Sales is, by its very nature, a high-pressure profession — though that pressure is exactly what many salespeople thrive on. In business, the company’s revenue engine runs almost entirely on the activity and productivity of the sales team. Month after month, targets are set, territories are assigned, and the race begins.
Yet, even in the best-run organisations, there is always someone underperforming. Sometimes it’s a temporary dip; other times, it’s a prolonged slump. And when it is the latter, the sales manager’s challenge is clear: get the rep — or sometimes even the whole team — back to winning ways.
But slumps are rarely uni-dimensional. The Nigerian pharmaceutical sales environment adds its own complexity, ambiguity, volatility and unceratinty: product availability delays, hospital procurement bureaucracy, competitive price wars, inconsistent distributor stocking, distributors who treat payment agreement as suggestion, and even unexpected healthcare professionals’ strikes. Understanding where the problem truly lies is the first step to fixing it.
Start with the market and territory realities
Before you question the rep’s ability, first question the playing field. A rep might be covering a territory where prescription volume has genuinely declined due to shifting patient traffic, hospital reallocation, or competitor encroachment. Maybe their primary distributor has stopped stocking the product or has extended payment cycles that choke supply.
In these situations, the slump might be as much about territory health as it is about rep performance. The smart manager collects market intelligence — competitor pricing moves, hospital tender outcomes, prescription trends — and uses that information to separate “excuse-makers” from those with legitimate market constraints. Without this diagnosis, you risk treating the wrong illness.
Review the important numbers
Once you’ve mapped the territory realities, turn inward and examine the rep’s own sales machinery. This is not a surface-level glance at monthly sales totals, but a bottoms-up look at how the work is being done. How many calls are they making daily? How effective are their detailing sessions with doctors? Are they building and maintaining strong distributor relationships? What is their collection discipline like? Often, you’ll find that the decline shows up first in these operational indicators long before it becomes a revenue issue.
Track progress, don’t just discuss it
It’s one thing to identify the right numbers; it’s another to track them in a way that drives accountability and improvement. In our market, this can be done with simple tools — an Excel sheet updated weekly, a territory call log, even a visual leaderboard shared in the team’s WhatsApp group. Seeing performance laid out clearly, week after week, not only keeps the rep accountable but also allows you as the manager to detect problems early. One look at a four-week dip in call rate or declining product mix can tell you where to focus coaching before the sales figures start falling further.
Focus on what you can control
It is tempting — and common — for struggling reps to point fingers at forces beyond their control: the government’s new import policy, an outdated detail-aid, a corporate delay in product supply, stock out with respect to 2 products/SKUs or the frequency of hospital strikes. While these challenges are real, dwelling on them will not reverse a slump. A seasoned manager shifts the conversation toward controllables: more targeted calls, reactivating dormant customers, better follow-up with healthcare professionals, improving coverage consistency, and more rigorous prospecting. In every territory, no matter the headwinds, there are always actions a rep can take today that can start moving the numbers again.
Reset the sales mindset
Performance is not just a matter of skill; it’s also a matter of headspace. A rep who has been underperforming for weeks will often lose confidence, energy, and even their sense of professional identity. Here, the manager’s role is part coach, part psychologist. Sometimes, setting smaller, achievable targets for a few weeks can create quick wins that rebuild confidence. Encourage them to remember and relive moments when they were at the top of their game — remind them of their past victories, and help them see that the capability is still there. Sales is as much about belief as it is about technique, and a mindset reset can be the bridge between knowing what to do and having the energy to do it.
This part of this intervention is about diagnosis and quick wins — understanding the problem, identifying what’s controllable, and getting momentum back on your side. But quick wins alone will not sustain a turnaround. Next month, we move into deeper interventions: the skill rebuilding, tactical recovery strategies, and leadership approaches that keep reps performing long after the slump is over.
Tunde Oyeniran, B.Pharm. MBA, FSPMN, a sales/marketing strategist, selling/sales management trainer and personal sales coach, is the lead consultant, Ekini White Tulip Consulting Limited (eWTC), Lagos. He is also the president, Society for Pharmaceutical Sales and Marketing of Nigeria. eWTC provides training, recruitment, online CME/medico-marketing and field force management solutions services. Feedback Channels: 080-2960-6103 (SMS/WhatsApp) /ekiniwhitetuliptraining@gmail.com or check out https://fb.me/EkiniWhiteTulipConsulting
