Does re-labelling reps create account managers?

Two major questions are currently around: 1) Will there be a new sales model? 2) What will it look like? Since I tend to differentiate, it is not about a new

By Hanno Wolfram on Aug 14, 2009

Two major questions are currently around:



  1. Will there be a new sales model?

  2. What will it look like?

Since I tend to differentiate, it is not about a new business model - this might be different size of shoes.


As long as we believe there is a new sales model let us have a look at the novelty it might bear:


Account management I know since decades - so nothing really new. It stood (or stands?) for visiting hospitals trying to get treatmenst of in-patients and proper recommendation for dismissed patients. since decades we have been talking about  the "spill-over effect" from hospital treatments into the medical community.


So what then might be new about accounts then?
Assumedly it will be getting more professional meaning that the biggest difference from earlier days to today is: it really is about selling - some have a synonym for account management, they call it "Complex Selling". This probably is the clue ...? Complexity comes up, when there are more than one person to make a decision about the usage, the purchase and the application of a drug or device. It is no longer about consultative selling with family physicians who decide by themselves! This makes it a lot more complex and finally makes the difference between a prescriber and an account. Suddenly our representatives need to know what function someone has, which role he plays, how he or she is embedded in an internal social network, being influenced or influencing, and the degree to which someone influences a decision about my drug.


Notabene: Key Account Management is the management of KEY Accounts which according to good old Vilfredo  Pareto is not more than 20% of all such decision making units or buying centres.


Now, where is a new sales model than?


Most probably people talk about that owed to numerous new stakeholders, restricting market access, reducing reimbursement, cutting prices, signing contractual agreements granting rebates, PCTs and group practices with the most various constellations. The smallest common denominator is: they have heavy influences, sometime even binary on/off if and how we can market our product at all or at which margin.


Do we have a new sales model for those, who do so many different things and stand for so many different approaches? For the time being I believe that in most cases we are not yet over the Lets discuss-stage.


 What do you think? Let me know!


All my best, Hanno