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Customer relationship management
13/03/2007
Customer relationship management
The worlds most successful software? |
Starting my information-gathering in preparation for writing this piece, I used my web browser in the same way that many of us start any research project or quest for information these days. Keying CRM followed swiftly with a click on Search led to 81,300,000 results. Blimey, must refine that search. Not enough hours in the day sprang to mind. Looking through the results brought no surprises. Software vendor after software vendor advertising and promoting their wares for CRM on a local, European and global basis. Something caught my eye and made me smile: Customer relationship management the worlds most successful computer software. A one-stop shop for managing all your customer information with promises of boosted productivity, higher ROI and increased sales. Not to mention award-winning sales management and sales force efficiency. Get with the program Of course, we acknowledge that the concept of CRM cannot really be achieved without cutting-edge software. Even more so when you consider the market size and number of customers that pharma companies have to engage with.
But its not just about software. CRM and customer-centricity are both terms that cover many tactics used by companies to manage their relationships with customers. These include the capture, storage and analysis of customer information, but true CRM is more than that. Its about knowing more about your customers than your competitors do; exceeding the expectations of your customers; going one step further.
Has true CRM been achieved by the pharma industry? The answer is probably not completely but the pharma industry, to its credit, has embraced, invested in and striven to implement CRM, recognising the concept as a good one. Many industries are embracing the values of CRM and the benefits it can offer in terms of approaching and engaging with the customer base. However, for some pharma companies, the investment in an expensive software call reporting system has not been justified by the results (some of you may remember the term ETMS).
There are many factors affecting CRM achievement in the pharma industry. If we can isolate the NHS environment for the purposes of this article, we can perhaps begin to understand some of the complexities our industry faces when trying to realise the true value of CRM. Accurate customer information is essential. In addition, organisational structure, market access, market engagement, market and customer influence, segmentation and targeting, KOL identification, advocacy and promotional channel optimisation are all factors affecting local market engagement. And lets not forget the constant changes in the NHS with time and changes in government. PBC news Lets take a hot topic such as practice-based commissioning. PBC is, apparently, radically changing market access and bringing new challenges and excitement to the marketplace. But is the power base still the clinician and the patient? If so, will GPs in the future be closing their doors to pharma sales professionals? Which communication channels will be relevant? How will customers receive brand messaging?
In addition to GPs, which other customer groups are the current and future stakeholders in these new practice structures? Who is becoming more important for us to consider targeting and engaging as promotional budgets come under increased pressure: nurse prescribers; nurse consultants; clinical directors in secondary care; PBC GP leads; PBC PCT leads; PECs; PCT management leads; GPs with special interests? They all spring to mind. Also, what consultants are going to be commissioned to primary care services, and what knock-on effect will that have on secondary care?
PBC is about the commissioning of services between primary and secondary care by the practice in conjunction with the PCT. Many PBC tracking software offerings have appeared in the marketplace but why? Is CRM software able to cope with initiatives such as PBC? Will CRM cope with practice clustering? Perhaps local market changes should be considered as such, and global CRM initiatives be adapted by localised market environment specialists. In the pharma industry, there will be a need to use additional, complementary services and software to segment and target the market.
SUMMARY CRM and customer-centricity depend on an accurate, validated, relevant and maintained data source.
For any CRM project or initiative to be successful, it has to embrace and be aligned to specialist market knowledge and information.
These two facts mean that CRM will perhaps never be a onestop shop.
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Andrew Leeder is a Business Development Manager at Binleys. For more information on how to achieve your CRM efforts/initiatives, please contact Andrew on 01268 495600 or visit www.binleys.com/pharma.
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PSMG January Meeting |
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The January PSMG meeting at Warren House, Kingston-upon-Thames, was attended by around 50 pharmaceutical sales managers. |
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