High Sales Force Effectiveness Requires The Correct Approach

A sales force must be incentivised if it is to be truly effective. This must be correctly approached however, as it is often poorly thought out or even bypassed, leading to lacklustre results, a reduction in morale and the inefficient use of a key resource. It is not good enough for a pharmaceutical company to rest on its laurels when it comes to its creative ability, as it will be judged by the effectiveness of its sales and marketing team, which must be well trained. Such a team must be comprehensive, well balanced, able to employ different strategies and techniques and perform to a high-level of efficiency within a tough commercial field. Most pharmaceutical consultants have a wide range of experience themselves and know full well how to motivate, manage and process a sales team.

The achievement of the sale is not the end of the story. It is true to say that without sales nothing happens, but many different factors must be used to judge the absolute value of a sale. However efficient the executive, without the creation of a good relationship between both parties, the long-term baseline value of the transaction is questionable. As such, it is important that the company applies incentives very carefully and selectively, so that a “win-win” situation is always achieved.

It is human nature for an individual to likely be more productive if he or she is incentivised. This will require the creation of sensible goals related to existing benchmarks. If this is handled correctly it will create a volatile and effective environment, but it can also be detrimental if handled poorly. Rather than setting a goal, the incentive path should be a journey with multiple tiers and an endpoint that is always just out of reach. This will ensure that the sales executive is constantly engaged.

In most cases, pharmaceutical consulting firms tell us that sales executives spend the majority of their time on ancillary and sometimes mundane administrative work and a minority of their time in direct communication with prospects or engaged with client management. Due to this amazing statistic, time management should be a top priority and executives should do whatever they can to cut down on the ancillary or administrative work necessary. Indeed, if these boring tasks get completely out of control, certain personality types can rebel and this can have a serious, knock-on effect on creativity and achievements.

If a comprehensive training program is practised by the organisation, each team member will get the feeling that he or she is dynamically engaged with the overall goal. While administrative burdens should be kept to a minimum as we have said, training must nevertheless be prioritised. This should include product awareness as well as methodology and techniques, and the latest procedures can be implemented through pharma consulting firms. Such companies have been proven to raise morale, cut out negative emotions, inject just the right amount of enthusiasm and draw on their extensive industry background.

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.