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"My call rate directive is eight
doctor calls per day, 1 hospital call and 2 retail calls. It's
four o'clock and I've only been able to see five doctors. Now where can
I go to make up
the difference before the end of the workday? Maybe I can catch a few
Docs over at the
clinic and make my daily numbers. I sure am glad I have a lunch scheduled
tomorrow!"
Sound familiar? If it doesn't, chances are you have either been out of
the field for some
time, or the field visits that you have made have been phenomenally well
orchestrated!
The fact of the matter is that access continues to be one of the top challenges
for
salespeople today while activity based deployment and measurement of representative
activity remains foremost. Is the issue low call averages or physicians
who are allowing
less access?
Tactical Deployment Components-Pros and Cons or "How did we get
ourselves in to
such an activity trap?"
"Companies that blindly follow their competition will continue
to increase the quantity of
calls. Those that look to the future will focus on the quality of interactions."
Pharmaceutical Executive Magazine, Round Table Discussion, January
1997
Call rate and presentation expectations per call are measurements
that will probably
never go away…nor should they. Salespeople need to see as many targeted
physicians as
possible. However, the tactical, activity driven nature of salespeople
can be directly
attributed to stringent call rate mandates. A survey of other sales organizations
such as
medical device, clinical diagnostics, orthopedic prosthetics and capital
medical
equipment reflect a different orientation towards call rate priority.
Like pharmaceutical
companies, these organizations are navigating their way through the vast
changes in the
healthcare marketplace. Like pharmaceutical companies, they too need to
make certain
that they are seeing the right customer with the right regularity in order
to assure product
acceptance and utilization. Many of these organizations value the inclusion
of call
activity measurement but do not lead with it!
Lunches in exchange for access is yet another example of the "ends
justify the means"
outcome of tactical direction. Let's face it, salespeople are resourceful
and pragmatic. As
a result, they will find ways to achieve the tactical directives placed
before them…not the
least of which is the all too familiar "lunch and learn" event.
The problem with this venue
is that most professionals, if they could avoid it, would never again
schlep pizza and
sandwiches into an office in an effort to discuss the clinical attributes
of a pharmaceutical
compound. Ten years ago, this "angle" was essentially unheard
of. Now the practice has
become so widespread that physician offices use these "free lunches"
as enticements for
their staffs. The impact of such activities is insignificant.
Multi Rep coverage has indeed become a tactical response
to the access dilemma.
Representatives calibrate coverage on targeted physicians with great precision,
focusing
on what product lineup and what indications on which to focus. Some organizations
have
as many as four representatives in geographically identical territories.
While this example
of tactical deployment may indeed yield sampling consistency, it also
feeds the
reluctance of many offices to see more than "one representative per
company per month."
Managed care stresses are changing the way that physicians use their
office time. They
are now limiting their access even more. This means that physicians will
be less likely to
see any representatives in the future unless they have something new or
unique to offer in
their product lines. Large numbers of sales people or multiple representative
forces will
not be a competitive advantage…for long.
For the most part, our experience with physicians shows that they are
aware of this
approach. Instead of realizing the potential benefit, they tend to see
this as a tactical step
to gain access to the physician's "face time," which is less
and less available. In essence,
physicians have a limited amount of time to see representatives regardless
of who they
represent.
The old "bump and howdy" process is no longer
unique. Physicians have grown to realize that sales people use the sample
closet as an opportunity to gain access (though somewhat limited) to their
time. Physicians will gladly sacrifice a bit of time signing a
sample form in return for limited contact with sales people. In some cases,
physician
feedback reflects the fact that they actually thought pharmaceutical sales
people were
paid by the number of physician signatures they gathered! For this reason,
the doctor is
accessible because she knows that the interruption will be very short.
Targeting data and sales force automated information systems
is as impressive as
anything is in the representative's arsenal today. Calls can now be focused
as specifically
as imaginable based on total script volume, competitive product prescribing,
as well as
managed care plan affiliation. Updated information is as close as a home
office computer
download away. Armed with this information, representatives know exactly
where to
spend their time and energy.
Who wouldn't want this data? Of course the data provide information necessary
to
improve potential return on time invested. The inherent challenge with
this double-edged
sword manifests in the fact that as impressive as salesforce information
systems data is,
all companies have some form of the same data! As a result, access to
targeted physicians
becomes even more challenging due to the fact that everyone is trying
to see the same
group of customers.
And these customers are usually the same physicians who are struggling
to meet their
own activity goals and patient care challenges. Afterall, the physician
in managed care
today is being graded for customer satisfaction and patients are not very
pleased when
they must wait long to see the doctor. The physician and his/her staff
are well aware of
this situation.
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Strategic Complements to Tactical Activity:
"The essence of strategy is deciding what not to do. Without
trade-offs, there would be no
need for choice and thus no need for strategy."
Michael Porter, Harvard Business School.
While tactical direction and the pursuant activity that
results is indeed an important
component of successful selling, the problem remains that none of this
differentiates one
company from another. There is nothing new, unique or innovative about
any of the
tactical components of the representative's persona. The challenge then
becomes… "with
all of the inherent challenges with product and company differentiation
as well as access,
how do I differentiate myself?"
One might ask the following questions to determine how effective, beyond
tactical
activities, a representative is with his or her customers:
- I understand the Critical Success Factors for each essential customer.
(The
two or three things they consider most important to their professional
and
business success.)
- I plan a sales approach for each customer using materials that address
his or
her stated and unstated business and product needs.
- I spend time during each sales call ensuring that the right steps
are taken to
expand my role as the customer's business partner. (I.e.. gaining information
on business issues, discussing industry trends, etc.)
- I make it a habit to spend time learning about industry issues and
how they are
affecting our customers.
- My customers seek my advice and input on business issues outside
of our
product specialty.
- I am able to use account profile information to clearly communicate
my sales
strategy for individual products in each essential account.
- The primary focus of my sales strategy and tactics is to build long-term
customer partnerships.
- I can identify and communicate the one factor of our product or service,
which
gives us the best chance to win in a competitive situation.
- My customers generally allow me the time I need to accomplish all
sales call
objectives.
- I qualify all accounts based on the business impact we can have on
them and
the impact they can have on our territory strategies.
- I dedicate time each week to research issues, which may impact the
business
of each essential account and my individual customers.
Answers that reflect consistent performance of the behaviors reflected
in the questions
would indicate that a representative might indeed possess traits that
offer differentiation
between tactical, activity driven representatives and strategic, business
focused sales
consultants. A realization that the behaviors manifest rarely or inconsistently
would
indicate that there is an opportunity for representatives to become more
strategic and
consultative in their approach with customers.
Strategy Equals Clarity and Focus
"The essence of strategy is a positioning statement that sets
you, your product, your
organization apart from the competition in ways that are important to
the customer"
George S. Day
Sun Tzu, in the classic treatise on strategy, The Art of War taught that
before one can
develop strategy, a clear understanding of oneself, the competition and
the terrain must
occur. Only after this level of understanding is reached can representatives
become more
strategic. Usually, representatives posses an acceptable level of knowledge
of their
product and organizational attributes versus their defined competition.
The lacking
component tends to be a clear understanding of the "terrain".
Terrain is defined in the context of pharmaceutical sales and marketing
as… issues,
trends, and business challenges faced by healthcare providers. This goes
beyond the
clinical issues that challenge them and begins with the "higher level
view" of healthcare
in general. A strategist will understand the current national issues that
are affecting local
providers…or those that will be in the not too distant future. The
strategist takes this
national view and begins to focus it more clearly on the regional, local
and organizational
challenges providers are facing.
Representatives who posses this knowledge may then more clearly focus
their sales
message strategy, time and resources in ways that make more clinical and
business sense
to their customers. Without a clear understanding of the national and
local terrain, there is
no incentive to become more focused on strategic alignment for competitive
advantage
and the result is the usual tactical activities that fail to differentiate
one representative
from another.
Once the terrain is clearly understood, then a representative may establish
a strategic
position with which he or she can win, given the local and unique information
that is used
to differentiate representative, company and product. The strategic pharmaceutical
sales
professional will use this knowledge to gain greater access to customers.
Customers are looking for "business partnerships" with their
suppliers. And as
stereotyped as this may sound, they are serious about these partnerships.
Those sales
people who understand the clinical and business issues that their customers
face and
include this knowledge in their customer interactions will always have
access to key
influencers even when time is of the essence. Those who do not have this
understanding
will always be searching for another way to bump into their customers
in the hallway.
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