Get More from Your Sales Force

By Mike Bandick

Your pharma brand’s performance has hit the wall.

This plateau (or worse) may be due to market conditions, more competition, a decrease in your marketing spend, or—perhaps—all of the above. It could be that your brand is a little stagnant: there may not be anything new to talk about or anything significant on the horizon. Unlike a consumer product, which can nimbly introduce a new flavor, your patent-protected chemistry is what it is.

A mature brand, however, can be rejuvenated at the prescriber point of contact: your sales force.

While it’s true that “the molecule is the molecule,” there is growing evidence to suggest that sales representatives who connect with physicians on the dimensions that matter most can have a positive, measurable effect on brand performance.

We’ve helped clients get more out of their single most expensive fixed asset—their sales organization—by aligning sales rep behaviors to their customers’ expectations. And we’ve found that when a company’s sales rep reaches that “trusted colleague” status, market share of that company’s brand is above average. While that may seem intuitive, the dollars are real and worth pursuing. In some markets, a tenth of a share point nationally translates into millions in revenue, which is especially important when brands have matured and share growth is harder to come by.

Market research involving both your reps and prescribers can uncover tangible, actionable insights that you can use to address and improve your reps’ effectiveness in the field. A simple four-step framework to consider is:

• Baseline: Talk to your customers and uncover what is important to them. Talk to your sales force to uncover your internal challenges. Then set a baseline to determine your performance versus the competition.
• Intervention: Incorporate these external and internal findings into a training/ coaching curriculum, drilling down on behaviors that are most impacting and/ or lagging behind the competition
• Set a Goal: Setting a goal with the appropriate accountability will ensure change in your sales force. Remember this is a group used to incentives and measurement!
• Measure: After implementing your training, re-measure your performance versus the competition. In addition to evaluating your performance compared to your goal also determine:

• Was the intervention effective?
• Did perceptions improve?
• Did brand performance improve?
• How can coaching/ training be tightened to yield even better results?

The challenges a brand faces in maturity are much different from those encountered in the launch or growth phases and often with fewer levers at your disposal. Our experience and insight suggests that in these situations, sales effectiveness can be a real difference-maker, especially when it’s grounded in customer-defined attributes.

About the Author
Mike Bandick joined G & S Research as a business unit leader in January 2006. In this vice president-level position, he is responsible for strengthening G & S Research’s presence with key pharmaceutical, biotech, device, and diagnostic companies, particularly those based in the northeast U.S.

Prior to joining G & S Research, Mr. Bandick was the director of marketing for Suros Surgical Systems, a rapidly growing medical device company. From 1991 to 2004, he held several domestic and global leadership roles with Eli Lilly and Company, most recently as global marketing director for Cymbalta®, Lilly’s successful antidepressant/ pain treatment. He also worked extensively with the Zyprexa® brand, Lilly’s $4 billion schizophrenia/ bipolar disorder medication. Throughout his career, Mr. Bandick has demonstrated strong leadership, strategic, and analytical capabilities.

He graduated from Duke University’s MBA program and has an undergraduate degree from Cal Poly Pomona (Pomona, CA). He serves on the board of directors for the local chapter of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

www.gs-research.com