I go to a lot of pharmacy conferences, read a lot of pharmacy articles, follow all the pharmacy trade blogs/social sites and rarely do I see anything related to sales. Knowing how to sell can be the difference between having an okay pharmacy and having a great pharmacy. No longer can you have a great location and simply expect people to walk through your door. In today’s pharmacy environment you have to create several lines of revenue, retail prescriptions, long term care, compounding, transitions of care, med-sync, MTM’s, immunizations and more. Gaining this business requires a sales plan. To have a sales plan you must gain the necessary skills to conduct sales calls.
I know that most pharmacies are retail businesses but pharmacy is a relationship business and to drive revenue through relationships you have to be able to sell. I know what you’re thinking, I do not want to be a car salesman. But salespeople have a bad reputation because the sales people who annoy you they are not selling right. Below are some resources about selling the right way, hopefully this helps you build relationships and drive more revenue to your pharmacy.
Books
1. Solution Selling: The Strongman Process by Ed Wal – https://www.amazon.com/dp/1910563110/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=285HW3RI6Q5E8&coliid=I1HG5VOUIX4DRG
2. The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino – https://www.amazon.com/dp/0552682004/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=285HW3RI6Q5E8&coliid=I3VSM9QV68QM7N
3. Spin Selling by Neil Rackman – https://www.amazon.com/SPIN-Selling-Neil-Rackham/dp/0070511136/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1491759102&sr=8-7&keywords=best+sales+books
Blogs
1. The Sales Blog – https://thesalesblog.com/
2. Hubspot Sales Blog – https://blog.hubspot.com/sales#sm.0000e67z0z7wdd1h11htqukg1ou7m
3. A Sales Guy – http://www.asalesguy.com/