the sales team is brought into
development of a marketing piece
like this, they become champions
of the piece. They’re in their NSM
helping to train on the piece, and
everyone gets on board.
VRAHRAM KADKHODAIAN:
We need to be more agile, nimble
and relevant every single day to
stay competitive. Organizations
that can’t change, or don’t want
to change won’t be here ten years
from now. We have to make the
jobs of sales and marketing teams
easier, not harder. Less focus on
“call reports/meetings” and more
focus on how productive was your
“call/meeting.”
BRIAN PETERS: At Medac
Pharma, I have incorporated
members of the sales team, sales
management, and managed markets team into the marketing planning process early on. By involving these groups in the planning
process from the start, including
input into the tactical plan, we
have created a real sense of ownership within the sales force when
the tactics are rolled out. Furthermore, this comes with the added
benefit of gaining additional
champions of the marketing plan.
Sales managers and members of
the sales force can then promote
the plan to their regions so everyone rallies around it.
I’m also a big proponent of field
advisory boards. I am always look-
ing for feedback on field-based is-
sues and how we can address these
challenges through creative and
smart marketing. We interact on a
fairly regular basis.
We’ve also had success integrating
the managed markets team into
the mix. Using their expertise to
help the sales force better understand the ever-changing payer
environment, assisting them in
targeting their customers based
on formulary/payer status, and
utilizing tools such as MMIT to
customize our payer messages has
paid off tremendously for us.
How are sales and marketing dif-
ferent at small vs. large health-
care companies?
VRAHRAM KADKHODAIAN:
Very. They have different business
models in pharma and medtech
and small/large, but they are the
same because they all need to create compliant content, they need to
present a competitive differentiator and value with respect to their
therapies, and they all need to co-ordinate with internal and external
teams to be successful. They also
face the same regulatory pressures
and challenges when it comes to
sales and marketing.
BRIAN PETERS: I have spoken
at industry meetings on this topic
several times, most recently at a
channel optimization conference.
Small pharmaceutical companies
need to create synergy across all
channels and be more targeted
and laser-focused in our resource
allocation. The common phrase I
say to my agency/vendor partners
is “spend our money like it’s your
own.” Unlike larger organizations,
we have to be more prudent with
our resources.
How can you best typify the
sales-marketing collaboration
situation?
JOANNA BEEMAN: The best way
to align sales and marketing is to
have members of the marketing
team go on rep rides. Do it quarterly, and do it every time there’s a
label update or a new market entrant. A little bit of empathy goes a
long way in our world.
BRIAN PETERS: I always refer
to this graphic when talking about
the alignment of sales and
marketing:
This gets back to what that optimal
relationship needs to be—in any
industry, you cannot be successful unless marketing and sales are
working together in unison.
We are a one-product company
right now, with 52 employees,
operating in a large and competitive therapeutic area. About nine
months ahead of us, a direct competitor launched their product, but
because of synergistic efforts between sales, marketing, managed
markets, trade, and IT, we passed
