The changing role of sales reps in the Middle East

Posted by on Feb 2, 2010

Lisa Roner reports on tips and trends for sales force effectiveness in the Middle Eastern and North African markets.

Pharmaceutical companies in the Middle East and North Africa face many of the same challenges as their Western counterparts. But in some ways, the market in this region is still an emerging one, says Mohamed Abdellatif, business learning manager at Pfizer and a speaker at eyeforpharmas upcoming Sales Force Effectiveness MENA 2010 conference in Cairo, March 1-2 http://www.eyeforpharma.com/sfemena.

Companies in this market must really be focused on the value proposition and how different groups within each pharma company can work collaboratively to present that value to their customers, he says. Its not just sales force excellence. Its bigger than that; its more customer-centricity excellence.

Becoming customer centric

Wael El Zanaty, communications director at sanofi-aventis, says because the field force is the largest and most publicly accessible group within any pharma, reps are the voice of the company and must understand the corporate vision and mission and be able to communicate that to customers. El Zanaty, an expert in communicating to and through the sales force, says companies must keep in mind that reps are the first people to give full details of any company news, policy or activity to customers.

Reps must be well-versed in the organizations key values, management structure and vision even the corporate responsibility focus, he says. By translating these company priorities and values to customers, reps move beyond selling medicines to offering customers much more.

Pharma companies in the Middle East cannot simply replicate what US or European companies are doing, says Mohammad Hijazi, customer and disease understanding manager at Merck, Sharpe & Dohme in the United Arab Emirates. Key account management (KAM), although being implemented in the region, is not being used optimally, Hijazi says.

Key account management

Although companies say theyre using KAM approaches, he says, they really are still focusing simply on the customers that write the most prescriptions: Truly taking a KAM approach involves getting out of your comfort zone and understanding the influence and interactions of different individuals in an organization and using that to develop a plan to market your products and services. This kind of real KAM differentiates those companies really going outside their comfort zone and is very difficult for competitors to imitate.

But Abdellatif questions whether account-based selling is a step back from customer-centricity. You definitely have to look for partnerships in your accounts that return some value, he says. You want relationships with customers that will guide you and give you some direction in terms of where to go with your products, how you market and your value proposition.

Retaining GenY talent

Abdellatif also stresses the importance of creating a management environment and the motivation the sales force needs to be successful. Particularly with the GenY workforce of today, this is a real challenge, he says. This is a generation thats not averse to taking risks and that is, therefore, more prone to turnover. Retaining them and keeping them engaged is difficult. So companies that can position themselves as the preferable place for GenY talent, will be the winners.

He says companies must provide more autonomy for the sales force. You cant just set expectations for them and dictate what they do and how, Abdellatif explains. We must allow them to set their own objectives and empower them to react to the dynamic markets of today. We must trust them to lead us to invest in the right places and provide potential for our companies.

Abdellatif, El Zanaty and Hijazi will join a host of top executives from the region to speak at eyeforpharmas SFE MENA 2010 conference in Cairo, March 1-2. To register to attend or for additional information, please visit http://www.eyeforpharma.com/sfemena.