Edition 13 March 2007

15/05/2007

Welcome to the first PSM of 2007. This year promises to be one of great change; for the UK pharmaceutical industry and its customer base, for sales management, and for the PSMG as a whole.

Our January meeting at Warren House, Richmond, saw the election of a new steering committee for the Group, comprising a few new faces and plenty of old ones. It is with a degree of hesitancy that I use the term ''old'' as the seminar on Age Discrimination at our last meeting warned of the great challenges facing not just the pharma industry, but UK business in general as it grapples with the new legislation. The nuances of employment law will doubtless become a feature of PSM and the meetings agenda in 2007 look out for features on this area in the coming months.

For now, though, we look at the evolving NHS and how the industry can exploit the new and emerging customer groups brought about by the Government''s current reform agenda. Paul Midgley''s article (p.3) provides a comprehensive overview of the White Paper: Our Health, Our Care, Our Say and the opportunities this presents for the pharma sector. Many of these opportunities rely upon building and developing relationships with new prescribing influences. Clearly, the time for giving a little more than lip service to the notion of ''partnerships'' has arrived. In April, the next PSMG meeting at Ettington Park, Stratford will develop this theme further, taking a detailed look at Supplementary Prescribing and how pharma could benefit from a shift away from traditional GP detailing. Of course, the changing shape of the NHS does not mean that the industry should rip up a sales model that has served it so well in the past. People buy from people, or so the cliche goes; and to this extent, many of the skills demonstrated by the best sales professionals remain as essential today as they did yesterday. The question is: what are those skills, and how do you develop them in others? Judy Shaws article (p.6) provides some useful pointers, and is wonderfully supported by Andy Beech''s piece on Coaching (p.8). We also take a look at the true benefits of CRM, and assess the all-pervading issue of compliance in pharmaceutical sales.

Yes, 2007 could really be a new age for pharmaceutical sales. But were not supposed to mention age, are we?

Have a great quarter, and I hope to see you at Ettington Park in April.


Kerry Stove
Chairman of the PSMG