Try free

The Pharma Career Ladder · The country manager · Step 1: Setting strategy · Lesson 9

Positioning in one sentence

If it needs a slide, it is not positioning

By Ahmed El Menshawy · 20 years in pharma, from medical rep to country manager in the UAE. Founder of RepPharma. LinkedIn
Published

I have sat through many brand plans that open with twenty slides of positioning.

Efficacy. Safety. Convenience. Value. Patient support. All of it true, and none of it memorable.

Then I ask a rep in the field what the brand stands for. I get five different answers, or a long pause.

Ries and Trout wrote that positioning is not what you do to the product. It is what you do to the mind of the customer. The brands that win own one clear idea.

In my teams, I ask for positioning in one sentence, built from three parts.

  • The patient. One type, not every patient on the label.
  • Our one strength. Chosen, not listed.
  • The proof. Approved data, with every claim inside the label.

Then the test. Can a rep say it in one breath? Can a doctor repeat it after the call?

If not, it goes back for another round. Not because the work was poor, but because a busy doctor sees many reps and remembers very little of what each one said.

“If your team cannot say it in one breath, no doctor will remember it.”
Positioning in one sentence: If it needs a slide, it is not positioning

Lesson 9 of 16 in Step 1: Setting strategy, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.

More lessons in step 1: Setting strategy

Lesson 1Strategy is what you say no toChoice, not ambitionLesson 2Where to play, how to winTwo questions before any planLesson 3Reading your portfolio honestlyStars, cash cows, question marks, dogsLesson 4Four ways to GROWAnd the risk that rises with each oneLesson 5The brand that should be stoppedA decision, not a failureLesson 6Resource allocation is the strategyWhere the people and the money really goLesson 7Five forces in a pharma marketWhere your margin is really decidedLesson 8Choosing a therapy areaFit, capability and a right to winLesson 10Segmentation above the repMarket segments first, doctor lists secondLesson 11In-licensing decisionsFive questions before the term sheetLesson 12Betting on the black horseBacking the brand nobody expectedLesson 13The plan nobody readsA brand plan is for the field, not the reviewLesson 14When the strategy is not landingIs it the message or the execution?Lesson 15Competitive responseAnswer the move without dropping the planLesson 16Strategy review cadenceHow often is honest, how often is noise

Setting strategy, in RepPharma

Targets split by rep, product and month

Yearly targets are split by rep, product and month, and sales credit can be moved between reps without changing the company total.

Distributor stock and sell-out

Distributor stock and pharmacy sell-out side by side, with short-expiry lots flagged up to 90 days ahead.

One system for the whole field force

Visits, plans, forecasts, samples, expenses, leaves and approvals, with role-based access from rep to country manager.

Start 14-day free trialSee the pharma CRM for the UAE →

A new step every week in the Pharma Career Ladder newsletter on LinkedIn.