Before calling on a pharmacy, a rep should be able to find the last order, the subject of the last conversation and the promise made to the owner. When those three things live in three tools, the visit starts with a search. Choosing a pharmaceutical CRM for pharmacies is first of all about bringing that customer record together and keeping it reliable, before any question of screens or pricing.
Start from the pharmacy record
A registered company name is not enough to identify a retail outlet. A pharmacy can change banner, join a buying group or be sold. The CRM has to separate the company invoiced, the site delivered to and the contacts. It also has to keep the identifiers each partner uses, without merging two sites just because their names look alike.
Start with a small base: a stable internal identifier, the address, the account owner, the buying group with its valid-from and valid-to dates, the contacts and their contact preferences. Then add orders and visit reports. Every field needs a source and a person responsible for correcting it.
What the rep needs to find before the visit
- →The latest exchanges: problem raised, answer given and the next action with its due date.
- →Known orders: dates, products, amounts and channel, keeping draft, approved order and invoice apart.
- →The range in play: products already bought, presence observed on the shelf and products to present.
- →Availability: appointments, useful times and the person to meet, rather than opening hours alone.
A missing order in your tool may come from a wholesaler feed that is not connected. It does not prove that the pharmacy has stopped buying. Show the coverage of the sources and the last synchronisation next to the history: the rep will then know when to ask for confirmation.
Define statuses that match the buying cycle
A “needs follow-up” status is built from an explicit rule. For a range bought every month, 90 days without an order may justify a call. For a suncare range, the same period in winter says very little. Keep the calculated signal separate from the commercial qualification: out-of-stock, overstock, change of owner or a confirmed stop.
Initial alerts120 accounts
- Buying through an unconnected channel30 accounts
- Seasonal accounts20 accounts
- Situations still to qualify70 accounts
Checking channels and seasonality comes before commercial qualification.
Assign accounts without erasing the history
A territory can be defined by town, postcode, département, channel or a list of accounts. Keep a start and end date for each assignment. When a rep takes over an area, they need the earlier exchanges; historical orders must not be silently reassigned to the new account owner.
For independent agents, set out the assignment and commission rules in the contract. The CRM documents how they are applied; it does not decide entitlement to payment. Article R134-3 of the French Code de commerce (French) requires a statement of commission due by the last day of the month following the quarter in which it was earned, together with the calculation details.
General-purpose CRM or specialist tool: compare the work involved
A general-purpose CRM can do the job, especially if your team already knows it and the connections are in place. A specialist tool can cut the configuration needed for visits and orders. The difference shows up in your own workflow; it cannot be inferred from the name of the category.
- →Configuration: who adds a visit field, a territory rule or a status? How long does a change take?
- →Mobility: which information is available without a network, and how is an editing conflict presented?
- →Orders: can the rep see purchases made between two visits, including through the customer portal?
- →Exit: can you export the contacts, activities, attachments and identifiers in a reusable format?
Test adoption in the field
Give the pilot to different profiles: a confident user, an experienced rep with little time for data entry and someone from the sales admin team. Ask them to prepare a visit, record an objection and find that note again the following week. Watch what they do without guiding every step.
Measure the share of visits recorded the same day and the time needed to find a piece of information. If the rate is low, check the connection, whether the fields are relevant and whether the report is useful to the person writing it. No universal threshold lets you blame the software for the whole problem.
Keep the data to what the sales job needs
A pharmacy record does not need patient names or details of their treatment. Visit notes should stay professional and factual. Set access by role and a suitable retention period; a former rep must not keep access to their portfolio after leaving.
The CNIL sets out the rules on sales prospecting (French), in particular the distinction between businesses and private individuals and the ways of objecting. Those rules also apply to the business contact details held in the CRM.
Prepare a documented decision
Before changing tool, export twenty representative records: a recent customer, a dormant one, a multi-site account, a duplicate and a pharmacy that has moved from one agent to another. Ask the shortlisted solutions to perform the same tasks. Compare set-up time, the limits you observe and the total cost over two years. You will know what you are buying and what will still need organising.
Review your portfolio in Salesia
Customer records, order history, territories and visit reports: bring a few cases for a demonstration built around your own organisation.
The customer’s buying rhythm then feeds a follow-up campaign on inactive accounts that allows for stock, disputes and seasonality.
By Anatole Briant
By Anatole Briant
By Pierre Lerebours
COO of Salesia
Pierre Lerebours is COO of Salesia. He is your contact for implementation, training and ongoing support.