Lots Of Crucial Suggestions On Marketing And Bridging The Gap
The pharmaceutical product marketing industry is very large, estimated at more than $25 billion per year and this emphasises the need for a pharmaceutical company to be active and effective in the arena. It is simply not good enough for the organisation to be on the cutting edge of its game, and ground-breaking when it comes to the delivery and dissemination of new products to the market, unless it is sharply attentive to marketing in this highly competitive marketplace. While the healthcare industry always seems to be a growth industry, there is an increasing amount of more focused competition and the company fails to concentrate on its marketing strengths at its peril.
Due to the sheer size of the healthcare industry and the fact that it touches every individual in one way or the other, much attention is given to drug spending. Within the healthcare industry, the total amount spent on pharmaceuticals accounts for 15% of the entire budget and it therefore follows that due to the high stakes associated, a lack of marketing proficiency can have significant repercussions.
The sales force is critical to the success of the pharmaceutical company as it spends much of its time directly interacting with front-line professionals, advisors and practitioners. Positive interaction between the sales executive and the professional is essential for progress. The executive spends a lot of his or her time detailing and providing information to the professional, yet this is often a tough wall to breach, as the practitioner is somewhat detuned to marketing advances.
Often times, the healthcare professional, being highly educated and focused, wants to rely on scientific papers, advice from colleagues within the industry, or his or her own training and first-hand experience. There is a danger that he or she could believe that the pharmaceutical company sales executive has but one motive in mind and as such, the sales executive requires fairly advanced communication and marketing skills to succeed.
As the pharmaceutical industry matures, more emphasis is being placed on these product areas and with advances in medicine, an increasingly higher level of education is important for the sales team. This level of complexity can be worrying to the senior management of a pharmaceutical company, as they have enough to worry about with regard to political lobbying, the enforcement of regulations, development of products and numerous economic issues. It is at times like these that they should turn to pharmaceutical consulting firms not only to advise them, but to help educate and direct their sales forces.
Generally, pharmaceutical consultants have a great deal of first-hand experience within the market and specifically with regard to dealing first-hand with professionals and end users. They can advise about correct motivation and the proper balance of training versus direct, “feet on the street” time. In most cases, pharma consulting can help to instil the correct amount of urgency within the sales staff member, while helping to ensure that the team works across different tangents. The executive must not only work with the best interest of the employing company at heart, but must seek to engage the acceptance and trust of the end-user professional at a critical stage in the product life. Applying the correct amount of direct motivation and training smarts represents the required balance.
Alan Gillies is the Director of L2L Consulting, an elite pharmaceutical consultancy firm which specialises in Strategy Development and Implementation Excellence for prestigious multi-national organisations.
