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Fonny Schenck of Across believes its time for pharma to get its CRM together.

Fonny Schenck of Across believes its time for pharma to get its CRM together. Where once CRM was just an interesting idea, it has now become a necessity in the more challenging climate of modern pharma sales.

As Schenck tells eyeforpharma, its vital to have systematic view of customers, to be certain that sales, marketing and medical services share a unified vision of each client. Such a focus on CRM, says Schenck, will help optimize marketing expenditure and determine which marketing efforts are most effective for each customer.

Why cant you be more like Tesco?
Schenck believes we have a lot to learn from other industries.

Tesco, for example, has an incredibly focused approach to marketing, he says. Via their loyalty card, Tesco is able to gather information on 11 million customers. The information is collected in a database and informs the marketing strategy used.

Out of 11 million emails sent, says Schenck, there were six million varieties of that email. Tescos marketing produces uniquely positioned offerings to one out of two customers, says Schenck. Its just a totally different world. In order to target consumers so exactly, Tesco has amassed enormous amounts of information. Pharma could do that too, Schenck says, if the industry is willing to spend the time and money.

CRM and regulation
Of course, pharma isnt like other industries. Regulations mean that messages and ideas can take a long time to get through approval processes before they can be released to the public. But Schenck says it doesnt have to be like that.

With CRM, you can separate clients into focused segments and then approach each segment with a message that has already been approved. Too often, according to Schenck, pharma uses regulation as an excuse to conduct business as usual, rather than find new ways of approaching clients. However, to survive in the new climate, marketing is going to have to adapt.

Schenck suggests that businesses focus efforts on analytics, business intelligence and customer intelligence. And its increasingly important to work hand-in-hand with the sales force, providing them with as many tools as they need. If they need five detail aids, says Schenck, then we should be able to provide them.

Bring physicians and patients on board
Its clear from Web 2.0 and social interaction networks that there are lots of conversations happening on the Web. Physicians are communicating with other physicians; patients are sharing stories with other patients. These conversations are already in progress, and you ignore them at your peril, Schenck says.

Pharma should instead be leveraging this new tool for its own benefit. Providing forums through which doctors can share information and experiences, or offering community Web solutions for patients organizations are excellent ways to provide useful services while keeping a companys name in front of current and potential customers, Schenck says. Forums that provide space and opportunity to discuss particular diseases could be perceived as added value for pharma companies, he adds.

Hopes for pharmas future
According to Schenck, some CRM initiatives have already been undertaken, but these have been relatively few and far between: a therapy here, a brand there, one company, one product. We need to get beyond the pilot phase and roll out lots of new ideas or leverage ideas from other industries, he says.

Pharma is good at getting its message out. As an industry, Schenck says, pharma has always been very focused on marketing and directing efforts into appropriate messages via appropriate channels. For example, the sales force has always been an effective marketing tool.

However, warns Schenck, pharma must guard against growing too dependent on a single tool. Once the pharma industry finds something that works, it tends to bombard customers with the same approaches all the time. If we dont work to diversify our modes of communicating with customers now, in five years we stand to be back in the same position were in nowwith customers who no longer want to hear the same old message from the same old source, he warns.

According to Schenck, the correct way to approach sales is to remember that were marketing with the customers, not at them.

That means we need to learn what works for a given customer, he urges. What does he want from us, what do we want from him, and where can we meet so that we can both gain in the end? Take into account the perspectives of both customers and pharma companies, and youll get a customer-centric approach and greater profitability.

Author: Shannon Perry, journalist, eyeforpharma