The success of any marketing program can often be based on measuring return on investment (ROI). Many different measures of ROI have been developed, but the traditional one that most pharma companies use is increase in new Rx. When creating a program for nurse practitioners or physician’s assistants tracking prescribing behavior as a result of your initiative can be a bit more complex.
Third party companies that track prescribing behaviors typically use an identifying number that is unique, only to physicians, to track which medications are most frequently prescribed, providing insight for pharmaceutical companies and drug representatives. However in some states NP’s and PA’s do not have a number that is tracked. Their prescriptions are attributed to the physician that they work with or that oversees their practice. NPs and PA’s have a prescriptive authority number provided by the state in which they are licensed, however, pharmacy software programs are not typically set up to use these numbers when filling prescriptions. Consequently the pharmacist may assign the prescription they are filling to the collaborating physician’s identifying number.
Brand managers and drug representatives must recognize that relying exclusively on the prescription tracking reports available today may not provide an accurate impression of the ROI from their initiative. If their sole measure of success is tracking new Rx, they need to identify the collaborating physician and watch their prescribing behavior, even though they may have not been the target of their marketing program. Creating a program to measure ROI that directly assesses the NP/ PA response to the initiative is ideal, to determine the success of a program.
Yes. You read the headline correctly. During my career, I’ve seen people get caught up in the world of measurement and success leading them to do some pretty crazy things.
The “bad metrics are better than no metrics” mentality
The pressure from management to produce metrics often scares employees into measuring and reporting on everything under the sun, even if it has nothing to do with the ultimate business or marketing objectives. I generally see two common behaviors that fall into this category of thinking.
- Measure and report on enough stuff and something good will emerge
- Throw enough data out there and no one will look at it because it is overwhelming
In either situation, the employee feels they are covered because they provided metrics to management.
No metrics are better than some metrics
This is a favorite of mine and it stems from a real life scenario that I personally experienced. One day while working on an interactive project with a client I asked a simple question, or at least one I thought was fairly simple.
“What do you think are the most important things to track?”
I of course had my own thoughts about this, but I wanted to see what this individual thought was important. The answer I received almost knocked me off my seat.
“Let’s not track anything. I wouldn’t want to show my boss some bad numbers and have him pull the plug prematurely.”
Needless to say, I was speechless – which doesn’t happen often. It was clear in this situation that this person felt tracking nothing was better than tracking potential failure. Far too often the fear of failure can cause your staff to do nothing, which ironically encumbers the path to success.
My approach to measurement and success
Now that I’ve walked through a few common scenarios that I’ve experienced around metrics, let me quickly share my approach to metrics.
- Don’t turn a blind eye to measurement – We operate in a world today where we can track just about anything we do, and we should. You never know where that key piece of information is going to come from.
- Don’t bite off more than you can chew – While I advocate measuring as much as possible, I don’t advocate doing something with that data all at once. Focus on things that can make you and your programs better. Metrics are as much about improving as they are about success.
- Don’t jump ship just because there is a crack in the hull – Don’t ever abandon a program that isn’t working without first understanding why it isn’t working. This is one of the reasons why you should track as much as possible.
- Don’t ever think you are “done” – Just as you shouldn’t jump ship too early, you also shouldn’t rest on what appears to be success. Constant innovation based on solid measurement and analysis of “improvement metrics” is the key to long-term success.
We live and work in a world where measurement and tracking is everywhere. Those of us who measure well, report well, and most importantly adjust well, will be the big winners.
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