Achieving commercial excellence in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry looks different in each organization because of its size, portfolio, and strategic priorities. 

Strategic Account Management

With the consolidation of the organized customer limiting access, the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry needs to build strategic account capabilities. No one role can independently achieve access, partner to provide solutions, and drive results. We partner with market access and sales leaders to develop strategic account planning processes, tools, and skills with a focus on operationalizing the cross-functional collaboration required to achieve trusted advisor status.

Over the last 30 years, we’ve watched pharmaceutical and life sciences companies shift to a greater reliance on strategic account management to obtain access and grow with payers, healthcare delivery systems, and other evolving healthcare business models. We know companies are at various stages of sophistication in developing and executing account management strategies. We meet you where you are to create an account management mindset and accelerate the journey to trusted advisor status.

We do this by:

• Assessing and developing sophisticated account management practices that bring innovation, deliver value, and solve healthcare delivery challenges
• Defining integrated account management planning processes and tools to guide account leads and their teams
• Building organizational capabilities that support cross-functional collaboration
• Leveraging our Account Management Academy to build business acumen skills
• Defining success metrics

Talk with one of our Solutions Strategists

Business Acumen

Business acumen is frequently identified by leaders in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry as an organizational gap requiring new or additional knowledge or capabilities. These capabilities include being able to accurately assess the business landscape, form hypotheses, and make sound business decisions. For pharmaceutical professionals this means understanding their industry, their customers, and competitors.

Understanding is one thing; however, developing the critical thinking skills to connect the dots and turn insights into action wins in the marketplace.  We can help your organization better define and strengthen business acumen to ensure you achieve critical commercial and financial success.

We believe that business acumen is the ability to gather data, speak a common language, and connect the dots in a complex and evolving healthcare marketplace. For pharmaceutical and life sciences customer-facing roles, business acumen is an essential skill to understand customers and their needs.

At WLH, we work with companies to strengthen their business acumen skills and serve as a partner in solving complex healthcare delivery challenges.

We help organizations develop their business acumen skills by:

• Enhancing problem solving, decision making, strategic planning and execution, and cross-functional collaboration skills
• Educating on how to understand and analyze the broader healthcare marketplace ecosystem
• Building account profiling skills
• Enhancing employee’s customer engagement skills and their ability to co-create innovative, value-added solutions
• Enhancing employee’s ability to turn insights into action

Talk with one of our Solutions Strategists

Territory/Geography Planning

The need for territory/geography planning in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry is not new, yet we see many companies who are not using consistent processes or developing the required skills needed to analyze healthcare marketplace dynamics.  Our approach to territory/geography planning considers each company’s strategy, structure, portfolio, and roles.

We provide expertise in assessing current practices, providing recommendations, and partnering to design geographic planning processes and tools. Do not leave money on the table. Help your sales, market access, field-based medical roles, and reimbursement services professionals utilize critical thinking skills to analyze their territories, identify opportunities, and optimally allocate resources to drive results.

Each client’s strategy, structure, and portfolio are unique. Because of this, we leverage our P.L.A.N. for Results™ framework to assess current geography planning practices, provide recommendations, and design geographic and account-specific planning processes and tools.

We partner with clients to:

• Sharpen their geography/territory planning capabilities
• Adapt and customize a planning framework that fits their product portfolio, team structure, and team roles
• Create tools and templates to help managers and their direct reports track and review performance and adjust as needed

Talk with one of our Solutions Strategists

Building Market Access Talent Capabilities

Pharmaceutical and life sciences industry experts acknowledge that developing Market Access talent has not received the same focus as other functions, such as Marketing and Sales.  At WLH, we bring extensive experience defining competency models, developing career pathways, and providing learning journey strategies for a complex function with multiple roles working across various segments.

Industry experts acknowledge that the Market Access function is not as clearly defined. A dynamic marketplace requires sophisticated market access strategies to ensure life sciences companies can demonstrate their value and obtain product access.  We can support your efforts to build or improve market access talent capabilities for the following ways:

• Market Access learning strategies and curriculum roadmaps
• Competency Models for all Market Access Roles
• Career Frameworks
• Account Planning Processes

WLH can help your Market Access team define talent and skill development strategies for:

• Managed Market Sales Account Executives (Payers and Systems)
• Reimbursement Services
• Government Relations
• Pricing & Contracting
• Trade
• Payer Marketing
• Health Economics and Outcomes Research

Talk with one of our Solutions Strategists

Pharmaceutical Field Force Effectiveness

As long-time experts in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry, we have seen many shifts in commercial strategy(ies) and field force deployment. We partner with clients to operationalize field force structure, define roles, ready leaders to execute change, and ensure various customer-facing roles are working together collaboratively.

This gives us the unique advantage of knowing the latest trends, identifying what works, and seeing where other companies have struggled.

We guide clients through the following areas to enhance field force effectiveness:

• Operationalize organizational redesigns
• Ready field leaders to implement change
• Define critical performance metrics
• Design highly interactive collaboration sessions for POAs and national meetings
• Channel field insights to appropriate headquarter functions
• Ensure compliant interaction between Medical and Sales

Talk with one of our Solutions Strategists