Flexing pharma’s competitive muscles
pharmafile | February 12, 2007 | Feature | Sales and Marketing |Â Â sales, strategyÂ
It is universally acknowledged, almost to the point of cliche, that pharmaceutical companies operate in a highly competitive environment. Ensuring that a product succeeds commercially is not only about developing arguments that articulate its clinical characteristics and identifying what differentiates it from the rest of the market, but also about projecting a competitive mindset that creates a dynamic interaction with customers.
Perversely, in the competitive pharma environment, this competitive mindset is often overpowered by complacency. In some cases, the mindset does not exist.
So what is the competitive mindset, how do you recognise it and, crucially, how do you project it? The answers are subjective, but the results of focusing on thinking competitively are unequivocal: it works.
Over the last 12 months, market access specialist WG Consulting has worked with representatives from sales, medical and marketing teams across Europe and the US to gain a collective understanding and definition of a competitive mindset and how this translates into the projection of individual and team behaviour. Ultimately, and most importantly, they have helped to instil this into an organisation's culture.
Requirements of the competitive mindset volunteered by participants in WG Consultings activities are wide-ranging and include: 'begin with the goal in mind'; 'prepared'; 'knowing the data'; 'passion and pride'; 'competitor intelligence'; 'always know why'; 'attitude determines your altitude'.
Some of the most powerful requirements provided were balanced for both the actions and reflections that define the fighting spirit necessary to be competitive. These included 'train like the underdog' and 'grace under fire'. These project a combination of commitment and humility that produces winners. Ultimately, the phrase that supported a collective goal was 'all be on message'.
The perils of complacency
One way of defining the competitive mindset is to look at its opposite extreme. This manifests itself in the form of complacency, where the competitive spirit is disregarded through the presence of existing habits and behaviour that appears to have been successful historically.
While we all recognise that this approach can be very damaging, the reality is that the traditional pharmaceutical sales and marketing methodology does, in fact, demonstrate characteristics of the complacency model. Research at WG Consulting found that, across the industry, complacency has more than occasionally crept into the dialogues between brand teams and their customers.
Simon Dawson, consultant at WG Consulting and leader of the company's competitive initiatives, says that the problem is common in markets where there is only one available therapy for a condition. "Often, in situations where you have a sales team operating in a non-competitive market where there is only one product, a friendship environment between representative and clinician develops," he says. "As a consequence, the drive to achieve core aims during a call diminishes as there is no other influence on the clinician in that disease area."
However, complacency is not restricted to single product markets. "It can also exist in therapy areas where there are a handful of treatments," says Simon. "It can arise when representatives have been working with a clinician, or in a hospital trust, for a long period of time. Complacency can set in even when there is a multitude of products available simply because they have got to know their customer so well that they begin, perhaps subconsciously, to lose the desire to push and ask the right questions."
The blame, however, should not lie at the feet of medical representatives. Complacency is self-perpetuating and exists on both sides of the relationship. "Clinicians want to be challenged and will become complacent when they are not," says Rick Morton, managing director at WG Consulting. "If a clinician simply agrees with a representative, the representative in turn becomes more complacent, and immediately, we begin to move away from the model of having an effective interaction.
"From an industry perspective, there has been a continual drive to deliver messages a given number of times to a given number of people. In fact, clinicians want to be challenged on what they do and to learn something new, rather than simply receive messages. When complacency occurs, dynamic interaction disappears."
Changing the culture
Like competitiveness, complacency is a mindset. It can be changed, but change is a cultural rather than individual process. Pharmaceutical companies invest extravagant sums of money in developing new products, but the methodology required to promote products needs to be more sophisticated than high-volume detailing to clinicians. A wider understanding of the marketplace and an integrated approach from all the major internal stakeholders within companies are essential ingredients in forging a competitive mindset.
Internal stakeholders largely sit within medical, marketing and sales departments, and may also include the head of the NHS division. The demand for competitive thinking touches every aspect of a product's life-cycle, and each department will make an impact on how the competitive mindset is projected. Recognising this is critical. "Complacency can set in at any level, no matter what department you are in," says Rick Morton. "Therefore, it is vital that medical, marketing, sales and often NHS teams, all focus on recognising and projecting a competitive mindset. The key is to understand the competitive environment and not to underestimate its importance."
So how do you go about achieving the transition from complacency to the competitive mindset? Well, you start by winning hearts and minds centrally and then cascade outwards. Rick Morton continues: "The most successful activity we have done has begun by getting collective buy-in from key stakeholders from the outset. These include marketing managers, medical directors and the key medical people aligned with a given brand, and senior sales staff at head office.
"We then work together to explore the benefits of competitive thinking. It is important for each of these disciplines to outline and share what the competitive mindset means for their individual directorates, and as this unfolds it becomes clear why the mindset is such a significant culture to develop. It is then down to them to lead their troops through the process."
The three elements
The three key components of the competitive mindset can be outlined as attitude, knowledge and skills. But what exactly does this mean?
A competitive mindset is a philosophy not a process. It is not something that can be turned on and off, but should be a way of thinking that pervades everything you do. Central to this is attitude. Being thorough, prepared and passionate characterises a professional attitude that will pay dividends. Conversely, being complacent or indeed arrogant will not. The ethos of training like an underdog is an acknowledgment that there may be a competitive product around the corner that will catch you out, and that a better understanding of it will be beneficial.
Of course, the most visible display of attitude comes at the frontline with the interaction between sales representatives and clinicians. The manner in which sales calls are conducted will undoubtedly be a major factor in the performance of a product. However, building a strong team ethic to support the salesforce also demands a unified approach and attitude from medical and marketing departments. This calls for adaptability and understanding from all stakeholders.
"Sometimes, medical people can make better sales arguments than their commercial colleagues," says Simon Dawson."Why? Because they know their data inside out and are extremely passionate about it. That passion is all about attitude. And it's infectious."
Knowledge sits at the heart of the competitive mindset. How well do you know the data for your product? More importantly, how familiar are you with the data for your competitor's product? Much information on competitive data isin the public domain; whether through published data, abstracts or clinician presentations, a whole range of data is freely available if you know where to look for it.
This information is an essential part of your weaponry – if you know your competitor's strengths, it will help you to identify the areas where your own product competes more favourably. Furthermore, finding it and understanding it is a demonstration of the right attitude for a competitive mindset.
Knowledge is not limited simply to clinical data, whether yours or your competitor's. The pharmaceutical market is changing, and a thorough understanding of that change and what it means in your therapy area is vital. "Policy changes can really inform a compelling commercial argument," says Rick Morton. "The things that people are debating in the market may not necessarily be clinical rationale.
"For example, it may be around the safety profile of a drug, or how that drug fits into NHS policy. Equally, it may concern payment by results you may have a drug that is set within the tariff for a payment for a service, while a competing product is outside of that tariff. What does that mean for your drug?"
Dynamic and proactive
The ability to create a compelling argument for the use of your product is, of course, paramount. Success relies upon drawing on knowledge of both your own and your competitor's products, the needs of your customer-base, and the NHS environment as a whole. Collating the appropriate information is one thing, but having the skill to deliver it is another. Promoting and sustaining a competitive mindset is about making the most of all the data available, and having the adaptability to be able to react to a changing environment.
Clearly, the delivery of the commercial argument belongs to the sales representative, but the development of the argument is one of collective responsibility. At its most effective, this is where a true integration of medical, marketing and sales thinking will win the most prizes.
Nevertheless, the final execution will most often lead back to what goes on in the dynamic interaction between clinician and representative. It is here where the transition from complacency to competitive mindset will be tested.
"Training should focus on the key components of any sales call; what are your opening questions? How do you handle objections? How do you handle your knowledge of your competitor's data? How do you close and ask for commitment?" says Simon Dawson.
"The key is to have the confidence to start challenging clinicians. You may have been seeing a particular clinician for years and assumed that they are prescribing your product, but now there's a competitor on the market, can you be sure of that? How do you know what they are thinking? The move from complacency to competitive mindset is about instilling the need to ask questions."
A winner's mentality
Curiously, one final element of the competitive mindset is knowing when you're beaten. Your product will not always be the most appropriate choice for a patient, and recognising this is a skill that will win the respect of clinicians.
"Thinking competitively is also about having grace under fire," says Rick Morton. "It's about identifying the point where your drug is not the most appropriate, and defining who is not your patient, as well as who is. Far from being defeatist, this approach will win you respect."
Developing a competitive mindset is more complicated than many imagine. Although the pharmaceutical market is indeed competitive, more companies pay lip-service to the notion of the competitive mindset than would like to admit it. To most of us, the concept of competition is best represented by the world of sport, and it provides a good example with many parallels.
Winners are generally characterised by their determination, preparation, know-how and their ability to put it all together when it matters most. What's more, true champions play as a team and are often distinguished by their winning mentality.
With the Rugby World Cup being played later this year and the All Blacks likely to earn accolades for their mental toughness, ask yourself this: do you and your team display a truly competitive mindset?
Claire Gillis is chief executive of WG Consulting. For more information on the company visit: www.wg-consulting.co.uk
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