Clients of a typical pharmaceutical company often have a choice when it comes to selection of business partners and may look for a distinct type of relationship in return for further patronage. The pharmaceutical company itself must therefore understand that if it values the business of a strategic account, designation of the ”key account” status should carry tangible results and be a trigger to the implementation of certain quality control levels.

Key account management is not something to be designated and reviewed at some later stage. It must be essentially dynamic and while certain elements of such an association will mean different things to different staff members, the overall goal must be the same – to ensure that the client and all its executives are happy and wish to remain.

It is a shame, but clients are often disappointed by what they see as a failure to embrace the importance of key account management and by the organisation’s inability to cross the line. The key account expects a pharmaceutical company to be proactive and not simply to react when any events take place. It’s important for the client to see that the company is acting in its best interests and, most especially in this field, keeping abreast of developments within the industry.

In certain circumstances, the client will be looking to the pharmaceutical company to help it develop its strategies. While there can be many different levels of key account designation and there can and should be variations across client levels, the pharmaceutical company must ensure that its staff at all levels are trained to recognise particular needs. The company must intimately know the client and this does not necessarily mean socially. For example, the company may want to send some of its appropriate staff into the field to work directly with the client and should remember that this can also help to provide an element of in-depth knowledge about the client, intelligence which could be used in the future.

The pharmaceutical company should never be afraid to perform a certain amount of work at no charge for truly key clients and this once again points to the need for each client to be treated as its own entity. There is no such thing as a stock approach to key account management and pharmaceutical consulting firms should be engaged to help educate all levels of staff in the finer subtleties of these arrangements.

Pharmaceutical companies can often be in a delicate position when it comes to the dissemination of any information seen as being proprietary. It is certainly true that information at these levels can be very powerful and while the client may expect to be given some additional “value” in this respect, the most senior levels of the pharmaceutical company management should discuss this issue with the company’s pharma consulting firm to be sure of the best approach.

In most cases, pharmaceutical consultants are best placed to help the company over deliver and to be seen as going above and beyond the norm at all times. If the key account truly is key, all the way down to the bottom line, then a fruitful relationship for the future can be assured.

Alan Gillies is the CEO of L2L Consulting, a cutting-edge pharma consultancy firm which specialises in optimising productivity and performance within international companies by applying tailored organisational strategies.