Christoph Schmidt (Actelion) answers your questions on 'Selling Pharmaceuticals In 2015'

At SFE Europe in Barcelona, yesterday's panel session, 'Selling Pharmaceuticals in 2015,'generated much interest from our delegates.

By Alexandra Uprichard on Mar 4, 2009

At SFE Europe in Barcelona, yesterday's panel session, 'Selling Pharmaceuticals in 2015,'generated much interest from our delegates. This was reflected in the many questions from the floor and also into our text in line. Unfortunately, we were unable to read out all of the anonymous quetions sent to us by SMS/text message, so we were most grateful to Christoph Schmidt (Senior Director of Commercial Excellence - Actelion) who agreed to handle the additional queries at the end of the segment. As you will see from our transcript, our delegates were pulling no punches with their questions, but Christoph was equally challenging in his responses...

Questions on Selling Pharmaceuticals In 2015: Christoph Schmidt, Actelion

We talk about offerings to the payer and collaborating in a B2B environment, but the payer should give something back too. Are the panel ready to step away if it is just an offering and not a true collaboration?
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There are risk sharing models in place i.e Novartis offer osteoporosis treatment, they guarantee it works, if not they will reimburse. If its a risk sharing model both parties have to take a risk, on the other hand if the promises pharma make are delivered you should get something back and the risk balance should not only be on the side of the pharma industry

In an industry where product uniqueness decides the marketing approach, can VBS prolong or create a spurt in market share of products in the latter stages of patent validity?
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If you understand the customer needs and service them well you increase customer loyalty which prevents losing customers through inertia. Youre service operation is worth more than the product, and it cannot be substituted easily by engineering. It wont solve productivity of pipelines because that is a commercial model. It will keep market share and prevent erosion, but companies would use vbs more in the early stage of the lifecycle rather than to prolong that cycle.

With such dramatic change needed over a short period of time, how are you partnering and communicating with your service departments, such as IT, to help enable change?
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The most important thing is to change the mindset in your operation then you go step by step in regions were vbs selling is appropriate- these tend to be more mature markets where there is pressure on healthcare providers. IT enables you to put the different elements of complex environments together and there should be a supporting function to facilitate the key account managers job. The business needs of this model will drive IT to adapt to it.

What impact will VBS have on segmentation and targeting models?
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The targeting on prescription value of the customer will change to a more attitudinal/ technique driven segmentation. You will come up with more individual segmentation which you then serve with more tailor made different marketing offerings. The increased need for customer understanding will lead to a higher level of sophistication in segmentation.

In the past, pharma companies have increased sales succesfully, but now funding is becoming an issue. Can VBS solve this?
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If you have a strong value proposition, innovative product and deliver both benefits for payer and patient, your value position is superior and you are in a good place to secure funding

With headcount freezes and reductions, who do you fire to make way for KAMs?
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Firstly, you must understand and change your talent screening. It is evolutionary rather than looking at one point in time so you shouldnt have to fire and replace. You ultimately have to start with the right people independently of cost containment measures such as headcount.