Year in Review 2013: Sales

#1 – Keep It Simple: Improving Sales Force Effectiveness

The first piece I wanted to highlight comes from our flagship Barcelona conference earlier this year and argues for renewed focus on the core tenants of sales. Adam Wood, Training & Sales Excellence at Bayer’s Global Marketing Operations, reminds us that despite the ongoing initiatives in customer-centricity and patient centric approaches, when it comes to sales, it’s important not to forget to actually concentrate once in a while on the fundamentals. Wood makes the argument that Sales Force Excellence is alive and well, it’s simply evolving, read more by clicking the link above.

#2 – The Three Components Series

Continuing our ‘back to basics’ theme for the moment, a valuable addition to the eyeforpharma Columnists roster this year was Ifti Ahmed, the former Head of Sales Academy at Merck Serono and current Managing Partner at Titanium Partners. He provided our audience with easily our most popular column of 2013 – and it started with the miniseries ‘The Three Components of a Successful Sale’.

This four part series examines the overall structure of a sale, before breaking down and examining each individual component in extraordinarily comprehensive detail. The first part can be read by clicking the link above, where you’ll also find links to the rest of the series – I strongly recommend this for anyone in the sales field!

#3 – Working with ACOs – Pharma as a Trusted Advisor

After several years and numerous messy debates in the senate, the Affordable Care Act came into full force in the US earlier on this year. The debate over public vs private care reignited earlier this year too following a Democratic/Republic head to head and a government shutdown.

Despite this theatre though, the reality is that with legislation now in effect and the framework well and truly in place, the pharmaceutical industry needs to reacquaint itself with the American Healthcare Industry. One new addition to stakeholder ranks is the Accountable Care Organization (ACO), and earlier on this year, Howard Buff, CEO of Orange Health Solutions shared his thoughts on how the industry might be able to collaborate and ingratiate with ACOs for the mutual benefit of industry and physician.

#4 – Understanding and Selling Value – the Role of the Sales Team

One key word of the 2013 was ‘value’, value added services, beyond the pill, customer-centricity; they’re now seeping into every aspect of the pharmaceutical model. Naturally, this includes sales. As such, James Robinson of Model N explains why your sales teams need to be looking beyond the obvious, and highlighting the inherent value in the products and services you provide.

#5 – (White Paper) Tomorrow’s Salesperson

One of our biggest white paper projects of the year was ‘Tomorrow’s Salesperson’. The paper, which features interviews from some of the industry’s most forward-thinking minds, examines where sales will be in years to come and lays out the steps you need to take today to ensure you get there.

As always, the paper is free to download and I believe that it’s a valuable peek into what’s in store for pharmaceutical sales.