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How to get your sales force to use digital tools

April 28, 2017 | Digital, Sales 

You have the perfect digital strategy. You provide the most advanced digital sales tools. You power it with amazing content. And then discover that customer-facing staff aren’t using it. Wait. What? You’ve done everything right. So what can have possibility gone wrong?

Why customer-facing staff resist new technology

Here’s three common reasons why reps won’t use your digital communication tools like e-detailers:

  1. “I already have my own system that works well”
  2. “It looks nice but I don’t really need it”
  3. “Paper materials work just fine”

These three responses are actually saying the same thing: your new tools won’t help them do what they have always done. And, in some ways, they would be quite right. But that’s not the point.

How to avoid problems before they occur

The technology isn’t being introduced just to make things easier for customer-facing staff. If people believe this, then there’s been a miscommunication.

Yes, new technology will help them if they engage with it properly but that’s not the real objective. We don’t want to do some same things a little better. We introduce technology to do something different.

It’s important to make it clear that you want customer-facing staff to do something entirely new. And that these tools are being provided to enable them to do it.

For example, you may want to better understand healthcare professionals’ individual understanding of a topic to inform a multichannel experience that matches each doctor’s specific information needs. You can’t do this with a rep’s personal system or paper materials. But you can get this data with the right kind of e-detailer.

What’s important to remember – and communicate – is that new technology should raise the bar. It’s there to provide new levels of service to our customers.

Right strategy, tools & content – and the right activation

It is possible to do everything right and still run into problems in the field – often due to misunderstandings that can be avoided with the right kind of communication. That’s why at Anthill we consider each step of the process: from digital strategy right the way through to project activation.

If you’d like to learn more about our services – and see Anthill’s work for yourself – contact our Account Director, Alejandra P. Betancourt at apb@anthillagency.com.

This content was provided by Anthill Agency