The Fundamental Importance Of Effective Implementation For A Sales Team
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. As such, implementation includes measurement and control, as well as overall co-ordination of daily and weekly activities. 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.
Invariably, pharmaceutical consultants know full well that, while preparation, projection and analysis are important, nothing happens unless the plan is actually executed. All activities must first be co-ordinated, indicating who, what, when and where and the sales force must be conditioned to eliminate any potential distractions or objections that they may face. 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. Every member of the sales team contributes to the whole objective and other members must be aware of each contribution. 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.
Effective implementation does not require the practitioner to be an automaton, just because attention to detail and an ability to manage time are of high importance. He or she must understand that one of the obstacles ahead is the threat of becoming overwhelmed. 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.
Highly effective implementation is a trademark of a top pharma consulting organisation, a firm that is fully able to train sales and marketing personnel to achieve and be rewarded within the tough pharmaceutical industry.
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.
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