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Thought leadership and innovation for the Pharmaceutical Industry

Ursula Sautter reviews the importance of key account management and key opinion leaders in new sales models

By Ursula Sautter on Nov 22, 2011

The list of challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry is by now sadly familiar: Growth projections for the developed markets are in the low single digits; market access is increasingly challenging; stakeholder power is shifting; loss of exclusivity is accelerating. Macro-economic factors such as lower GDPs and falling tax revenues “are impacting healthcare budgets [and] promoting more aggressive cost containment," says Maurizio Castorina, regional vice president for Southern Europe and Turkey at Takeda Italia Farmaceutici. This is, in turn, leading to “increased pricing and reimbursement measures” as well as a favoring of generics.

The bottom line: Sales strategies need to change—and fast.

The pharma industry has reached an “inflection point,” says Hugh Tippett, head of global sales at Novartis. Companies need to “shift from the current way of doing business [since the old approach] offers diminishing returns.” This shift is not necessarily negative, according to Tippett, since it "provides a company's executive team with an opportunity to set a trajectory that propels it into an industry leadership position."

Wanted: New sales models

New sales models should be centered on value creation. In response to shifts in stakeholder power and more complex decision-making processes, fresh approaches should not only target prescribers but local and national medical liaisons and payers, argues Castorina. Sales messages need to be tailored to the different requirements of GPs, specialists and hospital practitioners.

Sales reps should aim to understand the existing "goals, needs and priorities" of patients, adds Tippett, providing services beyond the scope of straightforward selling and "short-term gain." By using this relationship as a basis for the development and implementation of new products, Tippett says "a tangible win-win situation" can be achieved.

Since deeper, longer-term relationships are the objective, key account management (KAM) selling models should favor customer retention, through increased brand awareness, increased customer satisfaction, and enhanced compliance support. Patient groups and key opinion leaders (KOLs) are crucial in this context. (For more on KAM, see Key account management: A special report; for more on KOLs, see Q&A: How to engage with KOLs, Q&A: The changing role of KOLs and Pharma and KOLs: How to create transparent, collaborative relationships.) Flexible pricing models, such as risk-share agreements, should also become an option for sales managers.

Pharma firms can't make this transition overnight. New skills, new incentives, new training, new roles—and, most importantly, new mindsets—will all be required. But change is nevertheless essential. "Organizations are not rigid structures but harmonic network able to adapt themselves when the environment changes," says Castorina.

For exclusive KAM insights, download eyeforpharma's Pharma Key Account Management Report 2011-12.

For more on KAM and KOLs, join the sector’s other key players at KOL & Stakeholder Engagement Europe on February 21-22 in Berlin, SFE Europe on March 27-29, 2012 in Barcelona and SFE USA on May 30-May 31, 2012.

For more of eyeforpharma’s coverage of KAM, see our KAM special report.

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