As a retail pharmacy, if you want to achieve good sales results in fierce competition, you should make sufficient preparations in the early stage. Especially, it is not easy to choose a suitable partner from many pharmaceutical suppliers. The author believes that pharmacies should pay attention to the following three points when selecting the best drug suppliers.
Market research is the first thing a pharmacy must do before making any business decision. For the purchasing department of pharmacies, to determine whether a new supplier’s offers are feasible, a thorough market survey must be conducted first. And the more detailed the investigation of market drug prices, the more confident it is to negotiate with suppliers. The investigation of the pharmaceutical market mainly includes three major contents:
1.prices of similar drugs.
When purchasing personnel walk into competitors’ stores, they must first understand the price of similar products and the price of the corresponding product regulations. Since different pharmacies will have different sizes and local influences, prices and product specifications will also vary. Therefore, when doing a survey, you should focus on investigating well-known pharmacies. After all, the price of such pharmacies is more representative.
2.Quantity and display of commodities
In today’s increasingly homogenized pharmacy business, the key to pharmacy competition is how to “strengthen one’s own strengths and defeat each other’s shortcomings”. Purchasing personnel should keep abreast of competitors’ purchases of commodities in a timely manner, fully understand the prices of similar products in their pharmacies and the number displayed in the store, make use of their strengths and avoid shortcomings, and adjust the types and quantities of commodities purchased in due course.
3.Different store classifications
Even if they belong to the same chain company, due to differences in the scale of operations and the consumption habits of nearby customers, the standards for purchasing and selecting products vary from store to store. If the purchasing staff can investigate the operating characteristics of pharmacies according to the classification criteria of different competitors’ stores, and guide the operating characteristics of pharmacies toward differences, it will help the procurement business to be closer to the actual needs of each store. For example, for the stores in the bustling commercial district, the price is the main inspection basis; for the ordinary resident community, the product regulations are the main inspection basis; for the pharmacies around the hospital, the category is the main inspection basis. If any pharmacy wants to maintain normal profit growth, it cannot do without controlling the management costs. If the purchasing department does not have enough experience, randomly increasing the product catalog will lead to a decrease in the overall profitability of the company.
4.Inspect supplier qualifications
After conducting field research, the purchasing department will generally plan its own pharmacy purchasing business through analysis of the market situation, and also conduct conditional screening of suppliers. In order to ensure the rational purchase of drugs, the pharmacy procurement department should also pay attention to the qualifications and conditions of the supplier from two aspects: whether the information is complete. From the enterprise information and quotations provided by the supplier, not only can the supplier’s internal management level be seen, but also the supplier’s cooperation attitude can be discovered and mastered. Therefore, when introducing new suppliers, the pharmacy procurement department must pay attention to whether the information provided by the other party is formal and complete. The Purchasing Department can request suppliers to come up with product promotion plans or schemes according to their own needs, and see how much support and benefits pharmacies can obtain from manufacturers.
5.Account performance agreement on time
In a sense, account performance is an important condition for the profitability of suppliers and the normal supply of the varieties required by pharmacies. Therefore, pharmacies should try their best to ensure that the terms of the agreement with the supplier are fulfilled. In fact, whether payment can be settled on time and on time not only reflects the integrity image of the pharmacy, but also allows it to establish more partners. Because once the manufacturer is caught in the fund chain due to the pharmacy’s unsettled payment, it will definitely affect the daily operation of the pharmacy and make the required goods out of stock.