Meet the Team — Elaine Hall

In today’s Meet the Team we talk to Elaine Hall, business development manager, about 30 years in pharmacy, her proud North East roots and downtime on the farm...

Q. What does a typical day supporting independent pharmacies look like?

A. Every independent pharmacy is different, so no two days are the same. As a business development manager, I’m responsible for sourcing new business and delivering demos to pharmacy teams. But for me, the best part is building relationships with people.

I really do see the Cegedim Rx team as an extension of the pharmacy teams we support. We’re here to help solve their problems and make sure they get the most out of our systems.

Pharmacists’ time is very precious. You need to go the extra mile. If they’re not free until after my working hours, then that’s when I’ll do the demo. We adapt to help customers because we want them to have the best experience with us.  

Q. How long have you been working within community pharmacy?

A. For around thirty years now. I'm a very curious person. I always want to learn more and push myself. We’ve got a saying in the North East – ‘shy bairns get nowt’. I’ve had all sorts of roles during my career – from pharmacy technician to operations director and care services manager.

Early in my career, I worked at a little independent pharmacy in a nearby town with a high methadone turnover. We had more than 100 people coming in for supervised methadone every day. That teaches you empathy and working under pressure.  

When I heard Cegedim Rx was recruiting, I was really excited. I got the job and haven’t looked back since.

It’s great being able to use all my industry experience and be able to genuinely say to customers, “listen, I get it. I get where you're coming from.” The pressure that pharmacy teams are under is immense. We’re here to help them with the tools they need to care for patients and run profitable, successful businesses.  

Q. Building trust with customers must be an important part of your role, how do you achieve that?

A. For me, it’s about being honest with them, giving them the facts and bringing them on the journey. And if you can empathise with customers that puts you in good stead.

It’s making the most of every interaction and building that rapport. I love when you can walk into a customer’s pharmacy and say, “How's was your holiday?”.

Q. What are you looking forward to about The Pharmacy Show this year?

A. It’ll be my second time at The Pharmacy Show with Cegedim Rx. I’d only been with the company three weeks before my last show. What a way to hit the ground running!

It was a baptism of fire, but it was brilliant having loads of face-to-face time with our customers right away. I’ve been in the industry for a long time, so I bumped into lots of familiar faces too.

I can talk for England, so I love the Show!

Q. When you’re not talking about all things pharmacy, how do you like to spend your time outside of work?

A. With our animals. We’re always down at the farm. We grow all our own veg. We’ve got loads of chickens, horses, a house full of dogs and a cat.

Come and meet Elaine, and the whole of the Cegedim Rx team at C30 at The Pharmacy Show between 12 – 13 October at the Birmingham NEC.