Territory Management.

Territory is the unit of pharmaceuticals marketing. This blog is not on how to define and make a territory. Territory is a single unit through which a pharmaceutical company and its marketing organization position its products, provides support infrastructural needs and other resources namely : the depots, the dealers, the distributors, the retailers, the marketing managers, the marketing and sales offices, the information network, the communication network and other backend and front end resources for the promotion of the sales of the existing products. A territory is designed on a number of performance indicators. Once the territory has been defined and its definitions are known to the medical representatives, it is now the duties of the marketing function of that territory to ensure that the phamaceutical management of territory takes place effectively with required level of emphasis.
Territory management involves the following ingredients:
Planning.
Control.
Supervision/Check
Review.
At each of these stages, first the medical representatives have to identify what are the risks to the marketing and sales. Risks management need to be a core competence for the medical representatives. Identification of risks, prioritization of the risks, treatment of such risks and prevention and review of risks by the medical representatives is a must. Planning of the territory means the availability of high quality reliable information and this has to be done by the medical representatives by using local resources. And some of these are as under :
a. list of the hospitals.
b. list of the dispensaries.
c. list of the private hospitals.
d. list of the doctors with their full details.
e. list of the medicines marketed by other companies.
f. total population and profile of the population.
g. disease analysis and trends of that area.
h. percentage of treatment people having in the local area and outside.
i. outside vs inside populations treatment details.
j. outside doctors visits to the territory.
i. inside doctors visits to the places outside the territory.
j. local taxes.
k. list of the seasonal diseases.
l. list of the distributors.
m. list of the depots.
n. list of the medical stores.
o. the names and addresses of the organization which update the above information.

All this information must be handy and updated with the medical representatives. Total monthly and daily or weekly sales of the medicines of the same therapeutic category must be made available so the medical representatives could grasp the extent of competition. Following parameters are required to be monitored, measured and analyzed :
a. medicine wise total sales: quantity.
b. medicine wise total sales : value in rupees.
c. % shares in quantity and value.
d. incremental growth of sales.
e. number of doctors contacted- new
f. number of doctors contacted- existing.
g. number of new prescriptions- new
h. number of new prescriptions- existing.
i. etc.
Of the total resources for marketing potential, the medical representative has to ensure that territory is covered as per projected sales targets. MIS of the territory is a must and it must be as comprehensive as possible. It is ideal if the medical representatives are provided the internet facility and organization's websites for need based communications for logistics, marketing and sales support. Availability of stocks and other information must also be part.

drbmsharma.