CLM Support - A Critical Success Factor

There is little doubt that effective sales calls are a leading factor contributing to pharma company's sales success. An army of well-trained, motivated medical reps equipped with in-depth customer insight are a mean that everyone seeks. So far technology has been widely used in pre-call planning, territory management and call reporting, but not always during the calls themselves. Since CLM introduction this has changed dramatically. Every technical issue, even a minor one, has a direct impact on the sales call and the the image of the representative and pharma company as a whole. Imagine a situation when in the middle of a discussion on a recent cholesterol study the tablet battery dies or the system crashes. It is hard to imagine anything more frustrating for the representative and the physician himself. Therefore means need to be undertaken to ensure that a well tested solution is in place and that, if needed, excellent IT support is provided. Here are some guidelines that can be useful:

1) Run a pilot before the "Big Bang". It is amazing how different each implementation is and how different issues your team might encounter. No matter how experienced your people are problems will always occur. It's a fact. Make sure that you identify as many as possible at a small scale.

2) Have a risk and issue log and be ready to address each of them. Running a workshop with the implementation team entirely focused on the possible risks can be a good idea. Ask: “What Can go wrong ?”. If everyone identifies 3 major risks you will be well equipped at the end. Then consciously go through the possible contingency plans and solutions.

3) Choose a vendor wisely. Check how many of the to 10 companies use a given solutions, How many users worldwide and in your country are there ? Look if there is an implementation methodology in place.

To be continued..