Earlier we examined the noteworthy differences among millennial healthcare providers (mHCP) and their older counterparts.
Today’s article concludes those findings with four suggestions to communicate with mHCPs for a sales process that accommodates current trends and delivers value added outcomes.
CLICK HERE for our previous article about the trends and characteristics that shape the following tips.
As we’ve explained previously, mHCPs are quick to adopt new trends, technologies, and attitudes; the healthcare industry will need to move quickly in order to follow suit.
Accommodating the needs of mHCPs will require a change in communication approaches across the sales process.
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Tailored Communications
The healthcare industry is stuck in a process we call ‘digitizing past realities’, where traditional in-person, heavily promotional approaches are simply being ‘overlaid’ with mobile sales applications, creating iPad sales teams rather than digital sales teams.
Add value or lose trust,
Many in the industry are stuck seeing the sales rep as a highly effective channel of communication, meanwhile the opposite is true of HCP views, where the sales rep is declining as a trusted source of information.
MHCPs hold the strongest views against pharma sales reps as a trusted source of medical information. This makes it imperative that industry efforts at engaging mHCPs always provide tailored value by meeting the needs of this physician group with each interaction. At SKURA we’ve seen that the more generic a piece of content is, the less it actually adds value.
Physicians have less say in IDNs,
As more HCPs work at management-led healthcare organizations, the healthcare sales rep will need to shift approaches away from direct selling. The use of preferred vendor networks and closed formularies are limiting purchasing discretion for physicians, and while physicians still hold an influence, product-focused communications will fail to achieve any desired objective (Source: Bain, 2015).
Content needs to be tailored to needs and outcomes. A procurement officer might be more concerned about product-centric info, whereas mHCPs want support to ease workloads and drive patient outcomes. It’s important to think of these interactions holistically, rather than as attempts to drive sales. If your actions continually improve patient outcomes, ease workloads, and create value; your brand will be more desirable for the IDN.
There is a need for content that can’t be found elsewhere,
Healthcare sales reps need to move away from generic product focused communications altogether. With more actors influencing the sales process, content needs to be tailored to the specific needs of the HCP for their explicit challenges.
Product-centric information can be found online with minimal effort, but the truly valuable content that HCPs desire like phase 4 studies, molecular compound information, interaction data with other drugs, benefits of combinations, antibiotics development, and anything that provides end-to-end evidence for treatment purposes; is either not available, or costly for physicians to acquire.
In an interesting twist, while many HCPs are using 3rd party sources as a first choice for medical advice (79% indicating so – EPG Healthmedia ,2013) they are choosing to do so not because of trust or information value, but because of speed and cost (over 50% indicating so – EPH Healthmedia, 2015).
Considering that HCPs can contact their local rep for free when they need information, the healthcare sales rep has an incredible opportunity to use responsive engagement with valuable content to rebuild eroding relationships and reposition as a trusted and reliable source for medical information.
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Targeted Communications
Over 50% of physicians are digital natives as of 2014 (eHealth Nordic, 2014). What this means is that physicians are comfortable using a variety of channels to consume the exact same information. MHCPs, in contrast, are entirely digital natives, and are familiar with using multiple channels for consuming digital content and interacting with others.
From above we’ve already seen that mHCPs are already moving online, but what’s more crucial to appreciate is the consumption of content outside of regular work hours.
An incredible 70% of physicians indicated that they consume medical information outside of work hours on a daily and weekly basis (EPG Healthmedia, 2015). Increasingly taxed physicians have less time available to search for and consume information during work hours. Often it seems that key questions are held for later, when they have some free time at home on a tablet to search databases and forums for support.
SUMMARY – mHCPs are searching for and consuming content on multiple devices, and doing so after work hours.
It’s not enough to send flyers in the mail, shoot of an email, and pop into the practice for a surprise visit.
Physicians need engagement to be targeted at the time and place they’re searching for it. Channel independence puts a drag on effective engagement.
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Responsive Communications
It should come as a surprise that physicians are using digital forums because of speed and cost. Forums are notorious for lagging response times and lengthy discussions, and searching a 3rd party medical resource for relevant information can be very time consuming on top of unpredictable costs.
The standard approach to any challenge is “Google It”, and while HCPs prefer 3rd party sources to search engines (EPG Healthmedia, 2013), the lack of trustworthy and reliable information is still an issue.
This trend of 'instant-search' is what Google calls “Micro moments”.
You need a salesforce that accommodates mHCP 'micro moments' for healthcare challenges.
Though it’s been touched on above, the opportunity for healthcare sales reps to regain relevance and trust with HCPs is through capitalizing on micro moments and being able to provide an answer the instant it’s needed.
It only takes a couple of knock-out engagements for HCPs to realize the industry is ready and willing to provide answers and ease workloads. The healthcare industry needs to drop traditional approaches and push the envelope on value added engagement before a 3rd party source is able to do so first.
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Pre-Emptive Communications
Perhaps the hallmark of a perfect digital transformation – knowing what the user wants/needs before they even ask.
MHCPs have already revealed that they believe the industry has a big role to play in supporting patient outcomes (54% indicating so – Havaslynx, 2016) and perhaps more importantly, 61% in the specialist HCP category stated they would choose a treatment partly based on the availability of patient support programs (Havaslynx, 2016).
MHCPs are already going online and preferring digital sources for self-directed support, but the deeper benefit is the behaviour data created through continued digital consumption.
If an HCP visited an industry site, their digital fingerprint reveals a great deal about their needs and challenges without them ever needing to say a word.
Going back to the healthcare sales rep, the opportunity exists for an integrated and closed loop marketing system that provides pre-emptive support for physicians and patients.
While on-demand and responsive tactics are the ideal solution to winning back HCPs, knowing what the HCP needs before they know it themselves is an approach that builds incredible value and changes the dynamic of traditional healthcare sales.
Closing the Digital Divide,
It should go without saying that these solutions will require a digital transformation. As one commenter put it “The challenge to mHCPs will be to leverage their agile, iterative methodologies within an established, rigorous industry that, rightly, prioritises not failing” (Havaslynx, 2016).
Pharma sales enablement software is one such solution that enables sellers to provide solutions where they know one is needed, rather than trying to be persuasive where demand might not exist.
If you’re interested in learning more about how our sales enablement solution can enable the 4 communication changes listed above, download the case study below to see how we made GSK sales teams “much more responsive” while doubling selling time with physicians.
The digital transformation doesn’t need to be complex, it just needs the right set of tools for the job. Request a demo below and let our sales team show you just how easy it is to revolutionize the selling platform.
