Over the past years, the pharmaceutical industry has grown immensely, consolidating its position at the forefront of technology. No matter the place of operations, it is absolutely vital for pharmaceutical executives to deal with tasks in the most precise and efficient manner. After all, both customer relationship and patient care are influenced by the way in which managers cope with various business processes. In this regard, CRM software can help. More specifically, pharmaceutical CRM was built with one main purpose: overcome the challenges that the pharmaceutical industry is facing. There are many points to be discussed here, because this industry shares many challenges with other fields but it also has some other particularities that require a more targeted, customized approach.
Patents and Regulations
The pharmaceutical industry is rapidly evolving. New technologies allow experts to develop new and better drugs, but this speed has its downsides. Together with new drugs and practices, new regulations are being released as well and patents may expire very quickly. In the past, the typical relationship between doctors and pharmaceutical sales reps was cultivated over months and the sales agent would often have to travel great distances to meet with a potential client. Unfortunately, this approach is no longer productive today, because there simply isn’t enough time. Instead, it is advisable to replace the traditional approach with pharmaceutical CRM such as bpm’online, Prophet or MedThinkConnect. These apps will centralize and organize processes, increasing speed and productivity.
Why Pharmaceutical CRM and not general CRM?
The benefits of CRM are already known to tech-savvy entrepreneurs, but it’s very important to point out that not just any CRM will suit the pharmaceutical industry. It has many particularities and a CRM developed for general businesses will not be able to meet all its requirements. The mission of CRM is to deliver bespoke solutions adapted to your field, so pharmaceutical firms should invest in pharma CRM only. The risks of using a general customer relationship management tool will not be clear at first, but in time sales will start to plummet, so it’s best that you make the transition as soon as possible.
Pharma Products Promotion
The promotion of pharmaceutical products requires a strategic approach, one that traditional methods cannot keep up with. However, you can use pharma CRM to automate tasks such as:
- Division of products based on the target market
- Management of marketing resources
- Event scheduling
- Marketing campaign management
In other words, you can promote new pharmaceutical products much faster and thus stay one step ahead of your competition.
Planning Field Force Activities
It is common knowledge that in the pharmaceutical industry, field force is everything. As things can get very chaotic, it’s always a good idea to streamline field force management. When it comes to this aspect, pharma CRM can help. In these apps, you can see exactly the schedule of your sales reps and schedule their client visits. After each visit, you can also analyze the results and see if there is a major difference between what was planned and what was accomplished. Thanks to reports and graphs, you are always in control over the activity of your employees and take action as soon as you notice that something is wrong. Using traditional methods, mistakes only become obvious after financial loss has already been caused but, with CRM, you can investigate the problem almost immediately.
All in all, pharmaceutical CRM is one of the best ways to stay ahead in a fast-paced, ever evolving industry. It offers pharmaceutical firms the tools they need to automate processes, while at the same time increasing quality and maximizing productivity.