Identification and Development of Communication Skills.

Without communication nothing can be achieved. Communication is a tool, resources, input, output and process that it achieves the intended target. If the intended target is the realization of prescriptions from the doctors, then the communiation skills of the medical representatives are required to be understood from this single perspective. What are the expectations from the medical representatives through communication :

1. Effective product introduction.
2. Release of prescriptions from the doctors.
3. An ever registration of the company and its products in the minds and reference list of the doctors : the name, brand, dosages and therapeutic values and likely range of prices.
4. Dominant displays of the company products at the shelf and identified places for quickets selection for sale to the customers/patients.
5. Effective Tendering process.
6. Effective tender presentation and tender negotiations.
7. Auditing skills of the distributors/ retailers storage facilities and communication of the gaps in writing and verbally..which may include the training of their shopfloor workers.
8. Communication skills in english and hindi or local language with equal respect and emphasis.
9. Internal communication skills with seniors : marketing/ sales/ import/ export/ logistics/ distributions.
10. External communication : with hospitals/ hospital doctors/ medical officers/ hospital nursing staff/ hospital supporting resources/ hospital purchase department/ hospital godown/ warehouse departments.
11. External communication with regulatory authorities.
12. Most critical communication skills at the time of customer complaints.
13. Most critical communication skills at the time of product recall.
14. Most critical communication skills at the time of adverse reactions, as per his involved and identified roles.
15. Critical communications with his equal rank fellows in marketing/ sales.

For an effective communication, it is be ensured that the medical representatives does the following processes effectively and these need to be measured and without measurement of these values/inputs/ processes, the whole purpose of creating the medical representative as infrastructure shall be defeated. And These are :

a. Hearing : Does he hear completely? To monitor and measure.

b. Seeing : Does he see properly? To monitor and measure.

c. To Smell : Does he smell correctly? To monitor and measure.

d. Does he touch correctly? the products/ stationery/ shake hands.

e. Does he taste correctly? depending upon the processes involving his role during tastes: For example in the local meet: he tastes the tea or coffee and provides positive feedback of the negative quality tastes of an item; this shall be such an embarassing situation. So whether his tasting skills are in order.

There are various ingredients of the communication process of the medical representatives and these need to be understood for their significance and in accordance these need to be measured and for any gap training to serve as a resource for improvement in communication skills. Total communication process and levels of communication need to be mapped out and shown to the medical representatives.

drbmsharma.