production and resulting sales.
There must be a strong, bonus-driven incentive for the success of
the group as well as the individual.
EVI COHEN: Consistent
messaging is also vital. Sales
forces and marketing teams,
including strategic marketing,
have to work closer together to
distill a coherent message that
can withstand skepticism in the
market place, and endure through
timely sharing of information and
knowledge in a dynamic market
place that requires agility from
the whole customer-facing echo
system.
PAUL FIRUTA: Sales and
marketing teams in conjunction
with patient services teams and
specialty pharmacy partners need
to work through the challenges
of identifying patients and
initiating the therapy. The key
to success is to create positions
within the organization that focus
on consistent and continuous
education across all functions
and all stakeholders, and to
facilitate open and frequent
communication. The experience
of providing a patient with
the opportunity to better treat
their condition and/or improve
their quality of life is extremely
fulfilling.
TOM ROSELLA: Success
for sales professionals in the
future will depend on how well
they embrace new, innovative
marketing channels. If they see
these as a threat to their existence
they will eventually lose their
jobs. However, if they embrace
these new channels and help
to personalize messages and
guide channel interactions with
physicians, they will thrive in
the new environment. Improved
collaboration between sales
and marketing professionals
will also lead to better returns
on marketing investments and
ultimately higher operating
income for healthcare companies.
Clearly there is a shift from
product-focused marketing
to service-focused marketing.
What changes are taking place
in the movement from selling
pharmaceuticals to providing
more to help the HCPs be
effective?
TOM ROSELLA: Yes. This shift
has been occurring for several
years and will likely continue
into the future. For example,
pharmaceutical companies can
no longer just sell pills. They need
to partner with HCPs to improve
patient care. Pharmaceutical
companies typically provide
services to help diagnose and
treat a patient’s condition. Some
examples of these services include
medical information, dietary
programs, access to nurses and
mobile applications that help
patients manage their condition.
EVI COHEN: There is focus on
services, and overall solving of
problems for patients, rather than
product-based point solutions.
Sales forces and marketers
need to position themselves as
sincere participants in the overall
healthcare echo system, with one
goal: to assist HPCs in caring for
their patients.
MANYA DEEHR: With the
increased number of orphan
drug and rare disease products,
a model has evolved that focuses
on supporting the patient not
just with the product, but with
goods and services to assist them
and their caretakers in coping
with aspects of the disease.
While this may be, in part, the
result of the need to justify
higher prices for products that
address fewer patients, it has on
occasion moved HCPs to servicing
patients from positions within
the manufacturer’s organization
rather than as the customers
for the products themselves.
This paradigm naturally shifts
the company focus away from
pitching to the HCP and towards
caring for the patient by focusing
the organizations on identifying
and assisting patients across a
broad spectrum of needs and
deviating from the narrow focus
of supplying product for one
particular component of the
disease to a physician.
PAUL FIRUTA: True. In the
orphan drug space 60% of the time
is providing education about the
disease and helping the physician
identify a patient that may need
additional diagnostic testing
or consultation to determine if
the new therapy is appropriate
for the patient. Providing
very expensive therapies that
require self-administration is
a complicated and a resource-intensive process that requires a
great deal of coordination across
all stakeholders, one patient at a
time.
