Publication Type

PhD Dissertation

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

4-2025

Abstract

With the rapid development of modern technology, the pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a period of unprecedented change. On the one hand, global population growth, aging, and the continued increase in people's healthconcerns have led to an ever-expanding demand for the pharmaceutical market. On the other hand, a large amount of capital is pouring into the pharmaceutical field, prompting the emergence of new pharmaceutical enterprises, and the competition in the market is becoming increasingly heated. Against this backdrop, the replacement of pharmaceutical products has acceleratedsignificantly, with new therapeutic methods, pharmaceutical dosage forms andinnovative drugs being introduced to the market. At the same time, competition among competing products is becoming more and more brutal, with each company striving for a limited market share. This fierce competitive environment makes the pharmaceutical industry full of uncertainties andchallenges, and every decision and every new product promotion may affect the survival and development of enterprises. In the complex and competitive ecosystem of the pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical salespeople play a crucial role. They are the bridge between pharmaceutical companies andmedical terminals, shouldering the important responsibility of bringingpharmaceutical products developed and produced by enterprises to the market. For pharmaceutical companies, salespeople are the purveyors of product information, and they need to understand the product's features, advantages, scope of application and other details, and then accurately convey themtorelevant parties such as doctors, pharmacists and medical institutions. Duringthe marketing process, sales personnel collect market feedback by establishinggood relationships with medical professionals, which plays an irreplaceable role in adjusting product strategies and optimizing product performance.

Under the current environment of competitor impact and rapid changes inthe industry, it is especially critical to study the competency of pharmaceutical sales employees. The challenges faced by pharmaceutical salespeople have far exceeded the traditional scope of sales, they need to have a more comprehensive and professional ability to be able to do their job. Understanding the components of pharmaceutical sales force competencies can help organizations select the right people for the job and ensure that newsalespeople have the potential to perform in a competitive environment. For on-the-job salespeople, competency-based training and development programs can enhance their capabilities in a more targeted manner and help thembetter cope with complex market changes and competitive pressures. At the same time, from the industry level, an in-depth study of pharmaceutical sales staff competency can provide a reference for the entire pharmaceutical industry todevelop a unified talent standard, promote the professional development of the pharmaceutical sales field, improve the overall sales efficiency and service quality of the industry, thus guaranteeing the pharmaceutical industry's healthyand stable development in the face of fierce competition.

This paper explores the issues related to the competency of sales personnel in the pharmaceutical industry, constructs a scientific andreasonable dedicated competency model, reveals the relationship between it and sales performance through empirical analysis, and explores the changes of this relationship in the context of the impact of competing products. This paper adopts various methods such as literature review method, behavioral event interview method, questionnaire survey method and empirical statistics method to conduct research. First, the research results on salespersoncompetency at home and abroad are sorted out through the literature reviewmethod, which defines the core concept of competency and the scope of research and provides a theoretical foundation for the subsequent research. Second, the key behavioral events of salespersons in the pharmaceutical industry were collected through the behavioral event interview method, andthe elements of competency were extracted. Then, the opinions of salespeople and experts were collected through the questionnaire survey method, and the competency elements were further screened and confirmed. Finally, the data were processed and analyzed through empirical statistical method to verify the validity and reliability of the dedicated competency model.

The following conclusions were drawn from the study: first, it was determined that the dedicated competency model for grassroots salespeople inthe pharmaceutical industry consists of 20 competency elements, coveringmultiple dimensions such as professional knowledge, occupational skills, andpersonal attributes. In terms of specialized knowledge, it includes knowledge of the drug itself (e.g., pharmacology, indications, side effects, etc.) as well as knowledge related to the pharmaceutical industry (e.g., distribution of medical resources, laws and regulations, policies, etc.). Occupational skills involve communication and negotiation, sales skills, innovation ability, executionability, adaptability, market analysis ability, and other abilities, which play a key role in sales processes such as communicating with customers, facilitatingtransactions, and responding to market changes. Personal attributes include teamwork, honesty, integrity, resilience, self-emotional management, self-confidence, sense of responsibility, sense of service and internal drive. Second, the elements of the competency model specific to grassroots salespeople in the pharmaceutical industry have a significant impact onsalesperson performance. Salespeople with higher levels of competency are able to more effectively communicate product value to customers, use professional knowledge to answer customer questions, and utilize professional skills to close deals, thereby achieving higher sales. Third, the three levels of competencies in the pharmaceutical industry-specific competency model (professional knowledge, professional skills, and personal attributes) significantly differentiate salespeople at different levels of performance. High-performing salespeople excel in these areas, with a deeper and more comprehensive grasp of professional knowledge, more skillful and efficient use of professional skills, and personal attributes that are more in line with the interpersonal and self-management requirements of sales work. In contrast, low-performing salespeople in these areas there are obvious deficiencies, suchas lack of professional knowledge leads to the inability to accurately introduce the product, the lack of vocational skills to affect the efficiency of sales, poor personal characteristics may lead to customer relationship tensions, etc.. Fourth, the impact of employee competency on sales performance is more significant in the context of competitor impact. The competitive behavior of competitors in the market, such as price adjustment, product innovation, marketing promotion, etc., brings challenges to the sales work of pharmaceutical enterprises. In this case, salespeople with strong competence can better cope with the impact of competing products, they can analyze the differences between competing products and our products through their ownprofessional knowledge, use their professional skills to adjust their sales strategies, and maintain a positive mindset and high quality service by virtue of good personal traits, so as to stand out from the competition and maintain or even improve their sales performance.

The innovation of this paper lies in the following points: first, this paper focuses on the pharmaceutical industry, a special knowledge-intensive field, and explores the issue of salesperson competency in depth, which fills the gapof existing research in this area. As a knowledge-intensive field, the pharmaceutical industry requires highly specialized knowledge and skills of its salespeople to cope with the complex market environment and specializedcustomer groups. A specialized competency model can accurately reflect the special requirements of pharmaceutical sales work and better adapt to the complexity and specialization of the pharmaceutical industry. Compared withthe generic competency model, the specialized competency model more accurately identifies the key competency elements of pharmaceutical sales jobs, avoiding the inapplicability or incompleteness that may exist in the generic model. Therefore, unlike previous generic competency studies, this study fully considers the complexity and specialization of the pharmaceutical industry and places the study in the actual context of pharmaceutical product sales, making the results more relevant and practical.Secondly, a variety of research methods such as literature review method, behavioral event interviewmethod, Delphi expert consulting method, questionnaire survey method andempirical statistics method are comprehensively applied. The literature reviewmethod provides a broad theoretical foundation and reference for the researchresults of previous researchers; the behavioral event interview method obtains first-hand information by digging deep into the behavioral performance in the actual work; the Delphi expert consulting method optimizes the elements of competency with the help of the wisdom of experts; the questionnaire surveymethod and the empirical statistics method verify the models and hypotheses through large-scale data collection and scientific analysis. This comprehensive use of multi-methods improves the scientificity and reliability of the study, and at the same time, there are innovations in the application process of the methods, such as a series of measures to ensure data quality in the design andimplementation of behavioral event interviews and questionnaire surveys. Third, we not only constructed a specialized competency model for salespersons in the pharmaceutical industry, but also explored in depth the relationship between competency and sales performance as well as the moderating role of competitor impact in it. This kind of expansion anddeepening of research content is relatively rare in previous studies. Byanalyzing the competency differences of salespeople at different performance levels, it provides a finer guidance for talent selection and performance management of enterprises; while the study of the moderating role of competitor impact provides new perspectives and bases for enterprises toformulate sales strategies and cultivate salespeople in a competitive environment.

Keywords

competency, pharmaceutical industry, employee performance, competitor impact

Degree Awarded

Doctor of Business Administration (Accounting and Finance)

Discipline

Finance and Financial Management | Sales and Merchandising

Supervisor(s)

FU, Fangjian

First Page

1

Last Page

182

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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Available for download on Wednesday, June 10, 2026

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