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. Despite its importance, the effectiveness of the sales force is often given poor attention. Generally, pharmaceutical consultants have the desired levels of training to be able to motivate the company sales force, resulting in considerable financial gain due to elevated efficiency.
One well-known football coach once claimed that “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” This is a mindset that a sales and marketing executive should retain at all times. After all, a sale is either won or lost and a lost sale is of no value whatsoever, experience gained and contacts made notwithstanding.
It is essential to correctly motivate a team and one of the first things that a pharmaceutical consulting firm will help initiate is the creation of meaningful 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. If a valuable relationship is not established between all principals concerned, then the account may not necessarily be seen as successful, as we need to judge more than the actual dollar amount involved. Of critical importance is the alignment between the company and the buyer’s strategy. A correct level of incentive is very important and sales people must clearly understand that both the client and the company must achieve value before any deal is consummated.
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. In other words, there should never really be an “achievable” end result for the sales executive, or a target that, once achieved, promotes a lack of further engagement.
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?
In summary, a sales team can only be highly effective if they have been trained well and are involved in an ongoing process of 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. Bring in pharma consulting experts to get the mix right.
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.
