New treatments for Pharmaceutical Sales presentations

Balancing the competing demands of stakeholders for a new product has always been the major challenge facing Pharmaceutical marketing teams. The Product Manager wants their product promoted in a way that accurately demonstrates how it beats current clinical practice. The Sales Team wants a compelling sales case that addresses the needs of their client, the knowledge and perceptions of whom will vary. For their part, the buyer is interested in what the product will do for them and why they should adopt it.

So how do you effectively communicate complicated, and often highly technical, product information through the cascade of layers that link the product manager to the product buyer?

Considerable effort is often invested in the launch of a new drug. However, the tools that support the sales team in generating sales are usually less formulaic.

Marketing teams have numerous media to choose from when promoting products and educating clients. From video and print, to CD-ROM / DVD and Websites. Ultimately though, it is the face to face interaction of a sales specialist with the product buyer that clinches the sale.

Used appropriately, screen based presentation support can be a powerful way of enhancing these communications. Microsoft PowerPoint and multimedia CD-ROMs are popular choices but these approaches have their limitations. PowerPoint is so widely accessible that content can be changed at any point in the communication chain risking dilution of brand values and message consistency. CD-ROM can take communications to a wider audience but is increasingly seen as inflexible and costly to update.

Ultimately what is required is a more holistic approach to align internal intention with external communication throughout a product's lifecycle.One solution comes from Leeds based production company, Walnut Media. With twenty years experience working in internal and external communications for major blue-chip companies, Walnut Media has devised their own presentation solution to help organisations deliver more compelling presentations.

Using a convergence of technologies, 'Showsuite' exploits the benefits of new media while overcoming the constraints of a locked disc format or the inaccessibility of the web in a sales situation.

'Showsuite is a results driven presentation design and production service delivered using our own software platform', explains Dan Sacker, Project Manager at Walnut Media. 'We work closely with product and marketing teams to produce a library of presentation assets that support the sales case for a product. It's a benefits driven solution that often uses case studies and testimonials from clinical experts to bolster the sales message.'

'Sales presenters can use our intuitive Showsuite software interface to present the content most suited to their audience's needs.'

Chris Phillips, Marketing Executive at Primecare agrees. "Showsuite provides us with a powerful audio and visual resource for communicating with our prospective customers and other target audiences. Customers can quickly understand what we do and through dynamic visual media and video clips can experience the service we provide without having to be there.

Our Senior Management Team Area and Branch Managers have a great advantage with Showsuite - they can combine professionally prepared PowerPoint presentations with video and audio.

This ability to tailor presentations is extremely beneficial. With Showsuite you don't have to use everything in the presentation, the software allows you to choose appropriate material for the presentation you are conducting, making the solution very adaptable".

But Showsuite also allows the presentation to evolve over a period of time says Dan. "The library of assets we create is protected to prevent ad-hoc editing but this can easily be expanded with a client's own presentation assets - PowerPoint presentations, Adobe PDF files and links to web pages are all supported."

"Clients aren't locked into us to update the presentation as they would be if we created a bespoke CD-ROM. This approach offers better return on investment and is easier to justify within a product marketing plan. Showsuite offers long term value and organisations can quickly offset the production cost against the multiple uses for the resource - especially where large sales teams are involved. The high production values we apply are reflected in the accuracy, credibility and consistency of the completed solution- factors which are paramount to delivering effective sales presentations in the Pharmaceutical industry."

Walnut Media is a leading visual communications production company based in Leeds. For more information about Showsuite and other presentation design and production services, contact Gary Nutland - 08707 427070 or visit www.walnutmedia.com.