Correspondence: Aleksandar Ruzicic, Roland Berger AG Neumünsterallee 12 CH-8008 Zürich Switzerland. Tel: +41 (0) 44 384 81 67; Fax: +41 (0) 44 384 81 19; e-mail: aleksandar_ruzicic@ch.rolandberger.com

¹is 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.

²is 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'.

Abstract

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.