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. 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. 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. 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 be a tangible carrot at the end of the road and achievable targets should lead to further incentives on a structured basis. 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 Director of L2L Consulting, an elite pharmaceutical consultancy firm which specialises in Strategy Development and Implementation Excellence for prestigious multi-national organisations.
