Teledetailing: Targeting Overlooked, Over-booked Physicians -- Part 2

By Joseph Macaluso, Access Worldwide Communications Inc.

This two-part article provides background information and case studies on physician teledetailing as an effective and powerful method of disseminating product information and influencing prescribing behavior. We try to answer these question: Is teledetailing appropriate for all pharmaceutical companies? What products should be teledetailed? Which physicians should be targeted? Also discussed are the qualities of a good teledetailing company and the methods for calculating return on investment.

Qualities of a Good Teledetailing Company
Reviewing Results—Return On Investment
Joseph Macaluso
About Access Worldwide Communications

Qualities of a Good Teledetailing Company (Back to Top)
First and foremost in agency selection is experience. There is no greater predictor of success than reviewing the work an agency has already provided for your product or another product in your company. Furthermore, with the industry being so close knit, it is also advantageous to ask other colleagues their experience with teledetailing agencies. In the end, the greatest pitch and the lowest price may end up just being a promise with no deliverables. By assessing past work, there is less risk to make a poor choice.

Beyond a positive recommendation, the following areas should be reviewed as each company is assessed for their ability to deliver on a teledetailing project.

• Strategic insight and business knowledge
  
• Account management
  
• Project management
  
• Training and experience of telerepresentatives
  
• Timely and accurate reporting
  
• Pricing in partnership

Strategic Insight and Business Knowledge: Although this area could be considered a standard criteria to any type of agency selection (medical education, advertising, etc.), it is surprising the number of teledetailing programs that are run without having good strategic discussions on project specifics. Often, the product manager has already determined the vision of the project and has predetermined the physician segmentation plan before an agency is brought in—only to provide a price quote. This is a tremendous oversight and could greatly reduce the success of the product. Good agencies will challenge the assumptions made by the manager and will offer suggestions and insights that will help better craft the project and make it more successful. Strategic insight would come from either the account manager or a senior executive in the firm.

Account Management: Because the account manager is the interface between the product manager and agency implementation, it is critical that the account manager offer excellent industry background, strategic vision, and a collaborative personality to build a successful project. The agency should also offer insights overlooked by the product manger and work to build a more profitable program.

Project Management: Product managers are on site at the agency headquarters where they oversee all of the logistics and implementation of the program. They handle or oversee training the representatives, managing the call lists, generating call reports, etc. In essence, they make sure the project is run effectively and efficiently on a day to day basis. This person coordinates daily with the account manager. A company should feel free to ask to speak with the project manager before a project is initiated.

Training and Experience: Agencies need to have a good training program for both telephone skills as well as product training for new projects. The agency should work closely with the company to ensure proper training of the representatives and the project manager should be present to help. A good training program will increase the representative's comfort with the product and disease information and will generate a successful program. A product manager should not just take the word of the agency that their training is sound, they should visit the training site, ask to be detailed by a representative, and take part in training once the agency is selected.

Timely and Accurate Reporting: This task is the function of the project manager, but it is also necessary that the company have the technology and processes in place to offer the reports required for the product manager. There should be a clear understanding of the report template and the updates to be provided back to the product manager. Again, the product manager should review the report information and adapt based on his/her company needs.

Pricing in Partnership: Pricing is usually the final point of decision making and the tendency of the company is to go with the agency that provides the lowest per call price. The agency should present a pricing recommendation that is fair and open to easy interpretation. An agency that is looking to develop a partnership with a corporation will be more open to unique pricing options and will be ready for fair negotiation. The agency needs to turn a profit on each project, so respect the floor price of a well-respected agency and be wary of agencies that will do anything just to get the business—results may be sub par.

Reviewing Results—Return On Investment (Back to Top)
Of course, every product manager wants a positive ROI, but does anyone really know how to calculate whether or not a project has been profitable? In order to do a proper and robust ROI calculation on a project, script data for the physicians being targeted is a must. In addition, there is additional data, such as profit per prescription, average length of therapy for a new patient, etc., which need to be understood for a complete project assessment.

An example of an ROI calculation follows. In this case, 20,000 doctors were targeted with a call rate hit of 40% at $15 per doctor, and an additional hit rate of 40% at $8 per office nurse. The cost of the program calculates to be $184,000 (for one call per 16,000 targets) with a product message being delivered to 8,000 physicians and 8,000 nurses. A standard teledetail project would provide three calls—with total cost being $552,000.

If it is assumed that with each new prescription the patient stays on therapy for 4 months with a per script (month) profitability to the company of $50, then the breakeven new prescriptions that need to be generated from the project is 2,760, or 0.345 per doctor. This is the starting point of analysis that a project manager should begin with; then actual new prescription changes should be reviewed for the final ROI.

As an example, new prescription change was assessed in the influenced group (always using a control group to recognize market shifts) and it was determined that the average new prescription change (on average for each physician) was 3 scripts over 3 months. In addition, in those offices where only nurses were detailed, the associated doctor wrote 1 new prescription over three months. The following chart outlines revenue, cost and ROI for this example of new prescription growth. Table 2 illustrates a typical ROI calculation.

As illustrated, teledetailing is a very cost-effective way to increase revenue without huge investment. A project like the one outlined could be continued with the same physician segment, shifted to a different medical group or stopped altogether.

Teledetailing is an excellent way to overcome the difficult schedules of today's physicians and a cost-effective method to provide doctors with product messages that may ultimately lead to increased prescribing. Any company using this tool must: 1) understand the goal of teledetailing, 2) focus on the correct product 3) prepare the correct message, 4) segment the appropriate physicians, 5) choose the right agency, and 6) follow through with robust ROI analysis.

Joseph Macaluso (Back to Top)
Joseph Macaluso is the executive vice president of sales for Access Worldwide. Macaluso, co-founder and executive vice president of Access Worldwide's Phoenix Marketing Group, has full sales responsibility for Access Worldwide's pharmaceutical database, direct marketing, physician and pharmacy teleservices, sales automation, and sample fulfillment services. He began his pharmaceutical career at Hoechst-Roussel, where he was managed that company's marketing information systems. He then became director of planning and management information systems at Clark-O'Neill, before co-founding the Phoenix Marketing Group in 1983.

About Access Worldwide Communications (Back to Top)
Access Worldwide provides sales, marketing and medical education services to more than 100 clients in the pharmaceutical, telecommunications, financial services, and consumer products industries. Access company designs and delivers innovative, data-driven sales and marketing solutions that maximize clients' sales and profits. Access Worldwide has particular expertise in reaching key pharmaceutical audiences—physicians, pharmacists, and patients—business-to-business and targeted consumer groups through a variety of marketing and education programs. The company is publicly traded on the Nasdaq National Market (Nasdaq: AWWC) and has approximately 1,400 employees in eight offices nationwide.

End of Part 2. To read Part 1 of this two-part article, see Teledetailing: Targeting Overlooked, Over-booked Physicians – Part 1.

For more information: Andrea Greenan, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Communications, Access Worldwide, 2200 Clarendon Blvd., 11th Floor, Arlington, VA 22201. Tel: 703- 841-1110. Fax: 703-812-9561.