Medical Sales Targeting (Part 1)

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Reaching the right doctor with the right product, and the right message, at the right time is the essence of targeting and medical marketing in general.  

If you are a medical sales rep working for a pharma or a medical device company, you might already have experienced the frustration of not convincing a prospect about your product. 

Even very successful products with high use and market penetration are not for everybody in a given market. As a salesperson, you need to accept that you should not target some potential customers because the chances of selling your product are very low.  

The sooner you understand that targeting is not an abstract marketing strategy, the faster your sales results will improve. In fact, implementing precise targeting tactics in your territory is the better approach and I’ll show you why and how as you read on.  

Common mistakes in sales force targeting 

When launching a new product or entering a new market, if you are not extremely clear about the target user of the product you will end up with the sales reps trying to sell to the wrong prospects.  

Several times I’ve seen these kinds of mistakes from both direct and indirect sales forces and I must confess I made some of these mistakes too.  

Together let’s see the most common targeting faults: 

Big customers: These are the biggest customers in the territory. These doctors have high potential so the reps want to develop business with them thanks to the new product. They think the size of their business is sufficient to include them in their best opportunities but unfortunately, this is not always true.  

Current customers: These are normally the best customers of the sales reps, so the barriers to accessing them are lower and the business relationship is well established. Sales reps want to increase their business by selling new products to this target audience. However, the fact that they already serve them does not qualify these customers as opportunities in focus. 

KOLs: These are prestigious customers because KOLs have knowledge and expertise in a specific field of medicine making them trusted and respected by their colleagues. The reps want to use the influence of the KOL to support product adoption and increase or create demand in the territory. Unfortunately, if the KOL is not aligned with the profile of the ideal user, he or she will not be easily convinced.  

These targeting mistakes are not absolute. The problem is that the first criterion of selection of the targets should be having the profile of the most promising prospect and not judging only based on one of the categories above (as I’ve often seen happen).  

Why targeting is fundamental in medical sales 

Medical sales is a complex and rewarding activity; however, sometimes it could be hard because you get rejections, access to doctors is difficult and competition is fierce.  

This is also why targeting is central because it will minimize some of these factors that make selling very hard.  

Let’s make an example with an indirect sales force: 

The sales reps of your distributor understood the exact and ideal customer profile and they analyzed their territory and identified several possible targets.  

Targeting these prospects, they get some “easy sales” and become more comfortable with the product. The success increased their confidence and motivation resulting in a higher mindshare. All this produces more focus and an even higher success rate.  

Conversely, if the sales reps do not have a clear picture of the ideal customer, they spend their time with prospects with very low conversion rates. After a while, because of the significant required sales effort and the relatively poor sales results, they will lose interest in the product. Then they will classify the product as difficult to sell and with low market potential. In the end, they will be reactive and follow up only if someone asks about the product.  

The impact of poor targeting   

Poor targeting will ultimately have a crucial impact on a company. In fact, companies bear a significant cost for unproductive customer visits. The cost of a sales rep visit to a doctor can be from 50$ to 300$. And you can calculate your average cost by dividing the annual cost of the sales rep by the total annual number of visits. So, poor targeting can have a relevant impact on costs because it is a waste of resources.  

Similarly, poor targeting can impact other elements. For example, your brand and your sales rep’s reputation could be damaged when your product and message are irrelevant to the prospects. This could also annoy them preventing them from interacting with you properly in the future. 

Conclusion  

Sales targeting can seriously impact the sales and reputation of any company. If you are a sales rep, do not rely on un-targeted sales techniques like “spray and pray“.  

The result of this strategy is salespeople reaching a high volume of potential customers with low relevance, and spending too long on calls that are a waste of time.  

In my next post, I will discuss what to do to increase sales targeting. Let me know what you think in the space below and remember to subscribe. Also, share this with your friends if you find this blog interesting.