Sales Representative Management and Optimization of Service Territories with Geomarketing

Pharmaceutical companies are faced with special challenges, because the path to the customer is never direct. It almost always leads through a doctor or pharmacist. That is why it is extremely important for pharmaceutical companies to identify the right doctors and pharmacies. Geomarketing analyses and GIS software are ideal for this, as they uncover weaknesses in territory planning and highlight potential and opportunities for sales representatives in the field.

Experience shows that companies have to re-plan their sales territories every one to two years. Very often, sales territory planning is based exclusively on existing customers. However, it is more sensible to include other relevant factors in the planning, such as:

• Potential customers
• Workload of the sales represtatives
• Optimal routes

This allows pharmaceutical companies to optimize appointments and new customer acquisition for their sales representatives in the field. A customized geomarketing software takes all of these factors into account in the calculations for territory and route planning and leads to optimal service territories.

Advantages of service territories using geomarketing:

• Optimized travel routes
• Savings in travel time
• Cost savings (e.g. fuel, travel expenses)
• More time for customer visits
• Fairly divided sales territories for greater satisfaction among the team of sales representatives

Aligning Consultations with Patient Potential through Geomarketing

The success of sales meetings always depends on whether the content matches the interests and needs of the target audience. Pharmaceutical companies therefore focus their consultations for example on the season (hay fever season) or events (flu epidemic). The prospect of a successful consultation also offers the opportunity to take into account the demographic and socioeconomic data of the physician and pharmacy environment. The environment provides valuable clues about the potential clientele of the doctors’ offices and pharmacies visited by the pharmaceutical sales representative. A geomarketing software (geographic information system, or GIS for short) analyzes the doctor and pharmacy environment based on sociodemographic data.

Pharmaceutical companies can use the results of the analysis to draw conclusions about patients, potential disease patterns, and self-medication behavior. With this knowledge, the pharmaceutical representative can promote suitable products and conduct more targeted consultations. These analyses can also be performed directly on-site shortly before the consultation, as they can be accessed from the cloud on a laptop or tablet PC.

Monitoring the Success of Sales Representative Appointments Through Geomarketing

In order to understand the effectiveness of sales consultations, pharmaceutical companies need to know to what extent the promoted products are actually prescribed. Geomarketing software combines market and address data, making it possible to compare and evaluate actual and potential sales. This allows pharmaceutical companies to analyze and understand the success of measures and consultations in a differentiated and individualized manner.

It is important to note that the GIS uses only sociodemographic data for success monitoring, not prescription data or personalized patient data.

Monitoring and Controlling the Sales Activities of Pharmaceutical Companies Through Geomarketing

Close monitoring and performance reviews are part of everyday life in sales departments. Both the managers and sales representatives need the most up-to-date information possible, for example:

• The development of their sales figures by region (employees), products, and customers
• A comparison with the competition
• The number of customer appointments
• The duration of sales meetings
• Travel times

This allows pharmaceutical companies to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their sales representatives and develop appropriate action plans.

Customized geomarketing software facilitates regular monitoring and controlling. Pharmaceutical companies can access pre-configured analyses and reporting functions at the touch of a button. The so-called drill functions, a type of zoom, allow you to switch between the individual levels of the sales territories and regions at will. This makes it very easy to perform evaluations across the various hierarchical levels.

The special feature of geomarketing software is: It displays all the key performance indicators commonly used in monitoring and controlling on a map. The software colors the respective areas of the map according to the analysis results, for example, in traffic light colors. This color code acts as an early warning system. This is because the colors (red, yellow & green) make it clear at a glance where action is needed, where things are going okay, and where things are going well.

Geomarketing Software Makes Regular Monitoring and Controlling:

• Easier
• More intuitive
• More transparent

This allows the sales team to react more quickly.