Affiliate Silver Bullet Review

There is far too much at stake to take a passive approach to the organisation of a company’s sales force, and senior management should ensure that they are well aware of the effectiveness of the operation and are adequately placed to make changes as and when necessary to improve. It is said that the actual cost of a sales call is in the region of $400 or more and as there’s so much at stake, the sales executive must be fully efficient in everything they do, without question.

A good sales executive must be well trained when it comes to the intricacies of sales closure, should have high class communication skills, be a people person and self-starter, but if poor methodology is used by the pharmaceutical company employer, all these skills can be put to waste. In other words, poor deployment could make the difference between a company just surviving or pushing on ahead, celebrating the fruits of its labour.

The good news for the pharmaceutical company is that by leveraging existing assets, a significant difference could emerge. It’s amazing how small improvements in significant areas can result in big profit gains. Very often it may not be immediately obvious to the untrained eye that the sales force is working inefficiently, and this is where highly skilled pharmaceutical consultants can really help the organisation move forward.

There are many different fundamental aspects to sales force effectiveness. For example, optimal sizing of the workforce, optimal allocation of individual efforts and optimal alignment of sales territories, all play the part. A pharmaceutical consulting firm knows through experience how important it is to optimise, drawing on experience gained in business over all the years, through case studies and by an ongoing review of policies, procedures and advancements. While sales force optimisation was once left as a paper and pencil exercise, these days powerful digital products and software solutions can be used to help set up the entire program. While plans are being incorporated, internal intelligence should be brought in and everything incorporated prior to the actual launch.

Looking back, workload allocation data from previous seasons and historical performance charts can help to reveal the optimum size of the sales force. This historical analysis should be matched to current market conditions, projected into the future and fine tuned according to product roll-out plans and expansion needs.

Generally, pharma consulting covers many different facets and, of particular interest to the company, should help to reveal the best time management practices for the freshly optimised sales force. Schedules must be optimised as keenly as possible and each individual within the sales force should be trained to ensure that they take advantage of every block of time available, while supervisory staff are able to track, compare and advise accordingly. After eliminating potential overlaps and unbalanced workloads, the focused sales team can be ready to get out and work, using their new-found skill set and internally produced intelligence to overcome the competition. The cost of a sales call is not going down by any means, so it makes sense to contain costs as best as possible.

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.

Maybe for the first time, the pharmaceutical company can no longer depend on the phrase “bigger is better,” as it once was the case that the more people who heard the message, the greater the return. At one time, pharmaceutical companies used to look at each other and judge effectiveness based on how big the workforce was, as more volume would undoubtedly lead to enhanced revenue and a more than fruitful rate of return at the bottom line. All this approach resulted in was market saturation and this occurred even as the market was reinventing itself, anyway. There is more emphasis now on “niche” products and marketability and as such there is more demand for dedicated training and focus, rather than a blanket approach to the issue. As we come to the stark realisation that sales force effectiveness is far more important than sales force size, we realise that if we don’t take action, such inefficiency could prove highly detrimental.

These days, pharmaceutical sales training falls into two definite categories — education relating to the product itself and technical training in the area of sales and marketing technique, with the emphasis on the latest cutting-edge approaches. The salesperson should not forget that the ultimate goal is to win, but it’s no good accepting a signature on a sales contract at whatever cost. The value of the new contract must be assessed in terms of its strategic goal and logistical impact, quite apart from its economic benefit. Sometimes, a profitable sale “on paper” might turn into a very different outcome, when other factors are assessed.

These days there is not so much difference between success and failure, as margins are so thin and therefore sales force effectiveness is a highly important metric. Knowledgeable consultants understand how important this element of pharmaceutical sales training is and how they should focus on high levels of morale, productive engagement and less waste among the sales force. Remember that correct motivation involves far more than just the establishment and availability of monetary bonuses. Indeed, sometimes financial compensation is not a primary driver and the organisation must be able to determine what really pushes each individual on the sales force. Be careful not to set a goal that is deemed to be relatively easy to accomplish, as a salesperson might subconsciously “throttle back” as significant progress is accomplished.

Sales force effectiveness can have a high impact on not only volume, but thin margins and high costs, so individual performance can have a ‘knock on’ effect in other areas. An organisation can start by assessing its current situation, looking at the metrics used to determine success or otherwise and how these very metrics may, by themselves, be contributory to the problem. Correct sizing of the sales force is so important, with territorial allocation and parameters such as “share of voice” optimised. How many sales calls does the salesperson make on any given day and is an inordinate amount of time spent travelling or on other non-productive activities?

Every moment that a salesperson spends with the client, whether detailing or otherwise, should be optimised as part of a revised approach to key account management training.

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.

To establish market superiority in the pharmaceutical sales business requires a large degree of analysis and the establishment of certain criteria to enable the training consultant to analyse effectively and to get the most out of the sales force resource. It’s certainly possible to achieve significant and top class performance, so long as the client listens to the consultant and defines important benchmarks and abilities. Accurate measurement must be possible, otherwise abilities cannot be assessed, goals may not be set and individuals will be left floundering. It is therefore important that the pharmaceutical company understands and helps to develop the framework at the outset.

When certain sales targets have been identified, marketing positions that are specific to those goals must be designed. It is important to understand what is expected of each role and to clarify the individual’s responsibility and methodology. It is likely that each role within an organisation will retain certain uniform competencies, which could be regarded as core principles, but it is very important to accurately define the competencies that are specific to the role and thus must be mastered by the individuals so assigned.

As a rule of thumb, pharmaceutical sales training should take into account cutting edge methodology and utilise the experience and ability of the consultant organisation to best effect. Selling skills have become more advanced and rely less on pure number crunching and goal orientation, but rather focus on personal interaction with the buying entity. To pick up specific product knowledge, pertinent to the individual’s objective, requires a salesperson to have a clear understanding of the buyer’s position and the variety of external factors that could influence his or her decision, when it comes to decision time.

The salesperson must be fully aware of where his or her employer stands from an overall perspective, certainly in relation to the brand position and this is where pharmaceutical sales training comes into its own. The consultant imparts to the salesperson how the market is made up, how certain levels of strategic marketing can best push the brand and how the most modern communication methods can help.

Today’s salesperson must be very good at communicating and understand the intricacies of public relations. We could go so far as to say that the relationship between the buyer and seller in the modern pharmaceutical industry is based more upon an exchange of information. Often, very subtle and difficult to determine factors may influence the buying decision, and the salesperson must try and understand these.

As an account is designated as principal and very important for the pharmaceutical company’s ongoing performance, key account management training must ensure that those individuals who deal with that particular account are trained in the intricacies. Standard sales and closing skills will not be sufficient alone and more focused and specific skill sets could be required. The pharmaceutical company must understand that the key account is looking for more than might be immediately obvious and that a straightforward, two-way interaction is not sufficient for success. Other than the particular person responsible for face-to-face relations with the key account, everybody involved must understand the delicacy of dealing with the account and that there may be some special techniques needed, if an ultimately successful relationship is to be enjoyed with this client.

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.

Are we to believe the analogy that “the customer is always right,” under every circumstance? To extend this analogy we could assume that we need to pay an equal amount of the utmost attention to every client, all the time? A considerable amount of resources are necessary to service accounts that we would ultimately classify as “key,” and if we believe our first statement, we should put all this effort into each and every account. Of course, in reality, not all accounts are created equally and some accounts will mean more to the organisation than others. We could go so far as to say that some accounts are not really critical to the survival of the business, but that others are fundamentally so. The quandary that we face is to accurately determine the correct position of each account. How is it possible to accurately determine and consequently service, allocating resources correctly and effectively? We know that key account management is a skill that must be mastered, but in truth many organisations do not have the skill set, experience, education or resources to be able to identify and consequently manage these clients.

There are many definitions of key account management but fundamentally it is the process of handling significant accounts by offering them a consistent package of products or services that are entirely tailored to their requirements. This sounds rather simplistic and in truth is dependent on many rather complex and interrelated factors. Many a sleepless night could be spent by a company executive, when trying to establish a set of factors that determine how to progress effectively. For example, some customers could be seeking additional value as a consequence of selecting preferred suppliers. As they do this, they seek information that could help them strategically, look for partners to help them with certain projects, or sophisticated levels of economic financing. Ultimately, they may also be looking to find suppliers who are as equally sophisticated as they are and who may be able to engage operational, delivery, sales and accounting methodology according to their demand.

It is unlikely that two key accounts will have similar make-up, structure and behavioural characteristics and it is likely that each will have specific demands, putting considerable strain on the pharmaceutical company, from a logistical and resource allocation perspective. Expect to come across complex demands, ensuring that sophisticated techniques must be initialised before the client can be classified as satisfied. At the end of the day, does the client consider that it is the pharmaceutical company’s “most important” account, as this may be the goal to strive for?

The pharmaceutical sales training company will discuss and deploy a number of sophisticated techniques during key account management training, and while many of these techniques may be confidential to the company, the end result of this planning and deployment will be an increase in reputation for the company. Some external parties may view the relationship as a successful and developing one – and as such, key account management deployment can be beneficial in terms of attracting the attention of new clients, in the future. So, we can see that there are many different ways of looking at pharmaceutical sales training.

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.

Clients of a typical pharmaceutical company often have a choice when it comes to selection of business partners and may look for a distinct type of relationship in return for further patronage. Therefore, the pharmaceutical company must really comprehend the value that the business of that strategic account imparts and must realise that when it designates “key account” status, a certain level of quality control should ensue and measurable results be expected.

Key account management is not something to be designated and reviewed at some later stage. It must be essentially dynamic and while certain elements of such an association will mean different things to different staff members, the overall goal must be the same – to ensure that the client and all its executives are happy and wish to remain.

Clients are often “turned off” by a failure to recognise the importance of key account management and by an inability of the organisation to step up to the plate. The key account expects a pharmaceutical company to be proactive and not simply to react when any events take place. It’s important for the client to see that the company is acting in its best interests and, most especially in this field, keeping abreast of developments within the industry.

In certain circumstances, the client will be looking to the pharmaceutical company to help it develop its strategies. While there can be many different levels of key account designation and there can and should be variations across client levels, the pharmaceutical company must ensure that its staff at all levels are trained to recognise particular needs. The company must intimately know the client and this does not necessarily mean socially. It might be smart for the company to send certain executives to work directly “in the field” with the client, as this will also help to provide a certain level of “intelligence” for the company’s future needs.

In certain circumstances, the pharmaceutical company may want to perform some work for the client at no charge and this should be assessed at individual level, again showing the need for each client to be treated separately. There is no such thing as a stock approach to key account management and pharmaceutical consulting firms should be engaged to help educate all levels of staff in the finer subtleties of these arrangements.

When it comes to the release of information that could be seen as proprietary, pharmaceutical companies may find themselves in a difficult or delicate position. In this kind of business, information can be very powerful and while the client may be looking for added “value” from the company through the passing of information, this element is best handled at the senior vice presidential level, in consultation with the company’s pharma consulting firm.

The pharmaceutical consultants will help ensure that the company is going above and beyond, over-delivering its part of the equation. If the key account truly is key, all the way down to the bottom line, then a fruitful relationship for the future can be assured.

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.

You need a specific type of skill, a great deal of information and an ability to calculate potential to find out whether a sales force is truly effective, or not. Essentially, the amount of selling time available, based on a realistic allocation of hours and multiplied by the number of people on the team, can be combined with an assessment of market potential to create a market response matrix. Certainly this used to be a very cumbersome process, prone to errors as it was developed using a spreadsheet and multiple interaction, and this has thankfully given way to more productive methods in modern times.

It’s essential to align territories correctly if a sales force is to be effective at all. To do this, boundaries must be clearly defined, workload balances correctly determined, travel time minimised and contiguous territories carefully handled. Even though this may sound fairly clear, it’s often not so, and unless the sales executive’s time is protected from waste and fully optimised, the company simply won’t achieve its full potential. Unless the territory is correctly aligned, a sales executive could find that he or she is faced with the prospect of too many potential customers. This will undoubtedly result in a net loss in terms of productive time, as the high workload will result in ineffective interaction with individual clients. Conversely, if there are too few customers according to the allocated executive, the potential of the executive can be wasted in this situation and this can be aggravated if some of the people with the best track records are underutilised.

Before a sales force should be deployed, the pharmaceutical company must ensure that it has a comprehensive roadmap to success. This is all well and good, but the business executive at the top level has so much on his or her plate anyway and this can be a great challenge. While sales force effectiveness is obviously on the top of the list, they would do well to engage external assistance from pharmaceutical consultants to help them prioritise. A pharmaceutical consulting firm is fully cognisant of the need for adequate preparation, planning and optimisation of a sales force workload. Invariably, pharma consulting draws on many years of experience, training, education, industry knowledge and front line “street smarts,” enabling the company to be ready to do battle from day one.

A company’s sales force should not be deployed unless a number of criteria have been met, including strategic alignment, both current and future, goal and objective auditing, data incorporation and resource deployment, human and otherwise. Each individual must be honestly assessed to see where he or she should fit into the entire picture, given the anticipated workload. Any current deployment of resources should be highly criticised to expose any inequities in territory alignment.

In an ideal world, members of the sales force should each have a excellent and very productive track record. The sales executive isn’t responsible for territorial alignment or necessarily to seek out new clients within. Rather, with help from pharmaceutical consultants, the pharmaceutical company executives must set targets and goals and have created the perfect matrix to enable them to solicit the greatest gains, whether profit or otherwise.

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.