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Case Study:
Responding to an Unmet Need in a Changing Marketplace
The problem for most branding and marketing executives is not a lack of information. It is too much information. The trick is figuring out what information is important and what is worthless. You are looking for the intersection of a good idea and market need that you or your business can satisfy.
One of my clients, Lynn Zimmerman, a pharmaceutical sales training and marketing executive found a strategy that formed the basis for her new business.
One change that dramatically affected pharmaceutical sales were the new rules and regulations that changed the traditional way of selling to doctors and other medical professionals. Sales reps could no longer give gifts, perks or trips to doctors, but they were still had to get in the door and be seen in order to sell their drug or service. Meanwhile, today, doctors are busier than ever with more patients and paperwork just to stay in place. On top of that, sales reps had more competition than ever before. Over 90,000 sales reps were tripping over each other to get into to see doctors.
SelfBrand Strategy
First we outlined the problem: how to break through all the noise of competitors and have a successful selling experience with doctors. In our initial hypothesis session, we came up with two ideas that had appeal.
In light of the new regulations outlawing physician gifts and entertainment, we developed a new sales model based on two key ideas. The first was that what doctor's needed from reps was intellectual value. Doctors would see a rep who was bring new insight on the science behind a drug and why it would improve patient care. We also speculated that a new type of rep who could talk science (or be trained differently) was the order of the day, not just one who could schmooze with the doctor. We then took a page from the advertiser's playbook and "branded" the concept of intellectual value in a slogan she trademarked, "Schmoozing is out, Science is in."
Lynn borrowed a word from branding and advertising - mindshare - for the second hypothesis. Given how busy doctors were, salespeople had to think beyond physician access and think more in terms of how to build share of mind with a doctor for their product versus a competitors.
Results
As we brainstormed the business concept, Lynn developed creative sales training programs to appeal to doctors and also the people who already have physician access, particularly nurse practitiners and physician's assistants. We named her new sales training and consulting business, Pharma Mindshare, to capture the strategic idea behind the business concept, developed a website pharmamindshare.com, and developed an extensive 90 day plan to launch the business. Lynn began speaking about her ideas on how to sell successfully in the new world of pharma at industry conferences and panels which led to new contacts and sales training assignments. Pharma Mindshare was on its way.
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