See what happens if you Google "co-marketing and pharmaceutical companies." The result is an exhaustive list of articles and
press releases on pharmaceutical companies that have paired up to sell the same product. It is easy to see how the advantages
of co-marketing add up – more pharmaceutical sales professionals calling on more healthcare providers equals greater market
share. As a corporate strategy, co-marketing is an effective tactic in today's competitive pharmaceutical marketplace. While
it makes sense from a corporate point of view, making it work often takes place in the field. Whether your company calls it
co-marketing, co-promoting or co-positioning, its success relies on your coordination, collaboration and cooperation.
After Michael, a seasoned and successful pharmaceutical sales professional, completed his latest round of training, he was
enthusiastic about getting back out into the field. During training, he learned that his company was planning to co-market
his top drug with another pharmaceutical company. After his initial thought of "How am I going to make this work?" Michael
realized co-marketing was good news for him. His drug would have a greater voice, which would make his sales goals more attainable.
All he had to do was touch base with his counterpart from the other company so that they could align their routing schedules.
Who will call on which healthcare provider and on which day is perhaps the most visible part of co-marketing. Tripping over
each other's sample bags in the same practice is an altogether avoidable predicament. Michael was right to think aligning
call schedules was important. But as they mapped out a call strategy, they both realized that making the co-marketing agreement
work required much more than just synching routing schedules.
Co-marketing isn't just the essential element of great people selling well. Even for sales professionals accustomed to team
selling, co-marketing offers unique challenges and opportunities as they work with another company selling the same product
and sharing physicians. Effective co-marketing depends on aligning budgets and selling strategies as well as call schedules.
Take the lead
Co-marketing strategy
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In co-marketing arrangements, the marketed brand does not always have the same level of importance to the sales professionals
or sales teams. While the drug may be your top brand, it may be third for the partner company's sales reps – and they may
have completely different incentives. Both of these factors make it easy to decide who takes the lead in the arrangement.
The sales professional with the most at stake usually will want to drive the co-marketing strategy. It may seem fair that
the work be equally shared, but the reality is you will want to make things easy for your partners by taking a leadership
role if the co-marketed product is your lead product. Even if it's not your top drug, you don't want to be a silent partner.
The co-marketing arrangement will give more voice to your drug than it might otherwise have.
Develop a strategic plan
Kick off the co-marketing partnership by developing a one-page business plan focused on the top three to five physicians.
Start with the overall goal for the brand then break down the plan for each of the top physicians. An ideal plan includes
competitive information and comparative data for each of the top physicians. It's important that both you and your partner
know what each of these top physicians use and why. Once you know the physicians' underlying beliefs about the disease state
and patients, you can map out a targeted strategy aimed at expanding diagnoses and patient types to drive the business.
Aligning budgets is part of the strategic plan. How much money do each of you have to allocate to the brand? Try to look beyond
the brand you are co-marketing to determine if you have money allocated for a high-priority brand – that way, you can leverage
to sell both drugs during a physician lunch.
Discuss a strategic message
