• About
• Links
• Contact
• Sitemap

Optimizing Sales Force Effectiveness - From quantity to quality

The environment in which pharmaceutical companies promote their products has become increasingly tough over recent years as a number of trends and factors drive changes. As the effects of shrinking pipelines and rising R&D costs impact companies, they are under increasing pressure to deliver greater productivity from their sales forces.

Scope

Overview of the key trends changing the dynamics of promoting drugs

Analysis of the key strategies companies can use to improve the effectiveness of sales forces

Discussion of eight best-practice case studies across the US and European markets

Report Highlights
The increasing regulation of pharmaceutical marketing and promotion is set to continue over the next few years, driven both by authorities seeking to eradicate malpractice and by the pharmaceutical companies themselves seeking to rebuild the industry's damaged reputation.

The emerging influence of new prescribers, such as nurses and pharmacists, and other stakeholders such as formulary advisers and payer bodies, is broadening the scope of sales force strategies.

Continuing and more effective use of segmentation and targeting will allow companies to improve the effectiveness of sales forces, and so drive sales growth, without resorting to the traditional method of increasing the number of sales representatives.

Reasons to Purchase

Understand why the emphasis on sales force size in the pharmaceutical industry may finally be changing

Assess the key strategies that may help improve sales force effectiveness

Identify the opportunities to improve promotion through targeting emerging stakeholders

Table of Contents

• About the Strategic Intelligence Team - page 3
• CHAPTER 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - page 4
  • Scope of the report - page 4
    • Format of the report - page 4
  • Latest developments - page 4
  • Executive summary - page 5
• CHAPTER 2 CHANGING DYNAMICS OF PROMOTING DRUGS - page 10
  • Promoting branded prescription drugs has become more difficult - page 10
    • Branded drugs are facing a greater competitive threat from generics - page 10
      • Countries have been adopting measures to increase generic penetration - page 11
      • Generic drugs are posing a greater indirect competitive threat - page 12
    • Secondary care detailing is set to become more competitive - page 12
    • The industry's poor reputation is damaging promotional efforts - page 13
      • The public's perception of the industry has worsened - page 13
      • A series of negative events have driven the industry's reputation down - page 14
    • The pharmaceutical industry is trying to win back physician and consumer confidence - page 15
      • Companies are increasing the transparency of their activities - page 15
      • Companies are using sales forces to improve their reputation through comprehensive marketing codes - page 16
      • The industry continues to be plagued by sales and marketing malpractices - page 20
    • Independent authorities and organizations are taking their own steps to improve the standard of promotional activities - page 21
      • US: FDA is reviewing the use of DTC advertising - page 21
      • US: Stanford Univeristy Medical Center bans physicians accepting gifts - page 22
      • UK: The government is attempting to clamp down on promotional malpractices - page 23
      • France: New Charter restricts the number of times sales reps can visit physicians - page 23
  • Detailing is becoming more complex - page 24
    • A multi-channeled marketing campaign is important - page 25
      • e-marketing is a valuable new marketing channel - page 26
      • Continuing medical education (CME) - page 26
    • The network of prescribing decision makers and influencers is becoming more complicated - page 28
      • Prescribers - nurses are permitted to prescribe in the US and UK - page 29
      • Prescribers - UK adopts revolutionary changes to allow pharmacists to prescribe - page 31
      • Key purchasing groups - tightening of budgets increases payers' control and influence over prescribing - page 32
      • Consumers - influence has stabilized - page 33
      • Other influencers - growing influence of HTA bodies - page 34
• CHAPTER 3 OPTIMIZING SALES FORCE EFFECTIVENESS - page 36
  • Introduction - page 36
  • The traditional sales force model is no longer effective - page 36
  • Companies need to integrate sales and marketing functions better - page 39
    • Synergies offer additional value - page 39
    • Poor communication and misaligned objectives have driven the two departments to work in silos - page 40
      • CRM systems can faciliate communication between sales and marketing departments - page 40
  • Optimizing the size and structure of sales forces - page 41
    • The use of contract sales forces can provide valuable flexibility - page 41
      • Companies can use contract sales forces tactically or strategically - page 41
      • The risks and benefits of contract sales forces - page 42
    • The size of sales forces need to be reduced - page 47
      • There are four key factors driving the reduction in sales representatives - page 47
      • Huge cuts in sales forces have yet to be seen across the industry - page 51
    • The structure of sales forces needs to be tailored to the customer - page 55
      • Multinational companies need to adopt a holistic approach to sales force effectiveness - page 56
      • The structure of national sales forces are often aligned by the boundaries of health authorities and organizations - page 58
      • Mirrored sales forces are not the most cost-effective approach - page 59
      • Companies should base the structure of sales force on customer groups - page 61
      • Productivity can be improved by increasing the number of products sales representatives detail - page 62
  • A more customer-orientated sales approach required - page 63
    • Account-based selling is set to grow - page 64
      • Case study: Takeda radically restructures UK sales force to become patient-focused - page 65
      • Case study: Eli Lilly is restructuring its US sales operations to become more customer-focused - page 66
      • Case study: Eli Lilly's UK affiliate adopts an account management approach for its customers in the NHS - page 67
    • Is total solution-selling the answer? - page 68
      • Companies are becoming more involved in disease management programs - page 68
      • The ROI of disease management programs is questionable in some circumstances - page 71
    • The role of sales representatives is changing to improve quality of interactions - page 71
    • Companies are becoming increasingly dependent on effective segmentation and targeting of customers - page 72
      • Rogers' 'Diffusions of Innovation' and Moore's 'Crossing the Chasm' theories - page 73
      • Segmentation is highly complex in practice - page 75
      • Companies need to use segmentation analysis for targeting sales and marketing efforts - page 78
      • The key to sales force compliance is buy-in - page 82
• BIBLIOGRAPHY - page 85
  • References - page 85
    • Conference Literature - page 85
    • Publications, online articles and news stories - page 85
  • Other Sources - page 88
    • Articles - page 88


• List of Tables
• Table 1: The characteristics of customers - page 73


• List of Figures
• Figure 1: The public perception of the pharmaceutical industry is, overall, not favorable - page 14
• Figure 2: Physicians are subject to a number of prescribing influences, 2005 - page 25
• Figure 3: There are four main customer segments that influence prescribing decisions, 2006 - page 28
• Figure 4: S,G&A spend has a high correlation to sales, 2004 - page 37
• Figure 5: While an effective promotional strategy used to be based on three elements, the right channel has also emerged as an important element - page 38
• Figure 6: Key risks and benefits of using contract sales forces - page 42
• Figure 7: R&D expenditure has increased substantially, however, NME approvals by the FDA have not kept pace, 1990-2005 - page 49
• Figure 8: AstraZeneca has mirrored territory structures in the US, 2005 - page 60
• Figure 9: Structure of Lilly's Business-to-Business Team providing healthcare services to the NHS in the UK - page 67
• Figure 10: Lilly has a dedicated section on its UK website outlining the services it offers to the NHS - page 70
• Figure 11: Rogers' Innovator theory of customer segmentation - page 74
• Figure 12: A fraction of GPs account for the vast majority of prescriptions - page 79
• Figure 13: High potential customers should be the main target of promotional efforts - page 80
• Figure 14: Average change in sales force size throughout a drug's lifecycle - page 82

Other users found this report page using the following search terms: marketing sales astrazeneca forces effectiness force effectiveness functions

If you can't find a report that meets your needs contact LeadDiscovery. We are one of the few report providers with extensive drug development experience and we frequently use this knowledge to help clients source the most appropriate reports or produce reports for them from scratch.