A Marketer’s Life

No amount of creativity or product superiority will be advantageous unless the pharmaceutical company is able to get its product to the market and into the hands of the end user. It is so important to choose a top notch sales and marketing team, training them in the overall benefits and value of the products, as well as the fundamental strategies necessary to be able to achieve a desired result in the market. Sales force effectiveness is of such critical importance, yet it is often poorly reviewed or supervised. Invariably, pharmaceutical consultants are highly skilled in training and motivating and can bring a company’s sales team up to a high level of effectiveness, with considerable potential gain for the organisation.

One well-known football coach once claimed that “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” Remember to keep this mindset engaged at all times. Although valuable contacts may be made and additional experience a must, if no sales are made then no value is realised, either.

Motivation is so important and a pharmaceutical consulting firm will help create an array of appropriate measurement tools. Within sales, the measurement of activity levels is only part of the equation. It should be remembered that sales volume by itself is not an indicator of efficient activity by the sales executive, as it must be related to value. The creation of the account must foster a value relationship between all the principals, quite apart from the raw dollar amounts involved. Of critical importance is the alignment between the company and the buyer’s strategy. Sales people should not be incentivised unless there is a clear gain for the company and the client achieves value, thereby cementing the relationship.

Levels of incentive must be tied to achievable and attainable levels and goals. There must always be something for the salesperson to reach and always a further incentive throughout the sales structure. If the sales executive is able to “get” to an end result, then he or she will not be adequately motivated to reach even further and keep working.

Time management is essential and while a sales manager will undoubtedly have administrative elements to take care of, the company should make sure that he or she is able to complete these as efficiently as possible, using provided, high-efficiency tools as needed. Did you know that many sales executives actually spend less than 25% of their time in direct communication with clients?

We can see that for the sales team to be effective, each member must be adequately trained and furthermore must engage in a process of ongoing training. Such training will include education in the products to be sold, latest sales techniques and delivery processes in addition to management of time and the vital elements of interpersonal communication. To help get this right, engage pharma consulting experts.

Alan Gillies is the CEO of L2L Consulting, a cutting-edge pharma consultancy firm which specialises in optimising productivity and performance within international companies by applying tailored organisational strategies.

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