CRM Systems for medical sales

Understanding and making use of sales data can give marketeers the competitive edge in developing effective campaigns to promote their products. However, in order to gain maximum benefit from the information that CRM systems provide they need to take an active role from the outset.

CRM systems are normally chosen by a mixture of people, these include representatives from the company’s IT department, business information and sales – but rarely if ever are marketeers involved. This is a real opportunity missed, as the outputs from a good CRM system should enable companies to be better and more pro-active in their marketing activities.

CRM systems can enable marketeers to target their customers more effectively and facilitate more focused marketing activities. Unfortunately in many companies the traditional marketing/sales division and a certain degree of apathy on the part of marketeers means that marketing departments don’t always have access to the data collated on the company’s CRM system.

Many marketeers cannot see the direct value to them of the CRM system, largely because they are so distanced from the actual process and see it little more than a core, reporting tool for the sales force.

One of the most useful features of an efficient CRM system is that it can compare data from a multitude of different sources.

At present there is a vast choice of data available to pharmaceutical companies, and marketeers frequently access information from them, whether they be IMS, ROA, RSA, IRI, TransAct, HPA, the Ex-factory to name but a few. The opportunity exists to get more value from the databases that marketeers use by finding a powerful way to electronically manipulate them so that they can be used in comparison with others.

So for example, if marketeers have one piece of data that tells them the percentage of their customers in a given area who are excited by their product – if they could tie that in with what their advertising/direct mail/sales force campaign is doing in that same area, then that would be powerful information to have. At the moment most marketeers are not taking full advantage of this opportunity.

There are a multitude of data streams available to marketeers, but the way to get the best from these data streams is by using them in comparisons that are useful to specific marketing campaigns. The first step for the marketeer interested in making the most of available data is to visit the company’s business information manager and see how the current CRM system is run.

It is important to understand what information is actually being collated by the company as a whole, and what specifically would be useful to you as a marketeer. Then once this has been done it is important to embark on a separate discussion about what more can be done with the existing system to help the marketing team. As a starting point you should ask yourself: `what information would be great to have in order to effectively understand how to market a given product?’ - because what would be great to have, is often obtainable somehow.

Once you’ve decided on what it is you want to see, the next decision is how you want to see it. It is essential that in acquiring the information the marketing department needs, you can see it in a format that is useful to you. If you take any data stream that you buy, the information provided is laid out in a certain way – and more often than not you do not have any control over this. This is particularly true if this material is supplied in a printed format, when you can’t do a lot to change it. However, if you receive the information electronically it can be manipulated and reset any way you like.

True CRM should allow the marketeer to incorporate any data on their system, presented in the manner in which it can be most useful. For example, it maybe that in some circumstances you would want the data to appear in a tabular format, or for the purposes of presentations and top-line reporting as graphs, or as an analysis of regional activity as a mapping device.

The beauty of the effective CRM system is that it can be personalised to suit the marketeers’ needs and this should be at the forefront of your thinking. For this reason most marketeers need to be more challenging of their CRM system, they need to explore the information that is already available within the company and find out what could be useful to them and in what format.

At the moment most marketeers receive their information as pure market research data – what they could take more advantage of is the extensive record of what doctors say to their sales representatives. Whilst market research looks at external data there is a whole range of internal data that could be used in comparison.

Unfortunately in a number of pharmaceutical companies the old cliché of sales versus marketing still exists. At one end of the building you may have the sales force keeping records of their customer calls and what health professionals say to them in terms of which products they use and which they don’t. While at the other end of the building there are more people promoting the product, who would love to have access to that data.

There are, of course, a number of doctor-focused websites that marketeers can access to gage opinion and carry out research, but these have to be handled carefully. However before using these as a source of information it is important for marketeers to weigh up, on a site-by site basis, the quality and accuracy of the data that is offered. It is also important to consider how this data compares with that which is arguably more accessible to the marketeer – the information collected by the company’s sales force.

The medical rep has more direct contact with the customer than anyone else in a pharmaceutical company. The relationship they have with those customers and the way in which that is managed and recorded is therefore of utmost importance.

The development of mobile data collection has enabled sales representatives to provide much more accurate reports of customer attitudes, beliefs and behaviour. Marketing departments can learn a lot from this information – though all too often this data is not shared and this is an opportunity lost.

The mobility of latest technology means that sales representatives have the ability to input data immediately. This gives marketeers the opportunity for fast and accurate, day-to-day measurement of how effectively key messages are being transmitted to target customers.

While the focus of all data collection is naturally on healthcare professionals and specifically those who hold the greatest influence over prescribing budgets, the issue is about to become more complex. The long-term ambition of the industry is to be able to communicate directly to its ultimate customer, the patient, and to build an accurate profile of the end user of their products. It is important therefore that marketeers not only think about what the CRM system should be able to tell them now – but also what it should be capable of telling them in the future.

Deciding on a system to suit the marketing department’s needs is a question of being selfish – in a positive way! As well used as the phrase seems to be these days, marketeers should think the `blue sky idea’ when it comes to CRM systems. In order to maximise the data available, marketeers should think about the most ideal system for their needs - incorporating the vital information that is currently being recorded in-house and external market research – and further about how they would like to see that data compared and presented and demand it !

The technology is out there. . .

Table 1: Understanding and making better use of sales data

Checklist

1. Go to see the Business Information Manager and see what data

available in house

2. Decide what sort of data you would like collated

3. Establish whether current technology allows integration of your various

data sources

4. Try and understand the `blue sky’ idea – what in a perfect world would

you need to better understand you customers.