Biopharma Sales Case Study – Next Best Action Activation

Challenge

Decreasing access and an overflow of competing digital communications have made meaningful engagement with HCPs more challenging than ever. Although many organizations have invested in Next Best Action (NBA) programs to help customer-facing teams personalize interactions at scale, user adoption is critical to maximizing returns. To help bridge the gap between strategy and execution, one top-10 biopharma partnered with Aktana to activate internal data science efforts and resolve the “last-mile” challenges that can inhibit the full potential of NBA.

Approach

The biopharma used Aktana’s Contextual Intelligence Engine and open platform to integrate and enrich its strategic data science models, optimize outputs daily based on the latest data, and orchestrate NBA suggestions across channels in a coordinated way. When NBA suggestions were seamlessly integrated into existing workflows, accompanied by transparent reasons to engage, and prioritized for maximum impact, user adoption and impact surged. The initial deployment included 600 reps across 8 therapeutic areas and 20 brands.

I had a NBA alert from an HCP who is ‘difficult to see.’ Today, I sent him a proactive email [based] on an alert offering patient resources, sample, etc. He responded immediately! This is a big deal for me.

Field Sales, Oncology

Impact

The following analysis compares reps who engaged with NBA suggestions against a control group within the organization’s highest-priority brand.

Guided by Aktana’s NBA recommendations, reps were able to:

• Reach doctors who were unresponsive in the past
• Uncover opportunities with HCPs who weren’t on their radar before
• Pinpoint the right time and right content on digital channels to maximize engagement
• Proactively reach out to HCPs based on timely patient alerts

Commercial team members who engaged more frequently with NBA suggestions had an uptick in customer engagement and sales lift.

Impact numbers are from an analysis performed for one brand.

Testimonials

Reps who embraced NBA saw the positive impact on customer interactions firsthand.

Late last week, I received a [patient] alert for my #1 prescriber and that I should reach out to schedule an appointment or send an approved email. This is a physician that is very difficult to see and usually ignores my emails. I had sent one to him a few weeks ago, but had not received a response.

Because of the alert, I decided to send another email to try and see if he would see me. The timing must have been perfect because he responded right away and said that he had time the next day. We subsequently landed on an appointment for this Thursday.

Field Sales, Oncology

I had a light day of appointments so I did a bit of a deeper dive on the suggested HCPs using data and insights from the AI to direct my actions. In doing so, I acted on 3 of the suggestions to send an approved email, mailed a patient initiation kit for a provider with no email in the system, and gave each of the suggested HCP offices a call.

Now, I have lunch scheduled next week at an office I’ve been trying to get into for months that hasn’t previously been responsive. Based on this small win, I’ve learned that I need to build a system to continue to utilize these NBA suggestions as they’ve proven to be valuable tools to use in creating access.

Field Sales, Oncology

Wanted to share some feedback on NBA as a newer [team member]. I have received a 70-80% open rate for customers who have never met me, which is great.

Field Sales, Hematology