which specialty deserves the promotional mileage based on the guidelines.
In the Implementation Phase, you will adopt the plans that you have laid down. You will follow the routing plan and sampling schedule that you have set, as well as the frequency of visits to physicians. The process does not end in this phase. The plan has to be evaluated for flaws so that corrective measures can be put into place. The whole process is an unending cycle and plans are to be revised regularly to be viable.
