“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” - Albert Einstein (allegedly)
In the last 3-4 years, we’ve seen substantial change in pharma and life sciences; the biggest need for change in decades.
You can invest in upskilling your customer-facing teams and leaders as much as you want, however, if you’re truly honest with yourself, is this providing the transformation you’re seeking?
While customer-facing teams in pharma have reduced in numbers, many of those still working in the roles have old-school behaviours ingrained in them.
There is a solution, however it may not be exactly what you think…
What needs to change to succeed?
In order to keep up with the rapidly changing pharma and life science customer engagement model, there are a few steps that you need to take.
The assumed solution
Many organisations that we talk to on a day-to-day basis see a performance gap and try to plug it with training and skills development.
This makes sense, right? Something’s not going right, train people up and the problem is solved!
Unfortunately, this isn’t exactly how it works. The issue isn’t a skill issue, it’s more deeply rooted than that.
The actual solution
Fortunately, the solution is (somewhat) simple.
As mentioned, the issue is rarely a skill issue – your customer-facing teams know how to engage their customers.
Instead, the issue lies more in mindsets and behaviours. If your people have the right mindset and exhibit the right behaviours, then they’ll perform to their maximum potential.
This principle has a name – entrepreneurialism. When we say this, we don’t mean training your people to run off and start their own businesses. Many entrepreneurs are risk averse, but still demonstrate key skills on behalf of the organisations they work for. Entrepreneurs:
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Identify and act on opportunities
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Take responsibility for their actions and outcomes
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Can better overcome challenges
Access to customers is becoming harder and harder. Your customer-facing teams are now spending more time talking to specialists rather than primary care staff. You need to speak their language, and approach them in the right way.
Here’s what needs to change:
The new approach to customer engagement
In order to succeed in the new landscape, customer-facing teams need to move away from leading with their brand, and focus more on customer engagement excellence over all else.
At the end of the day, this new approach is not about convincing a specialist that they need the medication/equipment you’re offering (they already know this), it’s about providing genuine value to your customers that meets their unique requirements.
Customers might understand that they need your brand, but do they need you? Do they understand the value that you bring beyond your brand?
If they’re choosing between two very similar solutions from two very similar organisations, the difference will boil down to who has provided the better customer experience (CX)– you must ensure that this is you.
This is why the entrepreneurial mindset is so important. You need to ensure that your teams are driven to succeed, and this drive starts with the right mindset, every time.
Someone with an entrepreneurial mindset will do everything in their power to build consistently brilliant levels of customer engagement, and will always strive to provide the best possible experience (CX) and outcomes.
How can you nurture entrepreneurial mindsets?
We understand that it’s much easier to say rather than do in this instance.
You have three options:
- Do nothing and carry on regardless, crossing your fingers for something to change.
- Make assumptions about those with the best mindsets and nurture them in the hope that you’re right.
- Conduct a thorough assessment of your people, identify those with the behaviours and mindsets required to ignite and inspire customer excellence, and then nurture them with confidence.
It can seem a little overwhelming, which is why we’ve created our Entrepreneurial Edge Evaluation (E3) – a proven system for identifying and nurturing entrepreneurial behaviours and mindsets that draws on our collective decades of experience in pharma and life sciences.
E3 evaluates 14 key behaviours and mindsets, identifying your key performers and providing bespoke recommendations for how you can improve, both on an individual basis, and team-wide.
Desirable mindsets vary from organisation to organisation, so we’ll work closely with you to ensure that you’re optimally nurturing behaviours across your customer-facing teams.