Pharmacy Marketing Quarterly

PMQuarterly.com | Fall 2014

THE LEADERSHIP ISSUE

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Fall | 2014 Volume 4, Issue 12 PMQuarterly.com

Contents 2

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

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WHY YOU MUST COLLECT YOUR CUSTOMERS’ EMAIL ADDRESSES

Leadership

by PCCA

EDITORIAL

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Scot Maitland, Publisher SMaitland@TacitAlmonds.com

KEEP YOUR WEIGH BOAT ON COURSE AND BALANCE YOUR PHARMACY LIFE IN FOUR SIMPLE STEPS

by Nicole Henry

ADVERTISING

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CE AND CRAB CAKES

13

DON’T GET PAST THE GATEKEEPER

Dianne Stone

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THE SCENE

PHOTOGRAPHY

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A BLUEPRINT TO ENGAGE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

SMaitland@TacitAlmonds.com

DESIGN

Scot Maitland Peter Zullo Jennifer Hogan

by Ron Lanton III, Esq.

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COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP– STOMP THE MONSTER

by Scot Maitland

SPECIAL THANKS TO Marilyn Maitland

by Scherra Bartoli, CPhT

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WHAT IS IT TO BE A LEADER IN THE PHARMACY INDUSTRY

by Todd Eury

24 COVER STORY: ESSENTIALISM FOR THE PHARMACIST Pharmacy Marketing Quarterly is published four times per year as Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Online subscriptions and print editions are available for purchase at PMQuarterly.com/magazine

by Scot Maitland

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MARKETING LEADERSHIP– BEING A TRUSTED RESOURCE

by Scot Maitland

Pharmacy Marketing Quarterly makes all attempts to publish accurate information; however, this publication may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. The reader assumes all risk concerning the suitability and accuracy of the information within this publication. Pharmacy Marketing Quarterly assumes no responsibility for and disclaims all liability for any such inaccuracies, errors or omissions in this publication and in other documents referred to within or affiliated with this publication.

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MARKET WITH THESE UPCOMING OBSERVANCES

KEEP IT

SHARE IT

RECYCLE IT

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Happy American Pharmacists Month! It’s the fourth quarter of 2014 and we wanted to bring you a new concept for our final issue of the year . . .

Leadership. Now some people believe leaders are born, while others believe that they are made. I can’t say which is true, but what I can tell you is that leadership in our industry is more important today, than it’s ever has been.

We’ve covered a variety of topics in this issue and reached out to members of our community to provide insight on how to stay balanced, how to focus on what’s essential, how to be a leader in the community and with government officials, and how to grow as a leader through continuing education. It is my hope that you’ll find the information both stimulating and engaging as you close out 2014 and look ahead to 2015.

Last month you may have seen a blog post from Frier Levitt Attorneys at Law titled, Payors Start Requesting Medical and Scientific Evidence from Physicians Prescribing Compounds: Is Your Referring Physician Prepared?

It’s a short post, and I encourage anyone who hasn’t read it to Google it and read it, but there are two takeaways I’d like to share with you: 1. “The marketing representatives should be instructed on how to explain compounds to referring physicians, and, potentially, provide literature that physicians may use as a reference.”

2. “If physicians cannot adequately justify the compounds that they are prescribing, this presents not only payment/coverage issues, but also a professional liability issue, implicating the physician and the pharmacy. “ Does the staff representing your pharmacy have the skills set to build rapport and explain compounds to referring physicians? And do they have the knowledge to find the appropriate literature to support the explanations for reference without overstepping their scope of practice? This is not just about your business as a pharmacy owner anymore. This is about your prescribers as well. While this may seem daunting I’d like to challenge all of you to see this as an opportunity to refine your marketing and build a stronger team. I also believe it will create stronger ties between you and your prescribers as you work together.

I also want to encourage all of you to take advantage of the organizations in our industry. As Todd Eury states in his article “leadership cannot take place in a vacuum.” Look into the American College of Apothecaries, The International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists, The American College of Veterinary Pharmacists, the National Community Pharmacists Association and your local state pharmacy chapter. You don’t personally don’t have to be engaged with every organization. Lead your staff to join and report back during monthly meetings to provide recaps.

The world of pharmacy is changing daily. We need strong leaders like you.

To the health of your pharmacy,

Editor

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Fall 2014 | PMQuarterly.com

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WHY YOU MUST COLLECT YOUR CUSTOMERS’ EMAIL ADDRESSES

by PCCA | @PCCARx

What do people use more than all social media, searchengine lookups and Internet page views combined?

It’s the most commonly used unique identifier a person has, surpassing both Social Security and driver’s license numbers. It’s the most used, most valued and most highly prized piece of real estate on the Internet. There are nearly three times as many of these as there are Facebook and Twitter accounts combined. By 2016, there will be 4.3 billion of them. Chances are you have at least one. And every company, cause, charity, crook and candidate wants yours. It’s an email address.

Unfortunately, as many compounders discovered during the legislative battles that played out last year in Washington D.C., many pharmacies were not capturing and using this valuable resource to its full potential. When we as a profession needed to identify the hundreds of thousands of providers and patients who depend on compounds to rally their support, we couldn’t do it easily, quickly or cheaply. And, if you follow the news, you know that Congress and the FDA want to make doing business as a compounder even more challenging than it has become under the new Drug Quality and Security Act of 2013.

But put aside this appeal to your professional sensibilities for a moment and consider this: a customer for whom you have an email address is worth more to your business. In 2011, the average ROI on every dollar spent on email marketing was $40.56. Studies have shown that a customer whose email address is provided to a business spends from four to 10 times as much as other customers.

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Why are email addresses so valuable to your business?

Because you can “touch” your customers with a frequency, intimacy and speed and at far lower cost than is possible by any other means. Email communication is an expected and important part of any business relationship today. Think of your own relationships with businesses: you depend on order confirmations, shipping notices with tracking numbers, special offers, recall notices, receipts and a dozen other kinds of information.

You’ll choose one vendor over another for email-driven conveniences like these. So will your customers. Why do businesses like email? It’s greener both environmentally and financially. It’s measurable. It gets better response rates—an average 20-30 percent open rate—versus a 1-2 percent direct mail response rate. Consumers use email: 83 percent report that email is the first thing they check each business day and 72 percent check it six or more times a day. In a recent study, 77 percent of consumers said they prefer to receive permission based marketing communications through email. Further, email is the preferred method of commercial communication for 74 percent of all online adults. And 68 percent of email users report that they have acted on a marketing offer received by email in the past month. Email builds loyalty, improves retention rates, increases sales and makes it easy for your customers to recommend you to others.

A loyal and engaged customer is a source of repeat sales, up-sales, cross-sales and recommendations that produce more customers and more sales.

Every business needs to capture, manage and use email addresses. “There’s gold in them there email addresses,” gold that must be mined, protected and used. In any calculation of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), email is a

critical factor. But unlike gold, once they’re mined, email addresses go bad. They have a shelf life; more than 25 percent of them go bad every year. In this article, we’ll focus on capturing them. Articles in coming months will address how to manage and use them.

CAPTURING YOUR CUSTOMERS’ EMAIL ADDRESSES No matter how you capture an email address mechanically, there has to be a value proposition for your customer to share this precious commodity with you. They want to know, “What’s in it for me?” So at every step, through every means, whether in person, on the phone or on a website, you must provide value for value. So with every “ask,” be sure to explain the benefit to your customer of sharing his or her email address with you. Will they get order confirmations, pickup notices, and refill reminders? Will you give them special offers, exclusive event invitations, advance notice of sales, recall notices, coupons, important health news, freebies? Before you ask, be sure that you and anyone involved in email capture can recite the customer benefits for doing so as flawlessly as your company mission or the Pledge of Allegiance.

There are dozens of ways to collect your customers’ email addresses. Here are 18 ways to help harvest the “low-hanging fruit.” At the end of the list, there are links to many more ideas: • Just ask. In every customer interaction, ask for an email address.

• Keep a signup sheet close to customer contact points.

• Put a form on your website. (Popular email marketing services like Constant Contact (constantcontact. com) make this easy and provide the tools you need to manage your lists.) Hosted web forms are another way to do this easily • Use website pop-ups, pop-unders and similar devices to ask for an email address. (Your website designer will guide you in how to use these tools without annoying your visitors.)

• Make asking for an email address part of your prescription filling process. If you have control over your prescription software, make the email address a required field.

• Make email capture an employee performance metric.

Set a goal for an acceptable email capture rate with every transaction. Make it a game for employees with prizes for beating the goal. If you’re really serious, make email capture performance part of your employee evaluations.

• Use bag stuffers.

• Use postcards to solicit email addresses for customers for whom you only have a street address.

Drive them to your website form.

• Put a link in the signature of every email that leaves your business, from every employee, that leads to your email signup form.

• Ask for an email on everything thing you print: receipts, flyers, printed ads, store signs. Make it easy for savvier consumers by adding a QR code that links to a signup form.

• Use social media to drive people to your website.

You can add an opt-in form to your Facebook page, for example.

• Use a box or fishbowl to collect business cards in your store, tied to a weekly or monthly drawing for cash or some other prize.

• Start a birthday club and send a special offer to your customers on their big days, something that pulls them into your store to collect.

• Offer remarkable content that can only be accessed with a confirmed email address – an e-book, a special newsletter, a whitepaper.

• Run a joint promotion with another local business partner or affiliate.

• Conduct webinars. The price of admission?

You guessed it.

• Use social sharing services like AddToAny.com on your website that include an “email to a friend” button.

• Google “email append service” to find a service to add email addresses to your current customer address database.

There are several great blog posts and other sources with scores of ideas for capturing email addresses.* List maintenance is as critical to your business as list development. And it’s not just a matter of conducting your email marketing legally; you also want it to build your reputation, enlighten and engage your customers and prospects, and sometimes even lead to a sale.

Communicating with the right people about things they want to know when they want to know – and when they have asked for it – is just good business. There are three basic principles to guide your list maintenance activities and several excellent free or inexpensive services to help keep your list maintenance and email marketing both legal and effective.

LIST MAINTENANCE PRINCIPLES KEEP IT LEAN AND CLEAN A bigger list is not a better list. In fact, a large list that is more than about two percent comprised of permanently undeliverable email addresses (known as “hard bounces”) can put you at higher risk for CANSPAM violations. That’s because big email providers such as Google, Yahoo and AOL will label you as a spammer if you repeatedly send emails to non-existent addresses on their systems. This could result in your being blocked from sending your emails to anyone with an email address on their systems.

KNOW YOUR METRICS To avoid problems like this, you must pay attention to these three measurements of your email marketing in order to keep your lists lean and clean.

• Bounces are addresses to which your email could not be delivered. “Soft” bounces are temporary because of full mailboxes, mail services that only accept text as opposed to HTML emails, typos in the addresses and so forth. Soft bounces should be researched individually and corrected. “Hard” bounces are

PMQuarterly.com | Fall 2014

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permanent and should be removed. A bounce rate of zero is ideal; a bounce rate higher than five percent is worrisome.

• SPAM reports are a type of response to your email.

They ay, “I didn’t ask for this and I’m reporting you to the authorities.” If you receive more than one or two SPAM reports—not one or two percent— with any emailing, something is wrong. Your email service provider (ESP) will block your service if your SPAM reports exceed, typically, one percent.

• Opt-outs are requests to be removed from your list.

Most email services will not let you accidentally send to an opted-out address. Like the prospect who quickly says “no” to a salesperson, people who opt out of your list are doing you a favor by letting you know this is not the way to communicate with them. Use other ways such as traditional mail to communicate with them.

• Opens, click rates and forwards are important metrics, but they relate more to how effectively you are using email marketing, not how well you’re maintaining your lists. We’ll discuss these, too, as part of the next article.

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL There’s no such thing as “the general public.” Every person is unique and identifies him or herself in dozens of ways: a mother, an attorney, a Democrat, a Catholic, a person with low-T. So you must aim to speak to each customer in a way that is appropriate to your relationship with each one. The relationship may be defined by type of medication, disease state, past responses to your marketing efforts, length of your relationship and so forth. This means that you’re likely to maintain multiple lists or have the ability to segment a single list as necessary.

EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDERS Chances are that unless you have a very large organization with a CRM system that is integrated with a full-scale list management and e-marketing capability, you’ll be using an email service provider (ESP). Any of the top ten email marketing services (http://bit. ly/1oSow1J) may be a good fit for our organization. But you’ll need to do your homework to determine which will work best for you. You’ll want to think through issues and questions like these: • How will you export data from your CRM and import it to the ESP? • How will you keep the list you store with the ESP current with your CRM data?

• How do you assure that people on your e-marketing list have opted in?

• How does the system manage those who opt out so that you don’t risk a $16,000 mistake by sending an email to someone who has told you they don’t want to hear from you?

• If a customer opts out but remains a customer, how do you assure that he or she continues to receive critical transactional emails but not promotional ones?

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• How do you distinguish between customers and prospects?

• How can you segment your list or lists so you send the right message to the right people?

• What capacities do you have to measure the key metrics of your email marketing activities such as the percentages of emails delivered, opened and engaged with by customers who click links in the emails?

• What percentage couldn’t be delivered and why?

• How many recipients reported your message as SPAM? • And what percentage opted out of future mails from you?

FACTORS TO COMPARE ESPs • Pricing options are typically based on the number of email addresses you maintain with the service, payable on monthly, quarterly or annual basis.

• Contact management features are key to your compliance with the law, as well as your effectiveness in keeping your lists lean and clean. These should include removing opt-outs, preventing the re-addition of opted-out addresses, automatic detection of duplicate emails, custom demographic fields and optin management.

• Email creation features such as templates, customization, use of HTML code and text, failsafe methods to keep you in compliance with the law such as not allowing you to send an email that does not include an opt-out link and your street address, and specialized services such as surveys and social media integration.

• Email sending features such as testing your subject lines for likely SPAM trigger words, scheduling and the ability to send test emails before releasing them to an entire list.

• Email reporting features that include, at minimum, the key metrics you need.

• Help and support channels such as telephone vs. formbased services, live chat, user communities, online tutorials and help documentation.

*Note from the editor, we’ve created a simple url for you to get all the links to the resources mentioned in this article at http://pmquarterly.com/email-marketing-resources

PCCA has become the independent compounding pharmacist’s complete resource for fine chemicals, equipment, devices, flavors, ACPE-accredited training and education, pharmacy software, marketing, business and pharmacy consulting assistance. Our membership includes more than 3,900 independent community pharmacists in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries around the world.

The wave of the future.

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It’s all about adding more to the mix.

Learn how PCCA membership gives you access to innovations like the RAM, along with the industry’s best education, support and networking opportunities.

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KEEP YOUR WEIGH BOAT ON COURSE AND BALANCE YOUR PHARMACY LIFE IN FOUR SIMPLE STEPS

STUDENT INTEREST

by Nicole Henry

Here we go again, off to the start of a brand new semester! Although excited on the first day back to class, you can’t but help to think of all the things you need to get done this year. Become more involved, work more hours, apply for residency. Your advisor keeps pushing for you to take more electives. Your boss wants you to work more and longer hours at the pharmacy. Rotations are coming up too. Stress, stress, and more stress! Sound familiar? Between countless hours of schoolwork, holding leadership positions in every organization on campus, and putting in a 40 hour work week at your intern job, life can get a bit challenging. But, that’s when the realization hits you. You’re a modern pharmacist! That snazzy white coat gives you the powers to handle any clinical question or disgruntled patients; it is like a force-field of greatness! People hold you in the highest regard. So it is important for you to be the cream of the crop to answer patient and physician questions in an organized and professional manner. In order to accomplish this, one must focus on first achieving a work-life balance.

There are four simple steps for an ambitious and savvy pharmacy student such as yourself to maintain balance in your life.

STEP 1: Start with a smile and a positive attitude! Ever notice how grumpy pharmacists make grumpy patients? Start the day off right! Wake up every morning and give yourself some positive reinforcement. As you put on your white coat, tell yourself “Soon, I am going to be a pharmacist, and today I am going to make a difference in the lives of my patients.” Empower yourself and be happy. It is proven that people who are happier are more successful and achieve more of what they set out to do. It is all about attitude and perspective. Being a pharmacy student, you’re certainly well versed in communication, but be sure you communicate with yourself every once in a while too and congratulate yourself for your hard work in all areas of your life.

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STEP 2: Plan, plan, plan! Now with Google calendars and other planning and task applications, everything can be synced between devices to maximize efficiency and scheduling. The best way to achieve a goal is to set a deadline to accomplish it. Five exams in one week?

Google calendars will allow you plan ahead in order to make time to study. This minimizes the all-nighter study syndrome. Ever notice how after those all-nighters, your focus is off, anxiety runs high, and you’ve lost your pharmacy mojo? Do yourself a favor and make a calendar with scheduled times to study for each class and exam. It is always better to be over-prepared to decrease your stress level and improve your focus.

STEP 3: Pursue new opportunities! Pharmacy has so many different niches. It is vitally important that you go out and find the one that suits you best. Check out all the opportunities that are available to you as a student. For example, you may be involved in a campus organization and realize that this particular area of pharmacy will be perfect for you. Interested in leadership, law, independent ownership, consulting, retail, or hospital pharmacy? A few? All of them? Well maybe not all of them. Try joining the national organizations that represent these areas of pharmacy and attend national conferences that draw in the best of the best for these respective fields. Not only will this be an enjoyable time to explore areas of pharmacy that interest you most, but it is also a wonderful opportunity to network. Try not be shy, and engage in the areas you might be interested in. There are always shadowing and intern opportunities available in any area. Pharmacists don’t bite; they’re friendly people and are passionate regarding their profession. Especially to budding pharmacists! So don’t be afraid to ask about any opportunities they might have for you to explore their area of pharmacy.

STEP 4: “Keep calm and pharmacy on”! How does one keep calm with so much going on and trying to rise to the top as a student, clinician, and employee? Find a side hobby that you enjoy that will allow you to escape pharmacy for a few moments. Have you tried painting, drawing, or music? Do you have a favorite sport or activity that helps you to de-stress? As pharmacists, we do so much for our patients that it is important we find these activities to enjoy for ourselves to benefit our well-being.

It is also always important to take breaks when you need them in order to start the next day refreshed. Whether it is yoga or taking time to relax by the pool, it is vitally important to take time for yourself. As long as you keep that metaphorical chill pill on hand, you are ready to conquer any stressful situation the pharmacy world throws at you. Even if you have to schedule separate time for designated relaxation, do it!

Pharmacists are one of the most respected and trustworthy professions in the workforce, so always be sure to do your best to be a role model for your patients.

People come to us with their most personal stories including questions about their medications and those for their loved ones. It is important that we maintain the

highest level of professionalism and achieve work-life balance in order to care for our patients as well as we care for ourselves. This includes being positive, helpful, organized, and healthy. Be careful not to let your weigh boat stray too far off course. As they say, always stay within 0.01 of your goal marker to maintain accuracy and efficiency. This all starts with your work-life balance.

Your mind and body will thank you. Here’s to the modern pharmacist, embrace the #HyLife!

Nicole Henry is a second year Doctor of Pharmacy Candidate at the University of Arizona. She is the Founder and President of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP) student chapter, member of the ASCP National Advocacy Council, and serves on the Arizona Pharmacy Association Managed Care Academy Executive Board. She is a pharmacy intern and works at Wilmot Extended Care Pharmacy, the University of Arizona Medical Center, and Chandler Regional Hospital. Her interests are independent compounding, long-term care, senior care pharmacy, and consulting. In her spare time, Nicole enjoys traveling to pharmacy conferences to advocate for the profession.

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T HE L EADING W ORD www.PharmacyPodcast.com

IN

P HARMACY

publisher@PharmacyPodcast.com

PMQuarterly.com | Fall 2014

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CE AND CRAB CAKES

by Scherra Bartoli, CPhT | @ ACA_Info

The American College of Apothecaries is bringing back its specialty conference series, Compounding: What’s Happening? and adding Marketing: What’s Happening? to the mix! As the newest member of the ACA and ACVP I’m excited to help produce this event as well as speak at it.

On the Compounding side we’ve got topics ranging from Compounding for Wound and Scar; Treatment and Quality; Safety and Workflow in the Compounding Pharmacy to What’s Hot and What’s Not in Veterinary Pharmacotherapy and a 503 B Update. On the Marketing Side we’re going to be looking at Building a Premium Brand Position and Legal Do’s and Don’ts of Marketing as well as My Day Looks Like This and HIPAA and the new Omnibus HITECH rules.

What make these specialty conferences unique is they’re designed to be small and give attendees the opportunity to really engage one on one with another. We also schedule plenty of downtime so you may consult with your favorite speakers as well as the sponsors, Humco Compounding, Tacit Almonds (publisher of Pharmacy Marketing Quarterly), Freedom Pharmaceuticals, Medisca and Attix Pharmaceuticals.

But it’s not all work, Thursday evening kicks the event off with the Meet & Greet Reception - from 5 - 7 PM at the Royal Sonesta Harbor Court Hotel. Friday evening you’ll have time to explore Baltimore and take in the local cuisine. We asked David Miller, a native of Maryland, where the best crab cakes are and he recommends G&M Restaurant and Lounge. David told us it’s “just outside of town. Pure crab the size of a softball. Unbelievable!”

Whether you’re coming for an update on Compounding or the latest in Marketing, ACA’s What’s Happening?

Specialty Conferences have you covered as you move forward in your business. I’m looking forward to seeing you in Baltimore!

Scherra Bartoli is a Certified Pharmacy Technician and the Director of Business Development and Training for the American College of Pharmacy and the American College of Veterinary Pharmacists. Prior to working for the ACA and ACVP she was the Director of Marketing for several independent pharmacies. She’s a subject matter expert on marketing and has spoken for the ACA, ACVP and IACP.

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COMPOUNDING: WHAT’S HAPPENING?

COMPOUNDING WHAT’S HAPPENING?

MARKETING: WHAT’S HAPPENING?

MARKETING WHAT’S HAPPENING?

FRIDAY OCTOBER 31

FRIDAY OCTOBER 31

8:30 am – 10:00 am Quality, Safety, and Workflow in the Compounding Pharmacy Bryan Prince, MBA

8:30 am – 10:00 am Specialty Pharmacy Marketing Michelle Sherman, RPh, FASCP, AAHIVP Lauren Onsa, BA Scherra Bartoli, CPhT

10:15 am - 11:15 am Compounding for Wound and Scar Treatment Erik Tosh, DPh, FIACP, FACA 11:15 am - 12:15 pm Penetrating Insight: An Update on Veterinary Transdermal Therapy Gigi Davidson, BSPh, FSVHP, DICVP 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm What’s Hot and What’s Not in Veterinary Pharmacotherapy Gigi Davidson, BSPh, FSVHP, DICVP

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1 8:00 am – 10:00 am Pharmacy Compounding Law and Regulations: Staying Current in a Changing World David G. Miller, R.Ph, FIACP, FACA 10:15 am – 11:15 am Specialty Compounding for Pediatrics and Geriatrics, How Similar Are They?

Erik Tosh, DPh, FIACP, FACA 11:30 am – 1:00 pm 503 B Update John E. Morrone, Esq

10:15 am – 11:45 pm Communications Lauren Onsa, BA Scot Maitland, BAAS Scherra Bartoli, CPhT 11:45 am – 12:15 pm Building a Premium Brand Position Scot Maitland, BAAS My Day Looks Like This Scherra Bartoli, CPhT Lauren Onsa, BA Michelle Sherman, RPh, FASCP, AAHIVP 3:15 pm – 4:15 pm HIPAA and the new Omnibus HITECH rules Patti Storey – RPh, FACA 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm Legal Do’s and Don’ts of Marketing David G. Miller, R.Ph, FIACP, FACA

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1 8:00 am - 1:00 pm Round Table Discussions

PMQuarterly.com | Fall 2014

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Thinking Back... ...Looking Forward

Save the Date P id t’ B President’s Banquett February 27, 2015 5:00-7:30PM Harbor Beach Marriott Resort & Spa Fort Lauderdale, FL

Become a Member!

American College of Apothecaries 4VNNFS 0BLT %S t #BSUMFUU 5FOOFTTFF t 1IPOF t XXX BDBJOGP PSH

FOCUS ON

PHARMACIES

Frier Levitt LLC is a healthcare boutique law firm. We provide comprehensive legal services to healthcare providers, including Compounding and Specialty Pharmacies, Outsourcing Facilities, chemical manufacturers, PSAOs, GPOs, physicians, large physician group practices, ACOs, laboratories, surgery and imaging centers and other healthcare related businesses. We advise clients on the recently passed Drug Quality and Security Act (H.R. 3204).

Frier Levitt’s Pharmacy Law Group is led by firm co-founder, Jonathan E. Levitt, who is certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Civil Trial Attorney and recognized as a “SuperLawyer.� The Pharmacy Law Group is comprised of 18 attorneys with deep legal and business experience in all aspects of pharmacy law and operations. We speak your language and understand how State and Federal laws and regulations impact your bottom line. Our attorneys frequently lecture nationally on healthcare topics.

Contact jlevitt@frierlevitt.com

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(Tel) 973-618-1660

dbfrier@frierlevitt.com

(Fax) 973-618-0650

84 Bloomfield Avenue, Pine Brook NJ 07058

DON’T GET PAST THE GATEKEEPER

by Andrew Cole, Director of Business Development, Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy | @ wimi82

Prescribers are busy and gatekeepers serve an important role in the day-to-day operations of a physician’s office.

Don’t try to get past the gatekeeper, use these tips!

Get personal. Put your best smile on and make a conscious effort at getting to know the gatekeeper.

You know the saying, you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar! Be friendly, but don’t be insincere.

Say what’s in it for them. Tell the gatekeeper how you’re going to make their jobs easier. Remember, everyone is tuned into the internal radio station, WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) Don’t talk about what you do, think about them and their needs. When you turn it around, you’re much more likely to generate a conversation that benefits you both.

Create urgency. If it’s not important or special, then why take action in the first place? Create an opportunity that’s appealing to the point where, if the prescriber didn’t get it, they don’t want to be the person that didn’t allow the information to get through.

Be brief. We live in a world where being on point is important. If you can’t get it out in a sentence or two, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board. And remember, if you’re not practicing before you go out, then you’re practicing on the gatekeeper and that’s no good for business.

TIPS FROM THE EXPERTS . . .

“When dealing with the gatekeeper my best advice is to be “pleasantly persistent”. Don’t be afraid to ask questions - “If today isn’t good, when would be a good time to come back? When would be the best time to speak with the Doctor?

What is the Doctors nurses name? Who is the office manager?” All of these type questions are important for you to know the answers to and will help you build rapport and relationships within the office. And most importantly don’t forget to follow up!”

Amanda Addington Director of Sales & Marketing, Oakdell Pharmacy

“Get To Know them, and genuinely listen to them. Take a sincere interest in them and what they do they can become your best advocate and often direct where patients take their prescriptions.”

Jonathan Carlier Director Of Strategic Operations, Texas Star Compounding Pharmacies

“I do everything I can to stand out, not look like a drug rep, and leave a lasting impression. The first time I walk into the office, I wear scrubs, a name tag with the pharmacy’s logo on it, and maybe carry some pens. I attempt to make it sound like the doctor is missing out by not already talking to me. I also try to have a natural casual conversation, and maybe even joke around a bit.”

Andrew Cole Director of Business Development, Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy

PMQuarterly.com | Fall 2014

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THE SCENE

by Scot Maitland | @PMQuarterly

CARDINAL HEALTH RETAIL BUSINESS CONFERENCE From July 23 through the 26, pharmacy members of Cardinal Health gathered in the Washington D.C. area to learn and lead the change in their businesses, in the profession and in their communities. The event was packed with vendors and top notch speakers and included an opening act by comedian Gabriel Iglesias and a closing night celebration with Roger Daltrey of the Who. Next year’s conference will be held in Las Vegas, July 22 – 25, 2015.

Erik Tosh, Bob Mueller & Todd Eury

AMERICAN COLLEGE OF APOTHECARIES WELLNESS: WHAT’S HAPPENING? The ACA did it again and brought new and innovative programming to the independent community with a day and half specialty conference on wellness in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Up next is a joint conference Compounding: What’s Happening? and Marketing: What’s Happening? in Baltimore, Maryland October 31 – November 1, 2014.

Brandon Shrum and Mary Ann Than CPhT

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Scherra Bartoli CPhT and Curtis Cole

Nathan Pope Pharm.D and Dana Easton

NACDS TOTAL SHOW EXPO The six-day event encompassed government regulation, customer experience and innovation. And was infused with inspiring words, multifaceted people, and a show stopping performance by the band Train! While geared to the chain pharmacy both corporate and independent, TSE offered a mix of topics beneficial to all pharmacy owners regardless of their size providing a comprehensive glimpse into some of broader trends for today and tomorrow. Including: Health and Wellness, Specialty Pharmacy, Patient Nutrition Programs and Innovative Pharmacy Operations Models. Save the date for next year’s Total Show Expo August 22 - 25, 2015 in Denver, Colorado.

Back (Left to Right) – Baeteena Black, Becky Snead, Dixie Leikach, Mike Larkin.

Front (Left to Right) – Micah Cost, Bob McFalls, Janie Severance, Joni Cover

FREEDOM PHARMACEUTICAL’S 3RD ANNUAL CONFERENCE September started with a different kind of Oklahoma Dallas event, the 3rd Annual conference produced by Freedom Pharmaceuticals. The staff did and excellent job of generating buzz and excitement along with providing practical and applicable knowledge. Perhaps most inspiring, was their keynote speaker, former Angel’s and Yankee’s pitcher Jim Abbott. In one word, he presented a game plan for moving towards the future, ADAPT: Adjustability, Determination, Accountability, Perseverance and Trust.

Elizabeth Ferguson-Brown and Jim Abbott photo by Peter Zullo

Scot Maitland & Jake Jackson

Randy and Kanoa Jo Mire

Shara Rudner photo by Peter Zullo

PMQuarterly.com | Fall 2014

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A BLUEPRINT TO ENGAGE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

by Ron Lanton III, Esq.

There used to be a time when small business owners such as pharmacists did not have to worry too much about government activities. However, as the last 10 years have demonstrated, both state government and Congress are now more involved in the marketplace. Landmark laws such the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act have shown that many industries; especially healthcare are being impacted by government more than ever before.

Small-business owners start with an expectation of expansion amid potential risks. It all starts with a dream followed by a business plan, and then gaining access to credit. While plans progress for a bigger store or for hiring more employees, many owners unfortunately don’t give much thought to how government impacts them.

That alone creates a huge risk to growth.

For example, you have spent all this time planning for your new restaurant. However; because you have not been paying attention to the discussions at the state capital, you didn’t know that a new tax will make it harder to open your business. Fast-forward to your grand opening, and now you have a larger tax bill than expected. You could have prevented, or at least planned for, this development. While it is hard enough to make your product or sell your service, there is some degree of certainty as to what your projected costs will be. Trying to project government’s next step is a lot harder.

I understand why a small-business owner may be hesitant to think about these issues. The political climate has gotten tougher as both sides of the aisle have dug in to their beliefs without as much compromise. While today’s media may have you believe that government is dysfunctional, I am confident that will improve over time.

Regardless of today’s divisive partisanship, government is still open for business, and laws are still being passed.

I guarantee that there is a law out there that has recently passed at either the state or federal level that will have some impact on your business.

So how do you ensure that you can run your business efficiently and have an impact on your government? First, stop believing that your business is too small in order to get a meeting with a politician. Here’s an inside tip: In

Congress and state government, you don’t need to speak directly to the legislator; his or her staff will do just fine.

Most of the time staffers advise the legislator, and if you can make a good connection with them you’ve won half the battle.

Second, you should find out what is going on. Most chambers of commerce have a government affairs professional on staff that can alert you to trends concerning small businesses. Now that you know the issues and have spoken to your representative, how do you make sure that your concerns have been heard? Well if after all of these steps you either still haven’t seen your issues addressed or you have an idea to change a law to improve your margins, you may want to consider finding a dedicated government affairs professional that will advocate for you.

Now you may be asking, “Why can’t I simply do this myself? Wouldn’t it be cheaper?” Well, would you file your own court case, do your own taxes or perform your own surgery? Think of engaging a government affairs professional as an investment. It is always worth being prepared for government activity with an experienced professional than having potential legislation erase your profit and dream completely.

The best government affairs professional should be able to evaluate your business, create both a short- and longterm strategy and be in constant communication with you to ensure that your profits are being protected. In this arena, it is always better to be on offense than on defense.

Ron Lanton III, Esq. is the President of True North Political Solutions, LLC. a healthcare government affairs consulting firm with state and federal expertise. Mr. Lanton has over 20 combined years of government affairs and legal experience.

This includes activities on the municipal, state, and federal levels of government. Most recently he worked for a pharmaceutical wholesaler, where he created and oversaw the company’s Government Affairs Department, served as their exclusive lobbyist and also advocated for the company’s various healthcare customers.

PMQuarterly.com | Fall 2014

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COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP STOMP THE MONSTER

by Scot Maitland | @PMQuarterly

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to walk NYC’s High Line Park and talk about leadership, connecting with your community and a project that’s near and dear to her heart, STOMP The Monster.

Pharmacy Marketing Quarterly: What is Stomp the Monster and why did you create it?

Shara Rudner: STOMP The Monster™ is a 501c3 Charitable Organization that provides financial and other support to cancer patients, their families, and caregivers when they need it most – during their fight with the disease. Finding money to pay for rent, groceries, utilities, gas, child-care, and other expenses can add stress to an already stressful time when a family member is diagnosed with cancer and unable to work. Over the past four years, STOMP the Monster has assisted over 1,500 families. STOMP The Monster is committed to helping patients fill in the gaps so they can focus on healing.

It was because of my brother, Seth Grumet, during his own battle with cancer that STOMP The Monster came to life. While Seth was training for his second Ironman Triathlon, he began to have unusual fatigue and shortness of breath. On Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 an hour after his first CT scan, the doctor’s office requested to see him immediately. After tests and surgeries, to provide viable samples of the tumor growing in his chest, the diagnosis was in; Seth was battling Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Seth has been through the very difficult diagnosis of cancer, extensive tests, multiple surgeries, chemotherapy and two stem cell transplants. He has been fortunate to have the support of family and

friends during this crucial time. But while going through countless treatments and doctor appointments, he met many people in the same situation who unfortunately did not have the same type of support system. Seth quickly became motivated to make a difference in these people’s lives and came up with the idea of STOMP The Monster. He, along with a dedicated group of founding board members including our sister and myself, took the idea and transformed it into reality.

PMQ: In addition to Stomp the Monster, you’re involved in other leadership roles with IACP and ACA, why is volunteerism so important to you?

SR: Volunteering is important to me for several reasons. I want to do my small part to promote goodness and make the world a better place. I want to lead by example and teach my children to help Continued on Page 21

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How much time do you have to read all the fine print?

Reading the fine print so you don’t have to.

www.iacprx.org

Š2014 International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists (IACP). All rights reserved.

Continued from Page 18

others. I want them to experience what it feels like to give unconditionally. As a pharmacist, I strongly believe in giving back to the profession and using our unique position in the community to connect people.

Volunteering has brought so many remarkable people into my world.

PMQ: How do you make time for these volunteer duties and balance it with your work and your personal life?

SR: Volunteering is one part of my life that makes me happy and therefore I consciously make an effort to create time. Maintaining balance in all aspects of my life is key and I make choices every day to make sure that happens.

Involve your whole pharmacy team. Discuss ideas, pick dates, and make it happen. Use your pharmacy as a platform. For example, set up a table and sign people up for the bone marrow registry. A simple swab could save a life (we’ve seen a match happen because of a swab at our pharmacy!). Or spread the word via your social media that people can stop in your pharmacy any time and swab. Another way to get involved in the community is to adopt a local family in need. Shop and purchase groceries or gifts for the holidays. Deliver them along with smiles and hugs. Volunteering together is also team building and gives everyone involved something positive to focus on throughout their workday.

PMQ: Shara you’re an inspiration, can you share some of the ways our readers can give back to help support your efforts with STOMP the Monster?

SR: Thanks for spreading the good word! Yes, we’d love to have your help, you can: • • • • • •

Become a Partner or Sponsor Attend our Gala Making a Donation Volunteering Start your own Fundraiser Follow us on Twitter or Facebook and help spread awareness

*Editor’s note, the links are available on Pharmacy Marketing Quarterly’s website at: http://pmquarterly.com/stomp-the-monster

A compounding pharmacist and business owner for over 17 years, Ms. Rudner holds a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island, College of Pharmacy and is a fellow of IACP, ACA, and ACVP. She led Belvidere Pharmacy to PCAB Accreditation in 2007, serves on various pharmacy organization boards and committees, is adjunct faculty for several institutions, and has presented at both national and international venues. Currently she is the Director of the National Clinical Trials Group for Restore Health.

PMQuarterly.com | Fall 2014

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WHAT IS IT TO BE A LEADER IN THE PHARMACY INDUSTRY

by Todd Eury | @PharmacyPodcast

The subject of pharmacy industry leadership fascinates me. I have always aspired to be a leader of sorts starting with my high school years on the student council and then during my summers as a swim team coach. I learn more when leading. Because it’s a mixture of doing and speaking, it creates a reciprocal communication with their reaction to my own. The immediate feedback from their facial expressions or questions and the rewarding feeling I get from empowering others has always been addictive to me.

To be a leader in pharmacy you must understand the drivers of the business and all the different aspects of the market that apply to it. This includes competitors, history and business priorities. Leaders must formulate direction, and not just executing other people’s plans.

To be a truly inspiring leader you must be sincerely empathetic to those you intend to lead. Start with asking yourself several questions: • How strong is my ability to perceive the feelings, beliefs and preferences of others?

• Can I see a situation from others’ perspectives, even if I disagree with them?

• Do I get energized by seeing a group work together, or by bringing new groups of people together?

Depending on the answers to these questions, you can decide how to develop the skills that can help make you a ‘strategic leader’. Thinking strategically takes a lot of hard work because the despotism of the urgent always trumps the importance of longer-term planning. An effective leader will stay true to the long-term goals of the many they intend to lead.

As a pharmacy business marketer, I can’t help but resort to a concept of building a brand for your followers, your employees, and your industry associates. It starts with your willingness to help. You can gather valuable brand advocates by simply providing help where help is needed. A great book on leadership, I highly recommend, is the Servant Leader, by Ken Blanchard.

The premise of Ken’s book is to be prepared to lead by serving others from the bottom up concept and create the most valuable type of support for those you intend to lead.

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As a result of simply helping those that follow you, you’ll gain a community of brand advocates who consistently refer potential clients your way, bringing valuable opportunities.

Another means to being a good leader is the attempt and ability to remove barriers to the collective success.

When you make the effort to help someone, you are given the opportunity to form a meaningful relationship, rather than a purely transactional one. Rushing into a strictly business relationship usually doesn’t last as long as friendships, think about building meaningful connections over a longer period of time. It’s relationships that build meaningful partnerships — this will differentiate you from competitors and provide you with the credibility to make similarly valuable connections in the future.

Finally, understand that leadership cannot take place in a vacuum. Be prepared to inspire and help create other leaders from your example. As well as your commitment to the greater good, which is why the greatest leaders in any industry or company make a lasting impression.

Leadership is not for everyone and so many in our pharmacy industry are looking for strong, sincere, consistent leaders to help our position within healthcare.

We need leaders who will command our transformation from a perception of transactional services to an irreplaceable role of healthcare providers and with every valuable provider comes a perceived worth to our patients they cannot live without.

Todd S. Eury is the Editor in Chief of the Pharmacy Podcast Show. He started in the pharmacy industry as a software systems consultant in 2004 and has built and sold two companies to support privately owned pharmacies in the last six years. Todd’s passion is helping pharmacy owners maximize their profits to help offer the best patient care services through independent pharmacy.

For more information about the Pharmacy Podcast visit http:// PharmacyPodcast.com.

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ESSENTIALISM FOR THE PHARMACIST

by Sc Scot ott Ma M Maitl Maitland aitl itland and | @P @PMQuarterly @ MQuart MQu MQ artterl erly ly

What is Essentialism? And why is it important to you?

Before I owned a pharmacy, I was a licensed massage therapist for over seven years. So I know a lot about stress. I’ve actually felt it and I’m here to help you relieve it.

If you spend your waking hours feeling like you want to pull out your hair and run away, keep reading. It gets better with essentialism! Before we get into the meat of this article, I have a few questions for you: 1. How many projects do you consider a “high priority”?

2. True or false: I end the day with more things on my “to do” list than when I started the day off.

3. People who try to do it all are . . .

You don’t have to write down your responses and there are no right or wrong answers to these questions. It’s about getting a perspective of where you are right now, in this moment.

So what is Essentialism? Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, defines it like this “Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done.

It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either.

It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.”

We reward people for being busy. If you’re busy, then you must be successful. I’m guilty of this myself. Earlier this summer I was in Tulsa, Boston and Dallas. I wore that ragged schedule like it was a badge of honor. Bronnie Ware, an Australian nurse who works in palliative care, spent several years working with people who were dying and in the final weeks of their life. She wrote about the things that the dying were saying in their final days. I

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want to share these with you because I think we all get caught up in what’s going on with the PBM’s and 503b, the new compounding solution from ESI and HR 3204.

But take a moment to process the top five things she heard from the dying: 1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

“If you work for a living, why do you kill yourself working?”

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY So how do we become an essentialist? First off we need to get specific and targeted. Patients come in and bring a prescription, you fill everything that comes in, or at least try to. That doesn’t make sense anymore. You can’t be all things to all people. The moment that you try, you’re going to end up disappointing everyone. Besides, that’s what the chain pharmacies are for. What is your business model? Do you need to be doing everything?

I like to use the analogy of light. You can be like the sun and give everyone a base tan or you could be like a laser and blow it up! My guess is that you want to blow up your business. You want it to be profitable.

You want it to be fun and be engaged. But the only way to do that is to get targeted and focused on what it is that you want to do. For example, saying that you’re a compounder is too broad. What are you going to specialize in with regards to compounding? Is it vet?

HRT? Autism? Getting specific has many benefits. From knowing exactly what you need from your suppliers

to streamlining your workflow. So start with making choices and get targeted.

JOMO VS. FOMO We worry that we might miss an opportunity and that can be exhausting. It doesn’t have to be once you embrace the Joy Of Missing Out (JOMO) and let go of the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO). Maybe you’re worried that you’ll miss the band-wagon? Or this new opportunity is a cash cow! But is it really a cash cow?

How many times have you waited to say “yes” to a commitment, finally agreed, and learned it was too late? Did you experience a small bit of happiness?

You probably really didn’t want to participate. Why postpone that joy? Embrace the joy of missing out and get focused!

ELIMINATING I want to inspire you to say “no”. No is a complete sentence. “No, I’m sorry we don’t or can’t fill this prescription.” “No, we specialize in x, y and z.” “No I’m not available for that event.” People may be disappointed that you’ve said “no”, but they’re respect you more for standing your ground. Now you may not always be able to say “no”. But if you’re not 100% committed to it, don’t say “yes”, say “I’ll get back to you”. And then be sure and get back to them! The successful pharmacist of the future is the pharmacist that stops reacting and starts planning. And one sure fire way to plan is to say “no” and get essential.

Keep them in mind when things feel a little crazy.

Here’s to you, the essential pharmacist!

Scot Maitland is the Founder of Tacit Almonds and the Publisher of Pharmacy Marketing Quarterly. Scot works with independent pharmacies and other healthcare providers to help them grow their market share through marketing, communications and education. He’ll be speaking at the upcoming ACA Conference, Marketing: What’s Happening? in Baltimore. To reach Scot, email him at SMaitland@TacitAlmonds.com.

DELEGATING In a perfect world you’d decide what is essential and you’d do those tasks and delegate the rest. I’m over simplifying it a little but there is still plenty of room to delegate. My guess is, you’re not taking full advantage of what your staff has to offer. If you’re staff is tapped and can’t help, look into getting a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant, or VA, is a self-employed professional who provides administrative, technical, or creative assistance to you, remotely from their home office. So challenge yourself to think creatively about how to delegate tasks to your staff or other personnel. Share the concepts of essentialism with your team so they can determine what is essential to their job function.

WE ALL HAVE 24 HOURS IN A DAY Essentialism isn’t a time management skill. It’s not about giving things up for the sake of giving things up.

It’s about looking at your business with fresh eyes and getting focused on your business. It’s about learning to let go of the things that don’t align with your goals.

It’s about finally saying “no” when appropriate and delegating the other things that have to be done. I want to leave you again with the five things that Bronnie Ware learned from the dying.

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

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5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

PMQuarterly.com | Fall 2014

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Save the Date!

Fort Lauderdale, Florida ~ February 25-28, 2015 Bringing the pharmacy profession together in paradise.

EducationalConference.org Scan the meeting QR code and stay in touch with the latest meeting activities, videos, speaker bios, and more. Š2014 International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists (IACP). All rights reserved.

MARKETING LEADERSHIP: BEING A TRUSTED RESOURCE

by Scot Maitland | @PMQuarterly

I have a marketing crush on Peter Koshland. When I lived in San Francisco, Peter worked at a revolutionary pharmacy called Elephant Pharm. I happened to catch him on the television talking about BHRT. Now in 2014, Peter along with his wife Krista, are the owners of Koshland Pharm in San Francisco and he continues to captivate me with the unique presence he’s created to be a marketing leader in the health and wellness community of San Francisco.

Pharmacy Marketing Quarterly: Peter, thanks for chatting with me and sharing with our readers about some of the success you’ve had at Koshland Pharm.

You were on View from the Bay several years ago, what are your tips for getting news spots to market your pharmacy?

Peter Koshland: I mean it’s great, those are the home runs. The free PR, the free advertising and it puts you out there as a credible expert for the pharmacy. It’s really hard in this area to get a foothold in that. Some of it’s just luck, knowing the right person.

PMQ: What has been successful for you in terms of media exposure?

PK: The one thing we have done, that I would say has been successful is radio. We do NPR spots because it fits our demographic. We’ll do a sponsorship every day and get a 15-second message “this traffic report is brought to you by Koshland Pharm.” We also give matching grants during pledge time. And that has been pretty successful for us. We get a lot of positive feedback. While part of the goal is brand awareness, the ask (to come into the pharmacy) isn’t a part of that. It’s letting people know that we exist, here’s 15 seconds about who we are. And

by putting it on the NPR station, people don’t sense it as an ad, or a marketing push. It’s more like, “You’re supporting my favorite radio station.” People will come and thank me for supporting KQED. It’s been successful as best as we can track it. It’s definitely raised the brand recognition of our business. A lot of doctors listen to that station too. We have a very large NPR listenership and they tend to be highly educated, trending towards women, higher income, so it hits our sweet spot in terms of the demographic that we’re going for.

PMQ: You bring up a really good point, understanding who your ideal customer is, so that you can target your marketing.

PK: That’s really true. I got some advice early on that you think about who your idea customer is, it may be a 52 year old woman, who has a college degree, who makes over a $100,000 a year in her household and is interested in health and wellness. Put together a very detailed profile of the ideal customer. And market to those types of people. By focusing on like that, I think it’s a very good approach. And I think that’s what we’ve tried to do. We’ve built our business on hormone replacement, but now we’re trying to get into other areas. We try to think of how we’re going to have that ideal person in our practice area. And sometimes it’s the ideal doctor that we’re marketing to. For example, if we’re going to a pediatrician, we want somebody who’s very patient focused, when we go to their website there’s a lot of discussion about how much they are there for their patients, and how much they care about their patients.

And we find that these doctors are much more receptive to our message of customization and partnering with a health care team for the sake of their patients.

PMQuarterly.com | Fall 2014

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Photos by Jennifer Hogan

PMQ: That’s awesome. You touched on something that I think is important to mention, social reconnaissance.

You actually go and do homework on who you’re going to detail to before you walk out the door.

PK: Oh absolutely. It’s so important. My wife, Krista, who does part time marketing for us, and Lindsey, who is full time, do a lot of background work. We mine our own data using our software and look at what they’ve been prescribing. So we’ll get a sense of the prescriptions that they’ve written. We’ll go on their website. And not just off of their website, but their Yelp reviews, Health Grades and other sites like that. You can get a pretty good sense of who they are. A lot of doctors also like to let you know who they are. I think that helps their own personal brand. So a lot of times you’ll find personal information that they’ve provided. They have two dogs, or they love spending time in the mountains, hiking. So that’s always a great opportunity when you’re meeting with them to start a conversation off with “I understand you love to hike!” and it just starts the conversation off in a nice personal way. You gradually can talk a little bit more about what you do. Doing that background work, is extremely important.

PMQ: Absolutely, if you’re not connecting on a personal level then you’re seen as a commodity business. And when you’re seen as a commodity business the deciding factor comes down to price.

PK: Yes, and sometimes you come in and the doctor says “I’ve got 15-minutes, tell me what you’ve got.” And we’ll go into our spiel. But more times than not, it’s nice to have a little more of a personal connection. Now that we’ve been doing this for five-years, we’re kind of friends with a lot of doctors. We consider them friends of ours, not just people that we’re marketing to. We went in and visited a OBGYN that we’ve worked with for some time and out of that came a project to do a seminar on pelvic floor dysfunction. It stemmed from the fact that they like working with us. So it’s neat because you continue to develop that rapport with them.

PMQ: That brings me up to my next question. I noticed that you have a robust network of prescribers and other health care professionals that you provide education to your patients at the pharmacy. How are these events impacting your business?

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PK: It’s a good question and a tough one to answer.

For me, marketing impact always comes down to “is it bringing dollars into the pharmacy.” So things like that, can be hard to quantify. We see the value of those events, especially when doing seminars for doctors, because it creates what we call the “maven effect.”

We’re like the old fashion maven (a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others) so we’re bringing these different practitioners together who have very similar approaches to their treatments. We know them well, but they don’t know each other. So we become a hub for bringing like minded practitioners together. Ultimately what that does is strengthens our relationship to each individual practitioner. We’ve helped facilitate greater professional development and satisfaction for them. Getting feedback from the doctors about it, they really appreciate it.

They like the education piece and they also like the networking piece.

PMQ: Let’s talk about connecting with your patients, you did something really interesting this summer, pharmacy technician trading cards. Tell us more about them.

PK: Kevin Borg (owner of Potter’s House Apothecary) was doing it and Lindsey came up with an idea. So when we remodeled our space last year, we built in some space to have seminars. One of our goals for this year was to have more people come into the pharmacy for education. We came up with the Summer Lecture Series and did three lectures. I did one presentation and we brought it two guest speakers, physicians that we work with. As part of that promotion, we did the trading cards.

One side contained our Summer Lecture Series and the other side we put pictures of our techs. And the idea was that as part of this series, you’d get a tour of the pharmacy. We wanted to connect our patients more with the staff. “Here’s who made your medication.” We’re almost out of those cards and will probably bring it back next summer. I think it’s been very positive from the patient’s perspective, it’s that nice personal touch.

PMQ: Tell us about your marketing team.

PK: Krista and Lindsey work together, Lindsey’s our foot solider. Ten percent of our time, as a team, is spent coming up with ideas and ninety percent is executing

them well. And if the execution piece isn’t in there, it doesn’t matter how good the idea is. Having Lindsey her here every day is so critical to our marketing success.

Since Krista is only here part time, a lot of her efforts are focused on helping evaluate what we’re doing, coming up with analysis of the metrics and coming up with new ideas.

And I help out as well. I check in with my team and help them put together the information they need. As an owner, I’m still very involved in the marketing as well.

PMQ: Brilliant! I think it’s vitally important for pharmacy owners to have a stake in how their business is being represented to the public. Marketing isn’t a department, it’s a culture for your pharmacy.

PK: Yes! Even if you have a really experienced marketer come into your business, our industry is so unique. So they need a lot of guidance, and training to become acclimated to what works for a compounding pharmacy versus what worked for whatever business they came from before.

When Lindsey came on, I told her “It’s going to take you six months to learn this job, and it’s going to take you another six months for you take ownership over this job.

So give yourself a year to get to that point of being really comfortable with what we’re doing here.” That’s the kind of time it takes, and along the way we’re working with her to having her help us come up with new ideas from her past experiences. It’s a big learning curve, even for an experienced marketer.

PMQ: Peter, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with us. Are there any last thoughts you’d like to leave our readers with?

PK: The one thing that I’d love to get out there in your magazine is marketers need to have some sense of the business of the pharmacy they work for. And that the success of marketing, has to be tied to increases in revenue for the business. It doesn’t have to be over night, but it’s crucial to evaluate their efforts and continually fine tune them, reevaluate them, to make sure that they’re really making a difference for the good of the business.

Peter Koshland, PharmD, is a graduate of Georgetown University (BS Chemistry, 1994) and the UCSF School of Pharmacy (2000).

While working as a pharmacist at Elephant Pharm in Berkeley in 2007, he was introduced to the field of compounding by his patients, who were looking for alternatives to synthetic hormone replacement therapy. After he was trained in compounding by the Professional Compounding Centers of America (PCCA), he knew he had found the area of pharmacy that he wanted to specialize in. Peter opened Koshland Pharm: Custom Compounding Pharmacy in 2009.

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