Video meetings become the new normal for engaging physicians, with customization to boost engagement rates as the key

Licensed reprint: Pharmascan

According to a report from Veeva Systems, 130 million quarterly data points from 80% of pharmaceutical companies worldwide show that the top performers used video visits to reach clients three times a week to gain market-leading positions.

Will digital tools replace the sales role? Pharma sales and client-engagement models are changing

This result is actually no surprise. Over the past 3 years, the challenge of the pandemic changed many ways of living and working, and the use of video meetings grew especially fast. According to Veeva's statistics, video meetings can lengthen the talk time between sales reps and physicians: whereas reps making in-person visits could only use 39% of their pitch materials, video meetings let reps discuss 85% of the pitch content with physicians.

The key to successful sales! Big-data insight is a must!

Another Veeva report notes that, although the pandemic has eased, nearly 30% of physicians still choose to engage digitally, in the following proportions:

73% in person; 18% email; 5% phone; 3% online video—a world apart from before the pandemic, when only about 5% of physicians were willing to engage digitally.

Veeva finds that the interaction between pharma sales teams and clients is changing once again. In an era that emphasizes big data, successful selling depends on how a team uses data-driven insight to build omnichannel marketing for different clients, engaging them at the moment and in the setting they need most.

On the other hand, according to the healthcare consultancy Indegene's collection and analysis of 7.9 million marketing emails across different therapeutic areas from April 2020 to August 2021, sending more than one email a week does not increase client engagement; on the contrary, it backfires, and the recommendation is to send once every 4–6 weeks. Therefore, how to customize the way of reaching clients will also be an important topic for pharma sales and marketing teams in the future.

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