How to Build and Maintain Relationships with High-Profile Clients

Ankitkumar C. Patel

Establishing a solid rapport with a client requires diverse skills and personalized business approaches. The fast-paced pharmaceutical environment necessitates a deadline-oriented, consistent approach from the beginning of the professional relationship.

When the clients in question are considered high-profile, these requirements are essential to building an immediate and meaningful connection as the foundation for any long-term successful partnership. By establishing an effective internal operational structure that can address concerns and answer questions immediately, an organization can quickly build a reputation as a trustworthy partner, enhance its industry persona, and increase its potential for attracting additional high-profile clientele.

What makes a client high-profile?

High-profile clients are characterized by their well-developed industry reputations, fierce competition for their business, loyalty, and ability to deliver long-term, sustainable results. Large, repeatable orders mean abundant work for the foreseeable future, and high-profile clients are those most reliable in requiring the fulfillment of high-volume buys for the long term.

For pharma manufacturers, the primary requirement for working with high-profile clients is matching their organizational level of urgency and organization. There is a tendency among smaller clients to work through a more piecemeal approach.

For example, they will send a purchase order without providing a bottle label or, if they do send all the necessary supplies, pick-ups and deliveries may be inconsistent. With higher-profile clients, operations must run like clockwork through precise, optimized processes that are constantly studied and refined.

This is why high-profile clients are in such demand—they are willing to pay a premium to work with companies that match their level of precision and urgency. Securing such a client or contract means the supplier can support the expenses and overhead and enhance their reputation throughout the industry as an organization worthy of repeated business.

Effective relationship management with high-profile clients

Every client deserves specialized, one-on-one attention, but high-profile clients demand unique consideration. Offering unfailingly prompt responses is the first key to building and maintaining these relationships.

While every organization has employees, supplies, and the ability to conduct business, the best set themselves apart with quick, flawless customer service. The “four-hour rule,” a promise to respond to customer queries, issues, or concerns within four hours’ business time, demonstrates a profound commitment to every client.

Ideally, a business day never concludes without a customer receiving a response.

Of course, questions and concerns can emerge at any time, not only during business hours. That’s why the best, most responsive organizations have customer data available via OneDrive or similar technology to gain access to these data at any time and from anywhere.

Customers, particularly those with high profiles, require clarity and visibility for their operations. The easiest way to set an organization apart is to develop a reputation as the market’s fastest and most responsive supplier.

Another essential tool is skill-set diversification—or having employees who can handle the business and technical sides of the pharmaceutical industry. Many clients will have a financial background and possess relationship-building skills but may lack knowledge of the pharma industry.

Answering clients’ questions, addressing their financial concerns, and enhancing their awareness of technical issues, such as labeling discrepancies, build credibility and rapport. Providing practical solutions with technical reasoning and support demonstrates that the company is well-rounded and thorough.

Lastly, manufacturers that view the client’s success as an integral component of their mission increase the potential for establishing fruitful, enduring relationships. Trust can take months, years, or even longer to build but can be undone in a moment, and this can occur when the packaging facility or supplier is unresponsive to the client’s queries or requests.

A representative spends considerable time converting a prospect into a client, only to see the relationships deteriorate due to lost purchase orders, misplaced labels, or other mistakes. Still, it isn’t the mistake that will cost that organization the client’s business—it’s the lack of accountability or willingness to acknowledge the error and issue a prompt correction.

Time is money, especially with the highest-profile clients, and the longer it takes to respond or communicate about an issue, the greater the client’s uncertainty becomes about continuing the professional relationship. The largest companies may not work on a consistent schedule daily, but they expect a supplier to be available when they have a concern or require clarification.

An order filled properly, thoroughly, and urgently represents success on both sides, offering the best opportunity for repeat business.

Benefits and drawbacks of working with high-profile clients

The greatest benefit of working with high-profile pharmaceutical clients is reputational enhancement. Establishing and maintaining a relationship with a large chain serve as a form of external marketing that boosts brand awareness and internal morale.

As the company’s reputation grows, employee morale increases, and overall efficiency improves by meeting the challenge of fulfilling an industry giant’s needs. Fulfilling an order for 10 million bottles allows a manufacturer to evaluate its procedures and determine where it can improve processes, technologies, and workforce capabilities.

Additionally, a partnership with one high-profile client enhances the opportunities of attracting additional high-profile clients by word of mouth or overall reputational enhancement throughout the industry. The largest companies pay well, pay on time, and are willing to pay a premium for the best service.

This allows organizations, particularly those on growth paths emerging as significant forces in the industry, to scale rapidly and right-size their companies. When pharma industry giant Pfizer and biotechnology firm BioNTech commenced their partnership at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, their goal was the rapid development of an unprecedented vaccine.

Leveraging BioNTech’s cutting-edge technology and Pfizer’s experience and global influence, their alliance yielded the BioNTech-Pfizer COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, widely used to protect citizens worldwide from the virus. The alignment between the two entities was successful because each organization brought a unique skill set and qualities to the table—BioNTech’s innovation and creativity combined with Pfizer’s clinical trial expertise and robust manufacturing capabilities.

These same attributes facilitated accelerated development and distribution, empowering the widespread availability of the resulting vaccine. Each company made considerable financial contributions to the project while collaborating with regulatory agencies to expedite the approval process.

The two organizations continue to join forces in perfecting further mRNA vaccines, creating innovative methods for combating the disease worldwide and illustrating how two companies with seemingly different goals and missions can combine to successfully aid in addressing critical healthcare initiatives.

Immediate growing pains are expected when initially working with larger, high-profile clients. The need for constant documentation, back-and-forth negotiation, and the sheer magnitude of order sizes may seem overwhelming at the onset.

Still, these growing pains are necessary for developing into an enduring, long-term partner for the largest clients. In addition, high-profile clients can be particularly demanding to the point that scheduled modifications and accelerated timelines may become necessities, particularly in the early stages of the relationship.

Partnerships built on trust

The pharmaceutical industry runs the gamut of small-, medium-, and high-profile clients, and each comes with specific challenges, advantages, and drawbacks. It’s no secret that competition for the highest-profile clients will always be fierce.

Dependability is the foundation of any successful partnership. In an era shaped by digital operations and heightened scrutiny, establishing relationships with high-profile clients goes beyond providing superior products and services.

It demands transparency, reliability, and an unwavering commitment to ensuring that their needs, questions, and concerns are always at the forefront of organizational priorities. Fostering a reputation for integrity and excellence takes time but will lead to enduring, mutually beneficial business relationships.

About the Author

Ankitkumar C. Patel is a senior quality assurance/quality control specialist for a pharmaceutical packaging company. His expertise includes technical documentation, performance reporting, batch oversight, and quality- and process-improvement initiatives. Patel holds Bachelor of Pharmacy and Master of Pharmaceutical Chemistry degrees from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Contact him at ankit3374@yahoo.com