In our previous post we discussed the growing challenge of sales and marketing costs for life science companies. Sales costs continue to represent more than a quarter of pharma company revenue, meanwhile up to 53% of U.S. physicians place moderate to severe restrictions on who can visit them to make a pitch (Source: ZSassociates, 2015).
This gap calls into question the value of traditional wide-scale in-person healthcare professional (HCP) engagement, and demonstrates the need for an efficient and cost-controlled digital transformation. This can be achieved through the use of digital interactions and analytics.
This week we are continuing our discussion about the top priorities for pharma executives, and we’re revealing the remaining two priorities, an example of success, and recommendations for achieving these results.
Click Here to read our last post about the major gap in healthcare industry costs, and the first priority for healthcare industry executives.
There are two remaining top priorities for pharma executives as explained in the 2013 Accenture study,
- Master multichannel marketing.
- Improve digital sales effectiveness.
Priority #2. Mastering Multichannel Marketing
The life science industry is known for their use of in-person sales tactics and broad outreach strategies. The challenge is that the in-person approach is no longer welcome by HCPs, and in fact, many HCPs are now stating that they would prefer digital sales content based interactions.
It’s no surprise that 70% of healthcare industry executives are targeting multi-channel marketing as a strategic priority for the future (Source: Accenture, 2013).
As we’ve seen in past articles, only 11% of HCPs still want an in-person sales presentation. With 68% preferring contact through email, and a majority requesting tailored mobile and digital content (Source: ZSassociates, 2015).
This is a trend we’re already seeing across other industries – where buyers prefer to progress their own decision journey, and are opposed to having a sales rep contact them before they’re ready.
HCPs know when they have a problem, and they’re going to seek out information related to their problem. The job of pharma sales reps (PSRs), and the industry as a whole, is to have that information readily available where the HCP is going to look. Sometimes that’s going to be online, and sometimes they’re going to reach out to the PSR themselves, but this unknown element is the true challenge of mastering multi-channel engagement.
Priority #3. Improve Digital Sales Effectiveness
Many in the healthcare industry are adopting digital interactions as a way to connect with HCPs, and provide them with the engagement format they desire – as explained above.
60% of healthcare industry executives have stated that improving their capacity for digital interactions is a top priority. In fact, roughly one quarter of direct sales contacts have already been replaced with digital interactions, and a further 26% intend on increasing digital interactions over the next two years (Source: Accenture, 2013).
A digital sales approach for pharma directly mitigates three major challenges currently faced by pharma sales reps.
End-to-End Automation as a Solution
Coordinating effective sales and marketing communications across several channels with digital interactions requires the end-to-end automation of sales and marketing platforms.
This means using a complete sales stack, martech mix, and pharma CRM in one unified platform that can track the behaviour and interactions with HCPs, and tailor future content for evolving needs.
(Image Source: eHealth Nordic, 2015)
An Example of Multichannel Digital Success
BCG Perspectives reviewed the success of a large pharmaceutical company in September of 2014 as they implemented a digital multichannel approach to their HCP interactions.
(Image Source: BCG Perspectives, 2014)
The new approach leveraged a mix of face-to-face, phone call (call center and field rep), email, and other methods, such as web-based meetings like co-browsing, to create a multichannel marketing program. This program tailored communications to each HCP, and offered different sets of interactions based on the value needed and history of engagement with the PSRs.
The results of the program were a major increase in customer satisfaction, and a sharp rise in the average duration of a phone call and in-person meeting with HCPs, from 5 minutes to 29 minutes!
The new model also enabled greater use of call-center sales reps – a tactic which costs anywhere from 30% to 50% less than traditional sales forces.
Read the full article from BCG Perspectives here.
How to Achieve These Results
The Integrated Customer Management (ICM) strategy explained by BCG Perspectives might appear to be a complex and costly endeavour on the surface, but in fact, this approach can be effectively achieved through the end-to-end automation explained above, and facilitated through 3rd party solution providers.
In the BCG analysis, multiple types of sales tactics are used such as the ICM and Call Center Plus (CCP) strategy. They track data on backend, and use this information to determine the type of approach for each account – which enables the use of account-based marketing.
Marketing Automation and other Martech mix technologies enable email campaigns, search engine optimization, landing page creation, and several other tactics that allow HCPs to ‘discover’ potential solutions on their own time.
Meanwhile, Sales Stack solutions enable more direct PSR to HCP interactions through any channel. PSRs can create tailored landing pages for each HCP, they can initiate a remote sales presentation, and they can have all of their content and contacts sorted intelligently on one platform.
These technologies provide sales and marketing alignment by breaking down information silos, ensure compliance through pharma CRM integration (which is a component of both the sales stack and martech mix), and track all interactions to help better position future communications.
This is the type of solution we put in place for GSK, and similarly to the BCG Perspectives case, we doubled selling time with physicians and empowered a centralized marketing team with global communications awareness.
Get Started with Digital Multichannel Engagement
If you’re looking to achieve these three top-priorities explained by the Accenture study – cost controls, multichannel mastery, and digital interactions – request a demo and let our sales specialists show you just how easy adaptive sales can be.
