DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SERIES - Adopting omnichannel engagement

When COVID-19 locked us down in 2020, the pharmaceutical industry rushed to buy digital tools so that their teams could continue to work remotely. What many organisations failed to do was help their teams transform and adopt omnichannel.

Over the course of the year, I’ve been interviewing successful global pharma leaders about this topic and found they all focus on the people behind the 'tools'.

For my final Digital Transformation Series article of the year, I had the pleasure of chatting with Chris Wade, AVP of Strategic Solutions at Exeevo.

Please enjoy the interview!

I first met Chris on a Reuters webinar and we finally met in person in Nice several months ago. Chris is recognised in the life sciences industry as a leader in digital transformation and he has a bundle of energy and passion for his work. His prime focus at Exeevo is around building next-generation platforms. He says, “It's a really interesting time to be in this space, there's so much conversation about how we're working in the industry with our customers to deliver impactful engagement"

Chris was originally born in Australia, funnily enough, I have visited the small town where he is originally from as I have family that live there. We have much in common when it comes to our opinions on digital transformation in the pharma world and it was so great to get Chris’ insight during our interview.

I am curious about your career path and want to know what made you choose the life sciences industry?

The start of my journey was a bit opportunistic! I was working for a small software company in Melbourne in the communications space back in the early days of mobile messaging but I wanted a change. Through my parents, I have a British passport, so I thought why not join the Australians in the UK?

I spoke to a recruitment professional in the June of 1997 who was aware of a job at Dendrite and asked if I could move to the UK in two weeks’ time. Five minutes later I had booked my flights!

What drew you to the companies you've worked for?

When I joined Dendrite, it was still the era of huge sales forces and the use of technology was all about managing the organisation. Essentially, this complex software was in place but there was never any consideration for the customer. They were profiles on a screen and reps were carrying a bag full of marketing leaflets from meeting to meeting.

In the early 2000s, the first digital detailing materials became available. These were always very disconnected and I saw it as a potential area that companies like Dendrite to move into but there was a lot of resistance. I found that really frustrating and it was that frustration that has defined my career path ever since.

I joined Veeva in 2014, they had some really interesting new products in the multi-channel area. I found that refreshing and I was excited about the new world that Veeva was opening up around multi-channel engagement. As a company, they were taking advantage of the technology that was becoming more widely available.

Six years later, I realised multi-channel wasn't enough and that drove me into Exeevo's arms! When we looked at what omnichannel promised, it was a lot more than organising the digital touch points but how do you encompass all of the operating functions of a life sciences company that touches a customer? Reps will benefit from having intelligence from other parts of the business. In theory, you could resolve that with technology but in practice, many organisations had tried and were struggling to have a meaningful level of integration. Having a single data platform for all customer engagement made a lot of sense. Exeevo is doing that in partnership with Microsoft and that's why I joined!

What does multi-channel mean and what does omnichannel mean to you?

I think to me the biggest difference is that it’s two-fold. Multichannel just means multiple channels. The outbound channels the rep can control and direct themselves.

Omnichannel is supposed to be two-way. It's bringing your inbound and outbound channels together.

The sales force is going to need to have different types of expertise. How do you see the role evolving?

Great question! If we look at the rep as a particular role. That is going to be reflective of the type of market you're operating in, the way decisions get made and who has the ability to buy.

The importance of being able to work with people further back in the decision-making chain so the rep is much more driven to add value and bring their expertise to the table. They need to be asking HCPS how they can help them with products to solve the problems their patients are having. They also need to be able to reflect a deeper knowledge of the products and market.

How do you see us evolving the commercial success KPIs in the future?

We are approaching a point where companies feel more confident to apply other measures like the value of the experience, rather than measuring each channel or touch point in isolation.

When we look at detailing, the obsession with CLM as being the centrepiece of any rep engagement is crazy! It should be the conversation! It should be what you're hearing from them not if you're delivering the key messages.

It's more about what is being provided back than just the old digital flip chart with no personalisation or variation. Being able to derive value from the conversation you have gives marketing a chance to respond and shape what they are doing to suit the HCPs’ needs.

And finally, how do you think as an industry we can work better together to build a better experience for customers, patients, and our own teams?

The number one requirement from where I stand on the technology side is embracing openness. Nobody has the total answer! There is a need for having a unified data fabric around how we manage customer information across the business, which is way overdue. Other industries have been able to operate that way for a number of years. When you are talking about CRM and not talking about the whole company approach, that’s a big problem. This can’t be a rep discussion any longer, they are a really key role, but one key role out of many key roles in an organisation.

Conclusion:

The main takeaway from my interview with Chris was if we do what we've always done we will get what we always had! To move forward, we need to be relevant and we need to be open. And at Cheemia, we’re always moving forward!

We developed Cheemia ReSET, an award-winning training platform that focuses on the human side of digital transformation. The results speak for themselves and what we’ve found in the many countries we’ve rolled it out in is that it increases sale force confidence and dramatically increases the quantities of engagements.

We’re not standing still, we’re developing new content for improving salesforce mindset and behaviours. If you’re looking for a solution for your teams to become more confident and embrace this new way of engaging with HCPs in 2023, read more about Cheemia ReSET.