PM360 July 2010

Tradeshow Tactics

THE EXHIBIT BOOTH AS EFFECTIVE SELLING CHANNEL
By John Ruane

Five years ago, Cindy McCormick told a former department head at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals that there was a lack of data from the exhibit booth. He disagreed, went to the filing cabinet, took out a folder, and told her he had the data. Then he opened the folder and read the detailed report. “The booth looked good, and we had a lot of people there,” he said snapping the folder shut and realizing that McCormick was correct.

At the Healthcare Conventions & Exhibits Association’s (HCEA) annual meeting in Tampa, McCormick, Certified Tradeshow Manager and formerly Associate Director of Global Congresses & Conventions for Wyeth (now merged with Pfizer), said things had changed a great deal since then. The company took a more customer-focused approach, determining how the physician prefers to be communicated with both at the convention and in the office.

With an industry-wide reduction in the size of sales forces, McCormick said that the exhibit booth provides additional personal contact with the customer, while establishing the opportunity for non-personal selling initiatives like video detailing, direct mail, and websites, which have made the exhibit booth a critical touch point for the company.

“We went out and found the right partner who could compile the data from all of the different sources and touch points in our exhibit booths to help us identify the personal preferences of our customers, so we were talking to them about information they would find useful,” said McCormick, referring to her association with OneWorld, a pharmaceutical consulting firm with expertise in transforming an exhibit booth into an effective selling channel. This same customer-focused approach is being used by several pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, which have tapped into this new cutting-edge trend in pharmaceutical sales.

However, as more pharma companies venture into this new sales frontier, McCormick’s former group at Wyeth can claim pioneer status, restructuring their exhibits five years ago, integrating the capabilities of the booth into the emerging new sales model in the pharmaceutical industry.

CUTTING-EDGE APPROACH
The pharmaceutical industry has reached a crossroads for the current sales model. With patent expirations, slower pipelines, and less access to physicians for meaningful face-time, pharma companies have downsized field sales forces. Since the only two personal communication channels with healthcare customers are field sales and the convention exhibit booth, some companies are beginning to explore how they can optimize their exhibits for sales purposes.

After each event, we are looking to link the interaction at the exhibit directly to the follow-up efforts of our field sales reps and other selling initiatives such as video detailing, direct mail, and website resources, said McCormick, pointing out that a new sales model will emerge from this approach making the customer, not the product, the center of activity. What has become apparent is that the exhibit booth offers one of the most promising touch points for this cross-channel integration of selling efforts.

McCormick said through the data they capture at the exhibit booth, they are able to identify key customers and grow relationships with those customers through personal contact followed by non-personal communications. This integrated effort provides those healthcare professionals with the information they request. She no longer works solely with the brand managers but now broadens the traditional approach by pulling together all of the marketing channels supporting the brand.

McCormick is aware that she has been at the front of a new selling trend in the pharmaceutical industry helping to develop a highly effective model of communicating with healthcare professionals. “We have identified 21 value points at the exhibit booth, which help sales, marketing, and several more departments within our company as a whole,” McCormick said. “We realize that the companies that learn how to capture data and use it effectively are the companies that will improve their presence in the marketplace.”

VALUE POINTS
McCormick said that when structured properly, the exhibit booth creates measurable value points for numerous departments within the company. For example, the sales force benefits from the opportunity to have product discussions with target customers in the call plan as well as qualified prescribers outside the plan.

Marketing receives product message feedback for marketing campaigns along with responses to market research questions. Relationship marketing is enhanced through the ability of the company to maintain relationships with
customers who visited the booth through both personal and non-personal initiatives following the convention. The convention planning department gains the metrics compiled at the booth, so they are able to adjust booth sizes, staffing, costs, and budgets. Regulatory is assured of on-label presentations, complete with safety information and fair balance for every product presentation. The company can also distribute educational items and then track and report on their meeting the federal, state, and PhRMA code levels. And privacy is protected with disclosure offered to each healthcare professional in the sales interaction process.

At the same time, McCormick says the exhibit creates value for the healthcare professional by providing product information that focuses on both the needs of the particular healthcare provider and the educational needs of his or her patients. “This is achieved by capturing individual healthcare provider responses to qualifying questions during the exhibit booth interaction and delivering distinct message pathways that speak to the informational needs of the professional,” said McCormick. Providing cost-effective, timely resources post-convention that support the exhibit booth interaction creates a communication continuum essential to supporting the use of the product.

METRICS
The convention group also generates outcome reports with the number of visitors to each section of the booth and the time spent talking with sales representatives in a conversation focused specifically on the interests of each healthcare professional. Those results are measured against the pre-conference goals and have proven the exhibit booth to provide great value to the pharmaceutical company.Unlike her former department head’s perception about exhibit booth data five years ago, this change made her organization a value-added department that provided real data when requested. “We have to be an asset, not an expense for the company,” said McCormick. “We are helping the company gather important data, while helping to form a relationship with key customers and adding to the bottom line.” And that is the bottom line.

John Ruane is a journalist, author, and healthcare communications consultant. He can be reached at jbruane@rcipr.com