Will the pharmaceutical sales team of the future be composed of people who sit behind a computer terminal for the majority of their time, only making “road trips” when they are almost guaranteed to be highly productive? After all, this is what the Web 2.0 revolution is supposed to achieve for us, isn’t it? You could argue that any virtual style of communication is far from likely to generate the kind of interpersonal bonding that is seen as being increasingly important in the realm of sales team effectiveness. Doesn’t pharmaceutical marketing training revolve ever more around the one-on-one communication, and a real understanding of what drives the end user’s buying decision? A pharmaceutical consultant really understands how much of the buying decision is based on a relationship between the company and the buyer, which is enhanced by the interaction between the sales rep and the doctor. Furthermore, cultural traditions in certain countries, especially Latin America or Spain, dictate that business decisions are often made as a consequence of the depth of the interpersonal communication between all parties.
Companies are now beginning to understand how important the information is which can be gleaned through social media interaction with their prospects and they should be able to integrate the end-user’s information in a much more targeted, responsive and productive way, to ensure that they can communicate with healthcare prospects and clients efficiently. Virtual communication is going to be of far greater importance going forward, so it is up to the pharmaceutical consultancy to work out how the value message is going to be incorporated. It’s important to analyse every aspect of information that is gathered in this way and to develop simple, yet effective ways of communicating with a prospect or client to generate this intelligence. Schedules and travel constraints being what they are, that when a meeting takes place, face-to-face time between the doctor and the sales rep can often be hurried or take place in a less-than-perfect environment. As such, a virtual style of communication could be seen as far more productive, as it would fit in with the schedules of each individual far more efficiently, by definition. Webinars and online methods of presentation enable high levels of communication through different forms of multimedia. Studies conducted by some pharmaceutical consultancy experts reveal that this can be a highly efficient way of reaching clients and of course it would be far more cost-effective as it cuts out the significant costs associated with travelling, together with the productivity trail off that is endemic. As the additional cost of generating sales will, in future, be significantly reduced, these resources should be reinvested in education, software and a variety of new communication tools necessary to enable the company to reach its clients.
Pharmaceutical marketing training is beginning to change to take into account the latest communications methods. The pharmaceutical consultant must accelerate the sales rep’s education, but it is also important to introduce these strategies to the client at a pace which is appropriate for the individual end-user. While personal communication will always be an important ingredient, we can look forward to a time when productivity will be increased substantially as a consequence of the new virtual styles of communication.
Alan Gillies is the Managing Director of L2L Consulting, specialising in enabling pharmaceutical companies to achieve new heights of productivity and performance, throughout all levels of management and revenue generating activities.