Case Study 1 (of 6): The Launch of an Antibiotic

Sales Management saw this launch of their new antibiotic as a battle of having to do

“more than the competitors”. They were referring to the share of voice, i.e. number of calls or recollection of core messages among physicians compared to their competitors.

The physician target group for the product is identified as general practitioners. In addition, a handful of key experts, referred to as “gurus” in the antibiotic field were also targeted. The reason for including these experts as an initial target group together with the general practitioners is that the new product had only a few recommendations from the different counties; but needed to have many counties’ recommendations to be successful. The process for getting a recommendation was de-centralized and in every major town, different experts influenced the local recommendation. The need to have the experts’ support in being considered as first-line treatment was very important if the messages were to be effectively delivered to the general practitioners. (Type of Product) The product is considered fairly new to the market as well as new to the company.

However, the company has experience of the therapeutic area, so there is no need for a steep learning curve. (Market Dynamics) The product is launched into a very competitive market. The market is seen as stable, certain, predictable and with slow change. The team agreed that both the type of product and the market dynamics are influential for formulating a launch strategy.

When the launch team agree on a marketing theme for launching the product as a first choice recommendation, the campaigns and marketing and sales material are developed around this theme. The developed theme and story resonate well in the sales force. The market, in which the product is being launched, had been identified as having a great need of supporting material in the field, e.g. such as books. This material enforces the theme of the sales discussions with the physicians and generates access to more sales meetings.

(New Product Adoption) The most important factor for generating commitment in the sales force is to get the sales personnel emotionally attached to the success of the product.

“You need the sales representative to emotionally believe in the product and its success in the market, as it will show in every conversation with a customer, and if not shown, the sales call might actually hurt more than it helps”. The sales force consists of fairly young and active people. They are considered “hungry to sell”, so there is no perception that generating effort is an issue. The team also agrees that even though this might have been seen as an issue, the emotional component still far exceeds in importance. The emotional commitment is seen as generating the necessary effort. Product discussions among sales representatives are not encouraged, as the management want to ensure that sales personnel “stays on the message”.

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The company’s aim is to have and keep on generating a team spirit and a strong sense of belonging to the company throughout the launch. This team spirit generating effort is continuously integrated in all aspects of internal communications and interactions. The continuous message about being better than the competitors is primarily driven by the sharing of market data and success stories in the field. The company wants to be perceived as having a flat organization with delegated decision making. However, in this context, control mechanisms in the sales force are also perceived as very important.

(Sales-force behavior control) The individual sales representative’s actions, especially when launching a new product, are considered to be of great importance. They should clearly be aware that they are accountable for their actions, regardless of whether their results are achieved or not. Also, the sales manager monitors them to make sure that set procedures are followed as this is seen as important for a successful launch. (Sales force outcome control) Incentives are not seen as very important for driving new launch success for this launch. Instead, the launch teams are allowed to set up internal sales competitions to generate excitement in the sales force. When setting the goals for a sales representative, it is seen as very important to follow up and to make sure that the person does explain why those performance goals were not met, if that turns out to be the case.

(Supervisory context) Given the contradictory situation of, on the one hand, the company’s wish for a perceived flat organization and an open company culture with delegated decision making and, on the other hand, the close monitoring of the sales representative’s behavior and actions, it is very important for sales managers to build trust among their representatives. Building trust between the sales manager and sales representative is perceived to be of outmost importance, especially in dialogues and discussions around difficulties at work. The ability of a sales manager to carefully listen to the sales representative and instill confidence by encouraging free expression of difficulties is seen as very important. Further, it is seen as crucial to a successful launch, to ensure that sales personnel understand the rationale for launching the new product.

This covered all angles - the rationale from the overall company perspective, as well as that of the customers, patients and other stakeholders. The only importance of training is that the sales representatives spend significant time on the new product’s literature. The team also agrees that quantity of training is more important than quality, because it generates the right language appropriate in the therapeutic area and around the customers.

Much training is carried out, both within selling skills and product-specific education.

The sales managers are also encouraged to develop their own adapted educational sessions. However, in general, compared to some of the other factors driving the successful launch, training is not seen as crucial.

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The sales manager’s effort in observing in the field is seen as important, helping them to stay updated about market conditions as well as around the control mechanisms that they are asked to monitor. The sales managers frequently travel in the field with each representative.

(Sales force organizational design) Each sales manager has seven to ten sales representatives in his/her team. The sales force is organized according to geographical areas. There are no indications or thoughts as to whether the organizational set-up would matter to the success of the launch or not. (Other) However, the number of sales representatives is seen as important. During the launch the team has a sense that there are sufficient sales representatives at hand that they do not need to worry about the size of their sales force too much. Furthermore, it is emphasized that the sales representatives carry several old products and are expected to sell these as well. Having the new product first in every sales call is seen as being essential to drive success.

Desirable characteristics for a salesperson are being seen as a driven individual who adheres to procedures and having a general good appearance and manners. It is perceived as most important that he/she solves problems in a systematic way according to set guidelines. Experience and career success, whether in the past or in the future, are seen as less important. The freedom to venture outside procedures is not desirable from a sales management viewpoint and the sales representatives are closely monitored. Learning orientation is good but not necessary. It is enough to learn the overall therapeutic area and the agreed messages. It is clearly stated that positive relationship building with customers is always important. The company sees all people as performance-oriented.

(Performance in Selling a New Product) Exceeding sales growth targets is the key measure for success. Other important measures are market share and share of voice. Sales management wants to always be on top of any research measuring share of voice during the launch. Also seen as important is the fulfillment of the objectives by the sales managers and the means by which sales representatives assist in the fulfillment of these.

Profit is also measured.

Retrospectively, everyone in the team concluded that it was a successful launch, based on the fact that the sales targets were exceeded and the objectives set for the sales representatives and sales managers were met in the majority of cases.

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