e-solutions for pharma sales

In the era of patent expirations, pipeline challenges, pricing scrutiny and intense competition, pharma companies are looking for ways to increase the productivity of their sales and marketing divisions. Aashruti Kak explores the options

Pharma companies are required to continuously optimise their sales force resources and effectiveness, as they tighten their focus on profitability, as well as revenue growth, because as companies invest heavily in the development and marketing of new therapies, they are also increasingly focusing on Return on Investment (ROI). In a dynamic market like this, where new competitive threats emerge rapidly, there are bound to be massive changes overnight. Hence, there arrives a need to implement a repetitive and a constant learning model that will enable companies to identify different market shifts and build response plans in real time before their competitors can gain significant market share.

Pharma marketing strategies vary from company to company; according to government rules, the types of doctors who prescribe different medicine, or the level of data available. Deeper insights into physician behaviour can also give an organisation a constant competitive advantage. "Pharma companies largely depend on the sales force to communicate with and promote their products to their customers. This is reflected by a large share of their budget for these activities," says Kapil Kuwelker, Chief Executive Officer, Cirrius Mobile Solutions. "Currently, the communication with the sales force is usually through their reports which are received on an average after ten days. Also, current customer information is usually not available with the sales force. There is a need to provide the right information to the right person at the right time," he adds. And this is where IT comes in.

Rahul Mahajan, General Manager-Information Technology, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, says, "IT plays a vital role in sales and marketing management. In fact, the day the idea of automating the sales force working struck the minds of business individuals who manage sales forces, IT was at work. IT was fully involved at various stages thereafter right from identifying and writing down user requirement specifications, evaluating various software solutions available, choosing the apt one that suited company requirements, implementation, data collection, site administration, and to the extent of current on going support. To achieve a continuous competitive advantage over others, companies are highly dependent on their own ability to integrate proven technology into their various processes in order to obtain maximum benefit from their sales and marketing spending. "IT has helped in many ways in staying ahead. The tool that was initially developed and implemented in our company had only a web interface. Our IT department managed to build an interface using the mobile phone through a vendor. This definitely saved a lot of time for the field force. Now, they no longer had to search for a cyber café. Also a lot of their travel and in-clinic waiting time is productively used to avail the same facilities and services the web application offers using their mobile phones," he adds.

Need for automation

Sales force automation has become necessary as companies need to eliminate non-value adding manual work, and eliminate delays caused therby, improve the response time to market needs, and capture the data online providing analysis of the same and plan timely corrective actions based on the analysis. Kuwelkar says, "A sales force effectiveness tool is built to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the sales force. For instance, just before a representative meets a doctor, his mobile handset shows him information about the previous visit to that doctor, his prescription preferences, the brands that need to promoted to him and what were the activities done by him in the last visit, as well as issues raised by the doctor." He further says, "This along with personal information and preferences of the doctor help the representative to build better relationships and proactively address issues and objections. This helps the representative to make the most of the few minutes he gets in front of the doctor and achieve all his goals."

"Prior to the implementation of web based sales force automation tools, all the features and functionalities existing now were run using manual tools by the field sales staff. The manual work not only put burden on the field force in terms of efforts but ate up their productive time that they should have been otherwise spending for in-clinic discussions. This short fall is overcome by providing the mobile interface," says Mahajan. Moreover, like any other manual system, this style of working is always prone to errors. Analysis of the data captured manually becomes a nightmare and hence any corrective actions towards improvements are not timely actions. With online data capture and reporting tools, the analysis is at a click of a mouse and corrective actions can be initiated immediately now, he adds.

"Mobile based effectiveness solutions have a direct impact on the top and bottom line of companies. Unlike other reporting and automation tools, this type of tool provides an opportunity to take timely and informed decisions. It is these decisions that enable the Pharma enterprise to realise financial benefits," says Kuwelkar. Though it is very difficult to quantify the benefits of such an initiative in terms of ROI and/or ROCE, clearly such tools can give different companies substantial qualitative benefits.

Listing the various benefits that Glenmark has achieved through automation, Mahajan says, "The data that we receive from the field is current and accurate, there is more transparency between field force and the head office in terms of data, delays in the processes can now be avoided, and we also have the ability to analyse the data and act upon the same in a timely manner. This has also led to improvement in the efficiency, effectiveness and productivity of the field force with respect to response time to market needs, and has also brought improvement in CRM activities."

Marketing it right

Being customer centric is very essential for an organisation in any industry and the importance of the same is all the more in the pharma industry. Any and every company certainly invests in marketing activities. However, it is important for the organisations to get the return from these investments. It may be difficult to measure the return of these investments. "The investment made by a company is usually the cost of field operations, as well as the samples given. On the other hand by way of retail audits, the prescription trends of customers can be analysed. All this information is collected and collated based on the call reports sent from the field," says Kuwelkar. There are many methods that pharma companies employ to achieve this-a personal visit by an MR (field sales officer) to the customer (doctors), distribution of samples, distribution of promotional items related to the products, distribution of medical/scientific literature, focused campaigns etc. Also, the categorisation of customers (doctors) is an important activity from this perspective, as it decides the frequency of visits, number of samples to be distributed etc. to each of the category. The categorisation helps to run focused campaigns effectively.

"In the era of manual work there was no trace of quantities of samples distributed… from the Headquarters to the field sales team and from them to the doctors. With the software, now there is a complete track of samples. Samples are not distributed to the field force unless the stock that he/she has drops down to a particular level. There is also a complete track in terms of how many samples have been distributed, to which doctors etc," says Mahajan. "This certainly helps in understanding the pattern of sample distribution while bringing the necessary control on distribution of samples. Since the samples are not issued to field sales officer till the time the stock with him does not drop to pre-defined level, it also ensures distribution of samples on a first in first out basis," he adds.

An automation tool can also create a platform where the field force can communicate with the organisation, as well as with the first line manager at anytime from anywhere. The product based objections and feedback from doctors can be instantly communicated and solutions and replies requested. Product updates can be broadcasted to the field and any new launches can be instantly communicated. Kuwelkar says, "The representative now has the opportunity to prepare for every call just in time, review critical information required for that call and then achieve those goals proactively. He may now feed the information in that meeting, such as activities performed, objections or issues raised and his conclusions immediately after the meeting when the information is fresh in his mind, and communicate and report conveniently using the waiting time between doctor visits. First line managers can view field activities from the field for the very same day and any corrective action or response is possible immediately."

Product Launches

A product launch is a very special event in the pharma industry. The product needs to be launched to a specific segment of customers (doctors) depending upon the therapeutic area, specialty etc. The software facilitates this process by tracking various activities that are done before the product launch day with the targeted set of customers. The activities could involve capturing of comments from these customers, distribution of samples to them etc. But the whole process certainly helps in a successful product launch. The sales force can collect and collate information to select the right set of doctors for the new launch based on prescription habits, type of practice, competitor prescription trends etc. These can be collected and transmitted well before the launch. Feedback from customers on launches of new products can be monitored and managed in real-time using an automation tool.

With the availability of a mobile application like this, a sales team can now effectively use its travelling and in-clinic waiting time for its daily routing planning activities. Tour and co-working planning can happen faster and in advance. Some of the reports such as missed call reports etc can help the team to plan its activities in a much better way so as not to miss important customers. Moreover, certain data required by them, such as number of samples, promotional items dispatched to them etc. are now available at their fingertips, based on which, they can give certain commitments at the market place.

In a nut shell, availability of current data in real time helps enhance the sales team's performance by facilitating their improved planning and execution of their activities. "The role of IT has evolved largely in the last decade. From being a mere support function (EDP department), IT has shifted gears to support the business and even go beyond. So an IT department's role has changed from a support function to a business enabler. In good old days IT strategy used to get aligned with the business strategy. But nowadays, the two are not separate. IT plays a vital role in formulating the business strategy itself," concludes Mahajan.

aashruti.kak@expressindia.com