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Pharma Tech Outlook | Monday, October 12, 2020
Due to the pandemic, digital field interaction is the future. The life sciences have yet to explore this voyage fully. No organization has yet mapped out the perfect path. But data can guide companies as they navigate the digital landscape.
FREMONT, CA: When COVID-19 broke out, pharmaceutical sales teams looked to digital tools to navigate changing healthcare provider (HCP) interactions. To assist field reps in mapping the digital sales journey now, businesses must account for variables in how data is used, analyzed, stored, and interacted with data differently to develop a customer-centric strategy. This section discusses obtaining the data insights necessary for this new sales planning process.
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Various stages, various data
Effective sales planning utilizes three distinct data sets: short-, medium-, and long-term. Short-term data informs an individual rep's engagement approach, while medium-term data can influence the operation of a sales team, and long-term data can direct the strategy of an entire sales organization.
For field reps, tactical data is immediately actionable, such as an HCP's channel preferences or offices that are currently accessible to visitors. It can assist them in differentiating between HCPs who never open an email and those who are zealous digital channel users.
A step up is medium-term data, which managers use to guide team engagement. It includes workload and access data that might assist planners in determining whether a field force should go wholly digital or stay hybrid. Medium-term data can also establish the ideal size of a product launch's digital field crew.
Meanwhile, long-term data impacts the overall sales strategy by demonstrating the effectiveness of various sorts of engagements and territory arrangements. If data suggests that HCPs prefer receiving an email within 24 hours following a sales call, a corporation should push field reps to maximize this engagement's value. Additionally, keep in mind that pharma companies do not need to rely only on their data—industry-wide benchmark data on how their prospects engage with other businesses can also be quite illuminating.
Create and maintain data profiles
Businesses can utilize data to create client profiles, but they must also be prepared to update them regularly. By tracking engagement history, preferences, sentiment, and the outcome of each interaction, businesses may build profiles that can serve as the foundation for a more customer-centric sales strategy. Only thorough analysis can assist a company in determining what is occurring and how it may need to alter its strategy in response.
When the home office notices a customer's behavior has changed, it might suggest new actions for the relationship or modify the rep's success metrics. If new profile data indicates that a customer prescribed a competitor's product due to attending an event featuring a competitor's key opinion leader (KOL), the competitor's sales strategy may be modified.
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