Influencing the Prescribing network
Pharmaceutical marketing and sales strategy has been dominated for decades by the sales force. Sales force detailing has been the traditional mainstay of pharma companies. However, doctors, bombarded with information from multiple sources, are giving less time to sales reps and it is increasingly difficult to influence prescribing with promotional messages. Detailing time has decreased. And sales reps are trying to compete in increasingly saturated market.
Moreover, prescribing decision-making has become more complex. Prescribers are becoming increasingly influential and are demanding more relevant and personalised health information. Companies are having to interact with new and more complex target groups - the challenge now to create an improved and differentiated doctor experience.
In this light, two strategies are emerging:
Doing more with less – Becoming more productive with the same number of sales reps. Reps should be supported by technology and complemented by new channels. Future channel management strategy faces two significant challenges: how to coordinate tailored messages for different doctor segment across a number of channels and how to build organizational flexibility to sustain quality doctor dialogue and faster response times. However, while new channels provide alternative ways to get the promotional message across, these channels will be most effective as a complement to the sales force supporting rather than replacing it.
Differentiating through doctor experience – Putting more emphasis on sustainable doctor relationship through better, personalized doctor interaction.
Doctor intelligence
From passive data to actionable knowledge
Critical decisions concerning strategy and resource allocation must be based on a detailed and accurate understanding of Doctors and overall market. The quality of those decisions separates the leaders from the followers in today’s marketplace.
In order to achieve true Doctor intelligence, organizations need to understand the data they collect. Pharmaceutical companies face many data challenges:
* An overload of data is collected
* Data is collected without strategy
* Data collected or purchased from other resources is poorly integrated
* Data is not shared by sales reps or throughout the enterprise
The challenge companies face is to clean, prioritize and integrate data as well as to operationalize insights from analysis and segmentation models. Companies need to move beyond traditional static segmentation to understand why prescribing decisions are made.
However, poor data quality has prevented companies from driving action based on doctor data.
Pharma companies need to integrate market and doctor profiles into daily marketing and sales practice. The ability to segment doctors in order to focus sales efforts and tailor doctor interactions is at the very heart of DRM. Segmentation models of the future will be based on attitudes, values and needs and will describe, or even predict, doctor behaviour at a micro-segment level. Pharma companies need to analyze the data in order to know and understand the behaviour of Doctors, such as what and why they prescribe, what are they professional and personal interests.
Whatever the level of a company’s data capability – whether it uses sales/value-based data or bases its segmentation on behavioural or attitudinal data – the key lies in operationalizing data. To achieve this, it must drive doctor data through a three-stage process, from data to information to actionable knowledge. First, companies must collect descriptive data (clean, meaningful, external, and internal). Second, they must use analytics to produce dynamic information (establishing links between data sources and creating segmentation-based insights). Development of data mining tools and capabilities will be increasingly important. Third, companies need to design segment strategies and actions based on predictive knowledge. Ultimately, the key to competitive advantage through analytics lies with building organizational buy-in to the use of data. This will maximize the chance of success.
Doctor intelligence can be used to execute more successful marketing, sales and service strategies. This enables Pharma companies to maximize profitability, improve marketing campaign effectiveness, and optimize multi-channel interactions with Doctors, resulting in higher revenues and a competitive advantage.
Benefits of DRM
It is clear that DRM will become more important than ever. But what exactly does that mean for pharma companies / pharma managers?
Doctor segmentation analysis
It is more than simple query and reporting capabilities, more than knowing that let’s say Dr. Kulkarni is an orthopedic specialist, in Mumbai who has been in practice for 12 years and is associated with Jaslok Hospital. Doctor intelligence stems from integrating a broad range of analytical techniques, descriptive and predictive, across all channels, to reveal that Dr. Kulkarni is sports medicine specialist. He regularly attends a certain medical conference, visited your booth at the last conference, has been contacted by direct mail three times in the last quarter, and responded to the third campaign by requesting a sample kit and package of rebate coupons, of which 10 have been redeemed.
Create more successful marketing campaigns
How can you consistently reach each of your Doctors with a specialized message – and do it better and faster? You can transform multi-channel Doctor data into a single comprehensive Doctor view and create marketing campaigns that are faster, smarter and more profitable than ever before. As a result, you can shorten the marketing cycle times by having a better-planned campaign. You get your message out to Doctors faster than competition. You reduce your marketing costs by having a truly targeted campaign. And you increase your organization’s bottom-line by sharing best practices of each campaign throughout the enterprise.
Choose the right channel to reach each Doctor
You might spend a great deal of resources to create the right message for Doctors, but if your Doctors don’t receive the message, your resources have been wasted. Field sales, the Web, direct mail, commercial advertising – these are so many ways to reach people, how do you select the right one? Doctors are bombarded with information from multiple sources and are giving less time to sales reps, making it increasingly difficult to influence their prescribing with promotional messages. So, how do you get your message through?
DRM helps you do just that – and do more with less. By helping segment your doctors and determine what channel they prefer, DRM enables you to create fast, integrated marketing messages to multiple Doctor segments and increase Doctor satisfaction by tailoring the right channel to your Doctor’s preferences. As a result, you can determining which top Doctors prefer in-person detailing, which ones would rather receive web site information and which once would prefer direct mails based on their need for maximum flexibility.
Improve Doctor relationships & increase profits
By integrating multi-channel Doctor information, you can predict Doctor behaviour across all channels and segments, ultimately targeting the right Doctor at the right time with the right message. DRM helps you understand who your Doctors are and what their needs are, at increasing level of detail. You can allocate your marketing and sales resources according to different Doctor segments. You can tailor messages to specific audiences. For example, sales force can focus on most profitable Doctors, e-channels can be used for specific Doctors and direct mailing can be used for certain Doctors. Knowing this level of detail and tailoring your sales and marketing activities to it helps your organization better manage a greater number of interactions more successfully, quickly and more profitably.
By helping you formulate a focused Doctor strategy, targeting your best prospects, communicating efficiently with those prospects and learning from each Doctor interaction, DRM enables your organization to implement smarter Doctor strategies, maximize Doctor profitability and create a competitive differentiation for your organization.
In a nutshell
Pharmaceutical companies are having to do more with less. In this environment, DRM has become widely regarded as a critical enabler for sustainable growth. DRM not only increase the efficiency of their sales and marketing efforts, but also enhance their Doctors’ experience and loyalty. The industry has to pour money into new channels and technologies in an effort to better understand its doctors and build stronger relationships with them. This will improve efficiency of marketing and sales spend and enhance doctor experience and loyalty. DRM is not just about improving basic operations. It’s about leveraging information to extract new value from Doctor relationships, to give the company a sustainable competitive advantage.
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