Customer contribution must become a more important metric, when key account management designation is under consideration. It is no longer acceptable for traditional measures to be used and the pharmaceutical consultant must tell senior management that it needs a better definition of a client’s contribution. There certainly was a time when money was not as much of an issue as it is now, the business world was much more straightforward and management could just look at monthly sales activity, or the level of market share, to determine just how important a particular client was in the overall scheme of things. At that time, calculations were relatively simple and were based on how much money came through the pipeline from a particular client and how much was spent in terms of time and effort by the pharmaceutical company in order to ensure that the client was relatively happy.
Not surprisingly, pharmaceutical marketing training teaches us that key account management is only one part of several major components, when customer relationship marketing and management is considered. The management of key accounts depends a lot on an analysis of a customer’s make-up, taking into account how much the customer is worth over a lifetime and this is increasingly important as we consider whether a particular lifecycle is dependent on the strength of a product, a certain scenario or other metric. The pharmaceutical consultancy is well aware how key account management revolves around the ability to develop a meaningful relationship and it almost goes without saying that one size most definitely does not fit all, as far as this is concerned.
When it comes to customer contribution, this can often be rather difficult to quantify. Does the customer represent a strategic ally for the company? As politics within the industry becomes ever more prevalent, it’s quite conceivable that a customer could be designated as “key,” even though the actual financial contribution to the company’s turnover is relatively small. In terms of lobbying or other methods of tangible or intangible support, it could be well worthwhile for the company to elevate this particular client to a pedestal, alongside those who may be contributing a great deal more in financial terms.
Pharmaceutical marketing training must be structured in such a way that the relatively diverse contributions of each and every client can be ascertained and we need to see how these subtle nuances can be manipulated in favour of the company. The pharmaceutical consultant might even have to engage in a certain amount of psychological analysis, training those who are on the front-line to adequately interpret the finer details associated with these accounts.
It appears that almost 2/3 of pharmaceutical companies are not really aware of this approach and consider that key account management is dictated almost exclusively by sales volume alone. This is where a good pharmaceutical consultancy will step in, bringing education to the line and helping to educate representatives for the task ahead. It is more and more difficult to communicate effectively with a professional in the field, so the company must become much more focused on the finer details, when it comes to managing its existing client portfolio. Pharmaceutical marketing training will need to avoid the use of a broad brush in the future, but focus more on the touch of an artist repainting the Sistine Chapel, as key account management comes to terms with this new reality.
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.