“Communication process of Sale representatives

In

Pharmaceutical Companies”

(Based on Khulna City)

Communication process of Sales representatives
In
Pharmaceutical Companies

(Based on Khulna City)

Prepared for
S.M. Towhidur Rahman,
Assistant Professor,
BA Discipline,
Khulna University

Prepared by
Md. Ariful Islam
ID # EMBA 100301
Shah Junaid Ibne Amin
ID # EMBA 100307
Monoz Kumar Mondal
ID # EMBA 100324
1st Year, 2nd Term,
BA Discipline,
Khulna University.

Business Administration Discipline

Khulna University, Khulna-9208
JANUARY 28, 2011

January 28, 2011

S.M. Towhidur Rahman,
Assistant Professor,
BA Discipline
Khulna University
Khulna-9001

Dear Sir

With utmost respect, we are like to aware you the fact that, we are really delighted to submit you the report on "Communication process of Sales representatives in Pharmaceutical Companies-Based on Khulna City", which you have asked us to prepare this report as course requirement. After getting your instructions, we have given our utmost effort to make the study successful. The immense knowledge & idea that we have gained with the study conduction will be really helpful for us for facing some challenges in the future time.

To know communication process in sales representative of pharmaceutical companies, we surveyed many Sales representatives of many pharmaceutical Companies to gather information, which we observed as relevant to the topic of the report. The information provided by you in your class lectures was also helpful for us.

In this report, we tried our best to find out how the sales representative communicate both inside and outside the organization, which process they apply in case of communication.

Therefore, we hope that our report will fulfill the need to know the communication process in sales representative of pharmaceutical Companies. Any short comings or mistakes are absolutely our fault. We are apologizing for any kind of mistake. We will be available for facilitating any point or part of this report any time when you asked us to do so.

Sincerely yours

MD. Ariful Islam
ID # EMBA 100301

Shah Junaid Ibne Amin
ID # EMBA 100307

Monoz Kumar Mondal
ID # EMBA 100324

Monoz Kumar Mondal
ID # EMBA 100324
III ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It's my immense pleasure to complete this study in due time by the grace of almighty Allah. We are grateful to those people who helped us a lot during the preparation of this report.

First of all, we wish to express us profound sense of gratitude to our honorable course teacher S.M. Towhidur Rahman, Assistant Professor, Business Administration Discipline, Khulna University, for his inspiration, guide, valuable suggestions, sympathetic advice and enthusiastic encouragement made throughout our study work.

We are also very grateful to Dr. Nizanoor Rahman and Dr. Reba Mojumder for their constant help during our preparation of report.

Moreover, we like to avail the opportunity to express our deep gratitude and regards to all who are giving us their valuable time to talk with us, give the information about them.

Finally, we would like to thank all of my friends. Whenever I faced any problem they were really helpful to give their valuable suggestion to solve my problems.

Executive Summary IV
1. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION PART

1.1 Origin of the Report 01 1.2 Problem statement of the report 02 1.3 Scope of the report 02 1.4 Limitations of the report 03 1.4.1 SHORTAGE OF TIME 03 1.4.2 DIFFICULTY IN COLLECTING DATA 03 1.5 SOURCES AND METHOD OF COLLECTING DATA 1.6 METHODOLOGY

2. CHAPTER 2: FINDINGS & ANLYSIS

2.1 Sales Persons' main activities 04 2.2 Main Customers 04 2.3 Types of Communication 05 2.3.1 Communication with customers 06 2.3.2 Communication with organization 07 2.4 Reasons for choosing this channel 08 2.4.1 Communication with customers 09 2.4.2 Communication with organization 10 2.5 Sales representatives' main media 11 2.5.1 Communication with customers 12 2.5.1.1 Oral 13 2.5.1.2 Written 14 2.5.2 Communication with organization 15

2.5.2.1 Oral 16 2.5.2.2 Written 17 2.6 Way of convince 17 2.7 Sales representatives' facing difficulties 18 2.8Training program 20

3. CHAPTER 3: Report Ending
3.1 Ending Summary 30

APPENDIX Bibliography 32 Questionnaire

IV EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The main aim of this study is to know and to understand the overall communication process of sales representatives' of pharmaceutical companies. What strategies they are taking in case of communicating with both doctors and organization. In this report information is collected from 29 sales representatives of 14 pharmaceutical companies.

Only considerable thing of this report is sales representatives used communication process. One questionnaire is used for this study to know their overall communication process.

They have told in case of communicating with customer they use both oral and written communication. But larger portion prefer oral communication and in this case they are mainly prefer face to face media. Communicating through written channel they use letter, report, e-mail.

When sales representatives communicate with their organization they use both oral and written channel. But the combination of oral and written is higher than along oral or written. In this case they depend on mainly face to face media and letter.

Through the analysis, it can be concluded that sales representatives' over all communication process is mixed. They do not highly depend on any single communication channel, any single communication media.

CHAPTER 1

THE INTRODUCTION PART

1.1 ORIGIN OF THE STUDY

For business school student only theoretical knowledge is not enough for handling the real business situation, therefore it is an opportunity for the students to know about the practical business communication process through practical work.

S.M. Towhidur Rahman, the honorable course instructors of the ‘Business Communication’, assigned me to prepare a report on December 24, 2010 about the “Communication process of Sales representatives in Pharmaceutical Companies”. The date of submission of this report is January 28, 2011.

According to the instruction of our honorable course instructors we have conducted our study on the given topics and made our report as informative as possible.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT OF THE REPORT

We are very much passionate to be a successful executive of the coming days. So, we have to gather more experience beside our study. We do not want to concentrate our lessons only in classroom but to implement it in our practical life that will help us in professional life. The purposes of preparing of this report are-

• To relate our theoretical report writing knowledge with the practical working experience; • To know about the overall communication process in sales representatives of pharmaceutical companies and also try to get idea about the relationship among them and their productivity; • To know the strategies of their communication process; • To know the moods of their communication process; • To provide suggestions for the probable identified problems. 1.3 SCOPE OF THE REPORT

For conducting this study it is very much required that we have posses some idea about the conduction of study. With the co-operation of our group mate, we have tried to eliminate any types of shortcomings from our part.

We collected data from many sales representatives of 14 different pharmaceutical companies in Khulna. We have mainly tried to cover all the information needed to know their overall communication process both inside and outside the organization. The entire interviews are taken from many sales representatives, product promotion officer, marketing executives, field manager, sales managers, medical promotion officers and some area managers of various pharmaceutical companies. We have also identified some basic problems of them.

1.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE REPORT

We are very lucky to get the chance to prepare this report but unfortunately we faced some difficulties when preparing this report. We tried to overcome the difficulties and gave our best effort. When preparing this report, two main difficulties we faced:

1.4.1 SHORTAGE OF TIME

To make a longer version of report needs too much time. But we had to prepare this report within a very short span of time. The sales representatives are so busy and most of the time they do not stay in their office. To get touch with them was very difficult for us as three out of four of our group is service holder. In this case we had to communicate with some famous doctor, some whole seller as well as some organization

1.4.2 DIFFICULTY IN COLLECTING DATA

Some representatives have shown negative attitude in expressing some information. So it was a very hard job to make them understand about our objective. Most of the representatives do not familiar with the terminology of business communication. They were very much reluctant to give the answer of open ended question. Some representatives don't give proper attention when fill in the questionnaire.

1.5 METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

The methodology of preparing this set onward for the report is as follows:

Sources of Data:

This report is based on both primary and secondary data.

Primary Sources:

Primary data have been collected by Personal Interview, Personal Observation and content Analysis. We have conducted questionnaire survey for collecting data from sales representative.

Secondary Sources:

Secondary data is collected from internet.

Data collection procedures:

• Observe and ask questions with close ended and open-ended answers • Take notes on what is said and/or done • Return to observe/ask more questions related to the study • Theorizing • Draw conclusions

Sample Selection:

In this study, we have selected 29 sales representatives of 14 pharmaceutical companies.

Data Analysis and Report Submission:

After collecting the necessary data, we accumulate the data. Then raw data are categorize and presented in tabular, in graphical representation and narrative form which is helpful for achieving the objectives. Here, we have used Microsoft word and Microsoft excel. For this purpose, after analyzing the data, I have come to a conclusion. Finally, a final report has been submitted to the course instructor for evaluation.

CHAPTER 2

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

2.1 Sales Representatives' Main Activities

Talking with the sales representatives' and analyzing the questionnaire it is clear that most of them believe that their main activity is to inform the doctors about the drugs as well as to motivate the whole seller to purchase the drugs. But they also tell that if they are successful to inform the doctors first then their job is going to very easy to motivate the whole sellers. But some other believe that their job only to inform doctors about drugs.

Table 2.1
| |Numbers |Percentage |
|To inform doctors |10 |34.48276% |
|To inform doctors as well as motivate whole sellers to purchase the drugs |17 |58.62069% |

Here the above table represents the numbers of sales representatives' out of 29 who specify their main activity and their percentage rate. Percentage rate is higher both informing the doctors about the drugs and motivating the whole seller than to inform the doctors.

[pic]

The above chart is the graphical representation of table 2.1.

2.2 Main Customers

Analyzing the collected data we can see sales representatives' targeted customers are doctors, whole sellers and retailers and they are communicating with them always.

[pic]

Going through the above graph we can see12 sales representatives out of 29 believe their main customers are doctors same as doctors and whole sellers and retailers and 4 sales representatives believes their main customers are doctors and wholesalers but only one believes his customers are only doctors and retailers.
2.3 Types of Communication

2.3.1 Communication with Customers

In case of customers some sales representatives use only oral communication, some use both oral and written but some other sales representatives possess different idea. They tell they use both oral and printed materials as their communication tools.

[pic]

From the above chart we can see 51.72414% sales representatives use oral communication as their communication channel, 41.37931% sales representatives use oral-written and 6.896552% sales representatives use oral-printed materials as their communication channel. So, the percentage rate of using oral communication is higher than any other combination.

2.3.2 Communication with Organization

In case of organization some sales representatives use only written communication but most of them use both oral and written.

[pic]

From the above chart we can see 21% sales representatives use oral communication as their communication channel, 79% sales representatives use oral-written. So, the percentage rate of using oral-written communication is higher than oral communication.

2.4 Reasons for Choosing This Channel

2.4.1 Communication with Customers:

When analyzing the data and face to face talking with them I find various types of reason for communicating through oral channel or both oral and written channel. Those who are using oral channel their views are oral channel is very safe, in this case there is no need to give any written commitment, with out preparation it can be done and some organization forbid to communicate through written. Those who are using both oral and written channel they think that only oral does not sufficient to communicate all the time. Some times they need to show some report against their drugs, some times they make e-mail for taking their appointment.

2.4.2 Communication with Organization

In case of organization most of the sales representatives use both oral and written channel. The reasons for their preference are when organization suddenly asks to know the condition of market then they use oral communication and in any crisis moment they use oral communication. But organization needs hard copy and they are also asked to submit report in week basis or month basis then they use written communication channel.

2.5 Sales Representatives' Main Media

2.5.1 Communication with Customers

2.5.1.1 Oral:

After analyzing the collected data in case of customers when sales representatives choose oral channel they use some medias such as face to face, telephone and cell phone.

[pic]

From the above graph we can see 62.06897% sales representatives use only face to face media but only 37.93103% sales representatives use the combination of face to face, telephone and cell phone media.

2.5.1.2 Written:

After analyzing the collected data in case of customers when sales representatives choose written channel they use some medias such as letter, report and e-mail.

[pic]

From the above graph we can see 20.68966% sales representatives use letter in case communicate through written, 13.7931% sales representatives use report and 17.24138% sales representatives use e-mail in case communicate through written.

2.5.2 Communication with Organization

2.5.2.1 Oral:

After analyzing the collected information in case of organization when sales representatives choose oral channel they use some medias such as face to face, telephone and cell phone.

[pic]

From the above graph we can see 48.27586% sales representatives use only face to face media, only 3.448276% sales representatives use only cell phone, 13.7931% sales representatives use both face to face and telephone and 13.7931% sales representatives use the combination of face to face, telephone and cell phone media.

2.5.2.2 Written:

After analyzing the collected information in case of organization when sales representatives communicate through written channel they use some medias such as letter, report, fax & e-mail.

[pic]

From the above graph we can see 51.72414% sales representatives use letter in case communicate through written, 17.24138% sales representatives use report, 13.7931% sales representatives use e-mail, 6.896552% sales representatives use both report and fax and 10.34483% sales representatives use both letter and report in case communicate through written.

2.6 Way of Convince

For convincing their customers sales representatives mainly use logical document to support their drugs, they also show relevant data. More over, when they understand customer's mood is off they don't disclose their main discussion. Just conveying salutation they come back.

2.7 Sales Representatives' Facing Difficulties

When I am going to survey I found few sales representatives admitting that they are facing difficulties. Those who admitted they told when customer's mood remained off then they face some problems. They don't want to talk with them. Some times customers give time to them but at that time they don't get available.

2.8 Training Program

After analyzing collected data most of the pharmaceutical companies arrange tanning program for developing their employee's communication skill. And most of the sales representatives have already attended training program.

2.9 Findings

In this report I find some things. Those findings are given below:-

□ Sales representatives' over all communication process is mixed.

□ Sales representatives' main customers are not only doctors but also whole sellers and retailers.

□ They are using both oral and written communication channel in case of communicating with customer. But oral is higher than any other form.

□ For oral communication they mainly use face to face media.

□ For communicating through written they rely much more upon letter than others forms of media.

□ In case of communicating with organization sales representatives mainly use oral-written channel.

□ Sales representatives are not familiar with the terminology of business communication.

□ They are very reluctant to admit their difficulties.

□ They are very much enthusiastic to attend any sorts of training program.

3.1 Ending Summary:

In this report I have talked 29 sale representatives of 14 different organizations. Here some graph and chart are used to make clear about their communication process. They not only focus on doctors but also whole sellers and retailers. They try to with communicate with these groups of people and to communicate with this group of people successfully is the main activities of their job. Proportionately they are using more oral communication when communicating with those groups of people. They are also takes help of the modern technology. They are very reluctant to admit their difficulties. Basically their over all communication process is mixed. Sometimes they are rely upon oral communication sometimes they are rely upon written communication.

Bibliography

1. Basic Business communication- Lesikar and Flatley 2. Excellence of Business Communication- Thrill

Questionnaire

I am Md. Ariful Islam a student of 1st year, 2nd term in Business Administration Discipline, Khulna University. I am assigned to prepare a report on "Communication process in Sales representative of Pharmaceutical Companies" For this purpose this questionnaire has been prepared. This information will be used in only for academic purpose and strict confidentiality will be followed to handle this information. • Please give (√) mark in the boxes as per your choice. If needs you can make more than one choice. • You may fill the questionnaire using either Bangla or English where the space given.

Name: .................................................................................

Organization: ....................................................................

Position: ..............................................................................

Phone (if any): ...................................................................

1. What are the main activities of your job? □To inform Doctors about the drugs □ To motivate the whole seller to purchase the drugs □ Both □ Others

2. Which types of customers do you deal? □ Doctors □ Whole sellers □ Retailer □ others □ All

3. What types of communication you use in case of your customers? □ Oral □ Written □ Others □ Both

4. If "Both" then what is their percentage rate? (oral-written) □ 50-50% □ 70-30% □ 80-20% □ 60-40% □ 40-60%

5. Why you use this communication channel?

6. By communicating through this channel which types of media you use? (If oral) □ Face to face □ Telephone □ Cell phone □ Others □ All

7. By communicating through this channel which types of media you use? ( If written) □ Letter □ Report □ E-mail □ Fax □ Other

8. By using this media how you can make them convince?

9. Do you face any kinds of difficulties to communicate with the customers?
□ Yes □ No
10. If "Yes" then what kinds of difficulties those are?

11. What courses of action you take to solve the problem?

12. What types of communication you use to communicate with your organization? □ Oral □ Written □ Others □ Both

13. If "Both" then what is their percentage rate? (oral-written) □ 50-50% □ 70-30% □ 80-20% □ 60-40% □ 40-60%

14. Why you use this communication channel?

15. By communicating through this channel which types of media you use? (If oral) □ Face to face □ Telephone □ Cell phone □ Others □ All

16. By communicating through this channel which types of media you use? (If written) □ Letter □ Report □ E-mail □ Fax □ Other

17. Do you face any kinds of difficulties to communicate with your organization? □ Yes □ No

18. If "Yes" then what kinds of difficulties those are?

19. What courses of action do you take to solve the problem?

20. Do you think it is necessary to attend any sorts of training program to improve your communication skill? □ Yes □ No

21. Does your organization arrange any training program or workshop to improve your communication skill? □ Yes □ No

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introduction part

Chapter: 01

table of content