After a merger of two pharmaceutical companies, the German sales force organizations were to be quickly reorganized and merged into a new unit. In his role as sales manager, the current interim manager was tasked with dissolving the duplicate structures, installing a new middle management structure in the sales force and reducing sales costs by 25 to 30 percent by cutting staff.
Status review and SWOT analysis reveal numerous shortcomings
The status review revealed that both sales force organizations were active in numerous indications and with different products for different target groups. The number of target group doctors and selection criteria and the support of outpatient clinics in hospitals also varied greatly. A lack of clear meeting and visit guidelines, a lack of efficiency and transparency and an outdated staff and management structure led to stagnating and declining sales. Furthermore, there was a lack of standardized key performance indicators to measure the success and failure of the sales force quickly and efficiently.
Together with the marketing department, the interim manager also subjected all products to a strengths and weaknesses analysis (SWOT analysis) in order to define growth opportunities and potential for future meeting products in the new sales organization.
New sales concept adopted with significantly fewer staff
After taking stock, the current interim manager designed various models for the new sales structure. After consultation and discussion with the management and social partners, the stakeholders agreed on a single-line sales structure with 110 employees. In future, ten sales staff would work in each of 10 regions, each with a regional sales manager. On the one hand, this concept meant that more than 40 jobs in the sales organization would be eliminated. In addition, the stocktaking revealed that the sales team needed to be supplemented by a new management structure.
The implementation process was accelerated considerably thanks to the swift and flexible approach of the interim manager and the excellent cooperation with the social partners. The key points of the social plan were agreed within 14 days. The interim manager conducted the necessary severance talks with the social partners within 6 weeks. Problems were discussed fairly and respectfully and resolved quickly. The new middle management team was appointed and assigned to the regions.
Proactive communication promotes acceptance of the restructuring
The organizational changes were associated with deep cuts for the sales representatives and were very stressful. Supervisors, colleagues, working methods and customer relationships changed for all employees. The interim manager ensured regular and open communication during the restructuring process. This significantly improved acceptance of the restructuring.
Timetable and training for a successful start to the new sales structure
The new single-line sales structure was announced and rolled out at 10 regional team kick-offs across Germany. The new territory and doctor structure was imported into the CRM systems of the sales representatives on the same day. In addition, a new meeting concept and the binding key data for the future targeting of each sales representative were presented.
Together with the new managers, the interim manager formulated the operational details for the single-line sales structure. In this way, he ensured that the regional sales teams were able to take up the meeting concept with the doctor quickly and accurately. This was all the more important as the doctor relationship often has to be painstakingly and time-consumingly rebuilt after a reorganization.
Restructuring reduces sales costs by up to 30 percent
The merger of the sales force organization was extremely successful. The sales and earnings contributions per sales force increased significantly after just a few weeks. At the same time, the leaner organization reduced sales costs by up to 30 percent.
