The Double Dip - Deliver Impact and Flexibility with Tele-Sales Solutions

The sales function in life science companies continues to evolve and become more complex. The pressure to increase sales in a cost-effective manner grows by the day and sales executives are eagerly searching for innovative and impactful ways to grow sales.

Tele-sales programs are flexible programs that efficiently and effectively augment sales and promotional activities in many ways including…

1) Scheduling visits with a field-based representatives to provide 1-on-1 interaction when it’s needed

2) Expanding territories and coverage to ensure all healthcare providers in a given territory have regular interactions with company representatives

3) Supporting promotional programs for new indications and offers such as support groups or prescription rebates

4) Building relationships with office staff to provide a venue for answers to their questions and for requesting samples and educational materials

5) Providing responsive handling of scientific and/or clinical questions by healthcare-trained representatives when the caller wants and needs it

I recently recorded a Podcast through PharmaVOICE sharing insights we’ve gathered from tele-sales programs we’ve worked on for our clients. Also, we recently published a White Paper on this topic. The White Paper offers three case studies that demonstrate how tele-sales solutions can be customized to meet a number of promotional needs and audiences including physicians, their office staff, and patients and caregivers.

If you’d like to listen to the podcast titled “Insights from the Field: Tele-Sales Solutions”, please click here to download. Additionally, if you are interested in a copy of the white paper titled "Seize the Moment: Tele-Sales Solutions Delivering Impact and Flexibility", please click here to request it. Please let us know what you think of these two resources—are they helpful or not? Also, would you like to have additional resources in other areas? If so, please let us know what areas interest you.

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Three Must-See Sessions at DTC Perspectives in April

The DTC Perspectives Conference starts next Tuesday, April 10 in Washington DC. The agenda looks great. I’m looking forward to hearing from executives at several life science companies on how they are changing their DTC programs to move away from brand promotion and awareness to focus on what patients need and want. When programs focus on what patients need and want we build engagement that can lead to commitment and loyalty.

There are three sessions that I’m particularly looking forward to...  

1) The New DTC: Using Technology to Build Relevance and Engagement with Paul Ewing and Todd Kolm at Pfizer. They are taking a case study approach to share insights into efforts to innovate consumer marketing at Pfizer.  

2) Effectively Reaching and Supporting Patients: A Novo Nordisk Case Study with Jeremy Shepler at Novo Nordisk and Rob Rebak at QualityHealth. They will be sharing key learnings from an integrated multichannel DTC program to drive educated doctor-patient interactions.  

3) Wake Up! Really, We Need to Wake Up! With Brian Lange at GSK. This presentation promises to help us recognize the cold hard reality that is in front of us each day, and will share tools to help us prepare for the next generation of DTC marketing initiatives.

I always look forward to learning from others, and the DTC Perspectives Conference is a great opportunity to engage with leaders that are boldly trying new things.

No doubt we live in exciting times. The opportunities to engage with patients and caregivers are rapidly changing, and the challenge is to develop patient programs that are meaningful and valuable. At PhoneScreen and AMAC we have been working with our life science company clients on a number of projects including tele-sales programs and patient support programs. These programs have the ability to quickly gather insights on the needs and challenges of patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers in managing a disease-state or condition. These insights enable our clients (and us) to develop meaningful programs.

If you are going to DTC Perspectives, please stop by our exhibit booth (look for the AMAC booth, which is number 29) and we’ll be happy to share with you how our programs can be customized to gather meaningful insights into what patients and caregivers need. If you would like to set up a time to meet at the DTC Perspectives meeting, please send me an e-mail and we’ll schedule a time to get together.

Hope to see you in Washington DC!

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White Paper - Seize the Moment: Tele-Sales Solutions Delivering Impact and Flexibility

This white paper illustrates how tele-sales solutions provide valuable interactions and develop relationships with healthcare providers and their offices in customized ways that meet their individual needs.

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Download Companion Podcast - Insights from the Field: Tele-Sales Solutions Build Relationships between the Brand and HCPs 
Download Podcast Transcript (PDF)


All Podcasts and White Papers

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Podcast - Insights from the Field: Tele-Sales Solutions Build Relationships between the Brand and HCPs

In this podcast, I talk about the challenges life science companies face when providing information on their products to physicians and healthcare providers. I hope you enjoy it.

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Download Podcast Transcript (PDF)

Download Companion Whitepaper - Seize the Moment: Tele-Sales Solutions Delivering Impact and Flexibility

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Engaging HCPs, Patients, and Caregivers to Shape Your Initiatives

Gaining Valuable Insights from Daily Interactions

Designing and implementing effective marketing programs starts with understanding what your customers need most. This knowledge will help you develop impactful and desired programs that customers seek out. The idea of including the “voice of the customer” (or VOC) has been around for many years, and is becoming standard practice when developing new initiatives and programs.

We live in exciting times and there are limitless new opportunities to interact with patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers. The challenge is to engage your customers quickly and to obtain meaningful insights. Some life science companies have experimented with using social media to reach patients and caregivers as a channel to understand their needs. This is a viable solution; however, with social media communications you lack “real-time” interactions and the ability to ask questions and probe for further understanding.

At PhoneScreen and AMAC we have been working with our life science company clients on a number of projects including tele-sales programs and patient support programs. One of the unforeseen benefits of these programs has been the ability to quickly gather insights on the needs and challenges of patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers in managing a disease-state or condition. These insights enable our clients (and us) to develop meaningful programs.

Our representatives speak directly with patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers each day. Through the course of these interactions they develop relationships that provide meaningful insights into what these audiences need. We take these insights, share them with our clients, and either integrate them into our existing programs or develop new initiatives.

Examples of how these insights have been leveraged into our programs include..

* Including new questions in our FAQ information
* Updating our call scripts to include information that is often asked
* Developing a resource sheet that is shared with patients and caregivers

Three tips I can share with you for success are…

1) Careful documentation of questions. We use our database technology to capture this information
2) On-going analysis on questions that are coming up. On a regular basis we look at the questions we are being asked
3) Act on the findings. We report our findings and provide recommendations to our clients for how we can act on these insights

How are you gathering insights and input from patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers? Are you using these insights to design more meaningful programs? Please share your experiences, successes, and challenges.

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New Options for Building Relationships with Healthcare Providers

Read a new article in PharmaVOICE magazine about new options for gaining access to physicians

In the last few weeks I’ve had numerous discussions with sales and marketing executives in life science companies about new ways to reach healthcare providers (particularly physicians) to build relationships and provide educational information on their products. This is always a topic of interest with our clients, but the frequency and intensity of these conversations has increased dramatically.

There is an article in the March 2012 issue of PharmaVOICE magazine (it’s available on-line now) that shares best practices on gaining access to physicians . The article shares findings on a study conducted by Temple University, and presented at the International Health Economic Association Congress in June 2011, on the ramifications of decreased access on new product uptake and prescribing. The findings provide evidence that patients are at greater risk when physicians are slow to prescribe beneficial new medications. Additionally, the majority of physicians feel that sales representatives are an important source of product information.

We all know very well the changes in how healthcare is delivered, including the emphasis on seeing more patients and limiting access to sales representatives. Now, with the Temple University study, we have data that supports what we also know is true, that sales representatives play a critical role in educating healthcare providers about new products. So, the important question is this…How do we deliver valuable education to healthcare providers within the reality of the physician’s office?

The PharmaVOICE article provides several recommendations, and the three listed below jumped out to me. They include…

1) Physician targeting—I prefer to think of this as segmentation, which is identifying healthcare providers that have a relationship with the company and/or brand and those that don’t. The healthcare providers that do have a relationship with the company and/or brand need on-going interactions with sales representatives. Healthcare providers that do not have an existing relationship with the company and/or brand need to be introduced to the company and/or brand and perhaps a relationship can be cultivated. With healthcare providers that don’t have an existing relationship there are several options including tele-detailing and e-detailing that can be effective in cultivating relationships with them.

2) Provide relevant information—this is commonly referred to as “providing value”, and “value” is uniquely personal to each individual. What is most needed is to understand the individual healthcare provider, their practice setting, the types of patients they treat, and the challenges they face in practice. To be successful a relationship must be established, and the sales representative must provide small “nuggets” of valuable information with each interaction.

3) Healthcare providers are becoming more comfortable seeking out information on their own. Commonly used secondary channels are product and company websites, tele-detailing, e-detailing, and mobile applications. The key take-away is to have multiple opportunities for healthcare providers to seek and gain information at their convenience and according to their own preferences.

There are a number of options that can be implemented to increase access to healthcare providers. At PhoneScreen and AMAC we provide pharmaceutical call center solutions that help you build relationships with patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers. Tele-detailing programs are an effective tool for providing information. Tele-detailing programs are complementary to field-based sales representatives and can be designed to provided 24/7 access to information and clinical expertise at the convenience of the healthcare provider.

Take a few minutes to review the PharmaVOICE article . After you read it, I’d like to hear your thoughts on it. Additionally, what new initiatives are you considering or implementing to expand healthcare provider access to product information and company representatives?

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Re-Writing the Winning Formula for Patient Support Programs

BMS Orencia “One Patient at a Time” Campaign Receives Two Coveted Industry Awards

Helping patients begin and stay on a treatment requires support and helping them overcome their concerns with the treatment. Today, more than ever, there is a need to support patients and help them adhere to treatment. To date, patient support programs haven’t been very engaging. They mostly provide generic product and disease information and “reminders”.

I want to share with you a unique program we have had the pleasure of working with Bristol-Myers Squibb on for Orencia (abatacept). The campaign is called "One Patient at a Time” and it puts the patient at the center and tailors the materials to fit each patient's individual needs. The campaign has shown positive results including patient requests to their doctors for Orencia increased by 55%, conversion rates increased by 30%, and communication engagement rates are 17 times higher than historical rates.

Orencia is indicted for patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which because of its autoimmune nature can make it difficult for healthcare providers to choose the right treatment option.

This comprehensive campaign is the first dynamically generated, full dialogue enabled relationship marketing program. There are two critically important components of the program including…

* Orencia Care Counselors, which are healthcare-trained professionals, that stay in touch with patients throughout the program
* Customized direct mail communication materials

Through the course of a patient’s journey, the Orencia Care Counselors partner with patients and provide personalized guidance. The Orencia Care Counselors will address…

* Patient concerns
* Patient questions
* Coaching patients on how to talk with healthcare providers

Direct mail materials are an important component of the program. The imagery, content, tone, and delivery order of the communications materials are aligned to the treatment cycle of each individual patient. This alignment maximizes the impact of the program. "The One Patient at a Time” campaign is extremely comprehensive, creative, and provides the information needed to understand the safety and efficacy of the product, empower patients to have effective conversations with their healthcare providers, and the support to ensure patients successfully begin treatment. To date there are more than 17,000 variations of the communication materials.

Recently Bristol-Myers Squibb was awarded with a PM360 Trailblazer Award 2011 for the Best Direct Mail campaign for Orencia: “One Patient at a Time”. Additionally, Bristol-Myers Squibb received a Gold MM&M Award 2011 for Best Use of Direct Marketing to Consumers.

The Orencia: “One Patient at a Time” campaign is a collaborative effort between Bristol-Myers Squibb, Proximo Gen, BMStudio, and AMAC. AMAC provides Orencia Care Counselors, which are healthcare-trained professionals, to stay in touch with patients throughout the program.

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