First, the essence of business is market competition, and the market is the battlefield.

Business people should have a sales mindset, and salespeople need to have a business perspective. There is a view that sales and business are different positions in pharmaceutical companies, with different responsibilities and assessment standards, and it is difficult to integrate the two positions, so you can focus on your own duties. However, the performance appraisal of most pharmaceutical companies is still stuck in the "butt determines the head" standard, and there is rarely a global vision of "the head decides the butt". It is beneficial for sales and business to empathize, but it cannot completely resolve all conflicts and disputes. At the time of the transformation of the pharmaceutical industry, cross-disciplinary talents who are both proficient in sales and business are increasingly becoming valuable resources for enterprises to compete for. The business position in the pharmaceutical industry is born out of the sales department, which independently undertakes basic work such as payment flow, and at the same time shoulders the responsibility of supervision function and bridge between internal and external communication.

Second, solve the sales problem.

The core of business is "selling". When business representatives need to solve sales challenges, they first need to know themselves and their opponents.

Product import and conversion. Learn about product qualifications, market access, exclusivity, and more. Enterprise advantages, raw material advantages, and marketing models need to be clear. Analyze market competitors, business patterns, enterprise layouts, distribution points, etc. Optimize the distribution path to meet the requirements of procurement profit, account period, payment collection, and inventory assessment. 2. Dynamic marketing strategy. Terminal dynamic sales pay attention to coverage rate, purchase rewards, purchase times, and input-output ratio. Business people need to have a clear understanding of these indicators to enhance their competitiveness and negotiation skills. 3. Channel and terminal management. The product is delivered to the terminal through professional channels, and needs a doctor's prescription, a clerk's recommendation, etc. to reach the user. Familiar with the distribution method, understand the terminal gross profit, account period, settlement and other details. Master regional protection, distribution strategy, price maintenance, etc. 4. Improve sales performance. Successful sales require a reasonable channel strategy, focusing on purchase scenarios, consumer experience, product display, etc. Understand applicable departments, prescription habits, recommendation techniques, etc., to improve sales performance.

Third, Solving the problem of "how to sell right, sell well, and sell for a long time" is the key task for the business team to cooperate with the sales department to achieve the strategic goals of the enterprise.

How to sell it right? The right distribution business choice should be in line with the corporate strategy and product characteristics. Unfortunately, many companies tend to rely on the sales department rather than the more professional business department in this decision-making process, resulting in some irrational business decisions. Optimize product positioning and channel strategy to achieve professional business management. The "traffic products" with price advantages choose to do the pure sales business of terminal control; The "star products" with the advantage of quantity are committed to county-level commerce. The root cause of all these dislocations is that professional things are not handed over to professional people to do, and there is no use of professional business tools (classification and classification, market research) to do market analysis, and there is no full right to give advice to the business department. The solution is simple: let business personnel participate in channel design, channel selection, and give professional advice, rather than passively accepting and implementing.

How to sell well? The "good" here refers to the result-oriented thinking of business personnel in the new product introduction stage, assisting sales colleagues to distribute products to the terminal, achieving maximum coverage and increasing sales. For the new product introduction stage, the two sentences in the management world are wise sayings: shoot first and then aim, develop first and then standardize. With sales as the basis, enterprises have the right to speak in the market, and the follow-up brand building is not a castle in the air. To this day, there are still conservative business personnel who mechanically and dogmatically understand the targeted sales and price management of business functions, without considering the actual market and customer differences, and using compliance as a legitimate reason to uniformly require businesses to sell to designated customers at a uniform price, otherwise they will deduct rebates, stop delivery, and stop cooperation. The end result may be to cut enough to fit the performance, set self-limits, and delay in opening the situation, while competing products take advantage of the situation and seize market share. The solution is very simple: keep the bottom line (no channeling, no chaotic prices), at the same time, let go of the rules and regulations, take the terminal distribution rate as the only assessment standard, and quickly improve the market coverage and improve the terminal sales.

How to sell for a long time? The "long" here refers to the continuous and long-term, the product enters the growth period after the introduction period, prolongs the maturity period, and postpones the decline period. To achieve this goal, the most fundamental guarantee is stable prices, orderly channels, and compliant operations. The supervision and supervision function of business personnel should play an important role at this time, and all sales behaviors that are not conducive to the stability of prices and channels, and are not conducive to the reputation of products and enterprises must be supervised and stopped. The measures to achieve this goal are: give full play to the supervision and supervision functions of the commercial department, give full authorization, and become the "discipline supervision commission" of enterprises to maintain market order, so as to ensure the orderly operation of the market. As a functional department that is highly consistent with the strategic goals of the enterprise, the business department and the sales department are the wings of the business system, and play an irreplaceable and important role in the ultimate realization of the strategic goals of the enterprise.

After selling correctly, selling well, and selling for a long time, how to gradually form the digital assets of the enterprise? The application of digital technology has become a key tool to improve the work efficiency of commercial sales representatives and manage customers in a refined manner. Cyberblue, for example, provides a digital solution for a leading pharmaceutical state-owned enterprise in China to manage more than 100 business people across the country. The program aims to stimulate the sales potential of business personnel and achieve detailed management of business customers and end customers. In order to achieve this goal, the first step is to classify data management for commercial companies and end customers, and divide commercial companies into core business and distribution-type business, while end customers are divided into three categories: A, B, and C, of which Class A end customers are directly managed by digital commercial sales representatives, so as to strengthen the control of core end customers, and finally form the digital assets of the enterprise.

Fourth, the core functions of digital sales representatives include:

Promote online digital activities and evaluate the coverage capabilities of core commercial companies: Online ordering fairs or marketing activities (such as terminal training, quiz games) initiated by the headquarters are promoted by digital merchandising representatives to commercial companies, and then from commercial companies to end customers. Assess the reach of commercial companies by monitoring their ability to attract end pharmacy customers online.

Screening core end customers to provide better resources: Traditionally, business reps have only been able to manage end customers through sales flow and understand monthly purchase volumes. However, with the help of a digital distribution promotion platform, it is possible to track the progress of the commercial company's event offers, identify the end customers with high stickiness, who not only order regularly, but also show loyalty to commercial and industrial products, thus allowing the company to segment the core end customers.

The sales representative can more directly manage the commercial companies and end customers in the jurisdiction: each sales representative's workbench visually displays the A, B, and C customers in the jurisdiction, so that the sales representative can clearly see the number of end customers covered by the commercial companies in the jurisdiction. Through the distribution platform, it is possible to discover which commercial companies cover more customers in the region and purchase more and more activity of enterprise products, so as to realize the transformation from results management to process management.

Online and offline integration: Closely integrate offline business scenarios with online digital means to achieve seamless connection and expand business coverage and service capabilities. The digital distribution platform empowers online to simultaneously hold offline order fairs, terminal academic meetings, free clinics and other activities, integrating offline and online sales in the jurisdiction, not only simply transferring offline sales to online, but combining the distribution strength of commercial companies with offline business management and online digital mining capabilities to ensure that online and offline linkage produces synergies. 

Refined customer management: Through the refined analysis and management of customer data, strengthen customer insight, formulate personalized customer service and marketing strategies, and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. This management approach can more effectively provide customized services to the needs of different categories of customers, thereby improving the experience of end pharmacy customers. When targeting in-depth services to A-type customers, digital merchandising reps are able to capture real-time data on customers' buying behavior and preferences to provide them with personalized product recommendations and campaign plans. At the same time, with the help of data analysis tools, we are able to more accurately predict market trends, optimize inventory management and improve supply chain efficiency. This will help merchandising reps better meet sales task metrics in their jurisdiction.

Improve marketing efficiency: By optimizing the marketing process, reduce the waste of resources, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of promotion activities, and ensure the maximum return on resource investment. Because in the distribution promotion platform, we can better analyze the core procurement needs of pharmacies, and further discover the enthusiasm of commercial companies when organizing marketing activities according to the progress of commercial companies' invitations. This helps to ensure the implementation of event and promotion policies and optimize the marketing process. The ultimate goal is to implement the policy to pharmacies rather than idling it within the channel.

In the increasingly fierce market competition in the pharmaceutical industry, the close cooperation between business and sales is particularly important. Through empathy and the cultivation of cross-domain capabilities, enterprises can better solve the problem of "how to sell right, sell well, and sell for a long time", and realize the effective sales of products and the improvement of market share. At the same time, the application of digital technology provides business personnel with more efficient working methods and more accurate market analysis tools, which helps enterprises seize opportunities in the midst of change and achieve sustainable development. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies should pay attention to the synergy between business and sales, and make full use of digital means to improve marketing efficiency to cope with market challenges and changes.

Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com