The pandemic accelerated digital transformation across industries, changing everything that had been relatively static for decades. The way that pharmaceutical companies relate with doctors was no exception. The pandemic forced a new wave of technology adoption to help them adapt to what happened and what’s yet to come. But how can the pharmaceutical industry bring relevant experiences from the physical world to the digital dimension?

When the confinements started, salespeople from the pharmaceutical industry had to shift to entirely online formats. There were hardly any exceptions. Pharmaceutical companies were forced to use the right digital strategies to capture and build loyalty in both doctors and patients if they wanted to stay competitive.

Modernizing processes isn’t only possible, it’s necessary. A recent study by ABI Research calculates that pharmaceutical manufactures will spend 27% more on data analysis technology, with the total spend reaching $1.2 billion by 2030. And this is just one of many changes that are taking the industry by storm. But we’ll try to keep it simple.

Main challenges for the pharmaceutical industry

When lockdowns started in 2020, most pharmaceutical companies opted for a similar strategy. Facing total uncertainty when it came to operating during a pandemic, they started to use all the digital channels possible to shift the relationship with doctors, which is usually in-person, to the virtual environment.

Without adequate strategic planning, it became something like a bombardment. Constant content creation, webinars, applications, online chats, zooms, newsletters and everything else eventually became counterproductive. Instead of using digital channels correctly, they overwhelmed doctors. Can you guess the result? A huge loss of relevance.

Besides the forced virtualization of relationships and communications between agents and doctors, there was an added challenge when it came to patients. During the pandemic, they radically changed their mentality, feeling more empowered and informed than before. That means they started to demand better services, information and technology for their diagnostics and treatment. To be sure, the industry, across the value chain, needs to live up to the increasingly high expectations and properly address these new circumstances.

How to increase sales in a radically different environment

The concept of orchestration has emerged to make the most of digital channels. It’s a good way for companies to take their first steps. It allows companies to understand each doctor as an individual. This technology allows agents to know, for example, a doctor’s preferred schedule for contacts, the types of contacts and communication channels they prefer, or even measure their behavior and relationship with the brand. In this step, it’s key to contemplate the “what” the “how” and the “when.” Understanding what stage the relationship is at in terms of all of those questions is key to success in the sales funnel.

Once you’ve identified those aspects, the Marketing teams can go a little further. They can create a hypersegmented strategy, keeping perfect track of each doctor’s state of adoption.

Once you have knowledge about the preferences of each doctor, it’s time to learn how to operate each of the tools. This is the second step. It’s probably not a great idea to send 10 emails to the same person until they respond. In fact, it’s usually a terrible idea. So, to achieve success, you have to make the most of the available technologies with a clear methodology behind their use.

The third step is short but fundamental. It’s the optimization and continuous improvement of how you’re using the tools and knowledge.

What does Multiplica bring to the pharmaceutical industry?

From Multiplica, we help companies in the sector create digital experiences that are relevant to doctors. We can do that by analyzing their prescriptions and content consumption patterns and combining the two variables. What you get is precise information about each customer journey. For the work to be complete, we specialize in orchestrating omnichannel experiences at the strategic, methodological and technological levels.

What does that mean? Today, it’s key to correctly integrate all channels (digital and physical) to communicate, sell and build customer loyalty. At the same time, it’s fundamental to guarantee that an interaction that started through one channel can be continued on another, without wasting quality or time.

Currently, huge global companies like Grifols, Almirall, Novartis, Lilly and Amgen trust Multiplica’s methodologies, knowledge and technology to efficiently orchestrate their channels.

Currently, huge global companies like Grifols, Almirall, Novartis, Lilly and Amgen trust Multiplica’s methodologies, knowledge and technology to efficiently orchestrate their channels.

In terms of methodologies, Multiplica’s value proposal is based on six pillars:

• Short sprints, with short times for working that are centered around maximizing value, not necessarily the delivery.
• Ideation and co-design, to integrate the client’s knowledge and our expertise in the material.
• User-centric, all of the work revolves around the people who will be using the tools we construct.
• Business-focused, always paying attention to generating tangible results for business areas.
• Product circles, with continuous internal and external feedback to maximize the number of insights.
• Continuous iterations of the project and tests allow us to validate whether or not we’ve chosen the right path.

If you want to learn more about how we’ve helped our clients understand doctors’ journeys and optimize their sales, we invite you to meet Alex Ruiz, our Health Industry Global Head.