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Marketing Insights
Newsletter
Special Issue: Pharmaceuticals
Customer Crisis
Source:
1to1 Magazine Nov/Dec 2005, article by John Gaffney
When it comes to customer strategy, whole industries
have reputations for poor execution. Improving their
delivery will not only boost customer value, but also
will help them improve profitability despite related
economic and industry challenges.
Manufacturers of over-the-counter and prescription drugs
find themselves in trouble on two levels. First, there
is a total disconnect between pharma companies and
physicians. Pharma firms continue to spend millions on
the archaic practice of parking sales reps in doctor
waiting rooms, hoping for two minutes with a doctor who
doesn't have two minutes to spare. According to a report
from Lathian, an online pharmaceutical and
education provider, 40 percent of all physicians have
"no see" policies for sales reps and the rest have
strict time limits. Many of them, according to Joe
DeBelle, Lathian's senior director of marketing,
keep visits under two minutes. Second, the industry has
landed itself in hot water with consumers. A Kaiser
Family research report shows that 70 percent of
consumers surveyed believe that drug companies put
profits ahead of people. In 2004, for the first time,
most people surveyed said drug companies generally do a
"bad job" (48 percent) than a "good job" (44 percent) of
serving consumers.
Customer-centric solutions: First, pharmaceutical
companies need to restructure their marketing efforts
toward physicians by grouping them into addressable
profiles according to their needs and what they value,
and then interact with them based on those profiles. To
help accomplish this, companies need to recast their
reps' time and embrace the Internet as a communication
and marketing vehicle.
"We
need a huge mind-set change here," Lathian's DeBelle
says. "Pharmaceutical companies want to stay
tried-and-true to the sales rep model, but they refuse
to realize that their target audience is simply
unavailable."
DeBelle
and others believe that target audience is available
online. His suggests that pharma firms use a version of
"e-detailing," which involves customized portals and
frequent online communications between drug
manufacturers and their target physicians. For example,
each drug company should set up a unique Web site for
each of its high-value physician customers. It should
customize the site to deliver information about drug
availability, pricing, research, and clinical trials
specifically related to that physician or group's
specialties. The site would be accessible not only to
the groups' physicians, but also to the nurses and the
administrative personnel so product ordering and sample
requests could be handled more efficiently.
What
happens to the sales reps? They don't sit in the waiting
room anymore. Their role becomes more focused. Instead
of trying to fit quick-hit visits into an overcrowded
schedule, the sales rep uses the online portal to learn
about the physicians' needs and better understand their
value and can then plan effective visits, as well as
build a relationship based on that information. By
tracking behavior on the Web site, the rep can learn,
for example, that nurses are noticing side effects in
patients receiving a new drug. Instead of being
confronted about that issue in an office visit and being
unprepared to respond, the rep can schedule a workshop
ahead of time to create a dialogue about the new drug's
side effects and how they can be alleviated.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers made a huge stride toward
increasing consumer trust by making all clinical trial
information available through a Web site maintained by
the International Federation of Pharmaceutical
Manufacturers & Associations. But other educational
tactics have been dominated by wasteful mass-market
advertising that doesn't address the value message that
helps build trust.
In
part, the stringency of the HIPAA statute passed in
August 2003 has forced pharma companies to use mass
advertising because their education options are minimal.
Thus, patient relationship programs take on more
importance. Pharma sales reps can help by becoming
information resources to physicians. Many drug
manufacturers already work with hospitals and physician
groups to sponsor information sessions on diseases and
even patient support groups. Those efforts need to be
expanded. By doing so, sales reps can work with
physicians to better address patient concerns, identify
patient groups, and build trusting relationships.
Reprinted with permission from Peppers & Rogers Group, a
Carlson Marketing Group company. Copyright (c) Carlson
Marketing Group. All Rights Reserved.
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