CIOs Look Beyond Traditional Sales Technologies to Better Engage with HCPs

by Brian Fitzgerald | Last Updated: January 12, 2022 | 1 min read

Summary:

Sales technologies for pharmaceutical commercial organizations are often costly and inefficient, and they don’t always help improve HCP engagement. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The following article provides insights and tips to help your sales operations overcome some of the obstacles to better HCP engagement.

Read Time: 3 minutes

As an IT leader, there is no doubt that you already know how costly and inefficient sales technologies for the pharmaceutical industry can be. And often, the technologies your sales teams end up with don’t work for the healthcare professionals (HCPs) they are trying to engage. For example, what good do product apps do your sales teams if prescribers and their staff don’t download them or use them?

The good news is that technologies are available today that will save your IT operations significant time and money, while also improving HCP engagement for your sales teams. However, you’ll need to look beyond traditional applications to find a modern digital solution that fits today’s pharma-to-physician environment.

Improve HCP engagement with complaint text messaging

According to Forrester Research¹, more than 6 billion text messages are exchanged every day in the US, which makes sense given that 92% of US² adults use smartphones. And American’s aren’t just using their mobile devices a little; they are using them a lot. Google revealed³ that some mobile users check their devices as many as 150 times per day, with the average person spending about three hours per day on their mobile phones.

We have all become digital citizens, HCPs included. So it should come as no surprise that mobile devices are transforming the way HCPs do their work. And if you want to help your sales teams meet HCPs where they are at, you need to enable them to reach HCPs on their mobile devices. Compliant text messaging is the perfect solution.

Not only is text messaging easy, cost-effective and convenient, but there are also several other benefits to using it to enhance HCP engagement and grow sales:

Efficiency. Text messages have a 98% open rate, and in contrast, email only has a 20% open rate. The response rate for text messaging is also very high — ranging from 5%–25%. This is nearly eight times higher than for email.
Speed of Response. On average, it takes a person 90 minutes to respond to an email, and it takes only 90 seconds to respond to a text message.
Integration. Because of its simplicity, text messaging can easily integrate into your overall IT mix.
Engagement. Text messaging enhances brand engagement across the entire customer life cycle.

The right solution for compliant text messaging

The ZING Communication Module is the only pharma-first solution that enables pharmaceutical sales teams to send custom branded, templated SMS text messages and other digital assets to HCPs. With ZING, your sales teams can exchange compliant, two-way unified messaging with healthcare professionals without barriers. There are no apps for end-users to download, and there are no subscriptions for them to deal with. To the healthcare professionals, ZING offers a seamless, hassle-free experience — seen as nothing different than their usual method for receiving texts.

ZING also enables your sales teams to:

Exchange SMS Messages directly with HCPs and staff: ZING enables sales reps to augment their existing 1:1 communication and send text messages with MLR approved text bodies, along with corresponding digital assets. The content is flexible — can be promotional, logistical or informational.
Send bite-sized assets, hyperlinks and videos instantly: Reps can send the right amount of information at the right time — no more spamming inboxes or sending too much information.
Customize and brand messaging: ZING comes equipped with text templates that can be updated often. P360 will even work with brand teams to develop starter template messages that are compliance-approved.
Receive messages: ZING can be enabled to allow inbound messaging from customers as well.
Two-way calling: Outbound and inbound calling are available with ZING.
Automated Responses: ZING offers automated response functionality that reps can seamlessly intervene with when necessary.
Ensure compliance: All messages, digital assets and replies can be preapproved by compliance and preloaded into the system. They can also be locked to outside edits and be made visible only to the reps who need them. In addition, data is stored per enterprise data standards.
Integrate HCP profiles with your CRM: The data from ZING integrates back to sales profiles in existing CRM systems.
Harness powerful analytics: All interactions with contacts are tracked within the ZING application. This includes: number of messages sent by reps and customers; territory; date/time; the number of messages by templates and breakdown of usage; time and day when reps and customers are most active; message open and click-through rate; customer location, browser, operating system and device used; and breakdown of customer vs. non-customer.
Get more targeted over time: ZING’s powerful AI capabilities enable the platform to become more intelligent over time. The system uses past text message interactions to determine the best time to contact and more.
Create custom reports: The powerful backend dashboard offers custom reporting and other management tools. This includes a geographical view of message activity, activity readout regarding clicks and much more.