Know more, sell more

Better information is the key to success in an increasingly difficult sales environment, say Dorothy Knightley and David Owen, TNS Healthcare.

In the current climate, financial pressures brought on by regulatory constraints and the limited numbers of new products mean that the “more is better” approach to sales force management is becoming less and less commercially viable.

With revenue growth harder to generate, companies are reducing sales force size to focus on high potential customers, delivering more targeted messages at optimal frequency. Success depends on improving the sales experience with key customers, building long term, mutually beneficial relationships that lead to greater commitment to in-line brands. Better, broader, deeper, more sensitive information is needed throughout the process – understanding dynamics and challenges of the marketplace, identifying targets that have the greatest growth potential, knowing how to reach these prescribers with messages that build brand commitment and then measuring the impact on sales.

Successful sales forces are highly dependent upon better market intelligence to build more effective targeting and detailing strategies and implementation plans. Sophisticated modelling methodologies measure results and enable the fine-tuning of tactics.

Adding “soft” measures

Increasingly, “soft” measures also are needed to augment and explain “hard” sales information. Representative performance metrics should monitor factors that drive sales success. Essential elements include nurturing positive relations with customers and building commitment to the company’s brands. Commitment is vital. It is much more than brand loyalty as it involves an emotional attachment to the brand. Commitment has been shown to drive patient share, building resistance to competitor and payor activities and predicting future Rx dynamics.

What does this mean for industry?

Representative calling and competitive sales data to measure effort and result has been available for many years and used to evaluate performance. After all, that’s what really counts. However, in the new climate, where promotional money needs to be spent much more wisely, sales management will want feedback that the:

• Right customers are being called on at the right frequency
• Sales experience is positive for the customer
• Desired messages are being communicated
• Call has a positive effect on the mindset of the recipient
• Commitment is built or, with well established brands, reinforced
• Sales have increased sufficiently to more than cover the cost of the call

Setting priorities

The first priority is to get the target list right. Companies need access to selective information from multiple and comprehensive data sources for profiling and segmenting doctors and practices, covering:

• Current prescribing behaviour
• General attitudes and loyalties
• Receptiveness to different media
• The political and regulatory environment in which they work
• The needs of the population that they serve

The second priority is for consistent metrics to monitor, assess and reward performance.

In an ideal world, obtaining and integrating data from different sources, and applying the results at the individual doctor level, would be possible. However, we don’t live in this ideal world. In reality, Data Protection legislation, MRS / ESOMAR / EPhMRA Codes of Practice, industry body (e.g. ABPI) guidelines and a host of other constraints, from sick funds to doctors’ organisations, limit the use of information at the level we would like.

These constraints are likely to get stricter, so the solution must lie in obtaining as much information as possible from a broad range of sources, linking, integrating and delivering it at as low a level of geography as possible. Then it can be used alongside whatever data or intelligence can be obtained at the named doctor or practice level.

Increasingly a key component of this mix is the “soft” data, obtained through primary market research. Here lies another set of challenges. Face-to-face research is prohibitively expensive for anything other than qualitative research, so most research in the area has been conducted by mail, telephone or self-completion questionnaires and/or diaries. Response rates to mail and telephone studies are declining, so costs have risen.

Making “soft” data affordable

Fortunately, one positive trend has made the availability of soft data possible – the growth of internet research. Evidence demonstrates that doctors prefer participating in on-line studies to many traditional methodologies. Questionnaires are simple to complete, doctors can do surveys at their own convenience and, as no interviewer is necessary, they can be rewarded for their time without increasing overall research costs.

Because careful management of response rate and information quality is essential to maintain high quality, “double opt-in”* panels are used. National, managed on-line panels of several thousand PCPs enable data to be collected at low levels of granularity then integrated with secondary data from other sources to guide targeting and monitor performance. The integration of these different types of data requires advance modelling skills and sensitive interpretation but can greatly enhance the ability of companies to manage the sales process and optimise return on investment.

Conclusions

In today’s environment of increasing competition and shrinking budgets, it is critical to look beyond traditional sales measures to new “soft” metrics that focus on building the relationships that drive long-term commitment and increased prescribing. Identifying and measuring the activities that generate high commitment ensure promotional time and dollars are spent where they will deliver the optimal returns.

“Double opt-in” means that the doctor has elected to join the panel in the first place, and then has agreed to participate in the individual study. Details of the doctor’s age, sex, date of qualification, qualifications, specialism etc. are kept on the panel management system to enable effective sampling and monitor participation in studies.

Dorothy Knightley is Chairman, UK Group, Southern Europe and Asia Pacific for TNS Healthcare. E-mail Dorothy.Knightley@tns-global.com or call + 44 01372 825728.

David Owen is Group Research Director for TNS Healthcare. E-mail David.Owen@tns-global.com or call +44 01372 825701.