Reuters Events | Pharma

Thought leadership and innovation for the Pharmaceutical Industry

At a recent webinar co-sponsored by eyeforpharma and TNS Healthcare, panelists spoke on the new environment in pharma sales and the best ways to meet the challenges of reduced physician access and,

By Editor on Nov 6, 2007

At a recent webinar co-sponsored by eyeforpharma and TNS Healthcare, panelists spoke on the new environment in pharma sales and the best ways to meet the challenges of reduced physician access and, in many places, increasing budgetary concerns.

Simon Roberts, of Roche Canadas Strategic Partnerships/Market Access team, addresses the question of how to re-engineer physician relationships so that physicians and their patients get more value from rep visits and so that reps can continue to get the sales that grow their companies business.

Aligning the rep with physician needs
According to Roberts, one key way to revamp the physician/rep relationship is align sales people around the customer and the customers business and strategic plans. Success depends on asking ourselves the question, what does this particular physician need, what are her business plans, and what can we as a pharma company offer to meet that need?

To meet physicians needs requires a cross-functional, multi-unit approach to key customers. Many pharma companies are large, multi-national businesses with a long reach into different facets of the health care industry. Roberts asks, What are the resources we can draw from internally and externally to better serve our key customers?

In answer to the question, Roberts gives the example of Roches work with a nephrologist who dedicated a great deal of his time to conducting research. By dividing up investment across several business units, Roche was able to leverage external resources and help the physician set up an immuno-suppression research program. Roches efforts paid off in a better relationship with and increased access to this physician, support for six business units within Roche Canada, and most importantly, improved patient care. Success was measured by looking at the physicians prescription data, at hospital sales and at general sales trends with this doctor.

At Roberts says, its important for pharma companies to differentiate themselves in this environment of increased competition and decreased face-to-face time with physicians. Discovering and addressing the needs of key customers can drive sales and build crucial customer loyalty.

How can we help?
Another success story comes from a hospital that was re-designing its oncology clinic. Roche engaged its diagnostics arm to conduct process efficiency analyses on the existing clinics design and to project the efficiency of the future clinic based on its design. From these analyses, Roche was able to provide the hospital and the key physician involved in the project input and assistance. The project involved a unique naming opportunity and the chance to continue growing the physicians relationship with Roche.

Physicians, says Roberts, are also dealing with a new environment, one in which less money is available and physicians need to be able to do more with less, especially in the Canadian system. Pharma companies can assist with that by coordinating all its business units and bringing all its resources to the table. By doing this, Roche has achieved its most important goals. It has increased access throughout the duration of its products; it has strengthened relationships and provided opportunities for interaction with physicians; it has driven additional business through technology and efficiency opportunities; it has moved reps into the roles of consultants and advisors, partners in the difficult business of running a practice. And ultimately, it has improved the level of patient care.

One size no longer fits all
Tobias Weizel, Senior Sales and Marketing Effectiveness Manager of Amgen Central and Eastern Europe, knows all about operating in different environments. With 13 countries, currencies, markets and health care systems to contend with, says Weizel, his team has to constantly question and re-engineer its relationships with its very diverse customer group.

Says Weizel, the physicians are still the center of marketing and sales activities, but those physicians requirements are changing. To be successful, pharma companies must be alert to those shifting requirements and ready to meet them.

In the good old days, Weizel says, marketing was relatively easy. There were few different customer groups, and if a rep had a unique product, selling it was relatively easy. Messages and services were one-size-fits-all, and relationships between physicians and reps were pretty straightforward.

Nowadays, things are very different. Physicians interact with lots of different people when making prescribing choices: product managers, health economists, specialists and medical leaders all weigh in on the final decision. And reps cant limit their interaction to just physicians anymore. The list of key people may also include nurses, pharmacists and hospital managers, for example. This makes segmentation and targeting crucial parts of any marketing plan. And most importantly, says Weizel, individual messages and service offers must be tailored according to the requirements of the customer.

Going on the grid
To facilitate segmentation and targeting, Amgen CEE developed a four-square grid of performance and potential. Strategic decisions about where customers are placed on the grid (most important, important, less important, least important) are made at the account level, with input from sales and marketing. In this way, the different functions work together, providing input and feedback across the teams.

For each square in the grid, there are guidelines, frequencies, messages, etc., and how a customer is dealt with depends on his position in the grid. The grid is not set in stone, of course, and the hope is that customers will move from less important to important, from important to most important.

Says Weizel, placing people accurately on the grid makes it possible to target the right customer in the right segments with the right messages and services.

Beyond doctors other voices in the decision-making process
Dirk Ziegler is the head of Sales Excellence in Oncology in Emerging Gross Markets for Novartis. His company, he says, is starting to look beyond the physician/rep relationship. Other stakeholders are flexing their muscle in making pharma purchasing decisions, and pharma companies would be wise not to discount their influence over the decision-making process.

The pharma market is becoming increasing complex, says Ziegler. Patents are expiring without new blockbuster drugs in the pipeline to replace the lost revenue. Competition is getting tougher, and there are greater price and cost pressures, partly due to the increase in competition. Access to decision makers is more and more restricted, and governments are changing and revamping their healthcare systems even more frequently than before. But it is the increased power of additional stakeholders such as collective payers and group purchasers that calls into question the wisdom of a narrowly physician-focused sales strategy.

Shifting focus
The traditional relationship between sales reps and physicians is changing, says Ziegler. Greater budget constraints mean doctors are under financial pressures; physicians no longer have unquestioned authority in prescribing drugs to patients as insurance companies and other stakeholders exert influence; physicians are making less and therefore require more value for their time and money. This new environment means that pharma customers have changing needs.

In the past, the sales rep focused almost entirely on building relationships with physicians. According to Ziegler, this is no longer be appropriate. While doctors are still important and influential, in many cases, they may no longer be the central figure in decision making.

Today, pharma companies must understand the role of other stakeholders such as governments, payers, wholesalers, etc. Companies should undertake a complete analysis of customer decision making, gathering input from many of its teams. A cross-functional assessment of all available information would provide the most complete picture; from there, multiple teams can work together to engineer new marketing and sales strategies.

Says Ziegler, it is crucial to understand how a target customers decision-making process is really set up? Who are the stakeholders, and what are the best ways to deal with them? How are relationships with these stakeholders built and managed, and by whom? How does this decision-making system impact what sales teams are doing with the doctors?

New roles for reps
Just as reps once learned to create relationships with doctors, now they must learn how to approach the other stakeholders who are impacting decisions. Sales reps may become more like consultants, helping physicians to manage the multiple pressures on their businesses. Reps will have to learn new skills and develop new strategies to best interact with the emerging decision makers as physicians are moved from the center to the periphery of a sales teams focus.

All the decision-makers in the process can certainly agree on one thing: the ultimate goal is to provide the best possible care for patients. By helping to evaluate and optimize the value of total treatments offered to patients and by providing evidence of therapeutic efficacy and ROI, reps can serve patients and drive business, whatever the challenges the changing landscape of pharma sales may offer.

Author: Shannon Perry, journalist, eyeforpharma