Does your sales team prioritize communication along with compliance? If not, your company is probably missing valuable information that could prevent third party conflicts. When salespeople overlook this connection, your company is put at greater risk. At the very least, compliance teams can be faced with a significant amount of wasted time and effort. I recently contributed an article to Life Science Leader, outlining 5 key questions that sales and business development teams should ask before they jump into new channel relationships. In part:
“Your sales team has identified and engaged with a promising new overseas distributor. The group is thrilled. They show you how the relationship could improve access to customers and boost company growth. But are you informed as to whether the potential partner has troubling relationships with foreign governments? Does your team know where this new party plans to sell your products?
Probably not. Sales teams don’t generally prioritize compliance. If the group is confident the agent can deliver, they are often happy to sign them up and leave any compliance headaches for the company’s general counsel or head of compliance.
But there are some very good reasons your business managers should be more engaged in compliance and take a coordinated approach with the legal side of the business.
Or one, sales staff have a front-line role. This gives them unique access to information that can be enormously helpful in assessing the risk profile of third parties.”
READ THE FULL ARTICLE – 5 Compliance Questions Your Sales Team Should Be Asking New Channel Partners