Tips for more effective pre-call planning
June 29, 2009 – 11:07 am by Steven NilesWith the reduction in the number of representatives, the shift to specialty products, and the increasing barriers to physician access, the number of opportunities to influence physicians is plummeting. Every call must be high impact. As a result, pre-call planning has become a fundamental skill for successful pharmaceutical sales calls with the prescriber.
Physicians value clear, concise, and relevant calls with pharmaceutical representatives,” says Denise Woltemath, senior consultant, specialty/bio, Health Strategies Group. “Representatives can achieve this through effective pre-call planning.”
Pharmaceutical representatives must incorporate information from multiple sources to build a pre-call plan for each physician. Ms. Woltemath recommends the following tools and techniques (click image to enlarge):
While pre-call planning has always been important, every area of the industry’s business model and sales and marketing approach is being reevaluated to optimize ROI, according to Rick Keefer, president and CEO, Publicis Strategic Solutions Group.
“We are seeing a number of marketplace factors driving the renewed interest in pre-call planning,” Mr. Keefer says.
The decline in the total number of traditional field sales representatives is one major factor. The other is the fact that physicians are saying they want “better trained, higher value” sales representatives calling on their practices.
In conjunction with the physician social networking site Sermo, Publicis Strategic Solutions conducted a physician survey called “What Physicians Want!” The survey results showed a resounding request for a “higher level” of sales representative that was more experienced and better trained.
“These physicians also wanted representatives who knew enough about their practice to have an intelligent discussion that relates to their practice environment and patient population,” Mr. Keefer says. “In order to have this type of discussion, pre-call planning is a must.”
According to research conducted by Cegedim Dendrite, the No. 1 reason pharmaceutical sales representatives make use of the company’s customer relationship management software is to conduct pre-call planning. This tracks with the fact that according to Cegedim Dendrite’s Sales Representative Attitudinal Study, sales reps reported that their biggest issue was spending enough time with prescribers (81% reported this as an issue).
Therefore, planning on how to maximize the time spent with a prescriber is a critical task for sales reps. In addition, as pharmaceutical companies use more channels to reach prescribers, it’s vital for a representative to know all of the interactions that his company had with that prescriber prior to the call.
For example, if the representative knows that a doctor he is calling on has recently been invited to a peer-to-peer meeting, or that there has been a high usage of patient adherence programs like co-pay assistance cards, the rep can tailor his message to include a reminder about the meeting invite and re-stock the prescriber with more co-pay cards. Also, given the dynamics of managed care and the latest government health revamps, the representative may want to check the pull through message for a particular physician, comparing plan level data and formulary wins.
“The CRM systems that sales representatives use should provide a 360 degree view of the prescriber to facilitate a valuable interaction between the pharma company and the prescriber,” says Mark Fleischer, senior VP and general manager, North America CRM, Cegedim Dendrite. “The CRM platform should also encourage communication between sales teams to enable a collaboration during and post the call planning effort. Most important of all, the system needs to match and support the unique workflow of a sales representative. The key here is that focusing on CRM usability will enable a sales representative to maximize his/her potential.”
Cegedim Dendrite spent months observing how sales representatives from all company sizes interacted with general technology. The company made changes to its system based on those observations to ensure that its Mobile Intelligence CRM system supported and enabled commercial teams to reach their maximum potential.
“This process is called Human Centered Design,” Mr. Fleischer says. “It has made a significant difference for our users. Based on a study conducted by IDC in 2007, there was an increase of nearly 12% in sales representative productivity.”
Technology within the sales force automation system is key, according to Mr. Keefer. A good SFA system should allow representatives to get a true picture of the physician before walking into the office.
“Training is also essential,” Mr. Keefer says. “Pre-call planning is the foundation upon which a successful call and the call continuum is built.”
Mr. Keefer outlines eight key questions effective sales representatives need to know:
- How to analyze the information they have on a physician during pre-call planning, eg: What type of practice does a physician have? (patients’ age range, third party/managed markets influence and make up, urban/rural, etc)
- What therapy is the physician currently prescribing?
- What “adoption orientation” does the physician have? (eg, late adopter/early adopter for new products)
- What concerns or other issues does a given physician hold? (eg, particularly sensitive to safety issues)
- What do you do with that pre-call planning information once you’re in an office? (eg, What information can you gather from the staff? As part of the total office call, who in the office do you need to speak to in addition to the physician?)
- What do you do with the pre-call planning information when in front of the physician?
- And finally, once you’ve left that office, how do you record that call so you are able to have an effective pre-call plan and call on the next visit?
As an outsourced sales services provider, PDI Inc. has always stressed the elements of pre-call planning with its reps to insure the company provided high quality sales teams. Now that outsourced reps are being used more strategically as frontline promotion rather than just as back-up, PDI is in a good position to trade on this planning experience and its strategic understanding of the marketplace to help clients gain physician access.
“Pre-call planning has always been a key element of the selling process,” says Richard P. Micali, senior VP, sales services, PDI. “Great, successful reps have always done pre-call planning; average reps not so much. Today, no one can afford to be average and survive.”
To be successful in the current environment, Mr. Micali believes that a rep needs to be customer-focused and engage in consultative selling. “The market is demanding that the rep bring something of value to the table,” he says. “The reality is high prescribing doctors may have several reps lined up each day to present their products. They only have time to see a few as they are being forced to see higher numbers of patients each day and document those visits in comprehensive charts or electronic medical records. If a rep wants to get quality, they need to be prepared.”
According to Mr. Micali, good pre-call planning starts right after the previous call as part of the selling process continuum. Understanding what worked and what did not work is important to determining the key points to be addressed in the next visit.
“This should be coordinated with an overview of your call history to that targeted physician/practice along with a review of local market conditions and the formularies existing for yours and competitive products, and any particular issues facing appropriate patients within the practice area,” Mr. Micali says. “Good [sales force automation] tools are essential to do this properly. A rep should be able to examine trends for each of their targets in terms of NRx, TRx, and call activity. Some SFA software are providing managed care information and formulary status, which is tremendously helpful. We are currently working with one of our clients, a major pharmaceutical company, in providing local managed care information.”
Tags: Cegedim Dendrite, Health Strategies Group, PDI Inc., pre-call planning, Publicis Strategic Solutions Group, Sales force effectiveness
