Tracking your Journey
Strength of Payer Relationships
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When asked to list the most troubling issues facing managed care organizations, 70 percent of responses pointed to factors
that drive account management sales effectiveness. Of these, fully two-thirds are traditional drivers such as time allocation,
sizing, access to formulary decision-makers, and product launch discipline. While these drivers are important, success these
days is increasingly determined by the other one-third—the new factors that include up-to-the-minute knowledge of healthcare
reform and implications for payers and providers; working with new customers such as integrated healthcare providers; and
providing health economic data and analysis that is relevant for customers.
To their credit, managed market organizations recognize the need to address these new sales effectiveness drivers, as evidenced
by our data that demonstrates the current emphasis on building competencies around payer needs, building relationships, customer
focus, and business acumen. Looking to the future, leadership and change management skills will become more important, signaling
a recognition that working with customers to proactively drive results is increasingly important.
Neglecting New Customer Relationships
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While it is heartening that industry professionals are building competencies in line with evolving sales effectiveness drivers,
our experience working with life sciences companies tells us that many are behind the curve in adopting sales behaviors that
lead to results. In part, this is because high-impact account management is an apprenticed skill—it takes time and an experienced
hand to develop a skilled force of account managers.
There is another dynamic at play here. A predominant focus on payer customers perpetuates a "rebate for volume" account management
culture that will remain entrenched until relationships with providers evolve as a consequence of the improved commitment
to partnership. These relationships are lagging, as we will further see.
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