Keeping it local

Over the past couple of years Pfizer has begun putting the customer at the centre of everything they do. In the past they’ve tended to concentrate on customer focus, particularly with regard to the Pfizer brand but not thought more deeply about it terms of meeting customer needs or living a shared agenda with customers at a local level. They have now come to the conclusion that the customer should be at the center of everything they do and adopted a new account-led approach.

Philip Watts, Customer Marketing Director and David Bevan, Sales Director at Pfizer have developed and implemented the plan themselves and have managed to adopt a seamless approach to the leadership of the accounts team and the sales team. Watts explains, “Broadly this approach means that the entire business is centered around the idea of a local account plan. This plan relates to a specific local health economy developed by account managers - we will have a team of account managers who write it and then have a variety of resources at their disposal to help implement that account plan.”

Bevan adds that there are outcome research people in place to support the new approach. From field based medical people that can support the plan, to specialist account managers for the specialty disease areas. Bevan goes on to mention that they are encouraging everybody in the organization, from the managing director downwards, to be available to get out and see customers as part of the account plan. “The new approach is about putting the customer at the centre of everything we do,” says Bevan, “it’s about hanging everything off local account plans, which are driven based on sharing an agenda with the customer.”

Transformation

Both Watts and Bevan agree that the new approach is absolutely vital in order to transform how Pfizer works as an organization. “We’ve realized,” comments Watts, “that we believe very strongly in the idea of really living a shared agenda, where we understand what it’s like. For example, to be a chief executive of a PCT and we actually try to meet the needs of that chief executive of a PCT in a way that we’ve never done before. And in doing so we add value and that I think is the way forward to the industry, certainly in the UK marketplace.”

Bevan goes on to describe why the approach is focusing on different areas of the country, explaining that what Pfizer has found in recent years is that the UK health economy is different in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, as you would expect, but even within countries there are significant differences. “A one size fits all approach that Pfizer may have adopted in the UK five to eight years ago, doesn’t work anymore and we now know that,” explains Bevan. “We’ve proved that we can be successful by doing very different things locally and out strategy for the present and future is to do the right things locally around an account approach.”

Motivation

Motivation is really important for a sales team. It is also a very personal thing and related to the quality of the leadership specifically and this is something Pfizer concentrate on a great deal– making sure they have the right leaders, focusing on the quality of people programs and implementing a rewarding and healthy culture. Due to the changes that have happened recently at Pfizer with the implementation of the new account led approach there has been a period of uncertainty and instability.

Watts: “One of the things that motivates people locally is the realization that we as a company know that there are variances in different parts of the UK. Unlike previously where we had a one size fits all approach it is quite motivating for our people to realize that we are waking up the fact that we need different horses for different courses.”

Challenges

Bevan believes that one of the big challenges, not just for Pfizer but for the whole pharma industry is the move from big blockbuster primary care products to more specialist disease areas.

Bevan also points to the reputation of the pharmaceutical industry. He says that it is important to be trusted, and points out that the way suppliers and customers work together is very different in the pharma industry to other fast moving consumer goods. He goes on to say that although there are some good examples of trusting relationships at local level it’s not uniform across the country, adding that this is something Pfizer are working very hard to change.

Watts is also weary of the pharma industry’s reputation and goes as far as to say that they may have even shot themselves in the foot. Watts is focused more on the fact that people think of the pharmaceutical industry as a cheque book. “Historically it’s been a situation whereby we’ve had customers saying, ‘look, we’re planning to do this in this particular part of the country, we haven’t got enough money to do it, so we thought we’d come to you to get the money.’” says Watts. “We really don’t want this situation in the future, what we want them to say instead is, ‘we’re thinking about doing this locally – can we work with you on it because we think you will bring value to the conversation?’ We’ve got to change the perception and be prepared to walk away from those customers who just want us to get a bit of funding.”

Watts also points out that one huge challenge that Pfizer are trying to tackle is getting access and feedback from customers because he thinks they don’t see any value from the discussions they have with the industry. Watts believes the key to tackling this problem is adding value: “We want our customers not only to see us as an equal but also want to give us time to have a conversation with us because they’re getting something useful from it. This is an everyday issue that our people are facing and we are trying to address.”

Reduced sales force

In January 2007, Pfizer announced that it was reducing its national sales force by around 20 percent. Bevan explains that this was all part of a global review of the cost base within Pfizer, the sales force being one element of this. “The fundamental was that we looked and we took the opportunity to review how we do business,” comments Bevan. “It wasn’t about slashing sales forces it was about deciding the way we want to go forward for the future – saying that, it has been really tough.”

He goes on to explain that they are now beyond the change of the last nine months and they are now able to implement the new and improved structure, giving people a sense of possibility for the future and the chance to buy back into the company. Some things have stayed the same, including the Pfizer values that employees are encouraged to live by, however, some things are very different. Territories have changed, managers have changed and products and sales people have changed as well, which has had quite a large impact. But Bevan claims to see the light at the end of the tunnel and predicts that Pfizer is really starting to move forward.

Focus on customer needs

“We spend an awful lot of time thinking very deeply about what our customers needs are,” says Watts. “And we do that in a number of ways, spending more time actually in the field talking to our customers, listening to what they have to say and in doing so trying to put a picture of what their issues are and what they’re dealing with.”

Pfizer have just finished doing a customer need analysis where they completed an internal brainstorm to try and determine what they thought the needs would be and then compared it to a detailed piece of market research. There was around a 95 percent marry between the two. So Pfizer have a good idea of what their customers want and need but how are they going to make sure that they provide? Watts answers that they plan to continually follow up with further research to ensure they remain on track and that they also plan to take more interest in understanding local health economies to get a further sense of what customer needs are. They then plan to see which ones fit best with their strategy and which ones they can match. Watts adds: “However, that doesn’t mean we can solve all customers needs, as the biggest need at the moment is financial power and it is quite difficult in that we’re going in and asking them to spend more money on medicine.”

Future

It is difficult to think about what the pharma industry will be like in 20 years time, but Watts and Bevan are confidant and excited about the future of Pfizer. Watts is particularly excited about the fantastic new pipeline that Pfizer have in place that is close to fruition and believes that they have been right to concentrate on more specialty drugs than primary care based. Watts: “It’s inspiring to hear about some of the products that are coming out of our research – and I think it looks positive, certainly in the next five to 10 years. I’m also more positive because we’ve woken up to the idea that having great products alone is not enough – I’m wedded to this idea of becoming partners with our customers by adding value in what we do.”

Bevan goes on to explain that the Pfizer of the future will feel different. “It had innovative products but not innovative decision making. The Pfizer of the future, from the top down is very nimble, fast, dynamic, energetic and feels very exciting. Throughout the departments, from field sales to marketing, there is a real sense of genuine optimism for the future.”

“There is a real sense of genuine optimism for the future” – David Bevan

“I’m wedded to this idea of becoming partners with our customers by adding value in what we do” – Philip Watts