L2L Group

One of the ongoing challenges facing the pharmaceutical company is the attraction, motivation, management and handling of key salespeople. The company itself has a significant reputation in the marketplace and has allocated certain resources to the development of its reputation and the dissemination of its cutting-edge products. Every organisation is, of course, very dynamic and its ongoing success will depend on the correct, but complex interaction of many moving parts, on an ongoing basis. The organisation will have to pay much attention to how its all important clients are handled and this will involve the development of key account management techniques and policies, to ensure successful relationships with implied integrity.

Much will hinge on the success of key account management training and an organisation may be stringent in the development of policies and procedures and very clear at the senior level about its objectives. However, one of the major challenges facing the company hierarchy is one of communicating to its sales staff through pharmaceutical sales training and in turn ensuring that the level of communication, both outgoing and incoming to and from a client organisation, is perfectly formed.

In truth, a relationship between a supplier and buyer may rise or fall on the strength of communication, which can sometimes be as relatively tenuous as an interpersonal relationship between two people -- the key account client contact and the key account manager at the pharmaceutical company end.

When it has been established that an account must retain "key" status, the pharmaceutical company must define the nature of this relationship very clearly and must communicate the appropriate elements of this definition throughout the company through good pharma training. In doing so, these actions and responses are coordinated and consistent. Of course it is difficult to automate every element of the policy; after all, human elements are always present. It must be recognised that there is potential for a breakdown of relationship if too much emphasis is placed on a particular individual at the interface level. Rather, it should be necessary to build a network of channels between the company and its clients, both formal and informal if needed, so that the risk of catastrophic failure is minimised.

The pharmaceutical company would be best served by establishing and implementing regular development, planning and review meetings and exercises, with the clear aim of "over delivering" to satisfy the relationship.

The primary motivators behind the ongoing establishment of a relationship are seldom restricted to finance alone and it is likely that the sharing of pertinent and confidential information between both parties could be key to the ongoing relationship. In this respect, it is critical that the pharmaceutical company identifies the all-important receiving role within the client organisation and the individual who fills this role, so that a sharing of information can be facilitated. The challenge is to establish a sophisticated level of interpersonal relations and communication, without placing too much emphasis on the importance of any one individual within either organisation. In this way, should one "key" individual be removed or depart for whatever reason, ongoing function may be retained.