Harness a Forgotten Source of Data: Your Field Teams
Flip through any publication for pharma commercialization today, and you’re likely to see the word “data” in all its different variations: data sourcing, data integrity, data governance, data mastering, physician data, patient data, longitudinal data—the list goes on.
It goes without saying that data is the core of a strong commercial strategy. This is especially true as pharma is trending towards personalized therapy and as digital engagements become a larger component of commercial toolkits.
But in my experience, despite all the emphasis on data and digital, pharma reps still have an important role as the quarterbacks who coordinate the overall customer experience across channels. And because of this unique position and the personal relationship they have with their customers, reps often have insight into HCPs and patients that no data vendor could.
Insights from the field are a valuable data source that can sharpen your strategy and help your teams move the needle. We’ve seen this dynamic work in the following ways.
Forecasting changes in HCP communication preferences
A veteran pharma rep once told me a trick he learned in his early years: if he went to a doctor’s office and saw a full cup of cold coffee on the doctor’s desk, it was a sign to give the doctor a little more space during the call since they hadn’t even had a free moment to take a sip.
HCPs are human beings too, and the most masterful reps understand this well. That’s why they’re usually the first to pick up on changes in the HCP’s environment that might foretell changes in communication preferences, such as the customer going out on maternity or paternity leave, changing jobs, or going back to school.Learning these details early on in the home office can buy time for the entire commercial team to adapt, whether it’s by adjusting the channel mix in a rep’s activity plan or shifting toward investment in non-personal promotion.
Boosting the field’s confidence in home office data
If reps keep finding out that their targeted neurologists are actually nephrologists, they’re going to give up on the data and do their own research.
This means that although home office may pull out all the stops to get a cycle plan just right, the field may not execute against it simply because they lack confidence in the data driving the plan. In today’s complex market, working with accurate data can mean the difference between starting on the right foot or not.
Collecting feedback from the field helps strengthen the reps’ confidence in home office data and cycle plans. It makes the planning process more collaborative and transparent, so that field teams can have ownership over their data and be more willing to use it. It also encourages the field to think more strategically about their own targets and where to invest their resources.
Improving data accuracy: How GSK fixed over 66,000 bad addresses
Field teams are more inclined to trust their own data over anyone else’s because they’re closest to the data source. A customer reference data vendor can say that an HCP practices at a certain address, but it’s hard to argue with the facts if a rep drives there and sees an industrial park or office high-rise.
GSK’s U.S. field teams were put in this exact situation when the company acquired a new data source for physician addresses. Reps found that many addresses were billing or administrative addresses only, not addresses where they could speak to the HCP. However, when GSK approached the data vendor about these addresses, the vendor was unable to exclude these addresses from the data feed.
The GSK sales support team decided to harness the wisdom of the crowd and implemented a field feedback system for their teams. Reps could indicate which of their addresses were usable and which weren’t, and their feedback would flow directly back to the home office for data cleanup.
In five days, reps gave the home office the feedback they needed to identify and remove 66,845 HCPs that were misaligned to territories based on incorrect addresses. This shows that field teams aren’t just a good source of data—their input can also help headquarters keep data clean.A seamless field feedback experience is within reach
Getting feedback from the field doesn’t have to be difficult. You don’t have to chase people down and collate spreadsheets or spend hours messing with pivot tables. For many customers like GSK, an embedded, streamlined field feedback solution can make field input easy to collect, easy to store, and persistent across periods.
GSK uses Align’s Territory Feedback feature, which allows its home office to request feedback from the field in the CRM app that field teams use daily. After field users submit their adjustments to activity plans and aligned accounts, the data is automatically routed to their managers for approval and then, if approved, enacted within the sales plan stored in Align.
The best part? All of this is done without a single spreadsheet. And for GSK, which was already a Veeva CRM and Veeva Align customer, change management was quick and simple since field teams didn’t have to learn how to use new software.
“We made an investment in Align, and we’re pleased that Veeva’s investment in the product has grown,” says Monique Long, director of sales support services at GSK. “We’re getting more value without an increase in license costs.”
Now, both headquarters and the field can combine expertise to create a sales plan that dovetails big-picture strategy and analytics with the understanding and intuition of a human touch.
In the age of data and digital, it’s the winning combination you need to stand out from the crowd.
See Align’s Territory Feedback for yourself in this demo.