Hot Marketing Opps

All the work that you put into creating and positioning the product will be of no use unless the pharmaceutical company can successfully market its products to 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.

Have you ever heard of the saying, coined by a famous football coach – “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing!” This is a mindset that a sales and marketing executive should retain 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.

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. It is important to remember that activity levels are not the “be all and end all” of sales. A sales executive is not necessarily highly efficient, even though his or her volume of sales may be high, as ultimate value must be assessed. The creation of the account must foster a value relationship between all the principals, quite apart from the raw dollar amounts involved. It is important to align the buyer’s strategy and position with the company’s. Sales people should not be incentivised unless there is a clear gain for the company and the client achieves value, thereby cementing the relationship.

Incentivisation requires the creation of meaningful benchmarks 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.

The adoption of time management cannot be underestimated and the company should strive to ensure that the sales manager is not bogged down with too many administrative elements, through the provision of the latest, cutting-edge tools to streamline work. It is sobering to realise that on average, sales executives can spend only one quarter of their time communicating directly 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.