Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - (Page 7) Shining a Light on New Sales Models Pharmaceutical Executive’s Brittany Agro explores the emerging models that could offer the best way forward for pharma’s sales forces. S ales force re-organisations are inevitable. But the resulting job losses are difficult to stomach; the simple act of ‘re-drawing’ territory boundaries can lead to the loss of quality sales personnel — the top-performing reps who drive much of the value and whom companies can’t afford to lose. Inevitably, these re-organisations are also disruptive to customer relationships. Traditionally, sales execs dealt with this issue as a necessary side effect. But Solvay Pharmaceuticals, when faced with its changing product portfolio, took a different track. Solvay implemented what it calls the Customer-Centric Alignment model, which is based on maintaining a fixed number of geographical territories, and provides for flexibility by optimising promotion and allocating resources within each territory. Mark Hastings, director of sales operations for Solvay, says that by keeping a constant number of sales teams and territories, they can ensure that, above all else, customer service remains constant. At the same time, he adds, the model still provides for flexibility because the company can adjust how each brand is resourced in each territory. You can see how this works by looking at Solvay’s cardiometabolic business, which it supports with 645 reps. All cardiometabolic specialty reps carry three products, but promotional optimisation yields individualised call plans that result in a differential weighting of each product for every rep. Of course, no model is perfect. Hastings says one of the biggest challenges of the Customer-Centric Alignment model relates to the district manager’s role. District managers are typically expected to be product specialists. But as the number of drugs promoted expands within the territories they manage, it will be difficult to maintain that high standard of drug knowledge. However, adds Hastings, district managers will still be critical for coaching, and maintaining the in-call effectiveness of the rep. AstraZeneca (AZ) is another company changing the way it details doctors. AZ’s new selling model, launched in 2007, focuses on the total office call, with the goal of developing deeper relationships with the entire physician’s practice, improving access, and delivering greater selling impact, according to Mark Mallon, vice president of marketing and sales operations. To do that, AZ gives its pharmaceutical sales specialists (PSSs) fewer accounts to call on. This allows for the time and focus it takes to build stronger relationships with the office’s prescribers and non-prescribers — to whom reps provide education about patient assistance programmes, reimbursement, and patient education, including the messages about the importance patient adherence to prescribed therapies. 1 NEWS 2 FROM THE EDITOR / NEWS 3 MEGAMERGERS 7 NEW SALES MODELS 10 UK NEWS 12 CALENDAR 13 ON THE MOVE CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE TO PHARM EXEC Hill Street Studios/Getty Images http://www.pharmexeceurope.com/europharmexec/newsletter/subscribeNewsletter.jsp
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 Contents From the Editor Pfizer-Wyeth Sales News Calendar On the Move Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Contents (Page 1) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - From the Editor (Page 2) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Pfizer-Wyeth (Page 3) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Pfizer-Wyeth (Page 4) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Pfizer-Wyeth (Page 5) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Pfizer-Wyeth (Page 6) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Sales (Page 7) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Sales (Page 8) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Sales (Page 9) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - News (Page 10) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - News (Page 11) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - Calendar (Page 12) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 18, 2009 - On the Move (Page 13)
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.