Outsource marketing consultancy,
which has become even more popular after the pandemic,
is a breath of fresh air for healthcare sector executives who are overwhelmed by budget and profitability pressures.
With the crazy increase in drug prices and costs, profitability has become more important than ever in the healthcare industry. One single example shows the entire picture; we have started to chase calculations that we never did in the past since even the cost of a product manager's car has become equal to the junior marketer's salary of the team.
So much has changed in our lives ...
Only fifteen years ago, our sole agenda was to work in compliance with the ethical code to get more preferred in prescriptions. Now our job is all about ROI*.
Frequent questions and comments that we frequently hear from our general managers:
• Do you think your sales forecast is realistic while it is clear that the awareness you will create by spending this massive budget will go to the market leader?
• You are bringing me all kinds of expensive projects, all aimed at raising awareness. Let's find a project that brings in quick money, at least we will increase profitability.
• You have planned a launch for me, its cost is half of your annual turnover target. Thanks to this, we will repeatedly explain the reason of our low margin to the regional management every month.
At the end of the day, we got used to acting by considering the contribution of every penny we spent to the profit. Eventually it reflected on our team structures. The concept of marketing managers disappeared in many companies, product managers are linked to directors; directors took on sales and marketing responsibilities together. Consequently, we got engaged with agencies because we had fewer people:
Creative agencies, digital agencies, strategic agencies ...
This time product managers had to reduce the strategic time they spent on IQVIA analyses, market research, field visits, opinion leader relationship management and so on and had to allocate more time to agency management.
Well, who will do the strategic work, which is the most important? For God's sake, who is going to benefit from the business plan written at midnight? Numerous revisions, requests for projects from agencies...
Then the problem created its own solution, a new option emerged:
Outsource Marketing Consulting.
Outsource marketing has always existed. Both in the world and in Turkey. What's new here is the emergence of a specific structure for the healthcare sector.
Let's say you have a launch, and you don't want to appoint a new product manager before the product starts to make a profit - due to the costs, of course. Or maybe you already have a product manager who is already looking after two products - how much burden can one person carry? Maybe you took on the preliminary work yourself, but now the midnight analyses are left to you. The outsourced marketing consultant comes into play here.
They take the load off you and carry out the work smoothly with a strategic perspective without burdening you. It is also less costly compared to hiring a new product manager.
So who are these outsourced marketers? How should you evaluate them based on what criteria when choosing them?
Here are the 5 important features of the right outsourced marketer!
1- EXPERIENCE
The basic factor, of course, is to have marketing experience. As you know, we are talking about healthcare sector marketing. There are many regulations, ethical codes, compliance, medical approval, and medico-marketing perspectives. It will give us the breath of fresh air we are looking for that this person has launched various products in acute-chronic-OTC, and dermocosmetic therapeutic areas, has been raised in this environment, and has been tempered by multinational companies' perspectives. This person's experience will help the industry manager to easily understand and create the desired work and sometimes suggest methods that he/she has never thought of.
2- NETWORK
Marketing is a multi-dimensional job. When we want to enter a new field or grow our existing portfolio, we need a lot of information. These businesses we obtain from various agencies, agents, and companies put us into such a diverse procurement process that we sometimes get tired of it.
For example, I need to make a website, and I need to request proposals from 3 digital agencies. I requested one from the agency I know, and I am meeting the other two for the first time. They wanted to come and meet us at the company with coffee and tea. They talked about themselves for 1.5 hours with a cheerful and fun approach, half-business, and half-conversation. After talking about their past work and projects, we requested a proposal, and they left. The same thing happened with the other company. The proposals came in, they were high. I called and asked for a discount from everyone. They wanted to introduce me to someone from the design team. He is more knowledgeable and can answer my questions better, so he can tell me the budget more clearly. The technical guy said let's talk online. We arranged another meeting. Then we agreed to have my website done by the second agency that I didn't know but liked very much. The procurement process kicked in. Documents came and went, and the company registration was completed. According to the company procedure, I can issue payment to the firm I work with for the first time in at least 60 days. I turned to the agency. They said there are upfront costs we need to make, let's take a % of advance payment. I spent hours on this before even starting the job.
On the other hand, my outsourcing marketing consultant has her own team. We need a website. You know our priorities; we need it designed, approved, and delivered in a month. And the marketing consultant completes the job without using even a minute more of your time than necessary.
The critical thing here is that the consultant has strong industry connections. When necessary, he/she should be able to meet your needs by obtaining support from his/her own team or collaborating with other institutions. You should feel like you have an outsourcing marketing team for market research, communication campaigns, special projects, website, data analysis, etc.
3- DIGITAL EXPERTISE
Digital channels are now an important part of our business plans. In the past, the only place we reached our target audiences who were patients/consumers/healthcare needs was the healthcare professional side. We settled around doctors or pharmacists. Now, digital channels exist as a separate area. Our target audience visits the online world as well as the pharmacy when they go to the pharmacy.
In recent years, there have been directives from the global management of many international companies...
"Send the website advertising budget / performance evaluation"
- Okay, but how much should I spend?
- Which one is more profitable?
- I can't even remember the abbreviations they use in digital...
- My digital agency sends me reports in bundles, but I don't know what to make of them.
- Our regional managers are constantly asking about digital KPIs**. While our project KPIs are clear, how can I measure their digital reflection?
At this point, if my outsource marketing consultant is knowledgeable in the digital world and competent enough to direct traditional marketing channels, it's fantastic. We can say that they make a contribution to our entire business plan.
4- GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
The higher we look at any subject, the more we see - no surprises there. Country marketing management, regional management, global project management. The more diverse countries and markets are involved, the more exposed we are to the questions asked there.
Seeing the solutions to the problems in those environments adds to one's knowledge. Moreover, if the team you work with in consultancy has international connections and is involved in global projects, they can share the knowledge they bring from there with you.
A marketing consultant who can guide you and add vision to your business can really do justice to their job and give you more than your starting goal.
5- CURIOSITY
The first four of the 5 qualities of an outsourced marketing consultant covered more technical characteristics. The fifth is a character trait. The common feature of successful marketers is curiosity!
The reality we all know is that:
Only when we truly and deeply understand our customers' needs - even if they don't tell us directly - can we create truly successful campaigns. The essence of marketing is to find a solution to everything that addresses the needs of the customer.
"Where is this need hidden?"
"Do we always need to do expensive market research that takes months?"
"If I ask my field team to collect a survey of 100 people, with 10 doctors each, wouldn't that be enough?"
The foundation is curiosity. If your outsource marketing consultant has a deep and sincere curiosity in their character, they will ask the right questions. In fact, they will ask a lot of questions, some of which will open up new channels and lead us to interesting information."
Author: Esra Yazıcı Seferoğlu