Boldly Go Where No Rep Has Gone Before

Kevin Franey, Senior Vice President, Healthcare Practice Group, Technekes LLC

Reach Prescribers In Challenging Markets, Geographies and Practices
Is your pharma sales team stretched too thin? Of course it is. With fewer accessible prescribers, fewer minutes of doctor availability, fewer prescriptions being written, and fewer feet on the ground, what team isn’t stretched too thin?

It’s not your sales team’s fault. Research indicates that the number of pharma sales reps in the United States has dropped 38% in the past nine years. The remaining reps battle on, spending hours every day in cars, waiting rooms, and supply closets, making a valiant effort to get into 10 or 12 offices a day. And even as they struggle to meet quota, other accounts and geographies are drastically exposed.

How is a manufacturer supposed to overcome these current dilemmas?

With RepOnCall, Nothing’s Beyond Your Reach
Even as obstacles continue to pop up, our digital age brings tidings of good news. Prescribers, it turns out, are just like the rest of us. They use mobile phones, they surf the web, and they’re hungry to learn more. They’re happy to skip a meeting when a phone call can accomplish the same objective.

Nearly 75% use search engines weekly. Only 12% say they’d emailed with their rep within the past six months, but 36% say they wanted to. Nine percent use remote detailing programs, while 35% are interested in doing so. And nearly 70% are open to receiving “virtual” sales calls.*

Why not work with these prescribers the way they prefer?

A Cost-Effective Way To Extend Reach And Frequency
Technekes’ RepOnCall platform can extend your team’s reach and frequency, getting into practices that field reps — for whatever reason — cannot. Working by phone, email, and text, reps trained in your specific disease state reach out how and when it is most convenient for potential prescribers.

RepOnCall doesn’t replace your team. Instead, these “virtual” reps complement the work being done in the field, reaching prescribers who might otherwise be overlooked, due to geography, prescribing behavior, or a diminishing sales force.

From a budget perspective, the news is even better. While a typical specialty rep might reach about 100 prescribers in a month (maybe 125 in a really good month), a highly-experienced RepOnCall can have phone conversations with 600–750 prescribers a month at a fraction of the typical $300 — $350 office visit.

Here’s a real world example. A Technekes’ client, the manufacturer of a gastroenterology drug, recognized that low decile physicians were not being reached by traditional field reps, but still represented significant brand value. The client used RepOnCall to reach out to 3,500 of those potential prescribers. In a short period of time, RepOnCall’s efforts yielded new incremental revenue of over $1 million, delivering a 3.2 ROI.

Why RepOnCall Works
Why is RepOnCall so successful in white space situations? One, we reach prescribers via the channel they prefer and on the schedule they prefer. Two, all our reps were once field reps, so they understand how to engage with your entire base, from receptionists to nurses to physicians, to protect and grow your competitive advantage. And three, RepOnCall complements — not competes with — your current sales efforts. We understand that winning sales only works when our strategy is integrated with all your team efforts.

Want to know more about this proven plan for expanding into white space? Just drop me a line at kevin.franey@technekes.com.

Kevin Franey, Technekes’ senior vice president, develops sales and integrated marketing strategies for national healthcare and pharmaceutical companies. Before joining Technekes, he had more than 20 years of healthcare experience, doing everything from administering hands-on patient care to devising strategic brand and marketing plans for pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

To learn more about RepOnCall effectiveness in vacant territories, be sure to read Kevin’s article, What Comes With The Territory Shouldn’t Leave With It.

*ePharma Physician® study of practicing physicians — Taking the Pulse® — 2017