RxS Case Study:

Multi-Channel Marketing Solution Has Specialty Pharma Company Covered

Summary

A specialty pharmaceutical organization, with a salesforce of approximately 150 representatives and territories in 33 states, had traditionally promoted their products through hand carry programs.  Though they wanted broader coverage, the organization was apprehensive about implementing a Direct-to-Practitioner (DTP) program due to an unsuccessful implementation with another vendor which resulted in sample turn-around times of up to three weeks.  They considered building their own teleservices team but lacked the technical and administrative infrastructure to do so.  Partnering with RxS provided the infrastructure and administrative support they needed, resulting in a 48% increase in coverage, and turnaround times measured in hours, not weeks.

Background

A specialty pharmaceutical organization, with a salesforce of approximately 150 representatives and territories in 33 states, promoted their products exclusively through hand carry programs.  Though they wanted broader coverage, the organization was apprehensive about implementing a DTP sample program due to an unsuccessful implementation with a previous vendor.  The earlier direct-to-prescriber program had utilized static blank PDF forms and an offsite, tele-detailing initiated, fax program which led to a two-to-three-week interval between the sample request and the sample delivery to the physician.  The lag time in delivery of the product reduced the impact and effectiveness of their brand messaging.  The organization sought a partner with robust technical integrations to value-chain partners, Sample Management, Compliance, and Sales Operations solutions.  They were referred to RxS.  Because of the prior vendor experience, project management, communication, and frequent inspection would play a key role in restoring the organization’s faith in DTP programs.

Analysis

The project team, consisting of members of both organizations, supported as needed by subject matter experts from other involved process participants, performed a full review of the entire process, measuring campaign effectiveness across existing channels.  The team confirmed missed opportunities to target a nationwide customer base with expanded messaging and sampling to high-value prescribers in vacant territories and white space areas.  RxS presented the design and benefits of implementing a DTP program utilizing their proprietary telemarketing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, TeleTargetRx.  This unified multi-channel approach would allow their client to maintain PDMA compliance, consolidate the management of their sample reconciliations, and closely monitor sampling activity across sampling channels.  The client stated their desire to build their own teleservices team but acknowledged that they did not have the technical and administrative infrastructure to do so.

Program Objective

The project team established the following objectives for the project:

• Help the client quickly gain coverage in high potential white space areas, expand coverage in existing territories, and maintain messaging and samples in vacant territories.
• Send outbound requests and receive and process inbound requests in a timely manner.
• Ensure compliance with all relevant regulations and guidance.
• Provide enough design guidance and project management support to give the client confidence in the program.  Inspect configurations and development output frequently.
• Define and deliver reporting that confirms that project objectives have been met and are sustained.
• Provide the infrastructure the pharmaceutical company needed to build and support their own in-house teleservices team.

Solution

The project team implemented a DTP sampling program utilizing RxS’ proprietary telemarketing CRM software, TeleTargetRx.  Transactions from both the DTP and hand carry programs would reside in the RxS sampling hub, LinkedRx.  This unified multi-channel approach would maintain PDMA compliance, consolidate the management of sample reconciliations, and closely monitor sampling activity between sampling channels.  The recommended tactics allowed for a consistent and targeted DTP program instead of random cold calling, replicating a Representative/Healthcare Professional (HCP) relationship and helped expand the universe of prospective targets.  The resulting deployment allowed their telemarketing team to target high-profile prescribers currently not supported by “feet on the street” and enable them to build relationships within these defined targets – while delivering a consistent message.  The client preferred to build their own teleservices team but did not have the required technical and administrative infrastructure.  Partnering with RxS and utilizing TeleTargetRx provided the backend infrastructure and administrative support they needed to deploy their Telesampling program.  By utilizing TeleTargetRx, they were able to hire and train their own inside sales agents, which was cost-effective, and gave their organization the control over the message and target audience that they desired.  TeleTargetRx executes a seamless process between the organization’s hand carry and DTP programs, and provides consolidated data; including aggregate spend reporting.  Because the RxS team is dedicated to sample management, they were able to reassure the client with a roadmap from their project implementation playbook, which is based on project management best practices, and adapted and updated with learnings from a decade of focus.