Sales Force Acceleration

Question

Can someone here tell me if there's a framework for accelerating the sales force effectiveness for a medical/pharma company? Please suggest how to go about it.

Answer 1

Hi there,

I cannot stress how it important it is to be able to come up with this framework yourself.

You are going to get a lot more of these questions that have no framework. There is a reason for this: They are testing your ability to think critically about a problem and break it down logically.

Please please train for this. You will invariably get hit with a case prompt that is of a type you haven't seen before.

I'm going to give you the answer below, but this isn't what really helps you. PM me and let's schedule a coaching session - you need to learn how to create these on your own!

I recommend the following structure:

Improve the people - i.e. hire better salesmen
Improve the tools - i.e. bring in CRM tools like salesforce, chat tools like Slack, data anlytics to optimize offers, etc.
Improve the processes - rapid escalation of issues, flagging potential opportunities, matching salesperson personalities with client personalities, etc

How do I use frameworks in a case?

If there's anything to remember in this process, is that cases don't exist just because. They have come about because of a real need to simulate the world you will be in when you are hopefully hired. As such, remember that they are a simplified version of what we do, and they test you in those areas.

As such, remember that a framework is a guide, not a mandate. In the real-world, we do not go into a client and say "right, we have a framework that says we need to look at x, y, and z and that's exactly what we're going to do". Rather, we come in with a view, a hypothesis, a plan of attack. The moment this view is created, it's wrong! Same with your framework. The point is that it gives us and you a starting point. We can say "right, part 1 of framework is around this. Let's dig around and see if it helps us get to the answer". If it does, great, we go further (but specific elements of it will certainly be wrong). If it doesn't, we move on.

So, in summary, learn your frameworks, use the ones you like, add/remove to them if the specific case calls for it, and always be prepared to be wrong. Focus rather on having a view, refering back to the initial view to see what is still there and where you need to dive into next to solve the problem.