| Gareth Thomas of Cegedim Dendrite asks, can pharma transform sales and marketing effectiveness in the new NHS?
In a highly competitive, increasingly political marketplace, pharmaceutical companies cannot afford to waste resources by spending money in areas that do not offer real opportunity and are unlikely to provide a return. Yet sales and marketing spend appears increasingly fragmented as companies respond to the extraordinary pace of change across the NHS.
From the unexpected speed of wholesale GP compliance with primary care trusts (PCT) prescribing guidelines to the, now prerequisite, practice-based commissioning, GP practices have changed fundamentally across the NHS over the past 18 months. The traditional approach to sales and marketing is now outdated.
With limited budgets, growing pressure on margins and a recognised need for a very different sales and marketing model, pharma companies will need to become far more effective. These organisations simply cannot afford to maintain the current haphazard, reactive response to market change. Indeed, while the NHS may be attempting to achieve consistency, local differences prevail. Therefore, improved market understanding combined with constant measurement are important to maximise sales and marketing spend. Critically, the messages need to be consistent across multiple delivery channels, whilst still tailored to specific local and functional requirements.
Without CRM tools that provide a complete picture of marketing effort, combined with excellent real-time information on prescribing trends, organisations are unable to direct resources to the right place at the right time. In a fast-changing market, with limited opportunities to make a mark, that could be a very costly mistake.
CONSTANT CHANGE
There is little argument that 2006 marked a year of enormous change throughout the NHS – and more change will continue throughout 2007 and beyond. The challenge for pharma companies is that they simply cannot sit back and wait for the dust to settle: with increasing downward pressure on drug pricing, organisations have got to become far smarter with their sales and marketing budget. |
