Marketing My Pharmacy for Low Volume Stores (hint: Doctor Detailing)
By Matt Tompkins, Sr. Director of Marketing & Member Engagement
As we continue the series to provide you with actionable marketing strategies, we are now focusing on stores that are lower in volume, from 25 to 125 prescriptions per day, less than 3,000 Rx’s per month.
If you want to read the previous blog posts, here are the links to Where Do I Start and In and Around My Pharmacy.
As a reminder to help you organize your efforts let’s put the strategies and tactics into three segments:
- Inside and around the store
- Out in the community
- Digital marketing
Today we may touch on all three segments as we focus on the steps low volume store owners should take.
We all know that independent pharmacies are the most accessible healthcare provider in the ecosystem and are critical to the communities they serve. Your mission is to broaden your impact on the community you serve. To impact the lives of the patients you serve. To make sure that patients who need quality service and guidance have access to you.
Not sure what to do next? We put together this blog to help you.
For low-volume stores common marketing tactics to do inside and around the store such as posters, bag stuffers, and asking for referrals are not as productive due to the low exposure. If you have fewer interactions, then the opportunities for these low-cost and no-cost marketing to work are limited.
I worked with a pharmacy owner in Florida who after years of stagnation he finally decided to get out from behind the counter and scheduled time to meet with prescribers each week. After a few months he met a prescriber focused on worker’s comp claims. The result of that encounter turned into $200,000 in new business per month into his store! Imagine how great those patients felt having access to his pharmacy. He kept his regular schedule of getting out of the store and continued to meet other prescribers which eventually created the opportunity to open a second store.
Six Step Process for Doctor Detailing for Low Volume Stores
This is not a one-time initiative but an important part of your business and your commitment to your community.
Here are a few simple steps you can follow to get your effective doctor detailing process up and running.
I have shared before, and I think it is worth repeating, that “anybody + somebody = nobody”, and it applies to which patients you want to attract to your pharmacy. Make a list of the patient profiles you prefer. You are willing to serve “any” patient, but in marketing we need to be targeted. This does not mean you are turning away patients that aren’t on this list but rather we are creating some focus for you so that you can set a target, and it will help you define the prescribers you want to visit.
Which prescribers serve these patients? Do you want to meet dermatologists, family practitioners, rheumatologists, or cardiologists? Next to the patients in the list above write down the types of prescribers that match. Then create a column next to that to put the names of the providers. You probably want to have space for an address or at least a city so you can use that info to plan your visits.
Here is an example of what that could look like:
| Patient Type | Prescriber Type | Prescriber Name | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
This is the step where many people get hung up. We begin to overthink what we need to bring. To help you keep it simple have two items to leave behind. One should be a simple brochure with the services you offer and your contact information, including phone, email address, website, and Facebook page. The other should be either a small unique promotional item or a unique OTC sample and bring enough for the office staff.
Let me reiterate, “you are critical to the health of the patients served by the providers you will be meeting.” Now that you have a specific patient profile in mind and are calling on a specific provider who serves those patients you get to be specific about how you fit into the healthcare for their patients.
Phone reluctance is real. We are predisposed to avoid rejection so when given a choice between picking up the phone and calling a prescriber to introduce yourself or handling a task in the store that you have done thousands of times, it is easy to choose the task. Resist the temptation. Think of the most recent patient who transferred from a chain pharmacy and how delighted they were. Imagine that the result of your soon to be relationship with this provider creates that patient reaction many times over.
I would love to be able to detail all the ways to help you get past the gatekeeper and overcome objections but given the scenarios are endless it is not possible. If you want to learn some simple tips and tactics to address these challenges, we have our Pharmacy Services team with decades of experience in your shoes who can help with your unique situation. All IPC members have access to them for these questions.
The goal of the meeting is to introduce yourself as the pharmacy in the area that they can rely on. Here are a couple bullet points to touch on:
- Be specific about the type of patient you are looking to serve.
- Ask questions about the issues they have had with other pharmacies.
- Share some specific patient stories where you solved a problem they had.
- Educate them on something specific occurring in pharmacy today.
- Ask and get confirmation that you can continue to reach out and offer to keep them apprised of what’s new.
- Get the correct contact information.
Once you have had the meeting it is critical to stay in touch and top of mind. As I have said already, doctor detailing is not a one and done. This is a continuous effort to build relationships, and a network of healthcare providers all focused on exceptional care for their patients. Here are the steps to take to close the loop.
- Send a thank you email or even a snail mail card.
- Put it on your calendar to reach out again in a month or two.
- Create a tracking system to chart your successful meetings.
- Ensure your team is tracking the sources of new patients so you know how fruitful your relationships are.
- Use the new patient onboarding process we defined in the previous blog to wow these new patients.
Next Steps
Now that you have a clear process to follow it is your responsibility to take the first step.
The IPC Pharmacy Services team is here to support our members to be successful in this impactful strategy for patient acquisition. If you have done the value of a patient calculation you know how impactful doctor detailing can be to your business.
Next, we will be sharing strategies and tactics about how to use social media to promote your pharmacy and create conversations online with your community.
