Operational Improvement Plane
... Explanation of Methods of Data Collection and Findings I have selected a customer survey data collection tool to help identify areas for improvement in building stronger customer relationships. This is a method of collecting information that could assist representatives in the process of building stronger customer relationships with physicians. I like this tools the most because it gathered useful data right from the physicians. The data collection process that I employed with a one page survey was to sit down and have a one on one meeting with the top sales potential physician in our territory. My partner and I each choose ten physicians that we asked the survey questions to and filled out their responses. Once we presented this survey to twenty physicians. We than reviewed each and recorded our team’s strong and weak areas of customer relationship building from the customer’s perspective. Our findings were very enlightening to my partner and me. We learned what these physicians expect from a relationship with a pharmaceutical representative. In general they want a salesperson that is honest, accountable, and sincerely concerned about their needs and even more importantly the needs of the patients they treat. We learned about ways that we could help them to better meet patient care needs. We found out what type of media that they use to stay current and learn about different disease states and medicine. This is important since we should be reading the same materials to familiarize ourselves in order to be able to have discussions on different topics of interest to them. Since accessibility is becoming increasingly difficult. The discussion that we had with the physicians about what times of the day it might be better for us to meet with them where very informative. Knowing this information increases our selling opportunities to share current clinical information in the future. One of our largest areas of weakness with the physicians was bringing value-added services to them. Manning & Reece (2002) “Companies can add value to their products with one or more intangibles such as better trained salespeople, increased levels of courtesy, more dependable product deliveries, better service after the sale, and innovations that truly improve the product’s value in the eyes of the customer.” (pg. 134) This lack of awareness in value-added services is not because Rxcellent dose not offer them. It is because the representatives do not see the value or feel that they do not have the time to explain these services to the physician during the sales call process. One such value added program that representatives can offer is the continuing medical education credits. All physicians need to accumulate a certain amount of CME credits every year in order to keep board certified. These can be costly and time consuming for a physician to do one there own. Representatives can offer these credited courses over lunch or dinner by CD-ROM. I think that the paperwork involved and a lack of clear understanding of the process might be the deterrents for representatives to offer this type of value-added service. Other value-added services that the physicians that we surveyed were geared towards helping the patients with no insurance get access to our medications. We found that the physician might be aware of such programs but had trouble finding the time to learn and implement such programs. This is another example of how we as representatives are being too concerned about blurting out product information and not realizing that many of the physician’s patients do not have insurance or can not afford to pay for the product. Creating a better understanding and educating the physician on the value of these programs was another area that we needed to improve upon. Another area that some of these physicians surveyed mentioned representatives needed to improve. Had to do with following up on previous discussions and agreed upon actions. In representatives defense it is difficult to follow up directly with the physicians after a recent sales call. Many times you are leaving the information with the receptionist who ends up throwing it on the large pile of mail on their desk. However none the less following up on a question asked or information requested is a pivotal part of servicing the customer. This leads me to the last finding that I think ties this whole process of improved need for building better customer relationships together. Manning & Reece (2002) “Companies that emphasize consultative selling are requesting more personal information on the customer (information that expands the customer profile) and more information on the customer’s short and long-range buying plans.” (pg.361) Representatives need to get better at inputting call notes post sales presentations. This allows partnered representatives to know what was learned, discussed, and any action to follow upon with this particular physician. This helps the representative look more professional and unified as a team to the physician. As Manning & Reece suggest learning more about the physician helps to take the relationship to another level. “They do not care what you know until they know you care.” I am a believer of this philosophy. In the hustle and bustle of the day call notes might not get inputted or newly learned personal information about the physician does not get written down or shared with teammates. In an industry where there can hundreds of representatives calling on a single physician. It is extremely difficult to differentiate yourself from the competition. I think that these findings from our collected data will help representatives to get the extra competitive edge that is need to improve our abilities in the area of building stronger customer relationships with physicians. Summary of Recommendations Recommendations for representatives who want to improve their skills in the area of building stronger customer relationships with physicians. I would recommend that the representatives need to be honest, accountable, and sincerely concerne...