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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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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