Selling to hospital formularies offers tremendous opportunities to dramatically impact territory sales. It also presents many
medical center representatives and other sales professionals with a challenge. Getting on formulary — and staying there —
can feel like a mysterious process played out behind closed doors among unknown forces. Who is on the committee? When do they
meet? How do they make decisions? Who wields the most influence on the formulary decisions? While there may be an element
of mystery to figuring out the players and the process, there is no magic. Selling to hospital formularies requires the same
solid selling skills (backed with science) that apply to all pharmaceutical sales calls. The only difference is that the territory
strategy shifts.
When Allen was promoted to medical center representative, he approached his hospitals with the same enthusiasm and skills
he brought to the field. He knew his key prescribers and targeted his resources accordingly. And he knew his product was more
efficacious and cost-effective than the competition. He thought making the formulary would be his first big coup in his new
position. So Allen was surprised when his drug did not make the formulary list. He had exceptional selling skills, plus better
drug efficacy and cost than the competition. What was missing from the mix? Allen lacked a strategy formulated for his new
selling environment.
The strategy for selling to hospital formularies is similar to selling in the field:
- Plan.
- Convince.
- Present.
- Monitor.
During each stage, selling to hospital formularies goes beyond selling to individual doctors. You must determine the key influencers
on the committee, what drives them and how to influence them to see your drug not as one choice but as the only choice. Plan
Get on formulary
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A successful plan includes knowing the formulary and the members of the committee. Since all hospitals are set up differently,
it is important to first find out the rules for your visits. As you might expect, you may not have unrestricted access to
the medical staff or the freedom to leave samples. Planning calls with hospital and department guidelines in mind will help
you navigate the environment successfully. Once you know the ground rules, start by determining who is on the formulary committee.
Hospital formulary committees vary by hospital and most likely contain a combination of physicians, pharmacists and a medical
director. Sometimes the hospital is transparent regarding who is on the committee. Sometimes you need to determine this for
yourself. You will want to know not only who is on the committee but also who the key influencers are. Who has the most power?
Who can sway opinions? Who can make decisions?
Not all, and sometimes not any, of the members of the formulary committee are high-prescribers. One sales professional called
on a doctor with a small practice focused on geriatric patients. The doctor was easy to overlook as she was not a high-prescriber,
but she was number one on the list because her opinions had the most impact on the formulary committee. The pharmacy director
is an essential source of valuable information and often a power player on the committee but is just as commonly overlooked
by sales professionals new to hospital selling.
While you are doing the intelligence work, also ascertain what drugs are on the current formulary – and why. Sometimes drugs
are on formulary not because they are the most efficacious or cost-effective on their own. They may be part of a "bundling"
strategy in which pharmaceutical companies combine drugs from different disease states and offer financial incentives for
hospitals to take the entire bundle of drugs.
