GD specialist: Annemiek Kolkman

The Royal GD specialists’ daily work is focused on gathering and sharing their extensive knowledge of animal diseases. As area sales manager within the Business Development market team, Annemiek Kolkman enjoys sharing this knowledge with the international market. “We are always looking for local collaboration, and that is indeed becoming more and more key.”

It was soon apparent that Annemiek would be responsible for international affairs. Interaction with various cultures and bringing people together is her thing. “It all comes together in my work. I’m in contact with a wide variety of people, whom I visit all over the world. We develop new things, and are constantly on the lookout for opportunities for further growth. I love the kick of growing success, all the way from the zero point.”

She enjoyed the same growth in PTS and Diagnostics. It started small, but many large companies all over the world have since joined our proficiency testing schemes and are using our diagnostics, biological reagents. “It really means a lot to me that these companies have found their way to us. Our reputation and high NPS score also play an important role of course. That gives a sense of trust. And so these companies in turn recommend us to others. One thing leads to another, such as their participation in GD Academy and contract research,” Annemiek explains.

The team in which she works is not particularly large and it was therefore essential to find a way to be able to serve a large international market. The solution: area sales managers. “We now each have our own region and focus countries for which we work and offer the full range of products & services GD has to offer. I’m active in the Asian and Southern European regions. Working closely with the other market teams and GD sectors, this enables us to develop local networks from which we can serve and source customers. This allows for a GD presence all over the world.”

However, the world is still too large for the team in Deventer alone. We therefore collaborate with distributors in various countries, who help communicating. “This local representation is essential. They form a single contact point for GD, but in turn have a vast number of local lines. The contacts become more valuable and we can grow more easily,” she explains. “We are therefore always on the lookout for local collaborations, and enjoy working with local partners. Whether they be small enterprises, laboratories, large integrations, pharmaceutical companies or other animal health related companies.”

“At GD, we have so much know-how in terms of animal health monitoring and the eradication of certain diseases, which we want to share with the world by implementing our animal health programmes in combination with our other products and services. As an area sales manager, I try to make the contact as easy as possible and to focus on the customers’ needs. This brings us all closer together.” Annemiek believes this will remain important in the future. “We aim to make the regions smaller and smaller per area sales manager, to allow us to take an even more personal approach. The world is out there waiting for us,” she concludes.