New Bonsai Health study: Three-quarters of pharmacies don't want to give up OTC sales force visits
OTC Field Service Rating 2023
- Pharmacists rate the sales force of 20 OTC manufacturers: The best sales force has: Ratiopharm, Bionorica, Beiersdorf and Orthomol.
- The study analyzes field service visits in detail and shows clear differences between the individual manufacturers.
- General results: Concrete target agreements are currently concluded primarily with Bionorica, Engelhard and Hexal.
Hamburg/Bremen, September 21, 2023. Bonsai Health today published the latest results of the Bonsai OTC Pharmacy Field Service Rating 2023, according to which field service visits are important or very important to nearly three-quarters of pharmacists (76 percent). So much for the good news. However, the individual observations of the manufacturers show serious differences - especially in very decisive criteria such as the frequency of recommendations:
"The Bonsai rating analyzes the sales force in great detail - right down to the impact of the visit on recommendation behavior," emphasizes Bettina Mertens-Danowski, Head of Bonsai Health: "On this basis, manufacturers can significantly optimize their sales force." The enormous potential for this is shown by one result: 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.
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 sales force visits were evaluated specifically and in detail. OTC manufacturers can obtain the results from Bonsai .
Top 3 qualities of a good pharmacy sales representative ...
... is accommodating and responds to my individual needs (say 63 percent of pharmacists)
... is honest and transparent (37 percent)
... is qualified and competent (34 percent)
Other general results:
The frequency of visits, on average four times a year across all manufacturers, is considered appropriate by 82 percent of pharmacists.
Fluctuation: Pharmacists have had to accept at least one change in contact person from one out of two manufacturers in the last three years: For a good third of all respondents, this has affected service quality.
The grading: In addition to the detailed results, an overall evaluation in the form of school grades was also asked for each field service visit. With a grade of 1.8, the field services of Ratiopharm, Bionorica, Beiersdorf and Orthomol scored best from the pharmacists' point of view.
Contact
Bettina Mertens-Danowski,
Head of Bonsai Health
bettina.mertens-danowski@bonsai-health.com
About the Bonsai OTC Pharmacies Field Service Rating
For the Bonsai OTC Field Service Rating, a total of 235 pharmacists in owner or management positions were surveyed in March and April 2023, who evaluated 377 field service visits in detail. The pharmacy sample is representative of retail pharmacies in Germany in terms of location and size. All respondents are members of the Germany-wide Pharmacies Online Panel of Bonsai Health.
About Bonsai Health
Bonsai Health is the unit of Bonsai Research that has bundled research, analysis and consulting for the pharmacy and healthcare industry since 2022. At Bonsai Health, sales data (directly from the pharmacies' merchandise management system) and survey data (from the Bonsai pharmacy panel) are combined with qualitative research on health brands and topics. www.bonsai-health.com