LAUNCH READINESS: 3 KEYS TO SUCCESS FOR SALES LEADERS

2 © Sales Performance International, Inc

3 KEYS TO SUCCESS FOR SALES LEADERS

By: Brad Ansley, Global Healthcare Practice Leader

The importance of product launches, especially in the pharmaceutical

market, has been validated many times over. They are the life blood of the

pharmaceutical world. New product launches allow pharma companies to overcome

the impact of products losing patent protection and the corresponding loss of

market share to competition or generics.

In years past, companies focused on launching fewer products with higher

revenue potential – the so called “blockbuster” product. Due to multiple market

factors, the focus has shifted to more product launches into smaller markets. In

fact, the FDA approved a record 51 drugs in 2015 - far more than the annual average

of 28 for the previous 8 years. Additionally, just under half of product approvals in

2015 were for products that treat rare or “orphan” diseases.

Given the product approval trends over the last two years and the robust

R&D pipeline in the industry, it is feasible to expect a similar number of product

approvals in 2016. This is great news, right? For millions of patients, the answer is

“yes.” But let’s look at it from the company perspective. Consider these sobering

statistics:

• The average cost to bring a new pharmaceutical product to market is estimated to be $2.6 billion. i

• Only 2 in 10 pharmaceutical products return the cost of development. ii

• Two-thirds of drug launches failed to meet pre-launch sales expectations for the first year on the market. iii

• Less than 20% of product launches make significant improvements to the product market share trajectory after the critical 6 month launch window. iv

If you picture each one of these statistics as a 50 lb. weight that is stacked

on the shoulders of the sales leader, it is easy to see that a product launch is a heavy

burden.

So, what can the sales leaders responsible for launching a new product do

to prepare their team to shatter the 6 month launch window?

MARKET CHANGES = MISALIGNMENT

Changes in the healthcare business and practice model have created a

new definition of customer value and new expectations of sales representatives.

Customers now expect representatives to deliver patient-focused, evidence-

based solutions that solve critical clinical and/or business issues for the whole

organization. Companies that sell into healthcare organizations are now recognizing

that these changes have created a misalignment between customer expectations

and the way they sell.

While many papers on launch effectiveness focus on broad organizational

success factors, beginning with product development, we will focus on 3 key areas

that need to be aligned to enable sales teams to successfully launch a new product.

3 © Sales Performance International, Inc

These 3 areas are:

• Product Messaging

• Sales Competencies

• Sales Process

ALIGNING YOUR MESSAGE

For years, the pharmaceutical industry successfully leveraged the share

of voice sales model to drive market share. This was especially true during the

first year of a product launch. More product messages delivered at launch meant

higher market share trajectory in the all-important 6 month launch window. In fact,

most of the sales training and marketing collateral focused on product attributes

and characteristics. Old habits die hard. While training and marketing try to be

more customer centric, much of the launch support material produced today is still

developed from the product or company’s perspective, not the customer’s. In turn,

representatives struggle with the ability to communicate the value of solutions that

their product could deliver to stakeholders. They continue to emphasize efficacy

or mechanism of action, rather than how the product will provide value by solving

specific clinical problems or helping the organization hit key healthcare metrics. This

is a subtle but vitally important distinction.

Especially now, product-focused messaging frustrates stakeholders

because it gives them only part of the information they need to change their current

practice. While knowing the features of a product is important, it is not enough. In

order to feel comfortable with their decision to adopt a new therapy, stakeholders

also demand that representatives articulate how a solution will impact their patients,

practice, or organization, and to what degree. Specifically, they want to know what

kind of unique advantage the solution may provide and how much it will be worth to

them, before they can make a confident decision. Anything less, and it will impact

the degree of launch success.

DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE SOLUTION MESSAGES

In the book, The Solution-Centric Organization, Keith Eades and Robert Kear describe

how product marketing teams can help sales representatives articulate value by

conducting a customer-focused solution messaging exercise to develop a Solution

Messaging Card. The card consists of the following components:

• Customer Problem – a brief description of the problem, need, or opportunity being experienced by a specific physician/organization

• Trend Relevance – key trends and issues in the marketplace that relate to the problem state of the customer, which illustrate its pertinence and importance

• Cause of Problem – specific causal factors in the customer’s environment that are creating the problem situation

• Problem Impact – specific clinical, operational, and/or financial impact of the problem on the patients or the practice – specifically, the bad things that happen if the problem is not addressed

• Required Capabilities – capabilities required to address the specific causes of the problem

• Clinical Evidence / Metrics / Proof of Value – clinical, operational, and/or financial data metrics that can be used to determine if the problem is being successfully addressed

• Solution Linkage – how the proposed solution fulfills the capabilities required to address the problem or need

4 © Sales Performance International, Inc

• Differentiators – unique aspects of the product that provide an advantage for the patients and/or the practice

• Case Studies – related case studies that demonstrate prior success in solving the problem

Once developed, the Solution Messaging Card can be placed in the

representative’s sales playbook as a reference to insure that their discussions are

customer centric and focused on the value their solution can deliver. Additionally,

the exercise provides marketing with clear, aligned, differentiated, value-driven

messages to use in the creation of sales collateral through launch and beyond.

Download a Solution Messaging Card template here.

ALIGNING SALES COMPETENCIES TO MEET NEW CUSTOMER

EXPECTATIONS

Many healthcare stakeholders and decision makers restrict sales

representative access. In fact, the only time they will see them is when they are

launching a new product. This gives even more weight to the old saying “you only get

one chance to make a first impression.” Now that stakeholders and decision makers

in healthcare have a new definition of value, it changes the mix and proficiency

level of sales competencies needed to successfully launch a new product. If sales

organizations continue to prepare representatives for launch without understanding

which competencies align with customer expectations and drive market share, then

the sales team will just get better and better at skills that stakeholders care less and

less about.

Based on our competency and assessment experience, the sales

competencies typically in need of alignment are:

• Account management

• Consultative dialogues

• Clinical selling

• Healthcare business acumen

Note: Companies should objectively seek to understand which competencies drive

their specific business outcomes. Then they should assess the proficiency of the

sales team against those competencies and formulate learning plans accordingly.

ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

The era of the independent physician with great autonomy is giving way

to widespread physician employment. A recent statistic shows that up to 60%v

of physician group practices are owned by integrated delivery networks (IDN) of

some kind. This business model means centralized, multi-stakeholder decision

making. This trend prompted a recent article in Pharmaceutical Executive titled,

When Care Models Collide, in which the author stated, “In order to successfully

segment and engage customers, strategic account management capabilities need

to be embedded throughout the organization. This should be accompanied by

restructuring sales models to enable selling in a more complex environment.”

Given that the majority of calls that a sales representative makes during

launch will be on an “account” of some type, they must have the ability to sell

collaboratively in a complex environment where they understand the stakeholders

and their individual value drivers. Then by leveraging this information, they must

create a vision of the solution that their product can provide. Without account

management capabilities. representatives may miss critical steps in the sales

5 © Sales Performance International, Inc

process that will risk lower than expected launch market share.

CLINICAL SELLING

Many of today’s regulatory changes are focused on the use of evidence-

based medicine (EBM). This rationale is to provide consistent disease treatment

resulting in better patient outcomes and decreased cost of care. To embed EBM

skills in newly trained physicians, regulators now require medical schools to teach

five levels of competency in EBM. Physicians are now taught how to critically

appraise clinical data to look for bias, statistical significance, and clinical relevance.

This approach is influencing physicians’ expectations of sales representatives.

Research shows that EBM holds the strongest customer buying influencevi, and

over 90% of physicians want reps to make more use of clinical studies and EBM in

their conversations with sales representatives.vii

So during that rare opportunity to access an influential key opinion leader

(KOL) as a result of a new product launch, how much value will a representative

provide if s/he can establish the validity, statistical significance, and clinical

relevance of the solution using the language of a physician? And, how do you think

that compares to a representative that shows up and begins spouting results of a

clinical study?

The clinical selling skills needed to speak the language of the physician are

based on an understanding of the principles of EBM and enable representatives to

link key clinical findings to critical clinical solutions supported by your brand.

HEALTHCARE BUSINESS ACUMEN

With the advent of multi-stakeholder decision making, representatives

must have an understanding of the clinical and business sides of the buying equation.

In the morning, they may be speaking to a clinical influencer while in the afternoon,

they may be speaking to a business administrator that sits on the value analysis

6 © Sales Performance International, Inc

committee. Both individuals have different value drivers but have an influence on

clinical decisions. Representatives must be able to demonstrate the value of their

product to both. That means they need an understanding of integrated delivery

network (IDN) business strategies, outcome metrics, and healthcare incentive

management.

BUYER ALIGNED SALES PROCESS

If you were to ask a pharma sales leader if they had a sales process, the

answer would undoubtedly be “yes.” If asked to describe the process, they would

typically describe the steps of the company’s sales call model. There is no doubt

that a call model or framework for a consultative dialog is a key part of a successful

sales process. However, healthcare providers are consolidating into sophisticated

IDN’s. This means that purchasing decisions are becoming centralized to

buying committees with multiple stakeholders. In order to maximize the launch

effectiveness of the sales organization, companies must align with the new

healthcare business model by shifting to a more typical B2B selling process.

A true buyer aligned sales process provides a clear path to winning – the

right things to do, at the right time, with the right people, for the right reasons. It is

inclusive from territory planning through the integration of the change in treatment

protocols in an account. Multiple sources have studied the impact of a well-

integrated sales process and prove that sales performance and sales predictability

increase as the level of sales process integration increases.

An important note here is that the sales process is more than a list of what

to do. It also shows representatives how to do it and includes tools to enable each

action. Additionally, it should include a set of stakeholder behaviors that must occur

throughout the process to validate that both parties are aligned.

CONCLUSION

Launching products in the healthcare market will continue to be a driving

force for revenue growth in the pharmaceutical industry. As competition grows,

product approval accelerates and companies launch more products per year into

smaller markets, so the pressure for launch success grows. The headwinds in

today’s healthcare market leave launch success far from guaranteed.

Just like investors that continue to adjust their portfolio to maximize their

return, pharma sales organizations must align their capabilities with the market

conditions to maximize launch success. That means developing sales messages

from the customer’s perspective, understanding what sales competencies are

needed to align with the needs of the healthcare buyer, and implementing a true buyer

aligned sales process that fits growing complexity in today’s selling environment.

i. Introduction | PhRMA Chart Packs. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2016, from http://phrma.org/chartpack-2015

ii. Introduction | PhRMA Chart Packs. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2016, from http://phrma.org/chartpack-2015

iii. Ahlawat, H., Chierchia, G., & Van Arkel, P. (2014, March). The Secret of Successful Drug Launches. Mckinsey & Company. Retrieved February 24, 2016, from http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/pharmaceuticals-and-medical-products/our-insights/the-secret-of-successful-drug-launches

iv. Launch Excellence IV: A new launch environment and new challenges for success. (n.d.). IMS. Retrieved February 24, 2016, from https://www.imshealth.com/files/web/Global/Services/Services/TL/IMS_Launch_Excellence_WP.pdf

v. Making Pharma sales reps key to patient outcomes-Accenture. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2016, from https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-rebirth-pharmaceutical-salesforce

vi. Earle, K. (2015, December 1). Training the Sales Rep of the Future. Focus Magazine - Winter 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2015, from http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/LtenFocus/2014/winter/

vii. 2014-2015 What Physicians Want! Survey. Publicis Touchpoint. Retrieved December 14, 2014 from http://www.touchpointsolutions.com/resource/

7 © Sales Performance International, Inc

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

With over three decades of experience in the life sciences

industry as a microbiologist, pharmaceutical sales and marketing

leader, and sales training consultant, Brad Ansley leads SPI’s global

healthcare industry practice. He is a principal developer of SPI’s

Evidence-Based Solution Selling methodology, and has helped dozens of companies to improve their ability to sell life sciences industry solutions

to their customers.

OUR CLIENTS

8 © Sales Performance International, Inc

U N I T E D STAT ES, H Q

Co r p o ra te H e a d q u a r te rs :

6 2 0 1 F a i r v i ew Ro a d Ste 4 0 0

C h a r l o tte , N o r t h C a ro l i n a , U SA 2 8 2 1 0

+ 1 7 0 4 2 2 7 6 5 0 0

E U RO P E

Co r p o ra te V i l l a g e – F i g u e ra s B u i l d i n g

D a V i n c i l a a n 1 1

B - 1 9 3 0 Za v e n te m , B e l g i u m

+ 3 2 2 2 5 2 5 0 0 4

U N I T E D K I N G D O M

1 s t F l o o r

3 M o re Lo n d o n R i v e rs i d e

Lo n d o n , S E 1 2 R E

+ 4 4 2 0 3 2 8 3 4 0 9 0

G R E AT E R C H I N A

Ro o m 1 7 0 7

Ea s t C e n tu r y B u i l d i n g , N o . 3 4 5

X i a n X i a Ro a d , C h a n g N i n g D i s t r i c t ,

S h a n g h a i 2 0 0 3 3 6 , C h i n a

+ 8 6 2 1 3 2 5 7 7 0 3 0

CA N A DA

1 2 0 0 M c G i l l Co l l e g e

B u re a u 1 1 0 0

M o n t re a l Q u e b e c H 3 B 4 G 7

C a n a d a

+ 1 5 1 4 9 0 4 0 6 5 5

i n fo @ s p i s a l e s . co m

w w w . s p i s a l e s . co m

w w w . s o l u t i o n s e l l i n g b l o g . co m