Much has been written on the critical skills, technologies, systems and methodologies associated with successful pharmaceutical selling. Bryan McCrae explains why consistent sales success involves much more.

At my company Sales-Motivations we’ve just completed research into the most critical factors for sales success.  There’s been some very illuminating initial results. The two factors which we’ve found to be most important for high sales performance are resilience and intrinsic motivation. Strangely, given their importance, these factors rarely receive attention or development. It’s a sad fact that medical professionals often see little value in technological communications. Representatives now have only a few minutes or perhaps seconds to communicate and, in some countries, are prevented from seeing medical professionals altogether. Where contact is maintained, this is often driven more by sampling than the exchange of information. If current trends continue, then direct access to medical professionals may fade away altogether.

Resilience is the ability to recover quickly from setbacks and to keep going in the face of challenges. There are two main aspects to resilience.

The first is how badly a setback affects performance. It’s normal to feel down or demoralised if a major opportunity is missed. But does this result in just a small drop in activity levels for a short period or a major and long lasting drop in activity and performance? How long does this drop in activity and performance last for? It can vary from a few minutes to days, weeks or even longer. In some instances performance levels never fully recover. It is easy to see that the deeper the dip and the longer it lasts the more it will reduce performance. Resilience is vitally important to sales success.

The second factor is intrinsic motivation, which is the degree to which people want to work well in their jobs in order to achieve personal satisfaction and success. External motivators do work, but the effect is often short lived and not as strong for complex, technical or solution selling, compared to transactional selling.  This link between intrinsic motivation and effort, persistence, productivity and staff turnover has been repeatedly and reliably demonstrated in many studies.

‘Will-do’ or ‘Can-do’

Together, these factors also explain the difference between ‘can-do’ representatives and ‘will-do’ representatives. This is often most obvious when there are major changes in the market or changes in the role of the representative – as is certainly the case presently within pharma.

Selling doesn’t come naturally to everyone. But by harnessing the latest psychology techniques every employee can become part of the wider sales team. The outcome? A boost to employee motivation, the ability to engage in selling and a boost to your bottom line.

A new approach

The playing field has changed with the recent changes in the NHS and budget pressures resulting in the market becoming a lot more competitive. Sales professionals now need to be able to sell themselves and their products more than ever, show what differentiates them from their competitors and use sophisticated sales and account management techniques to win and retain clients.

But even the words ‘sales or selling’ fill many representatives with feelings of dread as it conjures up images of pushy double glazing and dodgy used car salesmen with questionable ethics. However, this selflimiting belief can be addressed by using powerful proven psychological techniques.

Fundamentally there is an issue around the thoughts, feelings and beliefs conjured up by the words ‘sales or selling’. This is where a change of mind-set can be very helpful. Rather than think of it as selling, think of it as of the process of finding healthcare professionals who need your products to help their patients stay healthy. In return, they will want to stay aligned with your brand, rather than competitors.

By challenging one’s mind-set the lack of motivation commonly associated with doing something we don’t feel comfortable with can be addressed. In fact, there is no need for any pharma sales professional to feel uncomfortable selling. The skill sets used for sales share many of the skills found in many scientific professionals. With a bit of flexibility and creativity these skills can be transferred from use in sciences to utilisation in sales to great effect.

Breaking barriers

One approach that has been proven to be very effective is ‘structured self-coaching’. Just like face-to-face coaching sessions, this involves clarifying what a person wants to change then identifying, exploring and overcoming the psychological barriers to achieving these goals, followed by creating an action plan to implement it.

Taking the example of ‘I want to feel more confident when trying to get a client to sign up for a new brand’, a common barrier might be the belief that if you can’t get them to sign up quickly then you don’t know how to negotiate sales and you’ll inevitably lose the client as a result. This sort of thinking is obviously unhelpful and, if left unchecked, results in reduced motivation, the ability to recover quickly from setbacks and lower sales as a consequence.

But an approach called ‘thought challenging’ is very effective in breaking this sort of thinking pattern. It involves four specific questions:

Question 1: Am I making any ‘thinking errors’?

There are a common set of unhelpful thinking patters that we all fall into from time to time, such as emotional labelling, magnification and should statements. The word ‘stupid’ is an emotional label. Individuals magnify the consequences of not being able to answer a question immediately and the ‘I should be able to’ belief implies that there is some sort golden rule that is broken.

Question 2: What is the evidence for and against this thought or belief?

Do all effective sales professionals really know the answer to every question that a client might ask of them? How do I really know this? What proof do I have? Have I asked any accomplished reps if it is true?

Question 3: What are other ways of looking at this situation?

What would happen if you said: “I’m not certain of the answer, but I’ll get back to you within 24 hours?” Creatively generating several options at this stage is always useful. Pick one and give it a try.

Question 4: What am I going to do to generate a different result?

If you do nothing different then you’re very likely to get the same results. Sales professionals need to work out how to think, feel and behave differently next time to bring about improved results.

This structured approach, together with on-going reinforcement and practice, really does help people fine-tune their thinking and behaviour to be more successful. In fact, using these techniques has been shown to result in 20% more people reaching or exceeding their sales targets.

Testing resilience

Do you know how resilient you, or you sales team, really are? One approach would be to take a resilience online questionnaire – there’s one at the Sales- Motivation website. Once you have completed our questionnaire, respondents receive a personalised six-page report describing individual motivation and resilience profiles and what can be done to maintain or improve them to boost performance.

Research from a recent study with more than 1,000 participants found that anyone in sales can increase their performance by developing their intrinsic motivation and resilience by a structured self-coaching approach.

It works with poor performers as well as helping others move from ‘good’ to ‘great’ and helping the ‘great’ to become consistent ‘superstars’. These really are the secret ingredients of sales success!

Bryan McCrae is a Sales Psychologist, Sales Coach and the founder of Sales-Motivations. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management, a Founding Fellow of the Sales Leadership Alliance and a member of the British Psychological Society. For more information visit www.sales-motivations.com.

Apodi’s Jan Cox discusses four vital stages to ensure your next job provides everything you could have wished for this Christmas. 

For the employer and employee alike, stability can be a dangerous illusion, particularly in the current economic climate. It is inevitable that markets and organisations will change and adapt in response to the economic, commercial and political pressures that exist – and this will impact on both the recruiting organisation and the candidate.

In my previous article, Stability: a dangerous illusion?, I stressed that: “For a lot of people, the pharmaceutical industry has provided a stable career over many years. For example, there are many sales representatives who have had a successful career fundamentally doing the same job in the same way and often for the same employer. Whilst there will always be a need for sales representatives within the industry, the number has fallen and will continue to fall. And for many, the role itself will change and demand the acquisition of new skills and knowledge.

Some companies are addressing the need to change rather quicker than others. Those that are slow to act may be creating a situation where some employees still feel they are operating in a relatively stable environment. This may be a dangerous illusion because it is almost guaranteed that the changing environment within the industry will impact on most employees – and probably sooner rather than later.”
From my experience I believe there are four key stages for employees to build a successful career and secure the RIGHT job in such a dynamic marketplace.

STAGE 1: Assessing what companies want
World class organisations understand the importance of the recruitment process and the need to find the right people. Jack Welch, one of the most famous business leaders of the 20th century, stated: “nothing matters more in winning than getting the right people in the field. All the clever strategies and advanced technologies are nowhere near as effective without great people to put them to work.” His company, General Electric, had an extensive recruitment process which tested for integrity, intelligence and maturity. Its hiring framework focused on finding people who had positive energy, the ability to energise others, the courage to make tough ‘yes or no decisions’, the ability to execute and get the job done and finally passion.
Conversely, McKinsey, the world renowned consulting organisation, looks for people who:

• Are of above average intelligence
• Possess a record of achievement at a good university and business school
• Show evidence of achievement in all previous jobs
• Demonstrate extraordinary analytical ability

Clearly there are different themes running through the recruitment requirements of these two companies, and naturally so, given the differing nature of the services they deliver. However, it is possible to find differences even when looking at the recruitment process for similar roles in competing companies in the same industry sector.

For example, pharmaceutical companies often look for different attributes when recruiting for sales representatives. A typical job advert may stress the need for the following from applicants:

• Experienced sales representative with at least two years’ experience in similar roles
• University degree
• Sales to be delivered through the company’s selling process/model

Interestingly, the Gallup Organisation has found in extensive studies that education has often little, if any, influence on an individual’s ability to sell; the learning curve in most sales jobs is relatively short and only rarely is there a correlation between experience and results; and that the most successful sales people sell in different ways using different strengths – following a strict sales process/model is more likely to hinder top performers than to help them.

Therefore, many companies are looking for more innovative and different assessment criteria when recruiting for sales roles. It was for this reason that my own company, Apodi, developed the recruitment model above. This model primarily focuses on a candidate’s:

• Talents/strengths
• Competencies
• Cultural fit
• Mental toughness

It is clear that companies are often looking for different things even when recruiting for similar roles. In some cases, even the most sophisticated companies will be looking for attributes that don’t, in fact, have a significant influence on a person’s ability to perform the job effectively. However, at this stage of the process, all applicants can at least find out what really is important in each company’s assessment criteria before they apply. This can be done by contacting the agency involved or the company itself. Also, in this age of networking and social media it should not be too difficult to contact people who are current employees of that company.

STAGE 2: Preparing for success
In this rapidly changing marketplace all employees should understand that planning for success and finding the best career does not start simply a month before the decision to find a new job. Building a successful sales career depends on a long-term view of career development and should include the following:

• Find out what your underlying strengths are. For long-term career success these are much more relevant than your education or experience. The Gallup Organisation identified 34 different strengths – each one of which may play an important part in a sales process depending on the role itself. The key for each individual is to understand what those strengths are and which selling roles will best suit them
• Take charge of your own personal development. Most companies now ask representatives to have a sound knowledge of the changing NHS and how that impacts commercially on the pharmaceutical industry
• Prepare a CV that stresses the following:
• Your key strengths and why this has ensured success in the past
• Your knowledge of the changing NHS
• Experience, education etc – whilst these are not necessarily predictors of success, employers often still stress the need for them
• Undertake market research. Research which companies are most suited to you. It would not be too unfair to suggest that the world of the pharmaceutical sales representative is quite incestuous and most representatives are prepared to give their opinion and information on current and past employers

STAGE 3: Sourcing the appropriate job
Most prospective applicants are well versed in the various methods of sourcing jobs. These include registering with agencies, searching through job sections in newspapers and magazines, online searches and approaching companies directly. A direct, personal approach can be very powerful. One of the greatest leaders in American sport, basketball coach, John Wooden, gave the following advice to organisations: “When hiring, be diligent in discerning what the individual’s motives are. Be alert for those who express a strong desire to join and contribute to your team and have some understanding of who and what your organisation is all about. Recruiting should be a two way street.”

STAGE 4: Choosing the right opportunity
Hopefully, the above process ensures that an applicant has a number of choices when deciding on their next career move. Typically, the final decision will involve factors such as remuneration, benefits, training and development, and promotion opportunities. There are also some other considerations that are often overlooked.

Many companies’ mission statements and credos state something along the lines of: ‘The company wishes to attract, develop, motivate and retain exceptional people.’ Despite this, the rigour companies apply to the recruitment process differs significantly from one business to the next. Consider choosing the company that takes recruitment seriously – it almost certainly reflects the fact that they really stand by the mission statement, rather than just talk about it.

Also, judge the company by the manager you are going to be working for. Managers have a huge influence on your career, your motivation and your ability to do the job – a good one will take you to the stars, a bad one will stifle you.

Finding a job is tough; but finding the right job is even tougher. If you are focused on developing a successful career you must give it the attention and energy it deserves. Judge the role on how it fits with your talents/strengths and assess the company’s ability to let you utilise these to maximum effect.

Jan Cox is the Resourcing Director at Apodi and can be reached on jan.cox@apodi.co.uk

The pharmaceutical market in the UK is changing quickly. By April next year just over 200 Clinical Commissioning Groups will have completed the approval process and will be operational. This will dramatically change the customer landscape for pharmaceutical companies and also demand changes in engagement strategies. This, in turn, will necessitate changes in the behaviours of individuals responsible for that engagement (such as Market Access Managers, Key Account Managers and Sales Representatives).

Pharmaceutical companies are continually restructuring in an attempt to keep pace with the rate of change. However, one of the key problems they face is assessing whether their current workforce has the talents and skills to address these new challenges. It is certainly the case that some companies are finding a lack of flexibility and adaptability within their workforce to support the change process.

Critical talents
Given the fluidity of the market environment and to be in a position to proactively respond to it, companies must address the critical talents required by the workforce and start to assess for these talents during the recruitment process. These include two particular talents which are of vital importance, but are often currently not assessed for. These are:

• Adaptability (or flexibility/agility)
• Learning mind set.

Adaptability
Individuals with this talent will respond well to changing demands. They flourish in environments that reward responsiveness and do not require a highly formalised or routine structure with lots of rules and regulations. They also have the ability to recognise current or future anticipated changes and adjust their attitudes, beliefs and behaviours to cope with them.

Learning mind set (Learner)
People with this talent demonstrate a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve their knowledge and skills set. They will also be more likely to understand the changing nature of the marketplace and the need to learn how to engage with new types of customers.

Many Sales Representatives in the Pharmaceutical Industry are being asked to radically change how they work and to start engaging with customers using key account management principles. To perform this
role effectively, more knowledge of the customer and the marketplace is required. There is also the need to change behaviours and attitudes that may have suited the more traditional role they fulfilled previously.
Those representatives with adaptability and learner talents are more likely to succeed than those without them. These talents are now required across the whole structural chain – from Representative to Manager,
to Leader, to Technical Consultant, and across the wide and varied roles within the engagement process. The ability to learn and adapt is now critical within Pharma/Healthcare and beyond.

Selecting for adaptability and learning mindset
As with any other talent, predicting who will be adaptable requires a variety of assessment techniques, including:

• Occupational Personality Questionnaires (OPQs) that assess cognitive ability including reasoning,
  thinking and problem solving
• Interviews to assess personality factors, including results orientation, openness to new experiences and willingness to try new things
• Specific tools which assess mental toughness and the candidate’s ability to confidently cope with change, difficulties and new environments.

Similar approaches can be used to assess whether candidates have a learning mind set. In his book A Collection of Articles on Achieving High Performance in Teams within Pharma and Healthcare, Tony Swift,
a colleague at Apodi, stresses in the article entitled ‘Moving on up’ that successful executives must take charge of their own personal development and not rely on the employer to spoonfeed all learning.

Frankly, it is easy to spot this. Those executives who blame the employer for lack of development, or who are ‘too busy’ to dedicate time to learning, almost certainly do not have a learning mind set. Compare this to the ‘learner’ mind set, which sees individuals organising their working day to set aside time to ensure they keep up to date with developments in the marketplace, new
innovations and the latest practices.

Promoting adaptability and a learning mindset
Whilst it is important for individuals to take responsibility for their own development, this in no way absolves the organisation from also playing its part in developing a culture where adaptability and a learning mind set become ingrained. Whilst reviewing recruitment practices is, of course, a good start, unfortunately cultural change is more complex than this. Cultural change requires fundamental shifts in behaviours and these can be encouraged by:

• Bringing new people into the organisation with the appropriate talents, as above
• Changing the organisational structure
• Short term objectives, incentives and controls that demand adaptability and learning.

In my own organisation, we have realised that it is critical for most of our employees to have an in-depth understanding of the NHS and how our services can best be applied for the benefit of our customers in such a rapidly changing environment. To ensure Apodi promotes this, the company is:

• Running regular workshops that are focused on ‘Understanding the changing NHS and the Apodi proposition and how to apply it to the new market economy’
• Guidance to all individuals on how they can keep updated on all key developments through the use of the web, social media and other sources of information. Whilst guidance is provided, it is stressed that ultimately responsibility rests with the individual for their own personal development.

Stability is a dangerous illusion
For a lot of people, the Pharmaceutical Industry has provided a stable career over many years. For example, there are many Sales Representatives who have had a successful career fundamentally doing the same job in the same way and often for the same employer. Whilst there will always be a need for Sales Representatives within the industry, the number has fallen and will continue to fall. And for many, the role itself will change and demand the acquisition of new skills and knowledge.

Some companies are addressing the need to change rather quicker than others. Those that are slow to act may be creating a situation where some employees still feel they are operating in a relatively stable environment. This may be a dangerous illusion because it is almost guaranteed that the changing environment within the industry will impact on most employees – and probably sooner rather than later.

Given this situation, companies will increasingly be looking for employees who have the adaptability skill to cope with change and fundamental to this is a learning mind set. We believe this is relevant to all employees looking to advance with their current employer and to those looking for opportunities elsewhere. Both short-term and long-term career planning in the new age requires employees having a CV that clearly articulates the capacity to adapt and an in-depth understanding of the changing industry environment. For people with these talents, they should be able to look forward to a varied, rewarding and long-term career within the industry.

Jan Cox is the Resourcing Director at Apodi and can be reached on jan.cox@apodi.co.uk.

Stephen Whitehead outlines the ABPI’s latest initiatives to facilitate collaboration – and how sales professionals have a key part to play .

This year the ABPI is launching a Regional Partnership team to help the industry establish and develop sustainable relationships with the NHS at a regional level. The team, deploying experienced industry professionals in each of the four regional SHA clusters, aims to promote and facilitate collaborative working as a means to improve patient outcomes. Its key objectives are to identify and remove existing barriers to accessing innovative medicines, to help develop regional partnership projects and to share best practice across the country. The initiative reflects the growing recognition that improving patient health in a constrained financial environment will be best achieved by adopting a more collaborative approach. And there is an increasing consensus across both parties that, after years of developing adversarial relationships, the direction of travel towards NHS/industry partnerships is the right one for patient care.

But progress is an incremental process. The perceived cultural barriers that have historically plagued the relationship and impacted access will not be overcome overnight. “Trust and reputation has widely been acknowledged as an issue for industry – but it’s getting better,” says Stephen Whitehead, CEO at the ABPI. “In fact, it has dramatically improved. You can 12 see that from the Innovation, Health & Wealth (IHW) review: the NHS really wants to partner with pharma. In turn, as an industry we know that we are operating within restricted NHS budgets, and that we need to make it clear that we are not always there to sell something. Joint working is not about developing something that can help companies achieve a sales target on a quarterly basis, it’s about establishing a new way of working that will redefine the relationship between us and the customer. That will take time.”

In an evolutionary process, the ABPI appears determined to take the lead – to trail-blaze the concept of partnership working from a top-line strategic position and help ease the concerns of more anxious NHS customers. “The driving platform for joint working from the side of the industry should be the ABPI,” says Stephen. “We established the joint working protocol with the DH, and have developed the code of practice and regulatory infrastructure to enable it to happen. We’ve therefore created the headroom to allow partnerships to be established. Most parts of the NHS have understood and grasped this. It’s now up to us to lead, and for companies to take the opportunities within that.”

IMPROVING ACCESS

With access to NHS customers a perennial problem for UK pharma, the battle to develop the joint working agenda is a challenging one for individual companies. Medical sales professionals are tasked with advancing discussions, but attempts are often stymied due to diminishing levels of customer access. The ABPI believes its NHS Partnerships initiative will play a major part in raising awareness of partnership working, and overcoming access issues on an industry-wide basis. “NHS Partnerships will help industry
engage with key NHS stakeholders in England and ensure partnership conversations happen at a regional level. It’s not about individual products – we will not be talking about those – but we will be a facilitator of dialogue around joint working, aligned with the partnership principles set out by David Nicholson. We will be looking closely at the national issues on uptake and access, and any policy that emerges around that – and reinforcing it locally. Critically, NHS Partnerships isn’t the creation of ‘talking shops’, it’s about being able to facilitate on the key issues – which are fundamentally about access and uptake of innovation.”

NHS Partnerships has already been welcomed by the Department of Health, whose Director of Innovation & Service Improvement, Miles Ayling, said: “The ABPI partnership team will help build stronger links between industry and the NHS, as described in IHW. Beyond medicines, we are also looking at how all concerned can share skills, expertise and knowledge to improve the health of UK patients and help transform lives.”

REPUTATION

The long-standing issue of industry mistrust does, at long last, seem to be fading within the NHS. This was reflected in the ABPI’s seat at the top table of discussions around IHW last year, and has been reinforced by Stephen Whitehead’s involvement on the IHW Implementation Board. In addition to the partnerships initiative, the ABPI (along with ABHI) has also established a series of pilot projects with the NHS Confederation to look at how joint working can make a difference in selected disease areas. Pilots are already underway in mental health, circulatory diseases, diabetes and long-term conditions. “This is about providing examples of best practice within the NHS so customers can understand what we mean and establish that there is nothing for them to be worried about,” says Stephen.

“We have a strong status, but we’ve not yet fully utilised it in the context of joint working capability. That’s what these initiatives have been set up to do. This is a whole new world and a very exciting one – ten years ago we could never have had these relationships. But now that we are here, we need to approach customers gently and appropriately, and work with the NHS collaboratively and co-operatively to ensure that we dispel any of those old misunderstandings.”

And so, in the new environment, what role will sales professionals and Key Account Management play in NHS engagement? “The role of sales is evolving quite rapidly,” says Stephen. “Sales engagement is increasingly about liaison, as well as detailing around a product. It’s about facilitating collaborative working – and the salesforce has a key role to play in this.”

Pfizer has dropped attempts to market its cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor (atorvastatin) in the US, nearly five months after its patent expiry.

The company said its post-expiry marketing campaign had been successful, but generic erosion of the Lipitor brand would soon escalate.

The decision is a milestone in the history of the world’s best-selling drug, used to help prevent cardiovascular events in high-risk patient groups.

Pfizer has ceased negotiating new contracts to sell Lipitor to health providers in the US or promoting it through sales representatives or advertising.

Following its US patent expiry on 30 November 2011, Pfizer invested $87m in sustaining the brand through doctor marketing, advertisements and price rebates. The strategy succeeded in retaining 33% of market share, bringing in $383m in the first quarter of 2012.

However, the second wave of generic atorvastatin following Lipitor’s patent expiry in the EU in May has prompted Pfizer to give up on the brand that at one time accounted for a quarter of its revenue.

The company will continue to promote the drug in emerging markets, including China, where it could still earn billions of dollars.

There’s never been a greater need to impress customers and make them understand the value pharmaceutical companies offer. Following on from his article on the concept of mass customisation, Apodi’s Tony Swift discusses how this theory can also be applied to two customer segments: the patient and the GP.

With the reduced number of blockbuster products entering the market, many sales and marketing departments are tasked with gaining market share for products and services that may have similar characteristics to competitor products. These departments are skilled at identifying traditional routes to market with the result that the promotional strategies deployed are often quite similar from one company to the next. The only real differentiator may be how much budget each company is willing to allocate to support respective products.

However, some companies are starting to implement mass customisation strategies, because as Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric stated: “We have only two sources of competitive advantage: 1) The ability to learn more about our customers faster than the competition, and 2) The ability to turn that learning into action faster than the competition”. These companies are focusing on identifying what value means to each individual customer, collating that information effectively and delivering the value in an efficient and economic way.

The patient

Traditionally, pharmaceutical companies have focused on engaging with GPs and other payer stakeholders rather than on building relationships with the end user – the patient. However, companies are realising that engaging with patients can lead to improved adherence results, better compliance and more appropriate use of their product. The attempts to engage with patients vary in levels of sophistication. At a basic level, companies are investing in digital IT platforms where websites attempt to inform patients about the therapy area and the products available. These sites might also attempt to improve adherence through reminder systems such as emails and texts to encourage compliance.

More sophisticated solutions now aim to identify key characteristics of patients and their behaviour and to customise the offering to them. For example, by identifying why a particular type of patient fails to adhere, the offering can be customised to that patient. By having a clear understanding of why people fail to comply, a company can then identify groups of patients whose reasons for non-compliance are very similar – i.e. one group responds better to online health monitoring, another to reminder systems, another to better education etc. As a result, each individual patient is allocated to a group and the adherence offering is then customised to each group.

Successful implementation of adherence programmes which include customised solutions to patients is still quite rare. The reasons for this may differ. However, I believe it all starts with the product-centred cultures that are prevalent in many companies. Historically, companies have been focussed on winning market share and new customers. Whilst this, of course, still remains important, many companies now have to focus on customer retention, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. Where this strategy is in its infancy, many companies look to IT for salvation – if only it were that simple! Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is more than deploying similar marketing techniques and new information technology. It needs new skills, systems, processes, behaviours – in fact, a CHANGE IN CULTURE. This can only be driven by the leadership of the business once it has decided that CRM and mass customisation are a strategic imperative.

This new strategy, if executed effectively, can lead to a range of new tactical initiatives in the area of patient adherence, such as improved technology, clinician-based call centres, education programmes, patient acquisition programmes, patient service programmes and so on. With the appropriate systems and processes, these initiatives can be developed to provide real customised value to patients.

The GP

Because pharmaceutical companies have been engaging with GPs for many years, mass customisation programmes aimed at GPs rather than patients should be easier to deliver. They know where GPs are, often know them personally and still have access to many – although the ability to engage is declining quickly.
Currently, however, successful customisation programmes aimed at GPs are few and far between. The reasons are similar to those above and result from the product-centred nature of most pharmaceutical companies. This product-centred approach can impact on the daily life of GPs in numerous ways, including:

• The traditional detail deployed by many sales representatives when visiting GPs.
• The practices, processes and systems that define ‘sales excellence’ in the industry.

An example of this is a detailed follow up I reviewed recently for a company. This was an extremely professional piece of work that identified the impact of the visits of a sales force on GPs. Multiple questions were asked about the ability of the representative to convey the product’s characteristics and benefits – and from this point of view the exercise was worthwhile.

However, there were few questions based around what value each visit had created for individual GPs. The assessment was almost solely based on the product and what was important to the company, rather than what value could be created for the customer both now and in the future.

For companies wishing to deploy VALUE-BASED MASS CUSTOMISATION, the following key initial steps could prove useful. These steps would run alongside more product-focused activities, not replace them.

1. Build a structure based on Customer Account Managers driving key messages and value to targeted healthcare professionals.
2. Develop a segmentation strategy for identifying segments of GPs based on value characteristics.
3. In each interaction with GPs, identify what value characteristics are important and allocate to a segment – commit to developing a mutual LEARNING RELATIONSHIP where knowledge of the therapy area, product and patient outcomes are paramount.
4. Access IT systems where the value identified can be saved and distributed to key management and marketing professionals – some existing CRM systems can be customised to make this happen.
5. Develop value solutions that can be quickly deployed to individual GPs – these can include additional services, product support, access to Key Opinion Leaders, clinician staff training, and services that improve the patient experience.

The role of IT

IT has a vital role in the development of value-based mass customisation strategies. I recently spoke to an expert in the industry, Charles Roots of Actis Sales Technologies, who explained that:

• Successful implementation of CRM projects needs input from senior management, IT departments and marketing departments. Technology implementation must be aligned with the business strategy and, in the area of mass customisation, with the whole initiative of providing value to customers one at a time. If only one of the above parties is included in the implementation process, the strategic benefits that could be obtained often fail to materialise
• Some organisations believe that installing technology is the determining step in the drive to a more customer and value-focused organisation. However, it is clear that truly successful companies understand that the process begins with a strategy to transform the company from a traditional selling organisation to an organisation where delivering value and developing learning relationships comes first. In these companies, IT becomes a very powerful enabler of business strategy.

Conclusion

Many commentators have noted that the pharmaceutical industry is at a crossroads. With fewer blockbusters, governments facing huge financial challenges and health services looking for more value for money from all suppliers, times are hard. This is causing difficulties in the marketplace and many people have lost jobs in the resulting turmoil. Company leaders are under pressure to maintain and increase profitability and restructuring is increasingly common.

And yet comparatively, healthcare budgets are being protected and there has never been a greater need for a positive contribution from the pharmaceutical industry. Despite the distrust that has arisen between the industry and the NHS, enlightened leaders from both parties understand how a partnership between the two is of critical importance.

Whilst researching for this series of articles, it has become clear to me that this partnership can only prosper if the industry is willing to, and be allowed to, engage with the NHS in a positive and economically viable way. I believe pharmaceutical companies should play their part by focusing on delivering real value to all key stakeholders, including patients, GPs and other payer stakeholders. That is not to say this is absent in the industry, but there is no doubt that more can be done.

For those companies embarking on such a journey, the impact on customers (NHS and patients) could be dramatic. But it will also benefit employees of such companies. The vast majority of people want to do something worthwhile and being able to see how their work creates value for the customer and improves patient outcomes is just about as rewarding as it gets.

Tony Swift is the Managing Director of Apodi. He may be reached on tony.swift@apodi.co.uk.

Charles Roots is the Managing Director of Actis Sales Technologies. He may be reached on charles.roots@actisst.com.

The US government thinks pharmaceutical sales reps are not selling, but rather promoting. Maxine Vaccine asks whether the pharma industry could do itself a favour by agreeing.

It’s a hard life being a pharma industry CEO. There you are being passionate about improving patient outcomes and helping the weak and the wounded, and people look at you like you’re just in it for the profit. Don’t they realise those million-dollar bonuses are to compensate you for the sleepless nights you experience every time you make a few thousand people redundant? Can’t anyone feel your pain?

Then there is the emotional stress of a hostile takeover. Sometimes these little no-mark biotech companies just don’t know what’s good for them. And in the interest of those patient outcomes you feel passionately about, you have to show them the error of their ways by appealing directly to their shareholders to let you take over and take care of business. And are they grateful?

And then, just to add insult to injury, the interfering US government tells you that you should be paying your sales reps overtime because – wait for it – they’re not really selling at all. Outside salesmen are exempt from the US labour laws on overtime, because they get commission. But suddenly all your reps are claiming back pay for the ‘overtime’ they have spent schmoozing customers, talking trash on the phone and burning rubber on the highway – and the Labor Department is backing them up, saying they spend their working lives promoting products rather than selling them.

Hence the amusing exchange in the US Supreme Court where GSK’s lawyer said the plaintiffs were “two pharmaceutical sales representatives”. He clarified the point: “They were hired for a sales job. They were given sales training. They attend sales conferences. They are assigned to sales territory, and they are evaluated and compensated as salespeople.”

One of the court justices replied: “And they don’t do sales. Your long list sort of stopped one step short. They don’t make sales.”

Then another justice struck back with “They look like sales representatives to me.” We can be thankful she didn’t go into too much detail on that. I still have nightmares about the hotel bar at my first sales conference.

Rather cutely, she added that the work of drug sales representatives “includes dinners. Entertainment. Maybe golf. If you’re right, would the time on the golf course get time and a half?”

Enough already. It makes you want to move to a country where businessmen run the government instead of the other way round. Like the UK.

But every challenge is an opportunity, as you’ve told your board of directors a thousand times. And in this distinction between the salesman who exchanges goods for cash and the ‘detailer’ who influences purchasers to request your company’s products from a local pharmacy (or a not so local one, perhaps one thousands of miles away – but let’s not go there), there is a precious nugget of commercial insight for the 21^st century.

Your sales force do not sell. They manage key accounts. They access changing markets. They build partnerships with economic prescribers and healthcare managers. They build customised solutions. They position your company as a consultative partner in the provision of care.

Until it comes to pay day. Then they’re just jumped-up till girls and till boys with a few corporate perks. What do they expect?

The industry’s sales model has changed.

Has it?

Maxine’s views are not necessarily those of Pharmaceutical Field.

Novo Nordisk is facing a $70m lawsuit on behalf of its US drug sales force, claiming back payments for overtime.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two plaintiffs and a class of sales representatives, alleges that the Danish company is in breach of New York and federal law.

According to law firm Sanford Wittels & Heisler (SWH), the company requires its sales force to work more than 40 hours per week while incorrectly classifying them as ineligible for overtime payments.

Novo Nordisk, a world-leading supplier of diabetes care products, reported a net profit of $3.04bn for 2011 – an 18% increase from 2010, the law firm claims.

The two plaintiffs are pharmaceutical sales representatives based in New Jersey and Texas who are claiming back payment for overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and/or the New York State overtime laws.

The class action lawsuit identifies two classes: the FSLA class includes all Novo Nordisk sales reps employed in the US since March 2009, while the New York State law class includes all sales reps who have worked for the company in New York between March 2006 and the present (unless they opt out of the action).

SWH attorney Steven L. Wittels stated that Novo Nordisk “misclassifies its sales representatives as salaried employees exempt from the benefits of federal and state overtime laws, when in fact, they are not exempt at all.”

This lawsuit follows a similar claim against Novo Nordisk filed in California in July 2011 on behalf of drug sales reps.

A number of major pharmaceutical companies have recently been sued by sales professionals for back overtime pay. While Bayer, Roche and Wyeth have won their respective cases, Novartis has lost.

Pf's industry insider returns with his predictions for the New Year...it's not all bad news for sales representatives!

I have, in truth, been silent for a while and haven’t posted a blog for several months and can only cite a bout of inertia as my excuse!

However, what better time as now, as we usher in 2012, than to post some polemics based on some of the myriad of polls and surveys published on this very publication’s website which have particularly caught my eye. You may call this lazy blogging if you wish, but many print and broadcast journalists of great fame and repute, spend mid-December to early January reflecting on the past year and daring to make rash predictions for the next twelve months in their chosen field of expertise, so here I go too…

To read that many medical sales professionals feel underpaid and unhappy with their terms and conditions is somewhat disappointing, but not really surprising. In pre-recession days, getting a group of drug reps together over a latte in Starbucks was not dissimilar to being with prima donna Premier League footballers. Underpaid, undervalued by colleagues and line manager alike, and envious that their pal in a rival firm had just secured a better spec’ BMW! If we still do think we are poorly remunerated, we really do need a large bolus dose of reality. Even if you are one of the lucky few to have escaped redundancy over the last 3-4 years, there are many friends, colleagues or acquaintances who have suffered the trauma in many drug firms.

With the average annual salary in the UK coming in at around £24,000, we should indeed feel pretty happy with working conditions that many would die for and, if you were unlucky enough to have lost your job with a few years service under your belt, some of the enhanced severance packages were by any comparative measure generous – and I speak as a recipient of such largesse!

New Year messages from our political leaders and industry CEOs both underline the economic realities which persist and one uniform conclusion remains: it’s hard, hard work with double digit pay hikes, a pipe dream for most, as job insecurities in numerous professions dominate one’s daily thoughts and get blanket media coverage also. Hardly groundbreaking stuff but something that all drug reps need reminding of during hard times and remember that there’s always many other sales professionals a lot worse off than us despite industry travails, healthcare woes and budgetary deficit. Our industry is still profitable, innovative, successful and does a lot to be proud of for society, plus it boosts our tax revenues too!

On a more upbeat note, the news that more than 90% of physicians globally value drug rep visits is reassuring, especially to this blogger and those of a similar vintage, who hold great store in 1:1 interaction and the enduring power of rapport, relationships and trust – three things which are often overlooked nowadays by industry executives as being not as important in the digital age.

You cannot underestimate the importance of customer and local healthcare environmental knowledge, not garnered via mere internet and journal trawling, but by the traditional route of door knocking, pressing the flesh and developing trust and continuity of service with customers, and by asking relevant questions and listening to their answers and trying to come up with mutually beneficial outcomes for all stakeholders.

As we enter 2012, many GP surgeries, hospital departments and post graduate centres are questioning the value of any dealings with industry now the pens, pads, other giveaways and weekend junkets have dried up. So it is incumbent on all of us out there day-to-day to extol the real worth of dealing with the drug industry beyond simple product detailing, scripts and market share. We are all walking advocates for our industry, our products and services, and the benefits that these bring our patients, our society and the great economic value when taken as a tiny part of an enormous overall healthcare budget.

Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic was given as someone who “knew the price of everything and the value of nothing” and many of our customers who may have harboured these thoughts privately, yet still engaged with us, are now being more vocal and acting by closing previously long opened doors. Only hard work, perseverance coupled with honest dialogue and interaction can counter this standpoint by all of us, every working day…

Good luck with all your endeavours and challenges and best wishes for this new pharmaceutical year!

There has been a lot written about the industry’s apparent move to Key Account Management and its impact on call rates and targeting. David Round provides a welcome break from the rhetoric and concentrates instead on the facts.

Mark Twain famously said that people often use statistics as a drunk uses a lamppost: for support rather than illumination. But when used properly, data can be incredibly illuminating – not least for the UK pharmaceutical industry. And analysis of pharma’s ongoing modification of its sales and marketing model is well worth putting under the spotlight.

In the past few years, experienced pharma commentators have looked in vain for evidence to support an inexorable, yet often anecdotal, march towards Key Account Management (KAM). The rhetoric said that pharma was taking a more sophisticated approach to sales and marketing activity and, in the process, delivering a more efficient and effective commercial model using a targeted KAM methodology. But the reality, and indeed the numbers, seemed to suggest otherwise.

The UK pharmaceutical industry may have taken the surgeon’s knife to its collective sales force and cut back on the volume of field-based staff. It may also have rebranded its sales representatives as ‘Account Managers’ and encouraged them to take a more measured approach to targeting key customers. But, until very recently, the number of GPs being seen by medical sales professionals across the year remained as high as ever – belying the claim that companies were moving away from the apparently inefficient ‘share of voice’ model that had served them so well in the past. Critics claimed that the traditional sales rep had simply been issued an Account Manager’s business card and given the accountability and autonomy to be more selective in targeting key customers – as well as a call rate target that was directly at odds with the KAM philosophy. And the statistics did little to quell the debate.

Data from Synmetrics, Cegedim Relationship Management’s activity benchmarking tool, shows that between December 2009 and December 2010 – and in the thick of widespread opinion preaching the gospel according to KAM – 92.7% of UK GPs had a face-to-face call or meeting with a representative from a pharmaceutical company. This indicates that, far from adopting a more considered approach to targeting its customers, the industry was still carrying out almost blanket coverage of GPs. What’s more, the 2010 data merely continued a similar trend from the years that preceded it – with annual industry coverage in the past decade consistently reaching over 90% of the total prescriber population.

But the past 18 months seem to represent a watershed for pharma sales operations in the UK. Something, it would appear, is happening. In the 12 months from July 2010 to June 2011, Synmetrics data show that the number of GPs who have had a face-to-face call or meeting with an industry representative has dropped to 85% – a fall of some 7%. Alongside this, in the first six months of 2011 the total number of GPs who have had a similar contact has slumped to 73%.

Whilst the half-year figure may not be wholly indicative, the July 2010 to June 2011 full-year data appear to represent a trend. And upon closer scrutiny, it’s a trend that’s been developing incrementally over the course of the past decade. Figure 1 shows that the total number of contacts on GPs has, apart from an uncharacteristic spike in 2008, been gradually declining since 2001.

Contact is classified as either a traditional face-to-face call or a meeting, and analysis of the contact rates for each of these methodologies is equally revealing. The number of face-to-face calls (per rep, per day) has been steadily falling year-on-year. Conversely, the number of meetings (per rep, per day) has gradually risen – and in fact grew disproportionately between 2007 and 2008. The Synmetrics data show that there are more meetings taking place today than at any point in the past ten years; and that, crucially, in 2010 the number of meetings per day overtook the number of face-to-face calls for the first time.

Significantly, the number of face-to-face calls being made each day has halved over the course of a decade. That’s a pretty spectacular statement. So spectacular that it’s worth repeating just to reflect on it: the number of face-to-face GP calls, per rep, per day, has halved since 2001. This has nothing to do with field force size and the fall in the number of representatives – it’s literally the number of calls per rep.

Moreover, data shows that 17,000 GPs – around 35% of the total population – have not received a face-to-face call in the past twelve months. In truth, this is another staggering revelation: the bread-and-butter, conventional pharma approach of face-to-face engagement between GP and representative has reached a point where more than a third of GPs have not received a call in the last year.

And so the ‘real world’ data are piling up. There are now fewer representatives, who are collectively making fewer calls. There’s an increase in the number of meetings, but a significant drop in activity, with daily call rates halved and over a third of pharma’s traditional customer population not receiving a single face-to-face call. It is a breathtaking decline, but it has not just happened overnight.

The implications
So what does all this mean? Does the 7% drop in GP coverage over the last 12 months provide the first conclusive evidence that Key Account Management is beginning to take hold in the UK? Or does the incremental decline in contact activity over the course of the past decade merely confirm that customer access, for reasons that are well documented, has shrunk considerably? Have GPs increasingly decided to close their doors to industry representatives, or have pharmaceutical companies taken a more measured approach and chosen not to target them? Drawing a distinction between the two is difficult. It’s most likely to be a combination of both factors.

What we do know, of course, is that the industry’s customer-base has broadened extensively in the past few years with the emergence of a new breed of decision-makers – loosely classified as payers. As a
result, pharmaceutical companies have been forced to balance activity between traditional customers and more influential stakeholders in medicines management and commissioning functions. With GP call rates
falling by half it would be easy to assume that sales professionals are spending up to half of their time refocusing on payer engagement. But this may be too simplistic a conclusion. The payer population has rapidly earned a reputation for being difficult to access, and building relationships with the new stakeholders is widely accepted to be a long-term process that will take time and effort.

However, it would be disingenuous to conclude that half a sales professional’s day is being spent calling upon payers, and to use this presumption as the ultimate proof that Key Account Management has finally
established itself is probably a leap too far – it would perhaps be more realistic to assume that the effort and preparation required to see these payers is what is taking up a greater part of the sales professional’s day.

Yes we KAM?
It’s still too early to make definitive claims that the KAM model is firmly embedded in UK pharma. The indications are that the approach is beginning to take shape, but there is perhaps still some way to go before companies finally feel confident enough to entirely let go of the traditional share of voice model. But while that transition continues, the need for a more sophisticated approach to targeting customers remains as strong as ever. Pharma companies need to use all of the available data to drive their promotional plans, and use every available channel to reach their customers.

The industry needs to be as targeted as it can be, and sales professionals must be as smart as possible in their approach. Quantity is being replaced by quality. As the number of daily contacts being made continues to decrease, it’s vital to make sure that every face-to-face call or meeting actually counts. As
Account Managers are encouraged to develop their own call plans and become more accountable for their
own business, the need for robust and effective data to help make informed targeting decisions in the process is paramount.

Statistics can, of course, be used to provide reassurance and justification for a decision; but when considered more carefully, robust data can stimulate much greater illumination. For UK medical sales professionals, gaining access to information that enables you to shine a light on all of your customers and establish which ones provide the greatest potential, could make the difference between staggering around in the dark and giving your sales figures that extra spark. Don’t allow yourself to become the drunk at the lamppost – it only ever leads to a headache the following day.

David Round is UK General Manager, Cegedim Relationship Management.