Product launch strategy: How to smash your sales targets

The pharmaceutical industry in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic has faced one of the most challenging years globally in terms of operations, scope and budget in all business areas.

One of the vital elements for companies in the healthcare sector is the successful launch of new products, but achieving sales targets is a difficult task. According to a study by McKinsey & Company, approximately 66% of launches fail to meet sales expectations. 

The outbreak of Covid-19 has also had a positive impact on pharmaceutical companies by giving them the opportunity to accelerate their digital transformation processes, adopting the use of digital tools in their processes and creating new channels of communication with HCPs. Now is the time to leverage these channels to prepare for the launch of new drugs that were disrupted by the pandemic.

What elements will keep in mind? Nowadays, product launches cannot be as they used to be, so the main areas to focus on in the "new normal" are:

• 100% digital product launch, applying a hybrid sales model.
• Mobile first strategy to reach stakeholders anytime, anywhere.
• Impact through unique, interactive and summarised content.
• Increase the frequency of impacts in a non-intrusive way.

At Compettia we have experience working with the TOP 10 most relevant pharmaceutical companies in the world and we have developed together with them different programs to guarantee the success of their product launches. For this reason, we have collected the main considerations to achieve the best results throughout the product life cycle. Let's get started! 

#1 - Pre-launch: get ready for success!

The success of your next product launch starts before the big day and depends on organisation, planning and execution throughout the process. Accompanying the medical area, marketing and sales force with specialised and immediate training is key. How can you achieve this? You will keep in mind that dense content is boring, does not help to capture the interest of the audience and ends up losing strength.

Both sales reps and doctors themselves need "easy" material to absorb in order to adopt it quickly and in a hybrid way (remote and F2F). A survey conducted by McKinsey in Europe shows that the average number of face-to-face contacts between HCPs and pharmaceutical sales representatives is 70% lower than before the pandemic. This underlines the importance of keeping delegates continuously updated with valuable information and building new digital channels to reach HCPs.

In addition, 85% of physicians and healthcare professionals expect the most common sales role to be hybrid over the next three years. Through Atrivity's gamified solution, you will have the ability to reach more audiences such as pharmacy staff, healthcare professionals and logistics professionals through their personal mobile phones - we all have one right? Moreover, thanks to the gamified questions they will learn all the relevant information in an engaging, innovative, fun and... retaining all the knowledge!

#2 - Product launch: it's time to break it down

Once all the previous training and communication work has been done, it is essential that you promote the launch of your product through an omnichannel mix strategy. In the past, training on the new product and strategy was carried out in person at congresses (national, international and regional) or symposiums. Today, doctors do not have the time to attend these events, so it is mandatory for the pharmaceutical industry to introduce a new digital omni-channel model to increase the frequency of impacts, engagement and measure awareness throughout the process.

How is it possible to implement such a strategy? 

According to a study 51% of the time HCPs spend online is on their mobile devices and 4 out of 5 use their smartphone daily. Healthcare professionals don't have time to attend webinars or remote visits because of their workload. What's the key? Being able to convert your interactions with HCPs into a mobile app format that continuously feeds them with valuable information, while ensuring the correct absorption of the content. At first glance it may seem like a complicated mission... but our experts have the solution: 

Atrivity's mobile app allows HCPs to conduct the necessary training on new products, treatments or current news anytime, anywhere, providing the ideal flexibility. With as little as 5 minutes a day, HCPs and sales reps will spend time reading the micro-content and answer all the challenges associated with each piece of content. And not only that! Your internal staff will also enjoy all these advantages to reach the sales target in your organisation. 

#3 - Maturation: reach your product's sales peak

Don't make the mistake of ending product training after the launch - keep doing it! Over time, the forgetting curve increases and both internal and external staff end up forgetting much of the information. Gamification is an efficient training methodology for learning and retaining information, minimising knowledge gaps. Take advantage of the maturation period to increase the skills of your staff and channel. 

Thanks to Atrivity's gamified app and its intelligent repetition algorithm, players re-answer the most failed questions, helping to refresh the information from the repetition. It is a way of relaunching the product by refreshing the knowledge acquired in the previous stage and communicating new details of the product. Another advantage is that through the answers on the content it is possible to detect gaps in knowledge and reinforce them later in a personalised way. 

Now we know that HCPs want to receive interesting content in an easy-to-consume format, but that's not all! If your goal is to engage them over a long period of time, use game dynamics to allow for increased peer-to-peer interactions. How? Quite simply. Atrivity also allows players to send each other challenges and/or create individual and team rankings, bringing out the competitive gene in all of us. Nobody likes to lose, right? 

#4 - During the decline... stay competitive!

Last but not least! During the product decline phase, don't stop staying competitive. It is the ideal time to reinforce with competitive arguments using new tools that motivate your sales force and engage your HCPs at the same time. Gamifying the post-launch content will provide you with a detailed report on the evolution of product awareness and compare it with the sales result obtained. 

You know the best thing about it? After each stage each user will keep all the contents stored in the Atrivity digital library as a reference to review and refresh the product information at any time. Gamification has become a solid and effective solution that adapts to the new needs of the pharmaceutical industry. 

Atrivity team’s conclusions

Recent drug launches have under performed and have not reached expected sales. We cannot launch products like we used to. The strategy must be hybrid to satisfy the needs and demands of our clients.

New launches must:

• Overcome restrictions with new communication channels.
• Adapt digital content and resources to leverage technology across all stakeholders as part of your strategy.
• Educate the audience on omnichannel use by tailoring campaigns to their preferred devices
• Innovate in the digital commitment of the client to stand out and differentiate itself.
• Personalisation and enablement of digitization will be critical to a successful launch in this new environment.
• Measure engagement, impacts and knowledge retention instantly to make quick strategic decisions