Health sector managers, who could not find the opportunity to train their teams with the shrinking budgets, found the solution in outsource marketing consultants.
"The industry wasn't always like this... Once we went to Hawaii for a cycle meeting. Come on, Hawaii from Turkey! Imagine such richness..."
I didn't live up this gaudiness. The coolest place we went together to was Athens. Although looking at it from today's perspective, it was a big deal to gather the whole company and take them to Europe for a meeting. It turns out that we will not be able to provide basic product manager trainings, let alone meetings abroad.
Basic product manager training. It's a must, isn't it... Not at all.
The problem created its own opportunity, the sector met outsource product management.
In 2009, when the state's health policy started to change, the family medicine system was introduced. At that time, some special groups of medicines that could only be prescribed by specialists started to be preferred by family physicians. When I say preference, of course, I mean reimbursement in the Social Security Institution system when prescribed.
Then the prescription impact of 25,000 family physicians across the country started to strain the state's reimbursement budget and boom:
We woke up one morning and the first price cut was announced: 40%!
A 40% cut in product price means a 40% reduction in company turnover. No one is suddenly laying off their crews, giving back their cars, or lowering the rent on the company premises. At first, not our daily lives, but the profitability reports we gave to global management changed.
After 3 months, they announced another cut, this time 28%.
Of course, family doctors were not the only factor. Policy shifts were affecting every aspect of the health sector, wreaking havoc on the budget, making it difficult to maintain a budget in the second half of the year. We have come to expect cuts in July of every year. Companies have started to make drastic budget cuts in order to maintain acceptable levels of profitability:
· The profitability levels of business units were re-evaluated, business units were merged or canceled
· In order to maintain acceptable profitability levels, field teams were downsized, and the model of cars, which were considered a symbol of prestige in the industry, gradually began to be downgraded
· Multi-national companies that could not keep up withdrew from the country
· As Marketing, we have started to reserve some of our annual promotional budgets. If there is a new cut announcement in the second half of the year, my promotional budget will be cut, and we started to keep money on the side so that I would not be left in the middle with the promises I made to the teachers.
The sphere of influence is wide. We were repeatedly shocked by the decisions announced. We were all worried about losing our jobs. As the classic saying goes, what doesn't kill makes you stronger... That's exactly what happened. As marketers, we considered short passing in tight spaces as our new normal, we knew how to write multiple scenarios and work on separate sales forecasts & budgets for each. From more complex audience planning to segmentation, from catchy messages to much more parsimonious meeting plans with high returns, we became very creative in many topics.
And then what happened?
New marketers have not been as lucky as we were, neither in terms of theoretical training nor on-the-job learning, as the industry has no money to spare for the next generation.
I entered the sector in 2006. When I found my place after 2 years in the marketing support functions, I started to manage a 13-million-pound turnover product that was put in my lap by the company. How can anyone trust such a young, inexperienced person to entrust a job, right? And yhis happened in one of the biggest companies in the sector. The second question is, how can someone so young and inexperienced be so successful at these things?
The answer is hidden in education.
In those years, we had basic marketing training three times in Dubai with an international team.
Then we got involved in international case studies of marketing teams and fed off each other a lot. Budgets were flexible, we were presenting our annual business plans abroad together with all Middle East and Africa regional countries, and we were feeding off each other's work with other product managers attending the meetings. Not only that, some of us were sent to the world's best management schools under company sponsorship at the advanced stages of our careers. For example, I went to Wharton Business Scholl, US to complete the marketing academy program.
When companies stopped investing, the vision that came with all these trainings and meetings also stopped.
And then what?
The new generation of management candidates who were withdrawn from the field to the center to be trained were left to their own devices. They groped their way forward, but the pressure of expectation was the same. It was as if there was an avalanche-prone, rocking rock on top of every drug.
"If you don't perform, your product will be scrapped. And you're out of the wheel with the product."
Check the stress, they are trying to learn to market by themselves, they are trying to meet high expectations, and they are adapting to the world of regulation, which they will continue to learn for years. In this environment, there is no room for error. The number of positions has dwindled, product managers depend on directly to directors and sometimes to general managers. There is no one to buffer when there is tension. Well, some of these prospective marketers did not persist in the sector, but spread to different fields.
There are fewer and fewer marketers left in the market. Basic supply-demand balance: experienced marketers' salary expectations have increased. It's normal, right?
At the same time, we all feel our country's economic predicament deeply. Leasing vehicle costs on one side, private insurances on the other. Costs have risen to unbelievable levels. The annual cost to the company of the product manager you want to invite to your team has reached three times his/her salary.
"It was at this point that a spontaneous solution was born. Special outsource product directorate for the health sector!"
It was at this point that a spontaneous solution was born. Special outsource product directorate for the health sector!,
Outsource marketing consultancy is a model that exists both in Turkey and around the world. What is critical here is that the changes in the healthcare sector over the last 15 years have affected the way of doing business.
I agree with the idea that marketing is marketing everywhere; a good marketer increases market share everywhere, regardless of the industry. On the other hand, it takes time to learn the regulations of the healthcare sector.
A marketer who is bombarded with questions from ethical compliance, legal or medical departments, which he/she perceives as inspectors, asking if he/she can do this or that, may feel confined. Health sector
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