And now what .... How to be different in pharma. Nobody else is.

I have created this blog in an effort to inspire all those pharma marketers and sales people out there to start doing things a little bit differently in a world where it is difficult to be original and stand out. A world where being seen and viewed should not be about who shouts the loudest. A world where every pharma company seems to be struggling with social media, websites that actually deliver value to patients or customers, decreasing access to customers, apparently increasing compliance frameworks and generally more competition. Competition from other pharma companies and also from technology companies, startups, social media, payers, insurance companies, private healthcare, shambolic imposters and fake medicines, online pharmacies and services, apps. 

How do you get noticed? Do you have the ideas to get noticed? Do you have the balls to get noticed? Do you actually want to get noticed? What does it take to get noticed and how are you going to find out if it actually made a difference? 

Not only is pharma marketing and sales locked up in this self imposed prison of being afraid to do things differently, we are also incredibly good at questioning and scrutinising different approaches more than we would ever question our current and traditional ways without really knowing if they actually work.

I remember the times when we did mailings because everybody else did them and surely not doing them would leave you unnoticed until I did a proper personalised mailing telling my customers that we were going to stop mailings because it was obviously a waste of money and energy and more importantly their time. I hand signed them and where i knew the customer I would actually write a little personal message in the letter. I know, all these things need to be signed off now and you can't add things after final form and ABPI would have me for it. BUT .... nothing stops me from writing a personal letter (handwritten) to a customer. Not about products but about how nice it was to see them or hear from them and appreciating the time they gave us and expressing the hope that they fund the interaction valuable. If they need anything, call, stuff like that. Being a human being. Doing all the things that we do in our personal life but not with our key customers.   

Graham Leask who I respect for his deep insights has over and over shown that most if not almost all of marketers and sales organisations efforts are wasted and make no difference at all in uptake curves, market shares and results. Just as much as an inclusion in a NICE guideline means little if the guideline in itself doesn't drive towards your class of products. Being cost-effective means nothing if your product is unaffordable and affordability or willingness to afford something is more about emotions than about facts. 

Pharma has become generic with brand managers having the advertising agency on speed dial, the market research company on speed dial and tons of templates to fill out which people seem to think equals writing a strategic plan. Numbers do not equal insight, understanding doesn't come from ignoring gut feeling. Take the template away, take the phone away and strategy tanks. Ad agencies follow the same patterns, mostly interchangeable and generic in their execution. 

With this blog I hope to give you some tips and ideas on how to do things just slightly differently. Come up with your own ideas and then talk to an agency in stead of asking the agency to think for you and tell you what you need. Be proud, make a difference.

I look forward to the discussions. Here are a few titles that you can expect:

- Segmentation is an art, not a science
- The myth of the multichannel representative
- Contracting out before it is too late
- The sales force effectiveness fairy tale 
- Compliance doesn't stop things
- Solving pricing at the front door
- Value based pricing and other monstrosities
- 10 common mistakes in running advisory boards 

Pierre