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AUTHOR(S):

Aleksandar Ruzicic is Principal at the Zurich office of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. He has extensive experience in advising international pharmaceutical companies on strategic and operational topics, ranging from R & D to marketing and sales. He has also worked on European and global transformation programmes in the area of salesforce effectiveness. He is the author of ‘Success Strategies for Pharmaceutical e-Marketing and Sales: The European perspective’, published by Scrip Reports.

Stephan Danner is Partner at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants’ Global Pharmaceutical & Healthcare Competence Center. He works with global pharmaceutical clients to design and implement corporate strategies and high-performance operating models. He has extensive experience in rolling out salesforce effectiveness initiatives across Europe and worldwide. He has published a series of studies and articles on these topics, among them ‘The European pharmaceutical industry: Delivering sales excellence in turbulent times’.

INTRODUCTION

As the healthcare environment for the pharmaceutical industry is undergoing major changes, salesforce effectiveness replaces the traditional 'size sells paradigm'. Consequently, pharmaceutical companies are being forced to optimise both their bottom and top line. This paper applied a quantitative approach based on an interactive survey to analyse these developments. The survey results confirmed major trends, including the growing importance of payors, and showed that the development of salesforce size and structure will soon head in a different direction as sales representative numbers stop growing. Clearly, there is no silver bullet with which pharmaceutical companies can increase salesforce effectiveness. The industry is, therefore, preparing for the future by exploring and piloting innovative sales and marketing models. Once they have identified a suitable approach to salesforce effectiveness and implemented it in the best possible way, companies can create competitive advantages.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL Journal of Medical Marketing ISSN: 1745-7904 The Journal of Medical Marketing is guided by its respected Editor Dr Leonard Lerer (INSEAD) and an international Editorial Board of leading academics and senior practitioners from the medical industry. The Journal aims to facilitate excellence in marketing and strategic management in the pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic and other markets in which the customer is a clinician or related professional. Every quarter the Journal contains a range of peer-reviewed papers, including both practitioner studies and leading edge academic research, covering the breadth of the industry. The Journal also provides expert analysis of the changes taking place in the global medical market, and reviews the latest market research reports available in all three industry sectors.