The pharmaceutical industry is under immense pressure to increase sales and grow its business. To meet these goals, pharmaceutical companies need to have a sales force that is compliant, efficient, and able to manage complex customer relationships.
While many traditional sales approaches are no longer effective in today’s market, there are new technologies that can. One of the best ways a pharmaceutical company can stay competitive is by implementing a sales performance solution.
In this article, expert Mark Stiffler explains how sales performance solutions can help pharmaceutical companies succeed.
Table of Contents
What is Sales Performance Management?
Sales Performance Management systems help organizations increase sales and grow their business. The systems help manage and track employee performance, identify areas for improvement, and create training and development plans. Sales Performance Management systems can also automate tasks such as lead management, customer relationship management, territory management, and order management.
Sales performance solutions can help pharmaceutical companies in multiple ways, from regulatory compliance to customer relationship management.
1. Compliance
The FDA regulates the pharmaceutical industry to keep patients safe and ensure that pharmaceutical companies provide accurate information about their products. Because of this, all companies in the industry must comply with many regulations. According to the FDA, pharmaceutical noncompliance penalties range from warning letters to fines and prison time.
Sales performance solutions can help companies ensure that their sales teams comply with these regulations. The solutions can track employee activities and provide real-time reports on compliance. Managers can quickly identify and correct any potential issues.
For example, one of the FDA regulations states that pharmaceutical representatives must not make false or misleading claims about their products. A sales performance solution can help managers track the claims made by sales representatives. If a representative makes a false claim, the manager can take immediate action to correct the issue.
2. Complex Relationship Management
In the pharmaceutical industry, customer relationships are complex. Pharmaceutical companies must manage physician relationships, hospital relationships, and payer relationships. They must also keep track of patients, prescriptions, and product sales.
Sales performance solutions can help by automating customer relationships, leads, and order management. They can also provide reports on customer behavior and sales data. For example, a sales performance solution can help a pharmaceutical company track the number of prescriptions each physician writes. The company can then use this information to identify the most influential physicians and target them for marketing and sales campaigns.
3. Improved Efficiency
The pharmaceutical industry is a highly competitive market. Companies need to be efficient in their sales and marketing efforts to succeed. Sales performance solutions can help companies improve efficiency by automating tasks and providing real-time reports.
For example, a sales performance solution can automate lead management. The system can generate leads based on criteria such as geographic location, specialty, and prescription types. The sales team can then focus on selling to these leads rather than generating leads themselves.
A sales performance solution can also provide real-time reports on sales data. Mark Stiffler believes his information can help managers identify areas of improvement and create plans to increase sales.
4. Adapt To Changing Sales Plans
New products are released, and old products are discontinued in the pharmaceutical industry all the time. This fluidity means that sales plans need to be constantly updated. Sales performance solutions can help companies adapt to changing sales plans by providing flexible tools and reporting capabilities.
A sales performance solution can help managers quickly create new territories when products are released in new geographic areas. The solution can also help managers identify which products are selling well and which are not. This information can be used to make changes to the sales plan.
5. Increased Sales
The ultimate goal of any pharmaceutical company is to increase sales. Sales performance solutions can help companies increase their sales by providing tools to improve efficiency and effectiveness. The platform can also provide reports on sales data that can be used to make changes to the sales plan.
Let’s say your managers are looking to boost sales of a particular product. They can use a sales performance solution to create a territory targeting physicians specializing in the product’s therapeutic area. Mark Stiffler advises the solution can also be used to generate leads and track the number of prescriptions written. This information can then be used to make changes to the sales plan.
6. Automating Administrative Tasks
In the pharmaceutical industry, many administrative tasks need to be completed daily. These tasks can be time-consuming and take away from selling time. Sales performance solutions can help companies automate these tasks and free up time for selling.
Let’s say your company needs to send out a series of educational materials to physicians. A sales performance solution can help you automate this process in a few ways. The solution can generate mailing lists, print labels, and send the materials automatically. The system can also be used to create a template for the information that needs to be sent. This template can then be used to cohesively brand future materials in the series.
Final Thoughts
The pharmaceutical industry is a highly competitive market, and companies must be efficient in their sales and marketing efforts to succeed. Sales performance solutions can help companies improve efficiency by automating tasks and providing real-time reports. In addition, sales performance solutions can help companies adapt to changing sales plans and increase sales.
