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Lots Of Valuable Points On Marketing And Bridging The Gap
More than $25 billion per year is spent on marketing pharmaceutical products, showing the size and importance of the industry and underlining the need for the pharmaceutical company to be highly effective in this arena. It is simply not good enough for the organisation to be on the cutting edge of its game, and ground-breaking when it comes to the delivery and dissemination of new products to the market, unless it is sharply attentive to marketing in this highly competitive marketplace. While the healthcare industry always seems to be a growth industry, there is an increasing amount of more focused competition and the company fails to concentrate on its marketing strengths at its peril.
Due to the sheer size of the healthcare industry and the fact that it touches every individual in one way or the other, much attention is given to drug spending. Indeed, it is estimated that spending on pharmaceuticals can account for up to 15% of the total amount spent within the health industry and with such high numbers at stake, marketing proficiency, or a lack of it, can have big consequences.
For the pharmaceutical company, its sales force is at the sharp end and spends much of its time interacting directly with the professional, the practitioner and the advisor. It is so important for the sales executive to interact successfully with a professional if progress is to be maintained. As the executive engages with the professional, a lot of time and effort can be put into trying to achieve a result, but as the practitioner is often turned off to marketing practices and advances, this can be a ‘tough nut to crack.’
Often times, the healthcare professional, being highly educated and focused, wants to rely on scientific papers, advice from colleagues within the industry, or his or her own training and first-hand experience. There is a significant danger that the professional could view the advances of a pharmaceutical company sales executive as single-minded, so the executive therefore needs highly-tuned marketing and communication skills to be able to break through.
The pharmaceutical industry is maturing constantly and with advances in medicine comes the need for a much higher level of education at the sales executive team level. These complex dynamics worry the pharmaceutical company chiefs, especially as they have enough to fill a plate with regard to product development, lobbying activities, regulatory enforcement, adherence and economic constraints. It is at times like these that they should turn to pharmaceutical consulting firms not only to advise them, but to help educate and direct their sales forces.
Invariably, pharmaceutical consultants have first-hand experience of the market and know how to interact and deal with end-users and with professionals. Advice can be imparted about layers of motivation, multiple layers of training and the best way to approach client interaction. Most pharma consulting experts will help to ensure that the sales staff member realises the urgency required, while bringing all members of the team together into a cohesive unit. The executive must not only work with the best interest of the employing company at heart, but must seek to engage the acceptance and trust of the end-user professional at a critical stage in the product life. True balance is required to ensure that motivation works through training to reveal the correct way forward.
Alan Gillies is the Director of L2L Consulting, an elite pharmaceutical consultancy firm which specialises in Strategy Development and Implementation Excellence for prestigious multi-national organisations.
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