If organised properly, planning is all very well and good with an adequate marketing strategy outlined on paper, but it’s essential to remember that nothing happens unless action is taken. No one ever wins a lottery prize without buying a ticket and in business terms, revenues may not be realised unless action occurs in the marketplace. Selling within the pharmaceutical business is much more than inking contracts and exchanging products for cash, it is also about management of reputations, the education of professionals and end users and corporate positioning. There are a lot of subtle steps involved when establishing a client account and ensuring that values are transferred and objectives met. It is so important to develop and train a meaningful sales and marketing team and a pharmaceutical consulting firm has widespread and intense experience in this arena.

Senior management must ensure that all members are team players. To ensure that the ultimate marketing results are achieved, the team must be effectively managed and pharmaceutical consultants are fully positioned to do this. The team members must be able to quantify and visualise and objectives must be controlled and measured at all times. Day by day programs are part of an ultimate and achievable goal and when a team works together as one, good results can be anticipated.

After planning is complete, the sales force must put it into action. There is a time and a place for the planning and charting of the program, but no sales are made until executives interact in the real world. While a sales team may be composed of experienced players, there is nevertheless a lot to learn about the health care industry in particular and training is an essential part of staff handling. Without adequate coaching and being unaware of potential loopholes ahead, time can be wasted and worse still, clients can be overlooked or lost in such a competitive marketplace. As they have a considerable amount of experience in the industry, pharma consulting firms appreciate time management and know that full application and dedication is required before key results may be achieved.

Never assume, as this inevitably leads to confusion and poor productivity. To be effective, the sales team member must be fully aware of the cohesive importance of a true team. Celebrate the contribution of each team member and make sure that it is completely visible to all concerned. Once again, the overall goal is to engage and not to procrastinate. Three critical components make up an effective salesperson – creativity, assertiveness and flair.

When in the marketplace, the salesman or woman must be fully up to speed on product details, benefits, solutions and item availability, but must also be an effective manager, able to prioritise and still achieve stated benchmarks and goals. Effective implementation requires core skills, but also ongoing training and perfect management, both for the individual and for a marketing force as a whole. Invariably, pharmaceutical consulting organisations are primed and ready to take on these challenges.

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.

It is fair to say that, economically, a pharmaceutical company's bottom line requires it to sell products competitively, but a larger viewer should also be taken. The company occupies a key position, from a marketing perspective, between the government and other regulators and ultimately the patient. This dynamic environment is sometimes difficult to understand and pharmaceutical consultants can definitely benefit the company as it struggles to remain competitive.

Pharmaceutical companies must conform to strict FDA regulations, best use practices and study scientific benchmarks to provide products and services for ongoing use. Marketing plays a critical role in this arrangement and is far more than just a means to an end. The physician or pharmacist has to juggle a lot of information, much of it based on older science, together with the wants and needs of the patient and budgetary restrictions applied by insurance companies or individual positions.

The direct communication between health care professionals and the pharmaceutical companies through various marketing channels ultimately dictates the efficient delivery of products and services to the end-user, the patient. It follows that the standard of this marketing and its effectiveness directly contributes to the patient's ability to live a longer, healthier and more productive life. It’s crucial to remember that these forms of marketing represent a two way street. The company must not only communicate the benefits and risks of its product to the professional, the reasoning and science behind its introduction and instructions for its use, but the professional must give real world feedback and crucial data to the company.

The contribution of pharma consulting should never be underestimated as it can help to emphasise how certain conditions can be treated by emerging products and help to reveal how other illnesses, previously under-served, could be addressed. We still have many conditions without a cure and pharmaceutical company research can often go a long way to bridging that gap, if not even enabling cutting-edge treatment for patients. Just because the pharmaceutical products may exist, it does not mean that these products will find their way into the hands of the consumer. Marketing plays a critical role in disseminating the information from one end of the chain to the other, into the hands of the professionals for communication with the patient.

As more and more information is revealed through scientific study, product creation and government rubber-stamping, more of a spotlight is turned on the need for treatment of chronic diseases. As such, any by-products or side effects of new solutions may not become known, nor the link between cure and original illness exposed, unless strong marketing channels are open between all concerned.

In most instances, pharmaceutical consulting firms can also play a critical role in educating clients, producers and users. Their experience, knowledge and enthusiasm can really help to turn the wheels of the marketing machine, continuously engaging all key players and producing incredible results in such a competitive environment.

Alan Gillies is the Director of L2L Consulting, an elite pharmaceutical consultancy firm which specialises in Strategy Development and Implementation Excellence for prestigious multi-national organisations.