Introduction
E-detailing isn’t a new concept; it has been around for quite some time now. However, the significance of it is being understood especially well after the COVID-19 pandemic.
E-detailing makes it more efficient and easier to pitch new MedTech products or services to customers, saving the healthcare professionals’ time. In research conducted by Reuters, it was found that E-detailing marketing helped sales reps to complete three times as many calls as a field sales rep.
Pharmaceutical companies can enjoy a wide range of benefits by incorporating E-detailing into their marketing and sales strategies. Let’s take a look at a few trends before discussing the benefits.
E-Detailing Trends
Consider E-detailing as an online interaction that is highly engaging, typically 6 to 8 minutes in length. It is a compelling, interactive way to deliver a pitch for a product that has the potential to shape future sales.
A Reuters study revealed that E-detailing steadily began to grow between 2001 and 2005 when more physicians were inclined to adopt it than not. However, the rise soon reached a plateau. However, the trends currently point at increased and accelerated adoption of the internet and digital channels in healthcare, leading to the creation of a conducive ecosystem for E-detailing to work its magic.
Today, about 70% of physicians access the internet for practice-related needs and information. Accessibility to high-speed networks is now commonplace; E-detailing doesn’t need a specialized setup anyway. It opens up the global boundaries for outreach and connection – something every brand looks forward to. It is only a matter of time before this sales and marketing method becomes widely practiced and accepted; it may even become the new norm.
Top 5 Benefits of E-Detailing
E-detailing is rapidly emerging as the preferred way for physicians to be shown new products, and also for sales representatives, as it helps them save time and get more done.
Every pharmaceutical company can reap the following 5 benefits of E-detailing to pitch the latest advancements, products, and services to the medical community.
Better Accessibility
With a good E-detailing tool, information regarding a product becomes infinitely more accessible. Physicians can gain access to the content digitally by using any device – be it tablets, mobile phones, laptops, or desktops. This setup is especially helpful in remote locations where field marketing can prove to be costly, time-consuming, and not very productive.
The other way around, sales reps also get improved accessibility to a network of medical practitioners without having to leave their desks. A simple video interaction can be set up in moments for an E-detailing session. This paramount convenience takes accessibility to new levels – cross-border pitches can also be arranged with just a phone call.
Well-Structured Pitches
The best sales pitch is the one that clearly communicates what it is trying to sell. Structuring a pitch well depends a lot upon improvising it according to audience preferences of content consumption, which a good E-detailing tool is capable of handling. Customizations in pitch styles to suit sales reps’ preferences, one-command structure changes to quickly modify a pitch as required, etc., are just a couple of examples of what a good E-detailer is capable of.
Structuring a pitch well is the first step towards solidifying the possibility of a conversion. E-detailing helps you do just that in a few simple steps.
Encourages Interaction
Good E-detailers come equipped with handy tools that promote interaction and engagement between healthcare professionals and sales representatives. With tools like text chats, feedback forms, surveys, video conferencing, audio, meeting notes, etc., it becomes much more engaging to be a part of an E-detailing session.
In addition, it is possible to save highlights and notes from E-detailing sessions, making the information about the product more accessible and readily available for viewing. This makes it easier to get in touch with the sales representatives when the contact information is available on the E-detailing material.
Not to forget, interaction is elementary for a sale to come through.
Savings
The most important and sought-after benefit of E-detailing is the cost and time savings that come with it. Field visits need many different kinds of expenditure – fuel, transportation, meals, etc., while an E-detailing session only requires a stable network connection and a computer.
Cost savings are seen in the form of not having to pay in-person visits to healthcare professionals and their institutions. E-detailing also helps save time, both on the sales representative’s and the physician’s part. A typical E-detailing session requires 8 minutes maximum and can be arranged through the office. A field visit, however, requires travel time, waiting time, pitch time, and then some to wrap up and head back to base.
Cohesive, Integrated, and Unified
E-detailing helps to maintain the democratization of data related to a sales pitch, in addition to keeping it all in a single repository. The data pertaining to each pitch stays integrated across various channels that it was pitched across, making it easier to access and derive insights from.
A cohesivity is thus maintained in the entire sales and marketing ecosystem by keeping the same dataset regarding a pitch available to all the teams. A stable connection is established that enables the sales teams to tailor an end-to-end, seamless consumer journey from the beginning of a pitch to the conclusion of a sale.
Conclusion
E-detailing sessions are capable of communicating the properties and characteristics of a product in a much better way than a physical meet-up. As sales representatives can tailor a pitch according to their audience and their own marketing style, E-detailers are emerging as a highly flexible alternative to field visits.
Moreover, E-detailing helps pharmaceutical companies gather data about product feedback – something that is necessary to understand what the professionals of this industry are seeking and what needs to improve in a product.
Thus, getting a good E-detailer goes a long way in raising the bottom line figures at the end of the day.
