Sales Force Effectiveness: Sales efficiency over effectiveness

This publication has been discontinued on July 19, 2011.

Introduction

Abstract

Overview

Introduction

The traditional sales force model is no longer effective as doctors are no longer the key prescribing decision makers. Governments and payers are implementing cost cutting initiatives and promoting generic use in an attempt to control escalating healthcare costs. This has made it increasingly difficult for sales representatives to promote expensive branded drugs to doctors.

Scope

• Provides an overview of the current drivers behind the evolution of sales force effectiveness
• Analyzes current and emerging sales force effectiveness models
• Focuses on how to optimize sales force effectiveness through a variety of medium
• Evaluation of key customer targeting and segmentation strategies

Report Highlights

Optimizing sales and marketing resources, and identifying influential stakeholders is critical, as decision making around prescribing choices becomes more complicated following the emergence of additional stakeholders such as government bodies and payers.

Most emerging models appear to be moving from the sales representatives working in silos, to a key account management (KAM) style role; treating local healthcare economies as an account.

eDetailing is becoming an increasingly attractive marketing tool for Pharma. However, pharma companies have been slow to adopt the practice. This is possibly due to the difficulty in measuring ROI and most importantly, the unimaginative format of eDetailing to date

Reasons to Purchase

• Understand why sales force size and structure in the pharmaceutical industry is changing
• Identify the opportunities to improve promotion through targeting emerging stakeholders
• Assess new sales models that Pharma companies are now implementing to improve sales force effectiveness

Table of Contents

• CHAPTER 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
  • Scope of the report
    • Chapter summary
  • Key findings
• CHAPTER 2 SALES FORCE EFFECTIVENESS IS EVOLVING
  • Promoting branded pharmaceuticals is increasingly difficult
  • Current drivers of the sales force effectiveness evolution - why traditional models no longer work
    • Doctors are closing their doors to pharma sales reps
      • Prescribing decisions are no longer in the hands of physicians
      • Physician perks have cast reps and the pharma industry in a poor light;
      • Physicians overwhelmed by frequency of rep visits
    • The US Prescribing Data Restriction Program may force Pharma to use new physician targeting models
    • Poor public perception of the pharmaceutical industry is hindering sales and marketing efforts
    • Government and payer cost-cutting is putting pressure on Pharma ROI
    • P&R restrictions impact Pharma' s sales and marketing operations
  • Pharma must address the needs of emerging stakeholders
    • KOLs endorsement is key to a drug' s survival
    • As pharmacists' responsibilities grow they should be considered as more than simply drug dispensers
      • Pharmacists become prescribers
      • Growing power of pharmacist substitution
    • Nurse practitioners have the power not only to prescribe but also to influence drug formulary inclusion
    • Patient-centric healthcare is the future
      • Sales force assistance with patient compliance programs benefits all stakeholders
• CHAPTER 3 SALES FORCE EFFECTIVENESS MODELS
  • Evolving practices in sales force effectiveness
  • Establishing a new model that is both efficient and effective
    • Network intelligence is a key factor in designing new sales models
      • Performing network intelligence through patient-flow potential data helps to validate referral data gathered by reps
    • Key account management, the new buzz word in SFE-based selling models
      • Takeda revolutionary move to KAM
      • Recordati' s KAM model gives representatives more responsibility and freedom
      • Abbott implements a KAM sales model to adapt to the changing dynamic in healthcare systems
    • Service model - offering value-added services
  • Tools that add value to sales force effectiveness models
    • eDetailing is underused in its current format
      • Live virtual eDetailing
      • Scripted eDetailing
      • Website linked eDetails
      • eDetailing enhances prescriptions of Merz' s long-standing antifungal agent
    • Reaching physicians through electronic Continual Medical Education (eCME)
      • Criticism of Pharma-sponsored CME has led Pfizer to withdraw from sponsorship
    • PDAs and tablet personal computers - the new sales aid?
    • Social media strategies focused on increasing share of voice
• CHAPTER 4 OPTIMIZING SALES FORCE EFFECTIVENESS
  • Sales forces are becoming leaner and more efficient
  • Adaptation of sales force effectiveness to a rapidly changing healthcare environment
    • Scientific/Medical Liaison Officers - a much-needed role to address widening stakeholder needs
    • Accurate segmentation is a key factor in the effective deployment of sales and marketing resources
    • Optimizing sales force size
    • Product lifecycle sales strategies need to be realigned to consider current SFE conditions
    • Cost-cutting and lack of adequate resources has led to co-promotion and outsourcing agreements
      • Co-promotion - to be successful good communication between partners is paramount
      • Outsourcing sales forces is a logical step for Pharma to maximize market penetration and cut costs
    • Optimizing return on marketing investment
      • Monitoring ROI - the way forward
• CHAPTER 5 BIBLIOGRAPHY
  • Publications and online articles
  • Conference literature
  • Datamonitor reports
• APPENDIX
• List of Tables
  • Table 1: Pharma cost cutting strategies, 2007
  • Table 2: Results of Recordati' s KAM model assessment
  • Table 3: Proportion of physicians practicing in the US by type, 2008
  • Table 4: Datamonitor exchange rates ($)
  • Table 5: Examples of pharmacist prescribing in the US and Canada
• List of Figures
  • Figure 1: GlaxoSmithKline' s growth in marketing yield and profitability, Q3 2007-Q2 08
  • Figure 2: Decrease in primary care product details made by reps in the US, 2003-07
  • Figure 3: The public struggle to trust pharmaceutical companies
  • Figure 4: Global cost cutting exercises in the pharma industry
  • Figure 5: Key stakeholders Pharma must interact with
  • Figure 6: How Pharma segments responsibility for KOL relationships
  • Figure 7: Global pharmaceutical sales models
  • Figure 8: Remapping of key stakeholders in the UK healthcare market
  • Figure 9: Key account management model framework
  • Figure 10: Advantages and disadvantages of a KAM model for Pharma
  • Figure 11: Key characteristics of high-value customers identified by Abbott
  • Figure 12: Results of Abbott' s' KAM model were measured using concrete and soft measures to determine return on investment
  • Figure 13: US primary care physician' s ratings of rep services, 2008
  • Figure 14: Doctors' preferred method of when to conduct an eDetail
  • Figure 15: Drivers and resistors of eDetailing
  • Figure 16: Merck & Co.' s eDetailing service
  • Figure 17: Different eCME options offered by the American College of Physicians (ACP)
  • Figure 18: Segmentation strategies in sales force effectiveness
  • Figure 19: Minutes per rep product detail: primary versus secondary care
  • Figure 20: Segmenting physicians by prescribing practices
  • Figure 21: Sales force effectiveness lifecycle management
  • Figure 22: Proportion of involvement of managers from different business units in a co-promotion (%)
  • Figure 23: Methods of measuring ROI for sales force effectiveness
  • Figure 24: New product launch metrics for assessing the success of promotional efforts

Related Reports