cidence that the team that helped
President Obama get in office immediately went out and sold their
skills to consumer companies.
We don’t pick
up analysts from
Microsoft and
Google, because
they don’t
have “pharma”
experience. But
why would that
matter? Pharma is
like other products
in that we sell to
human beings.
And what do we do about all the
misinformation floating out there,
such as the bogus vaccination
scare? I don’t have the answers, but
it’s obvious our approach so far has
been less than successful. I’m sure
someone in Silicon Valley or in one
of the beltway consulting groups
could do a better job than we’re doing now.
Finally, let’s look at the way we
sell. Over the years we have moved
from our focus on HCPs to DTC
efforts, and today we see an emerging Point of Care (PoC) thrust to
enhance our marketing campaigns.
All this is to the good for our marketing efforts in general. It helps
establish segments so that we’re
placing the right messaging in the
right place at the right time to the
right audience.
What it doesn’t do is solve the
problem of our investment in
sales forces, which we’re reluctant
to diminish. But circumstances
have forced us to change that
paradigm, because it’s a very high
hurdle these days to actually talk
to HCPs – in person, by phone, or
through email. So we’re grabbing
at new approaches. Webinars. Web
campaigns. Social media outreach.
Public relations. Event-based
education. Does this tell us that
traditional sales forces are going
the way of brick-and-mortar bookstores? Yes and no.
Because the cost to hire and train
is so high, some companies are
dealing with the problem by placing even more emphasis on outside
contract sales forces, or on tactical employment of reps just for
special campaigns. But that carries with it the problem of training – or not training. How quickly
can you get a new person up the
learning curve, not only about the
product, but about your company
culture? This is why we’ve always
put so much time and expense
into national sales meetings and
launch meetings – to create and
communicate and reinforce the
idea of what our companies stand
for. You can’t always do that with a
freelance group of reps.
So dealing with the HCP barrier problem has to involve more.
What it means is that we need to
rewrite what we mean by “sales
force.” These people are still useful
in their “field” role when we have
real news to deliver that will open
doors to the physician’s office –
news that is best delivered face-
to-face, and that our customers
want to know about, like product
launches and new indications.
But what about when we don’t
have that kind of headline news?
Some companies are getting the
message and training their captive
sales teams, with the help of their
marketing departments, to understand and use social media and
other digital platforms. They have
to build their skill sets to reach
HCPs in the way the HCPs want
to be reached. And that isn’t all the
job of Constant Contact or other
digital techniques.
Dealing with
the HCP barrier
problem means
we need to rewrite
what we mean by
“sales force.”
What if we use our established
relationships to deliver solutions
rather than product detailing – solutions about treatment options or
new techniques? What if we probe
the mindset of physicians and engage with them in enhancing their
own patient relationships? What
if we think about teaching reps
coaching and partnering skills, instead of just depending on selling
skills? We should be teaching reps
to micro-target instead of repeating the same script to everyone,
to be thinkers instead of report
writers.
In addition, many companies are
developing unbranded sites, working with patient advocacy groups
and creating apps and wearables
that help both patients and doctors
monitor vital signs and significant
PHARMA
