medicinman july 2015

MEDICINMANField Force excellence

TM

July 2015 | www.medicinman.net

Since 2011

Decades ago, Peter Drucker was invited to address the senior management team at General Motors, he asked them a simple, but penetrating question: Why should I buy a GM car?

Many senior executives attempted to answer that simple question but, nobody was able to give a convincing answer! The senior managers at General Motors had unlearnt the art of winning customers by not being able to answer the simple question - Why should I buy a GM car? But they kept introducing more and more new models which less and less customers bought. And that was the prelude to GMs decline and bankruptcy.

That question still resonates for every business including Indian Pharma. I wonder how many field sales people - Medical Reps and their managers can answer the question - Why Should the Doctor Rx Your Product? Having a clear answer to that question is the key to winning customers - be they doctors, chemists, distributors or hospitals.

As companies grow larger, hierarchies are created and sales processes like CRM/SFA evolve and become embedded. In the absence of a dynamic top leadership, hierarchy and processes become rigid and difficult to change even though rapidly changing market dynamics demand that they do.

EDITORIAL

WHY SHOULD THE DOCTOR Rx YOUR PRODUCT?

Editorial

Connect with Anup Soans on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter

Anup Soans is an Author, Facilitator and the Editor of MedicinMan.

Write in to him: [email protected]

Meet the editor

Bureaucracy slows down customer-centric decision making and inaction becomes part of the organisations culture. The emphasis shifts from developing employees and winning customers to launching products and hitting numbers.

Peter Drucker rarely blamed individuals; he saw root causes in the design of organizationsin their structures, processes, norms, and routines. He would ask leaders a few provocative questions: What is your mission? What should you stop doing? Where has the drive for short-term efficiencies undermined long-term effectiveness? What should be your objectives and guiding principles?

Pharma companies have made a virtue of creating hierarchies in the field force without role clarity and they need to redefine their role and responsibility around answering this penetrating question - Why Should the Doctor Rx Your Product?

Winning customers should become the number one agenda not just for sales and marketing people but for everyone from HR to manufacturing and product package designers. If everybody in the organisation is aligned around answering this question clearly and lucidly, then hierarchies and processes will have one central purpose How to win the customer?

While pharma businesses should certainly launch new products through innovative and meaningful marketing strategies, field sales people need to win over the doctor by constantly sharpening their ability to build rapport and understand the customer better through each in-clinic interaction.

Companies that can train their field force people keeping the central goal of winning customers will have a bright future. The rest will struggle to convert, coax, coerce and even confuse customers, just like the senior executives at GM. -MM

MedicinMan wishes its readers a Happy Doctors Day!

1. New Era in Pharma Growth .............................5

Innovation and technology are key to growth of pharma companies in emerging markets according to a workshop conducted by Cambridge Consultants in Mumbai.

Cambridge Consultants

2. India Makes it Big at Cannes Lions Health 2015 ...................................................................................8

Indian agencies picked up 10 shortlists in the healthcare category with Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai and Medulla Communications winning a Silver Lion and a Bronze Lion respectively.

MedicinMan Report

3. Leading with Conviction ..................................10 In order to lead with conviction, leaders must make the effort to develop themselves and others.

Sunil Bajaj

4. Pharma Sales Management and the New Front-line Manager ...............................................13

How a new Front-line Manager can make the transition from being a great performer to getting great performance from others.

Anup Soans

5. Do We Need Front-line Managers? ................17

A hard look at the impact of front-line managers on pharma top-lines and bottom-lines.K. Hariram

6. Winning the Casino Royale of Multi-Channel Marketing ..............................................................19

How the changing habits of Indias net-savvy and mobile friendly population is impacting pharmas marketing strategies - and how to set yourself up to win.Phanish Chandra

(Click to navigate)

CONTENTSMedicinMan Volume 5 Issue 7 | July 2015

Editor and Publisher

Anup Soans

CEO

Chhaya Sankath

Chief Mentor

K. Hariram

Editorial Board

Salil Kallianpur; Prof. Vivek Hattangadi; Shashin Bodawala; Hanno Wolfram; Renie McClay

Executive Editor

Joshua Soans

Letters to the Editor: [email protected]

MedicinMan Congratulates Pankaj Gursahani, Director-Sales Training at AstraZeneca Pharma India Ltd at the AZ Asia Area Day at Bangkok.This award represents an individual contributor from each country demonstrating AZ Values in letter and spirit.Pankaj was a speaker at FFE 2015 organized by MedicinMan at Mumbai.

CAREER PROGRESSION RESOURCES

NOW AVAILABLE ON

(click on the books to purchase on flipkart)

SuperVision for the SuperWiser Front-line Manager is a tool to help pharma professionals transition from super salesmen to great front-line managers and leaders. The book will equip front-line managers to Manage, Coach, Motivate and Lead their teams to deliver outstanding performance. An engaging read, filled with examples and illustrations, SuperVision for the SuperWiser Front-line Manager has been used by thousands of managers across the industry.

HardKnocks for the GreenHorn is a specially crafted training manual to enable Medical Representatives to gain the Knowledge, Skills and Attitude needed to succeed in the competitive arena of pharma field sales. Medical Representatives joining the field are often not aware about the key success factors of their job and as a result they get discouraged when things dont go as planned. HardKnocks for the GreenHorn is a powerful learning and motivational tool for field sales managers to build their sales teams.

GET YOUR PHARMA CAREER OFF TO A FLYING START!

5 | MedicinMan July 2015

E

NEW ERA IN PHARMA GROWTHInnovation and technology are key to growth of pharma companies in emerging markets according to a workshop conducted by Cambridge Consultants in Mumbai.

Emerging markets are predicted to account for a third of global pharmaceu-tical spend by the end of next year and seen as critical for the sustained growth of

leading pharma companies. Thats according

to a new report, which says innovation and

technology will be important differentiators

as pharma organisations try to drive growth in

developing countries.

The report summarizes the findings of a Cam-

bridge Consultants workshop held in Mumbai,

India, earlier this year. The product design and

development firm brought together senior

personnel from both Indian and multinational

pharma companies to debate whether emerg-

ing markets can be an opportunity to drive

sustainable growth.

The consensus was that the term emerging markets covers nations in parts of Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia, as well as the more traditional countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China. But all the delegates said emerging markets cannot be grouped into a single cluster to chalk out common strategies. Clustering markets around parameters such as regulatory pathways or therapeutic applica-tions was considered the best approach.

Emerging markets are facing rapid growth of chronic Western diseases like diabetes, hyper-tension, chronic respiratory problems, cancer, heart disease and neurological disorders, said Ambuj Jain, India general manager at Cam-bridge Consultants. In some cases, conditions like diabetes are turning into near-epidemic situations.


In India, for example, the prevalence of diabetes and cancer is projected to rise by 25-40% over the next 10 years. This shift gives pharma companies an oppor-tunity to market their global products in emerging markets, backed by tested go-to-market strategies and operating models.

The report says key barriers which need to be ad-dressed in many emerging markets are the afford-ability and accessibility of medicines. Improvements in affordability will be driven by rising disposable incomes and increasing insurance coverage. Growth in accessibility will come from increases in govern-ment spending and medical infrastructure, and new business models for rural areas. The acceptability of medicines is also expected to rise, as a result of the growth in chronic conditions and the resulting increase in the self-administration of drugs.

Workshop delegate Sanjay Bhanushali, a director of global pharma company Cipla, said: Emerging markets are critical for the sustained growth of lead-ing pharmaceutical organisations. They represent a significant proportion of the worlds population and many of their governments are increasingly focusing on improving healthcare. Innovation and technology with the emphasis on patient and stakeholder needs will be crucial to success in these markets.

Diagnostics was seen by the workshop delegates as a key focus area where innovation can drive sustained growth. One of the problems is a shortage of diag-nostics laboratories. Physicians often prescribe an empirical therapy because the cost of diagnosis is much higher than the cost of the therapy. For exam-ple, antibiotics are commonly prescribed for respira-tory infections where the causative pathogen may actually be a virus.

But the idea that healthcare innovation in emerg-ing markets has to focus only on cost reduction was dismissed by the pharma experts. The example of smartphones was highlighted how their adoption has penetrated all levels of society. This suggests that value, at the right price point, is more relevant in driving adoption of new technologies.

Download a copy of the report here: http://www.slide-share.net/anupsoans/cambridge-report

Cambridge Consultants | New Era in Pharma Growth

Cambridge Consultants develops breakthrough products, creates and licenses intellectual property, and provides business consultancy in technology critical issues for

clients worldwide. With a team of around 500 staff, including engineers, scientists,

mathematicians and designers, in offices in Cambridge (UK), Boston (USA), Tokyo (Japan)

and Singapore, Cambridge Consultants offers solutions across a diverse range of industries including medical technology, industrial and consumer products, digital

health, energy and wireless communications.

For more information, visit: www.Cambridge Consultants.com

In India, for example, the prevalence of diabetes and cancer is projected to rise by 25-40% over the next 10 years. This shift gives pharma companies an opportunity to market their global products in emerging markets, backed by tested go-to-market strategies and operating models.

CME PROGRAM


Nowhere is the power of creativity more important than in healthcare where it can transform lives. Lions Health has bloomed in its second year with 1862 entries and a 30 per cent growth from the inaugu-ral year. At this years Cannes Lions Health, a festival and award show that recognizes the most creative ideas in the Pharma and Health-care communications industry from across the world, India made an impressive mark with 10 shortlists. Medulla Communications Pvt. Ltd. was announced to have received 6 out of the 10 shortlists from India; Medulla being the only independent specialist healthcare agency in the list the other shortlists were shared by big network agencies (1 for Ogilvy, 3 for McCann).

Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai, opened its 2015 Cannes innings with a Silver Lion for its Giant Footprints, campaign for Sabin Vaccines Filaria Dose in the category Direct and Promo & Acti-vation.

Medulla Communications which had the high-est number of shortlists this year in the Pharma section bagged a Bronze Lion. It won the award for Johnson & Johnsons Spinning Living Room campaign on vertigo awareness in the Print cat-egory for the brand Stugeron. This is the third prestigious award in line for this campaign after winning a Gold Award at The Rx Club, New York and a Bronze Award at the Abbys, Goa.

More importantly, not only was it the agency to receive the highest no. of shortlists in this years Pharma category but also stood third in the tally for Lions Health - Healthcare Agency of the Year! This is the first time any Indian agency has made it to the Agency of the year tally, in any category at Cannes.

This was so unexpected that Praful Akali, founder-director, Medulla Communications was probably the most surprised person in the auditorium!

E

Indian agencies picked up 10 shortlists in the healthcare category with Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai and Medulla Communications winning a Silver Lion and a Bronze Lion respectively.

The Spinning Living Room campaign for Johnson & Johnsons brand Stugeron which won Medulla Communications a Bronze Lion in the Healthcare Print section.

INDIA MAKES IT BIG AT CANNES LIONS HEALTH 2015


Speaking about the win, Praful Akali said, The awards were all part of a big plan for Medulla - to marry medical expertise, with planning/strategy and great creative thinking and execution. We were clear that just because were a healthcare agency that shouldnt mean that our creative is any inferior to that of a mainline agency. And getting six out of the 10 shortlists from India, winning a Cannes Lion was a vindication of the same. But yes, we didnt expect to be announced No. 3 Healthcare Agency of the year! We didnt plan for that, didnt even think of that. In fact while I was sitting at Cannes towards the end of the ceremony, waiting for it to end, they suddenly announced the tally on stage! And I was probably the most surprised person in the auditorium!

Report: India makes it big at Cannes Lions Health 2015

I was probably the

most surprised person

in the auditorium! says

Praful Akali, founder-

director of Medulla

Communications on

his agencys Bronze

Lion win at Cannes

2015. Praful was a

speaker at BrandStorm

2015, organized by

MedicinMan at Mumbai.

The Spinning Rooms campaign on vertigo awareness created by Medulla Communications for Johnson & Johnson.


Just as our predominant thoughts determine our actions, and thereby our destiny, I have understood that the degree of our conviction on any given matter determines the level of our commitment to it and the consequences thereafter. For instance, leaders across organizations know the importance of development of people, but, in reality, how many leaders do we see ded-icated to the cause of people development and creating a worthy leadership pipeline?

Lack of time, is one of the most common reasons cited for not being able to do justice in this area. I tend to disagree and would like to believe that it is a matter of not giving people development the sort of priority it de-serves. Instead, there is a relentless focus on sales targets month after month, with enhanced efforts and maybe even resources, to gain support from customers.

Higher outputs are expected from the internal custom-ers, month after month, year after year, but are com-mensurate efforts put towards the enhancement of their competencies? Or is it expected of them to develop themselves?

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LEADING WITH CONVICTIONIn order to lead with conviction, leaders must make the effort to develop themselves and others.

Sunil Bajaj

Sunil Bajaj is an L&D and Marketing consultant for the Pharma industry.


A leader is likely to attract other leaders based on his/her own leadership abilities. How many leaders invest time and other resources towards their own development? Quite a few pursue higher educa-tion and attend various certification programs, but I wonder what percentage of organizations either ensure that the learnings are put to practice, or have tools to measure the impact of such courses on leadership. Just as the title of a leader does not make one a leader, I am of the strong opinion that certifications alone do not enhance the leadership ability.

Every leader, or manager, for that matter, needs to have a very high degree of conviction about the need for continuous enhancement of his/her abilities. Leaders should consciously dedicate time and chase the needed resources or may be, even a mentor, to achieve the desired development.

Instead of L&D or Training Departments pushing people into training programs, it would be such a delight to witness a pull for learning & develop-ment from the pool of managers and leaders in any given organization.

Time has come, when learning & development should become every professionals individual responsibility, irrespective of what his/her organi-zation has in its offering. This is critical for person-nel who are new in their managerial or leadership roles; more so, for the newly promoted first line managers, who have had no prior experience of people management. In the absence of an imme-diate structured induction, the newly promoted manager most often tends to emulate his/her earlier managers (or managers, as the case might be) way of dealing with people.

Experienced leaders in organizations must attach a higher accountability towards the development of the skills of the new and the incumbent. Timely directions, mentoring and coaching would not only make their people capable of delivering high-er levels of performance, but would also pave the way for the often heralded delegation of respon-sibilities. Now thats what I call, Empowerment!

Leaders should also own up the action plans prepared by their subordinates post any training. If the leaders make a conscious effort to team up, collaborate, and work in unison with the con-

Sunil Bajaj | Leading with Conviction

Every leader, or manager, for that matter, needs to have a very high degree of conviction about the need for continuous enhancement of his/her abilities. Leaders should consciously dedicate time and chase the needed resources or may be, even a mentor, to achieve the desired development.


cerned Training Managers, the efforts put in by them towards development of people, will have a synergistic effect.

It is high time to do whatever it takes, to build conviction in the minds of leaders, about the need for conscious and concentrated efforts for the con-tinuous development of the talent of their team members. If the leader feels that he/she lacks, in his/her abilities needed towards people develop-ment, then mastering the courage to admit so, and scouting for helping hands either within the or-ganization, or may be, even approaching external resources, in line with the organizations policies, would be the preferred option.

Most of us may not have had the fortune of work-ing with a chosen boss; but if the boss treats us as the chosen one, and helps us shape up and bloom to our fullest potential, wouldnt it make the boss the adorable one? To be living forever in the hearts of their people, leaders must urgently give, Development of people the status of high importance.

Investments made by real leaders with conviction and commitment towards people development, will lead to sustainable skill-sets to meet the challenges of today, and build a consistent pool of future leaders to drive the organization towards its long term goals and vision. -SB

Sunil Bajaj | Leading with Conviction

Time has come, when learning & development should become every professionals individual responsibility, irrespective of what his/her organization has in its offering.


The Front-line Manager is the first link in the pharma-ceutical sales management hierarchy. Prospective FMs are identified from among Professional Sales Representatives (PSRs) for their performance as well their potential ability to lead sales teams and execute marketing plans. FMs are responsible for executing the companys business strategy on the field on a daily basis. Unless this execution is of a very high order, the marketing plans con-ceived by the top management cannot be realised.

During his first few months, it is common for the new FM to run around in circles, take wrong turns and even get lost. It takes a few months just to get acquainted with the new role, a few more to become conversant with it, and a long journey to become proficient in it. Perseverance is the virtue that sustains the new FM during this transition period.

The act of stepping into the role of an FM is similar to that of a cricketer becoming a coach. The experienced cricketer has developed skills that help him better understand what to expect from his team. Once a PSR is promoted, he has crossed a barrier that is permanent. It may take some time for the new Front-line Manager to fully appreciate and accept the change. Ironically, PSRs accept their colleagues promotion more easily and begin to visualise him in his new role. For him, however, moving from Selling to Man-aging is a big change.

E

PHARMA SALES MANAGEMENT AND THE NEW FRONT-LINE MANAGERHow a new Front-line Manager can make the transition from being a great performer to getting great performance from others.

Anup Soans

BOOK EXTRACT: SuperVision for the SuperWiser Front-line Manager by Anup Soans

Connect with Anup Soans on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter

Anup Soans is an Author, Facilitator and the Editor of MedicinMan.

Write in to him: [email protected]

IQEQ


But one thing hasnt changed. He still has a sales target and now its several times bigger. The es-sence of pharmaceutical field sales management is achieving sales targets and business objectives through team effort. The sooner a new FM accepts the fact that he is no longer one of the gang, the sooner he begins to practise the skills he has learnt and developed in order to succeed as an FM. He must patiently accept the fact that there is much to be learnt. Learning to lead people is not a hun-dred-metre sprint; it is a Marathon. The role of an FM at its core is the ability to create a performance culture that fosters and grooms PSRs into confi-dent achievers. The sales management process is unique in that it has no beginning and no end. It is a cycle which continually repeats itself. The field sales management process consists of three primary activities:

1. Field-training of PSRs

2. Executing the business strategy to achieve sales targets

3. Performance management of PSRs

An FM may find himself performing all three activi-ties in a day; he could be training new PSRs at 9:00 a.m., planning institutional sales with a senior PSR (executing business strategy) at 11:00 a.m. and dis-cussing performance issues with an underachiev-ing PSR at 5:00 p.m. The quality of execution of all these activities depends on the skill-levels that he has developed in each area.

An FM may feel overwhelmed initially and may even doubt his ability to deliver, but he should remember that he has been promoted to the new position because the Management thinks that he has what it takes to lead a winning sales team. PSRs want to be led. They want a leader who inspires, challenges and directs them. They look for an FM who fosters a win-win culture based on principles and values that makes them believe their work is important.

A person with good selling skills has a high prob-ability of success as a PSR. Likewise, a new FM who develops leadership and management skills can also expect to succeed. It is important for the new FM to remember that he did not become a successful PSR overnight. It took time. But once he had developed the necessary skills, he succeeded.

Anup Soans | Pharma Sales Management and the New Front-Line Manager

The role of an FM at its core is the ability to create a performance culture that fosters and grooms PSRs into confident achievers.

BOOK EXTRACT


The same principle holds good when launching his sales management career. He has to excel in these three areas of activity by updating his Professional Knowledge, sharpening his Managerial Competen-cies and developing Emotionally Mature Leader-ship skills.

One of the exciting aspects of becoming an FM is the ability to put ones personal stamp on the environment in which PSRs work. Whenever a new FM is appointed, PSRs wonder:

What kind of person is the new FM?

What is his style and temperament?

What can we expect from him?

Has anyone in the team worked with this person?

It is but natural for PSRs to speculate about their new Supervisor, his personality, style of working and the kind of environment in which they will have to work. Every FM has a distinct personality and creates an environment that is distinctly his own. Newly appointed Front-line Managers should ask themselves the following questions:

What type of environments have I worked in?

What characterised each?

Which environment worked best for me?

What changes should I bring in?

What new skills should I develop to be effec-tive?

Carefully thinking out the answers to these questions will enable new Front-line Managers to visualise the work environment they must create in order to motivate PSRs to achieve their goals. The Front-Line Manager should not think of himself as just a manager or a supervisor, least of all as a boss, but rather as the Team leader/Captain who gives direction to the team. Thinking of yourself only as a supervisor places you in a position of traditional authority based solely on respect for the position. Rather, SuperWiser FMs must be leaders who understand the personality traits, work preferences and motivations of individual PSRs and have the SuperVision to align the personal aspirations of PSRs with the business objectives of the company.

The primary task for an FM as a team leader is to create a vision that is compelling enough to moti-vate PSRs to work towards attaining organisational goals.


PSRs want to be led. They want a leader who inspires, challenges and directs them. They look for an FM who fosters a win-win culture based on principles and values that makes them believe their work is important.

BOOK EXTRACT


The FMs genuineness in his approach to PSR development will play a large role in creating a cli-mate of co-operation and contribution. The other task before the Front-line Manager is to constantly upgrade his Professional Knowledge, develop Managerial Competence and gain Emotional Intel-ligence that will empower him to motivate PSRs to believe that their future will be brighter than their past if they perform their tasks with a passion for excellence. -AS


The other task before the Front-line Manager is to constantly upgrade his Professional Knowledge, develop Managerial Competence and gain Emotional Intelligence that will empower him to motivate PSRs to believe that their future will be brighter than their past if they perform their tasks with a passion for excellence.

NOW AVAILABLE ON

(click on the book to purchase on flipkart)


Do we at all need Front-line Managers (FLMs) especially in the context of Indian pharma?The moment a team is formed either based on a geographical need or based on the specialty/portfolio need, the FLMs are put above them on a ratio of 1:5/6/7.

What is the rationale or more importantly, what is the purpose behind this hierarchical set up?

The justifications usually are to get things done, to lead a team towards performance, to achieve budgets, to develop KOLs, etc. It could also be since every company has FLMs ours should have them as well; or we have had them since time immemorial and hence we should continue to have them; or our FLMs are the business drivers.

Let us look at the economic point of view. Every FLM costs at least two or more times the cost of a single sales person and correspondingly in terms of salary, allowances, incentives, etc.

Ohthats not a problem. The FLM must have a multiplying effect on business and hence this is not an issue. They are not COSTs but INVESTMENTs.

If that is so, then why so much of noise about FLMs and their lack of effectiveness, lack of control, mana-gerial/leadership requirements, etc. It also goes to the extent of questioning their role in joint field work and the calls. And often, the very purpose of their exis-tence is questioned.

Simon Sinek in his series of TED talks mentions that all great things start with WHY and then to HOW and WHAT. Putting it differently, I call this as PURPOSE, PROCESS & PERSPECTIVES.

Based on decades of experience in the Indian pharma industry it is quite obvious that the clear PURPOSE of the FLMs existence is very often missing. Hence this

E

K. Hariram

DO WE NEED FRONTLINE MANAGERS?A hard look at the impact of front-line managers on pharma top-lines and bottom-lines.

K. Hariram is the former MD (retd.) at Galderma India.

He is Chief Mentor at MedicinMan and a regular contributor. [email protected]

K. Hariram | Do We Need Front-line Managers?


confusion and criticism about their lack of effective-ness.

If you look more deeply, the problem begins with their recruitment/ internal promotion based on the team design. The best sales person or the one who has produced results by hook or crook gets promoted. He is put on the job without adequate training. From day one, the pressure is on him to deliver results. He extrap-olates his past experiences and thrusts it on his team members. Added to this, his manager/ boss hardly adds any value to him or develops him.

So, do we create hierarchies or promote people to blame them? Can we do away with FLMs? Maybe. There will be more money to pay the sales people and thus their quality and standard of living can be better.

The way to go about thus would be to:

1. Pay the sales force better with the additional funds now available.

2. Put in place a proper sales management culture, so that the process boundary lines are clearly drawn.

3. Build proper SFE tools and metrics.

4. Take charge of the control/monitoring mechanism at HO/Sales administration level.

5. Improve visibility/connectivity through technolo-gy.

6. Empower, train and develop the regional/second (by default today) line manager to handle the managerial aspects.

7. Social media approach to ON THE JOB learning and development on an ongoing basis.

8. Better engagement methods with doctors (includ-ing patients) through tech based marketing tools.

9. Continuous development of selling skills.

10. Training and access to required data and infor-mation including analytics and improving their decision making skills based on them.

11. Structure career growth, accordingly.

12. Give them the freedom to perform and deliver results.

I have listed only a few of them. Maybe, there are many more the enlightened readers can come up with.

The unasked question is, in the changing context, do we need the FLMs?

Its that feeling of cognitive dissonance, the feeling you get when you have a stone in your shoe. You ought to stop and shake it out, but you just keep moving it around hoping you can put it somewhere it doesnt bother you. But it always does.

Are we willing to CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO? - KH

Based on decades of experience in the Indian pharma industry it is quite obvious that the clear PURPOSE of the FLMs existence is very often missing. Hence this confusion and criticism about their lack of effectiveness.


Multi-Channel Marketing (MCM) is a novel and effective approach to address the new challenges in pharmaceutical marketing. Us-ing a well-planned campaign, over multiple sales and marketing channels from digital marketing to direct doctor interaction can boost company performance significantly. It has the potential to increase revenue and improve bottom-line by reducing cost.

MY NAME IS BOND JAMES BOND!MCM can be understood with a simple analogy from the famous James Bond movie sequels. If you have seen the movies, you will undoubtedly remember a dialogue from the movie - My Name is Bond James Bond. The repetition of the name Bond in the dia-logue itself and its effective delivery across the movie and its sequels has made it a grand hit in Hollywood dialogues.

The objective of MCM is to communicate the marketing message by securing attention and claiming a share of the doctors time using different marketing channels both offline and online, in order to project the message effectively. The message has to be pervasive and be communicated again and again just like that dialogue from James Bond movie that is repeated through the movie and across sequels.

E

Phanish Chandra

WINNING THE CASINO ROYALE OF MULTI-CHANNEL MARKETINGHow the changing habits of Indias net-savvy and mobile friendly population is impacting pharmas marketing strategies - and how to set yourself up to win.

Phanish Chandra is the CEO & Co-Founder of DocPlexus.in.

DocPlexus helps its pharma clients transform their marketing and KOL engagement

strategy using the DocPlexus.in platform where 85000+ Indian doctors are looking for

answers to their unique clinical cases.

Phanish Chandra | Winning the Casino Royale of Multi-Channel Marketing


Compare it to the average time the Sales Rep gets to interact with the doctor for each visit. Once it was 3-4 minutes but has now it is reduced to less than one minute per visit.

TO IMPLEMENT MCM EFFECTIVELY, YOU NEED TO GET TWO THINGS RIGHT - 1. Understand your audience well

India has 300 million Internet subscribers, which secures it the 3rd position behind China and the US. It is growing by 31% year on year. The findings of the latest Ericsson ConsumerLab study carried out in April-June 2014 among 4,000 smartphone users across 18 urban cities in India revealed the following

Indians spend at an average of 3 hours and 11 min-utes on Smartphones per day as compared to 2 hours and 8 minutes in front of their televisions.

Indians check their phones 77 times a day on an av-erage, with about 26 per cent saying they do so more than 100 times a day.

The growth of big screen smartphones has meant that our content consumption habits have changed and quite drastically at that. Now, there is hardly any time when a person does not do anything. Even if a spare minute is available, they reach for their smart-phones to view videos, listen to music or update a status on social networks.

Start by accepting that the audience behavior is not static and changing rapidly. Doctors as audience of Pharma Marketing spend their time across different media. In last 5 years, the way doctors are spending their time on different communication platform has changed fundamentally. Pharma companies must adapt to this change.

2. Fishing where the fish are

Since the undercurrent has shifted the big game be-yond the obvious fishing points, the sales and market-ing professionals in Pharmaceutical industry must fish where the fish are. A denial of changing market and failure to adapt will lead many dominant players of today to lose their market share. Companies who will be swift to adapt and integrate MCM will be leaders of tomorrow.

Choose right combination of offline (Sales Rep visits, Print, Event promotion) and online (Websites, social media, e-CMEs, Webinars and mobile apps) models of engagement based on behavior of your target audience.

Indians spend at an average of 3 hours and 11 minutes on Smartphones per day as compared to 2 hours and 8 minutes in front of their televisions.

Indians check their phones 77 times a day on an average, with about 26 per cent saying they do so more than 100 times a day.


Transforming yourself to win the game every time

To transform your marketing team to become like James Bond, you need to first define your strategic goals and constraints. Once you are done with that, you must find the right team and partner to execute your MCM strategy. Any marketing channel which is a part of your MCM strategy must be measured for its performance with right analytical tools.

Once you have the willingness, strategy, right team and partners to execute your plan, you would certain-ly win the Casino Royale of Multi-Channel Pharma-ceutical marketing. -PC

Phanish Chandra | Winning the Casino Royale of Multi-Channel Marketing

To transform your marketing team to become like James Bond, you need to first define your strategic goals and constraints. Once you are done with that, you must find the right team and partner to execute your MCM strategy.

medicinman july 2015

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