Bobbie Montgomery, Senior Vice President, Healthcare Practice Group — It is a pharmaceutical manufacturer’s conundrum: Rapid developments in patient treatment necessitate sharing increasing amounts of information with physicians. At the same time, however, those physicians are increasingly difficult to reach.
The finger can be pointed in many directions. First, and most obvious, is the pharma rep’s challenge of squeezing into an HCP’s jam-packed daily schedule. Second is the escalating prevalence of “no see” practices, institutions and universities. And finally, let’s face it — an old-fashioned, on-the-ground sales force can’t ever reach all of the geographic “nooks and crannies” in a territory – a problem that is only compounded through the natural diminishing of a sales force through job cuts, attrition or unexpected vacancies.
So the question remains: How can a pharmaceutical manufacturer reach HCPs who still need and want patient materials and co-pay cards and samples?
The answer is pretty simple: We need a better model. We need to open our mindset and reach out in new ways – whether by phone, email, fax, web or virtual. When we do, not only will we reach more HCPs, but we will reach them more affordably and effectively.
How affordably and effectively? Well, at Technekes, we are successfully reaching so-called “no see” practices 50% – 70% of the time. Better still, where a traditional rep might cover as many as 125 HCPs, we’re finding that a virtual rep can cover as many as 800 HCPs – leaving “nooks and crannies” where they belong – in an English muffin.