Getting Started

An assessment of KOL maturity must start with a clear-eyed review of current KOL practices. This will help identify the gaps in the system. Defining goals along with a thorough self-assessment will also let a company know what lies ahead in creating an effective KOL management plan. Here's an example of a self-assessment inventory based on some best practices in the industry:

1. Processes:

Do all parties agree to it?

Is it compliant?

2. Metrics and Business Intelligence:

What are the objectives a company is striving for?

How can they be evaluated via metrics?

Where is the data available?

What evaluation tools are required?

3. Governance:

Is a governance program in place? Does it have an official charter and reporting structure?

If there is no governance, does a governance structure exist that could accommodate crossing KOL management functions?

4. Systems and Infrastructure:

What tools are currently used for engaging KOLs?

What resources are available?

A company must then decide who will conduct this assessment and how it will be evaluated. Once questions have been answered for each category, an assessor can decide how the answers translate into a maturity assessment along a spectrum from "Emerging" to "Mature." The chart at left details how a completed inventory of questions can be laid out into Maturity Matrix.

An evaluation system similar to this model allows companies to see the strengths and weaknesses of their current KOL management plan. As a result, it highlights how far along a company's KOL Maturity Matrix is, and consequently reveals what is necessary for the KOL management plan to reach desired levels of efficiency and productivity. This knowledge opens the door for effective KOL management, the benefits of which are enormous.

Effective KOL management gives a company a stronger advocacy platform, provides better MSL performance management, optimizes the use of internal resources, and makes compliance easy.

A KOL initiative developed after making a maturity assessment will generate the right mix of tools and strategies to efficiently satisfy the multi-faceted functions of KOL management. Depending on how far along the KOL Maturity Matrix track you are, remember that each KOL management plan will differ per company. The most important step is to begin and begin correctly. Otherwise, you might find your company caught "in the matrix."

Jim Zuffoletti is president of openQ. He can be reached at jimz@openq.com

Joel Mezistrano is senior VP of professional services at openQ and coordinator of the company's Best Practices initiative. He can be reached at joelm@openq.com

Alex MacMorran is the communications director for openQ. She can be reached at alexm@openq.com