Promotional Strategies and Sales Performance of Private Pharmaceutical distributors in Uganda: A case of Surgipharm (U) ltd

Abstract

Promotion activities are essential for the long term survival of business organizations. Accordingly, promotion practices are important for pharmaceutical distributors to enable them sell higher volumes of their products and hence make more profits The study was to examine the influence of promotional strategies on the sales performance of private pharmaceutical distributors in Uganda, taking a case of Surgipharm (U) Ltd. Specifically, the study examined the influence of personal selling; sales promotion; and direct marketing on the sales performance of Surgipharm (U) Ltd. The study was a cross sectional survey that adopted both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Purposive sampling and Simple random sampling techniques were used to select a sample 128 respondents. Data was collected using questionnaire survey, interviews and documentary reviews as data collection methods. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression to test the relationship between promotional strategies and Sales performance. Qualitative data on the other hand was analyzed using content analysis and categorized by the themes and presented as quotes. The study revealed that promotional strategies positively influence Sales performance of Pharmaceutical distributors. Similarly the study concluded that Direct Marketing, Personal Selling and Sales promotions significantly influence the sales performance of Surgipharm (U) Ltd. Additionally, Direct Marketing was found to have the greatest influence on the sales performance of Surgipharm. The study recommended that pharmaceutical distributors should invest in Personal Selling, Sales Promotions and Direct Marketing as promotional strategies in order to increase their sales performance.