B2B Markeplace

The key to effective marketing essentially lies in taking action. Someone once said that you cannot score a goal unless you first take a shot, so in marketing terms the best intent in the world is worthless unless you actually go out and do something. Within the pharmaceutical industry, effective marketing is more than just making professionals aware of the products available, it is about a host of other objectives as well, including reputational management, education and positioning. Often, sales and marketing is involved with stating a case and protecting a position, rather than achieving the results in terms of dollar revenue. This subtle interaction of skills makes the selection of a core sales and marketing team very important, and because of this, many forward-thinking companies engage the services of a pharmaceutical consulting firm to help them implement.

Management is all-important and all those supplemental activities must be brought together to make the whole more effective. This will include coordination of day-by-day duties, but also a general oversight, levels of measurement and coordination. All members of the sales and marketing team must be clearly aware of what is required of them and that their actions cannot be isolated, but must be seen as an integral part of the company’s overall objectives.

Most pharmaceutical consultants will confirm that the heart of any plan implementation is in the execution, and no amount of paperwork, charting or spreadsheet construction will be of use unless things actually get done. The coordinator will marshal the operations of the sales force and will educate them in the difficulties they will face in the battlefield. They must be adequately coached and aware of any loopholes and obstacles that they will undoubtedly encounter. They must be able to focus without distraction if need be and single-mindedly concentrate on the task in hand. If a team member is not familiar with time management, this rises to job number one, as prioritisation is critical to production. Of course this does not mean that more mundane elements should be ignored, just categorised and prioritised accordingly.

Important characteristics of a sales team member include thoroughness and attention to detail. Each member of the sales team must be fully aware of the role of others and how they individually contribute to the holistic objective. Assumptions should never be made, as vital tasks or elements could be missed in this way and procrastination should be viewed as the enemy of efficiency.

While detail orientation is very important, as is time management, this level of implementation should not stifle the creative powers of the salesperson. It is easy to become overwhelmed and this must be guarded against. Whomever is able to rise above distractions will really produce good results for the organisation. Through prioritisation, primary tasks are always achieved. Delegation is fine if it helps with the overall goal, but no assumptions should ever be made.

Generally, pharma consulting organisations are well trained in the keys to effective implementation and are more than capable of training a sales and marketing force to take on the complex, challenging yet rewarding role of marketing within the pharmaceutical industry.

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.