The Future of Field Excellence
The future of field excellence is being rewritten right now.
Is your business part of the story?
To find out if your organisation is rising to the challenge, take a look through our executive summary below and download the full report to read more.
Research Methodology
To identify the key trends reshaping Field Teams of the future, our healthcare experts worked with a diverse mix of over 70 leaders from 21 leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies, who work across functions (commercial, medical affairs, market access, and L&D) and operate both locally and globally.
5 key trends.
In the drive to make good on the promise of patient-led customer-centricity, here are the key trends redefining the future of field excellence:
1. Hyper-personalized engagement
Tailoring HCP interaction to unique individual needs, using omnichannel and data-driven insights to deliver solutions aligned with patient care goals.
2. Field teams with strategic acumen
Raising the baseline, so all field teams are empowered to think more strategically about business and stakeholder goals.
3. Data-informed customer engagement
Teams using data well to gain insights will discover the ability to intelligently predict healthcare trends and HCP needs and update their engagement strategies to suit.
4. Cross-functional partnerships
Occasional collaboration is no longer enough. There’s a growing need for true cross-functional partnerships that amplify impact, unify teams, and deliver highly coordinated engagement across the customer experience.
5. Increasing requirement for tech fluency
Successful use of generative technology can deliver vastly more impactful HCP interactions. But the healthcare industry is slow to adopt and the regulatory landscape is highly complex.
1. Hyper-personalized engagement.
We still need to crack omnichannel.
Despite their size and reach, pharmaceutical businesses are failing to deliver personalized omnichannel experiences.
Just 36%
Only 23%
What you can do right now:
- Invest in rigorous customer segmentation and understanding to develop an effective cross-functional customer engagement strategy
- Clearly define what omnichannel means for your business
- Align your capability frameworks to your definition of omnichannel customer engagement
- Upskill your teams with omnichannel training that directly connects to stakeholder needs
- Rethink incentive structures to reward best practices
2. Field teams with strategic acumen.
It’s time to up our commercial game.
To deliver success, field teams need to be all-rounders who understand the bigger business picture and deliver what customers need quickly and effectively.
68%
“I believe the traditional rep [role] is definitely dead. There is a role for account management, but I think in the healthcare world… people don't want to be sold to…”
What you can do right now:
- Develop a core skills model that outlines the shared skillsets all field functions need to drive commercial success for the business and reward best practice
- Cultivate broader team understanding of how the payer landscape impacts HCP decision-making
- Invest in helping your teams gain the mindsets, skills, and knowledge they need to become effective “all-rounders”
- Intentionally set aside time for relevant training and development
3. Data-informed customer engagement.
Got your crystal ball yet?
Businesses that collect and best use rich data-streams have the power to intelligently predict customer needs and deliver right at the moment of need.
Only 38%
“We still need sales data, but we need much more healthcare-based metrics.”
What you can do right now:
- Incorporate non-sales focused success metrics (for example, quality of interaction or other behavior changes like commitment to trial or prescription)
- Optimize use of data across sales, medical, and market access to intelligently predict future customer needs
- Ensure there is process in place to review the accuracy and effectiveness of insights in the field, and update engagement best practices accordingly
- Invest in skills training around how to more effectively capture data-led insights and use them to tailor HCP conversations
4. Cross-functional partnerships.
Let’s chase partnerships, not just sales targets.
To be truly successful, field teams need to move away from a traditional customer/advisor model, becoming long-term strategic partners who work with HCPs to deliver better patient outcomes.
Only 23%
81%
What you can do right now:
- Build your teams around HCP and patient needs, through shared strategies and account planning
- Develop and deliver a clear vision of cross-functional working and HCP partnership best practices for your organization
- Drive greater and earlier collaboration, especially between market access and other functions
- Incentivize teams instead of individuals
5. Increasing requirement for tech fluency.
We’re falling behind the tech-curve.
AI and machine learning offer the power to transform customer engagement and deliver vastly more impactful HCP interactions. However, whilst there’s plenty of talk about tech advancement, the pace of change is slow.
Only 13%
“AI is overpromised right now… we’re not close to that yet. Maybe in 3-4 years, but not yet.”
What you can do right now:
- Choose your tools carefully, and look outside pharma for best practice in emerging technology
- Don’t just invest in tech, explain the value and upskill your teams in how to use it effectively, and share best practice use-cases to
encourage broader uptake - Deal with the compliance issues head on by scheduling regular open conversation and training on compliant use
- Ensure your people have a safe space where they can experiment with new technologies (and encourage them to do it)
Download the full report.
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