Experimenting in the Commercial
Investment Lab
By faruk Abdullah, vice President, Applied Predictive Technologies (APT)
There has been a proliferation of diverse and complex strategies designed to
improve commercial performance: Key Account Management (KAM) models,
sales;roles,;multi-channel;strategies,;non-personal;promotion,;localized;market-ing,;mobile;marketing,;and;patient;engagement;programs.
While each of these is useful, not all investments will generate the desired out-come.;Some;will;work;only;with;a;portion;of;physicians,;patients,;or;employees,
and will need to be fine-tuned before rollout. For example, deploying additional
sales;force;efforts;where;a;company;has;low;share;may;work;only;with;physi-cians who have certain characteristics.
All;changes;bear;risk;;rolling;out;new,;previously-untested;strategies;is;especially
risky.;To;reduce;the;risk;inherent;in;innovation,;organizations;are;applying;com-mercial;strategy;experimentation,;similar;to;the;kind;of;experimenting;that;has
always gone on in the scientific labs. Business experiments enable companies to
accurately;determine;the;impact;of;each;strategy;before;taking;on;the;risk;of;a
rollout. Further, they enable companies to understand the adjustments necessary to maximize ROI.
While scientific experimentation has long been the
norm in clinical trials, pharmaceutical companies
have an opportunity to bring a test & learn approach
to their commercial strategies.
An;experimental;approach;involves;taking;an;action;(e.g.,;increasing;non-per-sonal promotion budget) with one group and comparing the performance of the
group that received that action (either purposefully through a designed “test” or
naturally, as a normal course of business) to a “control” group, which is ideally
SALES
Pharmaceutical
companies are
transforming
their commercial
capabilities
to align to a
market where
the buying
process and key
decision makers
are dramatically
changing.
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