Helpful Ideas On Empowering The Sales Representative
What will it take to survive in the pharmaceutical sales industry? The older, conventional approach to the role of sales and marketing in the field has to change and we need to completely re-evaluate the way that pharmaceutical marketing training is rolled out. For far too long now, conventional methods of engagement have been celebrated, where a sales representative is expected to “detail” with a set number of healthcare professionals in a certain region, over a set period of time and according to given parameters. Success was often measured in terms of percentage of penetration and the focus was product-centric rather than client- or problem-centric. As the pharmaceutical consultant knows all too well, the industry is going through a process of regeneration and metamorphosis and such an approach to business will not work. All that traditional pharmaceutical marketing training will become increasingly irrelevant.
A pharmaceutical consultancy can certainly help to develop new tactics and methods for the client in the workshop, but most of the attention needs to be paid on how changes are implemented in the field. This will require reinvention of the very make-up of a sales representative. Is it possible to achieve this with an existing team of reps? Certainly, entrenched attitudes and approaches need to be overcome and the rep encouraged to develop a more "entrepreneurial" approach to doing business. Indeed, the sales representative will now have to take on much more of an independent role, at the very least in the way that they approach their income generation motivators.
The very definition of an entrepreneur is somebody who is willing to go the extra mile and not be easily disheartened. This will often involve innovative thinking and will require a greater understanding of the problem and, indeed the client. The entrepreneurial sales rep should dig deep to find out what drives the buyer, generate more workable intelligence and then be encouraged by the pharmaceutical consultancy to bring this intelligence back and share it within a newly created “think tank.” This may also require a fundamental change in thinking, as the entrepreneurial sales rep should begin to understand that a pooling of intelligence resources could only help everyone to explain and understand the market better and in turn focus on enhanced sales potential.
There was a time when hunger was created among the sales force by comparing peer performance. The most productive representative was often elevated to a certain position, which was then used to motivate others within the workforce to work harder. Any pharmaceutical consultant should understand how this could be counter-productive to the end goal and how each entrepreneurial sales rep could, by contributing to the potential for the entire team, end up in a better position. The issues of motivation and remuneration must be approached from a completely new angle, but when all is said and done this entire process is far more likely to result in a much more fruitful relationship between the end-user and the rep. It is definitely time to employ this kind of new approach, as we certainly know that the typical practitioner is far from happy to see the sales rep today, as it is perceived that there is no real feeling of apathy or understanding, anymore.
Alan Gillies is the Managing Director of L2L Consulting, specialising in enabling pharmaceutical companies to achieve new heights of productivity and performance, throughout all levels of management and revenue generating activities.
