Do You Have the Grit to Win?
As an inspirational speaker on having determination in pharmaceutical sales, pharmaceutical sales reps usually find it funny when I use the word “grit” in conjunction with an industry known for its ultra clean manufacturing and production.
However, having the sheer tenacity and the daily determination to go out and sell in good times and bad is having the grit to win. Do you have it?
In their September-October issue, the prestigious Harvard Business Review in an article entitled Organizational Grit, had this to say about healthcare:
“In health care, patients have long depended on the grit of individual doctors and nurses. But in modern medicine, providing superior care has become so complex that no lone practitioner, no matter how driven, can do it all. Today great care requires great collaboration—gritty teams of clinicians who all relentlessly push for improvement. Yet it takes more than that: Health care institutions must exhibit grit across the entire provider system.”
As a pharmaceutical sales rep, the provider system is relying on you to bring them new innovation and information. Your grit must match the grit of the health care practitioners who are looking for better solutions. They value your collaboration providing you are willing to go the extra mile.
Psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth has spent her fine career analyzing grit. She recently stated:
“Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality.”
As a pharmaceutical sales rep in the digital and connected age, it isn’t enough to present the same studies over and over again. You must push yourself and become an invaluable asset.
The topic of grit has also fascinated The South African College of Applied Psychology (SACAP). The organization feels strongly that predicting success in a group of students, pharmaceutical sales reps, healthcare professionals or virtually any occupation it isn’t a matter of who has the highest IQ but ultimately, who has the most grit to rise above the crowd.
Can Grit Be Cultivated?
According to SACAP, even if a pharmaceutical sales rep (or any other professional) has never thought of themselves as having grit, it can be cultivated by having the determination to focus on five important drivers: courage, conscientiousness, perseverance, resilience and passion.
Courage has nothing to do with how heroic you are. It relates to how thoroughly you know your product; how much work you’ve done above and beyond everyone else so that the HCP relies on you. Consciousness is a statement of how seriously you take your mission; how aware you are of the importance of what your product represents. Perseverance is more than making appointments; it is telling those you call on that you are in this for the long-haul and that you will be there for them. Resilience represents that you will “go out into the world” not only when times are great, but when numerous obstacles and challenges are in your way. Finally, Passion. Do you love what you do? Do you believe in what you do?
Grit is the ground it out, daily affirmation that what you do and what you sell matters. If you are determined, if you have that desire, you will become that special pharmaceutical sales rep among many.
To contact Scott Burrows, Inspirational Pharmaceutical Sales Speaker on Grit and Determination reach him through this website or by calling: (520) 548-1169
