New study for OTC manufacturers on pharmacy sales force

Current results of the Bonsai OTC Pharmacies Field Service Rating 2023: Ratiopharm, Bionorica, Beiersdorf and Orthomol have the best sales force. In general, three quarters of pharmacies do not want to do without OTC sales force visits. However, the individual observations of the manufacturers show serious differences - especially in very decisive criteria such as the willingness to recommend.

The new study from Bonsai Health is reported in the trade press - Healthcare Marketing, Pharma Relations and the Monitor Versorgungsforschung.

Pharma Relations writes about the opportunities the new study offers OTC manufacturers to improve their sales force: "The enormous potential for this is shown by one finding: while the lowest impact is only six percent, the highest impact is almost five times greater. And that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with reach." And the utility industry monitor quotes Bettina Mertens-Danowski, Head of Bonsai Health: "The Bonsai rating analyzes the sales force in great detail - right down to the impact of the visit on referral behavior."

Healthcare Marketing followed up with Bettina Mertens-Danowski and writes: "If you ask about recommendation frequency and the impact of the visit on recommendation, it is not necessarily always the large, high-reach manufacturers whose products are recommended particularly frequently," says the study leader: "Pharmacies report about one or the other manufacturer with less reach, less relevance or less 'popularity' that the sales force visit led to a significant increase in recommendation. Of course, this can and will be due to the 'incentives' given, for example, through target agreements, the distribution and relevance of which clearly differ between the manufacturers. However, this also means that the sales force creates an important link to the pharmacies so that manufacturers can also successfully place their measures!"

The study looks at the field service of 20 manufacturers in general - including reach & overall application, visit frequency & fit, quality & frequency of contact change, annual agreement & terms, growth potential and shrinkage risk. Also, top 3 issues, top 3 attributes, and top 3 no-go's in field service visits. For eleven manufacturers, 377 recent field service visits were evaluated specifically and in detail.