Global pharmaceutical company: developing a more customer-centric commercial model to meet rapid market changes

Client ProfileThe client is a multinational pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare company.

Business ChallengeThe health care market is undergoing great and rapid change. The pharmaceutical industry in particular is being impacted, with companies under great pressure to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. New and emerging trends include a looming patent cliff—approximately 40 percent of the top-selling products worldwide will lose their patents by 2014, which will significantly impact the revenues of major companies. There is also a consolidation of providers (doctors, group practices, hospitals, health systems) into larger accounts that have greater influence and economies of scale. Healthcare reform, driven by government policy, is reshaping the delivery of healthcare, from care coordination to reimbursement strategies, impacting behaviors and tactics within the marketplace. Tightening regulations will also impact how healthcare companies operate, from marketing tactics and customer engagement to reporting requirements. In addition, ballooning healthcare costs are seeing the emergence of new strategies and tactics by government, payers, and providers

to reduce costs and shift risk to other players. The client, a leader in the global pharmaceutical market, determined a need to adapt its commercial strategy, moving from a product focused model to a customer focused model to better meet the changing requirements of the market and benefit from emerging opportunities.

How Accenture HelpedAccenture was asked to help transform the client’s company into a customer-centric organization focused on delivering on the needs of its most important customer segment: health care providers—i.e., doctors, group practices, hospitals, health systems—their practices, and their patients. A more customer-centric model would require the client to move to a unified and coordinated approach to its customers, shifting from a “tell and sell” organization to one that could “listen, learn, and solve”. Accenture was selected for the task due to its ability to bring the right skills, knowledge and assets to the engagement, help speed delivery and add certainty to project outcomes.

Accenture worked with key leadership to clearly understand the various issues and develop a robust solution. It conducted primary research with health care providers to understand what would increase effective engagement with pharmaceutical

companies, and what value pharmaceutical companies can add to help them deliver higher quality care. Data analysis helped profile the client’s customers, while primary research was conducted with the client’s sales force and marketers via surveys and interviews to understand their challenges, successes, and the key drivers of results. Accenture then worked closely with experts from across the client organization, conducting multiple workshops to develop solutions and brainstorm new ideas and concepts. The resulting solution, which reaches across a large sales force, brand teams and a number of therapeutic areas, offers the client strategic agility, with the capability to flex and adapt as more customer knowledge is gained. The solution determined by Accenture included a new sales delivery model, performance management tracking, and strategic alignment of leadership across the organization.

The phased approach included:

•Analyzing current state—the internal operating model of the organization, as well as external customer segmentation.

•Developing a solution set that included interim stage gates and operating model changes.

•Creating a robust performance management tracking solution.

With rapid change in the healthcare market impacting organizations in the pharmaceutical industry, the client asked Accenture to assist it to adapt its commercial strategy, making it more customer centric. This will assist the client to meet new competitive challenges and benefit from emerging opportunities.

The cross-functional Accenture team comprised strategy resources to help develop the solution; customer relationship management team members to drive customer segmentation analysis; talent and organizational performance skills to drive organizational change and adoption of the solution; and finance and enterprise performance resources to determine the metrics, create a tracking mechanism, and drive value through performance management. Accenture assets and similar project deployments were leveraged by the Accenture team to help speed implementation and value delivery.

Key elements of the new sales delivery model include:

•Alignment to customer segments. Comprehensive customer analysis was conducted to understand and segment customers by assessing both account type and behavior.

•Creating a dedicated marketing function for each customer segment. This included development of a new Provider Marketing organization responsible for developing customer-centric strategies, value propositions, solutions and engagement channels for the segment; Brand Marketing to continue focusing on brand strategies and portfolio lifecycle management; and collaboration between Provider Marketing and Brand Marketing to ensure brand strategies and messages are tailored to align with each customer segment.

•Creating an account-based selling model with dedicated account teams. Account

managers lead account teams in understanding the customer’s business, identifying and addressing customer needs and opportunities, and coordinating appropriate resources. Sales representatives serve as product experts engaging providers in product and therapeutic discussions. A robust “ways of working” guide provides clarity on roles, responsibilities, collaboration, and coordination.

•Centralized marketing execution and delivery. Ownership of marketing execution and delivery was transitioned from brand teams to a centralized Marketing Operations group to increase efficiency.

•Customer segment profit and loss. Dimensional profitability was incorporated across various levels of the organization allowing the client to determine profitability by customer segment versus traditional product segments. A mobile solution empowers various levels of the organization, from sales force account management to the North America president, to determine specific profitability at an account level.

The project was delivered within the short timeline set by the client. In delivering the solution, Accenture engaged key client teams responsible for helping to develop the overall solution set and for driving ownership and adoption post implementation. Client responsibility assignment models identified critical client “solution owners”, helping to increase adoption and to drive value and program success.

High Performance DeliveredThis customer centric commercial model will help the client better identify and target value for the organization in the constantly changing pharmaceutical environment. This project has laid a foundation to deliver value to the client across multiple dimensions, helping it better understand customers’ changing needs, and deliver tailored offerings to provide the value demanded, as well as helping to increase operational efficiency and financial flexibility.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 281,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$28.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2013. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

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