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. Most notably, the all-important clients must be handled very carefully and certain key account management policies and techniques must be developed, so that mature relationships proliferate.

These days, key account management training is so important as the company develops a line of procedural guidelines, disseminated from the highest levels for clarity. 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.

As soon as a pharmaceutical company knows that a certain account is “key,” pharmaceutical sales training kicks in to ensure that the details of this relationship are perfectly disseminated and communicated throughout the company to all of those who are impacted. 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.

As over delivery is so important, the pharmaceutical company should set up and maintain a regular process of planning, review and maintenance, so that the relationship is fully serviced.

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.

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.

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