How One Midsize Pharma Made HCP Calls Less Daunting
It’s hard to believe now but not so long ago, a sales representative could be successful by simply relying on a personal relationship with a healthcare provider (HCP). In recent years, HCP access has been replaced with complex hierarchies, multiple customer roles, numerous channels and the rise of institutional decision makers. As a consequence, field reps expend considerable time and energy simply searching for useful information, struggling to make sense of the complex provider environment.
What’s a rep to do? Wouldn’t it be great if there was an opportunity to take advantage of existing data sources to get recommendations for the right channels and messages to use?
As it happens, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals recently shared how they have addressed exactly this issue. For companies struggling to make good use of their customer data, Sunovion’s real-life experience is quite illustrative. Here’s a summary of the main points but their webinar is well worth watching.
The pilot study
Sunovion decided upon a pilot of Veeva CRM Suggestions, a rep dashboard that offers recommendations on the best actions to take for a customer interaction. Such a pilot would allow them to test out the functionality and obtain feedback prior to scaling it to their entire field force. After finding a data science vendor, Sunovion began to identify various internal and external data sources. In practice, this this turned out to be more complex than initially imagined because the data resided in many, disparate locations. A key lesson learned was to initiate a data accessibility assessment early in the process. Configuration and implementation of the data sources ultimately required about three months.
Early feedback
Initial feedback from the field indicated that the vast majority of reps believed the new insights helped better prepare them for HCP calls. Yet, a few reps in the pilot did not take action following a suggestion. Sunovion determined that it needed to incorporate additional data sources to help improve the quality of the suggestions.
Current situation
Sunovion has recently introduced Veeva CRM Suggestions to a larger group of sales reps. They have seen steadily increasing adoption, as measured by fewer dismissals and more actions being taken following a suggestion. Reps are increasingly seeing the value. Indeed, most field users remark that they now have a more efficient way of prepping for their calls, saving them substantial time and effort. One individual even commented that a suggestion led her to establish a new relationship with a physician who turned out to be influential in his space.
Sunovion’s customer engagement experience is quite illustrative. A lot of our customers have told us that they, too, have invested heavily in analytics and data but often struggle with how to take meaningful action on it. That is why they are looking for a way to translate data into information. As Sunovion shows, there is an opportunity to do just that. Check out the webinar to hear their key takeaways and lessons learned.