Targeting the Promotional Needs of Your Audience

By Stacy Vaughn, Vice President, Sales Force Effectiveness, GfK Market Measures

With challenging industry trends, including reduced sales forces, fewer new product introductions and restrictive PhRMA guidelines, health care marketers have expressed the need for new and more efficient methods of detailing within the promotional mix.

GfK Market Measures’ fifth annual sales force effectiveness teleconference, Beyond the Vital Signs and into the Hearts and Minds of Your Physician Stakeholders, recently provided insights into the physician interactions that can impact promotional effectiveness. GfK Market Measures examined not just what physicians were thinking, but the whys behind their thoughts. The findings were derived by combining our proprietary Segment Tracker™ study – which sheds light on the differing promotional dynamics of physician stakeholders, such as their needs and attitudes, and the opportunities these insights present – with our annual sales force effectiveness study.

What resounded loud and clear from this research is that a one-size-fits-all approach to promotional effectiveness clearly cannot assist health care marketers in reaching and impacting physicians at an optimum level, nor does such an approach always engage physicians in ways they would like to be. In essence, promotional segmentation offers the opportunity to make the most out of every detail in a more customer-driven way.

As in previous years, our sales force effectiveness study focused on responding to the current detailing environment. However, this year we looked at these findings by segment in order to:

• Identify the selling attributes physicians find most important among sales representatives and how to prioritize them
  
• Evaluate how those requirements differ by attitudinal segment
  
• Understand and identify the differences in perceptions of representative effectiveness between segments
  
• Examine what pharmaceutical representatives could do to be more effective when interacting with physicians
  
• Determine when and how the various segments utilize the Internet professionally

To begin the process, we identified the following six physician segments: Industry Enthusiasts, Patient-Overloaded Independents, Hometown Altruists, Academic High Achievers, Occupational Traditionalists and Corporate Professionals.

By examining the sales force effectiveness findings within these physician segments, we discovered the issues and behaviors that resonate in each segment, enabling you to readdress how you engage physicians in the most effective way.




The methodologies behind the study

The SFE study sample included more than 800 physicians across 12 different specialties, with an average of 16 years of practice. We overlaid the promotional segmentation on the sales force effectiveness study to improve insights. The segmentation research consisted of:

• Self-administered Internet-based study conducted last winter with more than 800 respondents
• Factor analysis conducted after all information was collected to consolidate the information
  
• Latent class clustering leveraged to develop and refine the physician segments
  
• Discriminant function analysis confirmed reliability

Who’s doing it right? Which company’s sales force ranked first in sales force effectiveness?

This year, once again, Pfizer remains the No. 1 sales force, as reported by physicians, at 18 percent, followed very closely by Merck. Three companies tied for third – AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly, at 8 percent each – closely followed by Novartis.

• Pfizer holds the top spot in five specialties; Genentech for oncologists; and Eli Lilly for endocrinologists.
  
• In each of our promotional segments, Pfizer holds the No. 1 or No. 2 position, which indicates to us that Pfizer is most able to flex its promotional efforts according to the targeted audience.

What makes a company most effective?

Industry Enthusiasts and Patient-Overloaded Independents both cite the need for knowledgeable representatives as a reason why a company’s sales force is more effective, at 69 percent and 71 percent respectively. In addition, both indicated that the most effective sales force had a patient-directed focus, which was not surprising since both groups are patient focused when they make their treatment decisions.

Corporate Professionals, at 86 percent, selected positive professional attributes as a reason for indicating a company's sales force as most effective. Because it is typical of this segment to be very busy, these physicians want representatives to make good use of their detailing time, sticking only to information that is of relevance to them.

What are physicians telling us they need from their representatives?

Corporate Professionals report high product information needs, at 61 percent, and relatively low researcher clinical data, at 29 percent. Because they are very business focused and lend themselves to efficiency, what they need from their representative is only the information they don’t already know, such as new indications and new side effects. Occupational Traditionalists report relatively low need for product information as compared to their peers (43 percent). This is likely because they are late adopters, who want to know whether their colleagues are adopting a specific product in order to lead their own decision, rather than what the pharmaceutical companies are promoting. Patient-Overloaded Independents, at 14 percent, cite the need for highly knowledgeable representatives more often than other segments. Because they are treating 600 patients per month, on average, they require someone well trained enough to give them answers on the spot so they can resolve their patient's needs and move on to the next person in the waiting room.

What are the various segments’ preferences for specific types of information delivery?

Use of a laptop or tablet PC during detailing is prevalent, with more than two-thirds of physicians having seen a detail in this way. But while the industry seems to be investing time and money into this tool, it’s not having a strong impact. Only one-quarter of the respondents describe details that involve these tools as highly useful and only 4 percent among Corporate Professionals.

So how do physicians prefer to be approached?

Fifty percent of physicians prefer in-person contact, while another third prefer both in-person and Internet combined. Only 9 percent prefer contact only via the Internet. Another 3 percent claim they prefer no contact at all. Characteristic of the Corporate Professionals, 14 percent prefer no contact at all, while Academic High Achievers and Occupational Traditionalists prefer to have the highest levels of Internet promotion. For reaching Occupational Traditionalists, the Internet is probably a real opportunity to get through doors that may be very hard to open.

The study covers in greater detail findings such as what sites physicians go to for their information on diseases; CME or KOL interaction; how various physician segments react to being directed to the manufacturer’s site; and more in-depth information on physician/representative interactions.

So what can we conclude? That every segment evaluates promotional contacts differently based on its particular promotional and practice attitudes. To that end, understanding the differentiations can help you make much more effective promotional decisions as you seek to balance your mix. You will be better able to develop and tailor content, thereby maximizing your spend, increasing physician satisfaction and experiencing better business outcomes in terms of promotional returns.


The information shared here provides only highlights about the promotional needs of these physician segments. For more comprehensive information and data, we encourage you to access GfK Market Measures’ complete sales force effectiveness teleconference. (Click here to view the archived webinar presentation. Please note: You must enter your e-mail address to access the presentation).




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