Proper incentivisation is critical to the effectiveness of an organisation’s sales force. 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. The pharmaceutical company may be a leader in its field, be very creative and with cutting-edge solutions, but the organisation will only be truly effective if its sales and marketing team is well prepared and 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. While winning a sale is undoubtedly important, as after all without sales nothing is achieved, there must be tangible and measurable value attached to the sale, from every point of view. 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. Correct incentivisation will enhance the effectiveness of the sales force, but the opposite is also true. 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. This is why time management should be considered as a top priority and company executives should never put onerous administrative and accounting burdens in front of their productive sales team. 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.
A sales force will only be really effective if a comprehensive training process is in place and the team member must feel that he or she is part of a dynamic organisation. 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. These companies can bring a lot to the corporate table, using an extensive industry background, a variety of different perspectives, pep talks and rallies at just the right time to eliminate even the traces of negative emotions.
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.