Many people want to become a pharmaceutical sales representative (PSR), they picture the glitz of a high salary, extravagant perks, huge growth potential, travel, fancy industry events, etc. and think ‘that’s the life!’ But in reality the job isn’t an easy one, it involves a lot of studying, competitive analysis, managing relationships, data entry, and waiting around (MedReps, 2015).
Since PSRs have one of the most demanding jobs in the industry, we’re working on ways to improve their day-to-day lives, eliminating wasted time and resources by streamlining and automating every-day activities.
Call recording and sample management are two tedious tasks plaguing PSRs. Today’s article focuses on how to improve these activities to give selling time back to reps.
Call Recording
Depending on where you work this may be referred to as call recording, detail logging, or post-call analysis; it is the process of evaluating and sorting interactions between a PSRs and healthcare providers (HCPs).
The information recorded during this process typically includes:
- Products detailed
- Samples provided
- Promotional items delivered
- Content accessed
- Physician’s opinion / perception
- Decisions issued
- Requests or concerns
- Material/information requested for the follow-up
In order for PSRs and their marketing teams to gain valuable insights from this process and make educated decisions for the future, ALL interactions must be recorded accurately. Unfortunately PSRs often wait until the end of workday (or even workweek) to log their calls, which leaves plenty of time for them to forget meaningful information (Pharmiweb, 2014).
4 Steps for Effective and Accurate Call Recording
1. Compliance Issues
PSRs must be careful to follow compliancy regulations regarding PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act). These are the ground rules for how organizations collect, use, or disclose personal information.
Accurate call recording also helps with the collection and submission of data for regulatory review. Automating the data collection process makes it easy for pharma companies to stay on top of compliance rules without the hassle of manual human error.
2. Time Off Territory
An essential subset of call recording is ‘time off territory’ (TOT). This includes activities that are not directly related to making sales calls in the field, including: statutory holidays, internal sales meetings, sick days, etc. This information should also be documented in the system and synchronized to home office. Again, this is important for companies to know because it allows them to gauge and understand their sales rep behaviour, helping them improve.
3. CRM Integration
A primary objective of the call recording process is creating customer profiles. Any new healthcare professional or prescribing personnel should have a customer profile. This profile includes standard information such as full name, position, workplace, territory, etc.
A sales enablement platform makes this process easy and automatic. The platform will integrate seamlessly with your existing CRM system and automatically record comprehensive call information to the appropriate customer. This provides you with a 360-degree view of your customers and practical insights into their needs and wants.
4. Closed-Loop Insights into HCP Behaviour
The primary role of a PSR is to influence the prescription behaviour of physicians within their assigned territory; this is why it’s important that call information be updated regularly. When users can browse existing records of HCP preferences they can tailor their future messages and deliver content that will be valued, therefore improving their relationships.
Call recording should also be synchronized back to the home office, as it will allow them to determine the effectiveness of their specific content pieces, see if their campaign was an overall success, gauge the behaviour of HCPs, plan for future content, monitor the performance of PSRs and their territories, set new objectives and quotas for their PSRs, etc.
Accurate information and data is the powerhouse of effective sales and marketing.
Sample Management
In many instances PSRs provide product samples to physicians, and it is crucial that these samples are closely monitored and tracked both physically and virtually within the CRM system. This process is often called sample management, or sample accountability.
Typical tasks performed in relation to sample management include:
- Acknowledging samples received
- Logging all sample transactions, including: expired samples, damaged samples, samples requested by a peer, etc.
- Recording the number of samples distributed during a specific detail (product name, quantity, and lot number)
- Performing a physical inventory count and entering these quantities in the CRM system
- Conducting sample reconciliation – determining if there is a discrepancy between what the system thinks the PSR should have and what they actually have in hand
Effective sample management is critical to the success of a pharma company’s products. Loss of important sample data and information can lead to countless complications.
Tools for Faster and Smarter Sample Management
Compliance Issues
The most important issue with samples is ensuring that you are meeting PDMA (Prescription Drug Marketing Act) and FDA regulations.
The PDMA contains strict regulations to ensure the proper use and distribution of pharma samples, it requires that companies implement controls to track their samples from the moment that they leave the manufacturing facility until they are placed in the HCP’s hand (PDMA). PDMA regulations also extend to things such as sample labels, sample requests, and sample receipts.
Drug Diversion
(Information sourced from: PWC)
Sample management provides pharma companies with the opportunity to demonstrate their product’s safety, efficacy, and quality in the real world. If a doctor is continuously requesting samples of a particular product, there is a strong likelihood of success with this product (Pharm Exec, 2003). All of this information is valuable to an effective sales process.
E-Signatures
A great benefit provided by sample management tools is the electronic signature (e-signature) feature. Whenever samples are being given or received it is vital that the appropriate information is recorded, including the signature of the HCP receiving the sample. E-signatures offer an efficient and time-conscious way of ensuring that sample regulations are being upheld. This provides companies with the capacity to track and verify signatures to ensure compliance and authenticity. These tools also time-stamp and date-stamp transactions; improving tracking and enabling greater accountability from PSRs in the field (Pharm Exec, 2003).
Additional Benefits
Other of benefits of sample management tools include,
- Cost controls;
- In-field inventory awareness;
- Avoiding drug diversion; and,
- Creating better mechanism for managing product recalls.
However, “Many homegrown software systems [for sample management] ultimately fail due to unclear requirements, insufficient resources, or staff turnover. These issues can be mitigated by taking advantage of a software team that is up to date with the latest technology and has experience implementing sample management systems across a broad range of disciplines.” (Pharma Compliance Monitor, 2015).
How to embrace a faster and smarter process
Since partnering with Indegene, our Pharma Sales Enablement solution has combined global healthcare compliance with innovative software solutions that create implicit regulatory compliance.
PDMA and FDA regulations, inventory tracking, call recording, and sample management are automated and risk-controlled through Pharma CRM integration that returns selling time to the PSR.
If call recording and sample management are plaguing your pharma sales reps efficiency, and you feel like you’re lacking quality information, request a demo and let us show you just how easy it can be to automate and control your processes.
