Success Requires Effective Business Planning

Welcome to the New Year Everyone! 

As we begin 2022, disruption in the healthcare environment looks to continue for the foreseeable future! What has not changed is the importance of effective planning. It is critical for Sales and Market Access leaders to use year beginning meetings to align on goals and coach their teams to develop their plan.   

All field leaders (Sales and Access), as well as professionals should keep the following four tips in mind when developing a business plan:

Tip 1: Revisit your marketplace analysis

Critical to any plan development is the need to evaluate the marketplace. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare marketplace is experiencing incredible disruption clinically, operationally, and financially.  No matter your therapeutic area or the stakeholders you call on, it is important to take stock of what has and will continue to change in healthcare delivery decisions.  Challenge your team to evaluate what is unique about their specific geography relative to dominant providers and payers, and the subsequent impact on treatment decisions. When performing a marketplace analysis, it is important to evaluate the larger context and “check-in” with your customers to appreciate their challenges related to policy uncertainties.

• Remember that depth of knowledge changes over time. Stay fresh and current.
• Limit the scope of what needs to be analyzed to remain focused and efficient.
• Do a “gut check” and validate with “evidence."

Tip 2: Align the plan with business strategies

Planning does not happen in a vacuum. Consider the implications of specific therapeutic area or account priorities and brand goals.

• Have a full appreciation of business objectives, emphasize brand strategies, and seek clarification as needed.
• Understand and gain an appreciation for the “why” behind tactical activities and day-to-day actions.
• Incorporate leadership guidance into the planning process to understand higher level company strategic goals that must be met, and then translate these into specific territory and account level goals.

Tip 3:  Assess performance and focus on the best opportunities

After gaining an appreciation for the broader healthcare ecosystem, it is important to identify and prioritize accounts and specific healthcare providers. Evaluating priority customers requires an evaluation of past performance and making assumptions about future potential. It is important to provide support on how to evaluate performance by having each customer-facing professional do the following:

• Reflect upon and analyze overall performance (e.g., where is most of the business concentrated?  Where is the business trending up (growing), down (declining), and staying the same (flat)?)
• Develop objectives and plans that include opportunities based on future potential due to factors such as access, positive formulary positions, local KOLs, and willingness to engage in other value-added solutions, such as patient adherence programs or educational efforts.
• Develop goals related to penetrating accounts to expand opportunities.

Tip 4: Be accountable for business success

Creating thoughtful and detailed business plans can be one of the key differentiators between “good” and “great” customer-facing professionals. The other differentiator is effective plan execution. Customer-facing professionals who follow their plan stay focused, break down, and execute specific activities in pursuit of broader goals. Even with a plan in place, these plans may need to be adjusted based on marketplace conditions or shifts in internal direction.

• Be prepared to share the rationale for your focus, goals, and actions
• Review goals and action plans to determine if you are on target
• Leverage business analytics and reports to assess progress
• Revisit and prioritize activities to ensure quick wins 
• Evaluate resources in this year's budget and allocate to highest potential opportunities first 
• Coordinate with other customer-facing roles on any planned activities for shared customers or when specific expertise is needed to achieve goals (e.g., nurse educators, MSLs)

Imagine yourself and your team a year from now. What do you want to accomplish? Keeping these four tips top of mind can help you achieve desired results. Purposeful attention to disciplined planning and execution builds individual, team, and organizational capabilities to consistently deliver results.

If you are looking to create a culture of effective planning and execution, WLH Consulting, Inc. can provide support to adapt lessons and best practices for your organization’s structure, portfolio, roles, and priorities.

Hope to connect soon,

Wendy Heckelman, PhD

Want to read more insights from WLH Consulting, Inc.? See more below! 

Our recent Life Sciences Trainers & Educators Network  (LTEN) Focus Magazine Feature Story, "Strategic Partnerships for Building Account Management", is now available! Thank you for your partnership LTEN! Feel free to share your insights in the comments below. 

What does a good strategic partnership look like?

COVID-19’s disruption of the healthcare marketplace necessitates upskilling all account managers assigned to larger organized accounts. Learning and development (L&D) professionals must rethink the capabilities and skills account managers need to provide value-added solutions to their customers, while learning to navigate accounts with limited access. 

This article highlights key lessons learned and the importance of strategic partnerships between L&D professionals and their sales and market access clients. It starts with a question: What does good strategic partnership look like between commercial leadership and L&D? Read the full article here.

Want to catch up on the latest Change and Thrive Podcast Episodes? Join the conversation below. 

In this week’s podcast, Wendy shares 3 tips to help develop leadership agility and builds the business case for leadership agility being the differentiator in today’s professional landscape. Watch and/or listen now.

In this last week’s podcast, Wendy dove into three tips to help jump start your team to align, adjust, and embrace the positive elements of change. Watch and/or listen here.

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