Historically, the pharma sector was able to focus oon demand generation after obtaining marketing authorisations for its drugs. But today, it is difficult to find the individual decision-maker who can make an autonomous decision given the widespread influence of powerful healthcare institutions, such as large provider networks, hospitals and regional payers. A set of trends related to managing and competing in healthcare and most importants its financing, have been driving the rising importance of institutional accounts.
Within countries, regionalisation of healthcare systems has led to powerful regional payers. In rare diseases, the best specialised providers have concentrated virtually all national patient treatments in one centre. When patients pay for healthcare services out-of-pocket, they haveen driving the formation of (ambulatory) chains focusing on superior outcomes, affordable costs and outstanding convenience.
Bearing all that in mind, an overall definition of a ‘key account’ could be: ‘A customer responsible for a significant part of the volume/ value for a selected product portfolio, justifying special focus by the pharma organisation in the filed and beyond.’ A key account manager then has the vital role of strengthening and maintaining relationships with the key account, delivering tailored offerings, particularly through implementation of joint projects. A long enough, cross-functionally coordinated effort should lead to the maximisation of the account’s revenue/ growth and increased customer satisfaction.
Having defined ‘key accounts’ we must then delve deeper to see what kind of key account we are dealing with – this very much depends on the needs of the institutions, which can vary significantly. The three typical account segments – ‘drug price’, ‘healthcare costs’ and ‘total value’ – can be defined by their primary and secondary needs beyond drug cost/ healthcare cost management, such as process improvement, treatment quality improvement, employee capability enhancement, and more broader needs like revenue enhancement patient experience improvement and reputation/ brand building.
Clearly, many pharma companies have already embarked on the journey to KAM Excellence. Often, first steps consist of defining a KAM Excellence framework at the global/ regional level, implemented systematically with country organisations. Newcomers to the KAM approach often spend time identifying KAM best practices within and beyond the pharma sector, distilling key lessons learnt within the organisation. Others start by comparing themselves through a systematic (self-) assessment to develop a tailored implementation roadmap.
An alternative approach focusing on KPIs has led to quick-wins due to strong involvement of key accounts from the outset. In one pharmaceutical company, after defining a set of KPIs reflecting the specific account archetypes, country organisations started engaging account executives to prioritise their institution’s needs, a first activity-based KPI mandatory for all accounts/ KAMs. Healthcare account executives welcomed the approach: “(It) is the only pharma company that ever exposed itself to this kind of assessment,” said one. This led to the perception that the company distinguished itself from competitors in the way it does business with accounts, explaining the substantial quick-wins already generated during the pilot with the first 50+ accounts across five continents.
