22 minute read
BUSINESS CPD
The Future of Pharmacy - Part 2
Optimising Sales – Promotion Beyond Category Management
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of article, you will be able to…
• Outline how 4Front’s Promotion pillar is influenced by the other 5P’s of Pharmacy Excellence • Define ‘Promotion’ • Recognise FIVE trends in community pharmacy to inform your promotion strategy • Explain how you can leverage these trends to influence your customer experience • Identify ways that 4Front’s STEPS™ Consultation
Framework can improve the Pharmacy/Patient Consultation and enhance professional reputation and sales. • Prioritise your highest leverage activities • Take action
INTRODUCTION:
In the July Busines CPD article, we identified 4Front’s Personal leadership pillar as the foundation of Pharmacy Excellence. In this article we focus on 4Front’s Promotion pillar. What does ‘Promotion’ mean in in the context of 4Front’s 6Ps of Pharmacy Excellence? What current and future trends are affecting how Pharmacy Promotes it value? How does mastery of Promotion depend on mastery of the Personal Leadership pillar? What can you do to respond to market trends and promote the value of pharmacy in a way that future proofs your career, your business and our profession? Promotion is a key pillar of Pharmacy Excellence. With an excellent ability to promote the value of health, the value of pharmacy, the value of your products and services, and the value of your professional expertise, your ability to add value to your patients and customers is amplified. (see image above) P – Continual personal growth enables you to promote the value of your skills, behaviours and experiences in interviews, business and professional contexts and in customer consultations. Personal stagnation, on the other hand, increases the risk of rigid thinking, playing small, holding back and waiting for others to act. (Personal) P – Promoting the value of health and the value of pharmacy are PSI core competencies. Those who hold conflicting beliefs about professionalism and promotion may hold back from developing mastery in this core competency and risk unintentionally slipping into passivity, blame or judgement. (Professional)
P – Promoting a culture of excellence that is open and honest, amplifies individual and collective strengths and encourages growth. Through collaborative teamwork, customer care, commitment, accountability and results are multiplied. Tragically, many pharmacy workplaces promote a more fear-based culture in which ‘Accidental Diminishers’ (Liz Wiseman) dominate. These workplaces drain energy and foster dysfunctional cultures, which may be described as controlling, political, paternalistic, hierarchical, rigid, risk-averse, individualistic, constantly in crisis, passive etc. Such cultures may have individuals that get overwhelmed doing everything, but also keep colleagues helpless by rescuing IPN’s Pharmacy Business Excellence Series is for community them. If you’re workplace has an pharmacists committed to growing their professional and unhealthy work culture, that energy business knowledge and skills to overcome challenges and thrive is promoted to customers, locums as a community pharmacist. and your community. (People). IPN is proud to partner with 4Front Pharmacy to bring you the ‘IPN/4Front Pharmacy Business Excellence Series.’ P – By wholeheartedly executing integrated promotional strategies, you quickly gather data to identify In this series, you will apply 4Front’s 6P’s of Pharmacy Excellence the degree to which your existing to navigate the ‘Future of Pharmacy.’ and innovative products and services solve your customers’ 4Front’s 6P’s of Pharmacy Excellence are problems and meet their needs. Half-hearted or unfocused 1. Personal Leadership promotion of products and 2. Professional Practice services, or lack of appropriate reflection about the effectiveness 3. Person-Centred Care (Patients/Customers/Staff/Other of the promotional strategy limit
Healthcare Professionals) success. (Products and Services). 4. Products and Services 2 P – By proactively creating customer-centric promotional 5. Promotion strategies that enrich your customer’s experience, you 6. Prosperity (Profit and Time) inspire trust, goodwill, loyalty and Each month, Rachel Dungan ‘The Pharmacist Coach,’ guides you to apply 4Front’s 6Ps of Pharmacy Excellence Framework to prosperity. By habitually having a short-term, hap-hazard, reactive approach, much time is often create your pharmacy future. While Rachel is the creator of this wasted on low value activities framework and the author of these articles, YOU are the author of that do not give you a return your career, your future. The future of pharmacy is in your hands, on your time or financial in your heart, in your head. investment. (Prosperity) Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use this What is ‘Promotion’? framework as a guide to Dictionary definitions of • (re)activate your inner scientist, so you run the experiments required to take your next bold move towards an ever more ‘promotion’ fall into three main categories. Promotion is: compelling future - activity that supports or provides active encouragement for the • develop mastery as you embrace your challenges furtherance of a cause, venture, and opportunities or aim e.g. "disease prevention • take PRIDE in what you do as you create an ever more and health promotion" prosperous future - the publicisation of a product, service, organisation, or venture • equip, enable, engage and empower yourself, your team and so as to increase sales or public your patients to become more proactive about managing your awareness e.g. “promotion of own health and wellbeing. pharmacy vaccination services”
IPN 4Front Pharmacy Business Excellence Article JUNE 2021 Rachel Dungan – 4Front Pharmacy 31 May 2021
In this article we take a deep dive into what ‘Personal Leadership’ means in in the context of 4Front’s 6Ps of Pharmacy Excellence and why Personal Leadership is THE critical foundation on which personal, professional and business life mastery is founded. While personal leadership develops from the inside out, its effects are felt not only by you and your family, but also by your employees, your customers, your colleagues and your community. Furthermore, without a strong personal leadership foundation, the other 5Ps suffer. (see image above) • P - Making ethical decisions becomes increasingly difficult (Professional). • P - Demonstrating empathy in teamwork, customer care and conflict becomes increasingly limited (People). Page
- the action of raising a person or profession to a higher position or rank “pharmacist designated for promotion to group superintendent"· In pharmacy, the word promotion is used in all these contexts. In a marketing context, pharmacy promotion refers to any type of marketing communication used to inform your customers, patients and community of the value of pharmacy in general, your pharmacy and brand in particular and the relative merits of your products and services. In a health context, ‘Health Promotion’ is a PSI Core Competency. Health promotion is, as stated in the 1986 World Health Organization (WHO) Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, "the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. The aim of promotion is to increase awareness, create interest, generate sales and enhance personal and professional reputation and/or brand loyalty.
What is your attitude to Marketing and Promotion?
For Seth Godin when he uses the work ‘marketing’ he means ‘the generous act of helping others become who they seek to become. It involves creating honest stories – stories that resonate and spread. Marketers offer solutions, opportunities for
people to solve their problems
and move forward.’ When YOU use the word ‘marketing,’ - What does it mean to you? - What judgements do you have about marketers and marketing? - Do you see yourself as a marketer? As a promoter? - To what degree do you see marketing and promotion as a core competency? - What feelings and emotions surface as you contemplate marketing and promotion in a professional context? - From your perspective, how should other people respond to your marketing and promotion? - How do you feel if their response doesn’t meet your expecations? - How would each member of your team answer these questions? How do you know? - Which of these meanings, feelings, identities and judgements about marketing and promotion are enabling you (and your team) to serve others at the highest level? - Which are sabotaging you (and your team) from serving others? - What could you and your team do to begin to bridge any gaps?
FIVE trends in community pharmacy to inform your promotion strategy
1. The Accelerated Shift from
Reacting to Illness Towards
Whole-Person Wellness
2. Shift in Healthcare Access and
Use During COVID-19 3. The Accelerated Shift from Real
World to Virtual
4. Trend Towards Diversity and
Inclusivity in an epidemic of
Loneliness and Isolation
5. Shift in the balance of Power in the Patient/Pharmacy
Relationship
These five trends have fundamentally changed how your current and future patients take care of their own health and wellbeing, navigate the health system, and engage with your pharmacy. 1. The Accelerated Shift from Reacting to Illness Towards Optimising Wellness
Pre-COVID, the consumer trend already indicated a move AWAY from the more passive symptom management approach to health TOWARDS a more proactive approach to disease prevention, lifestyle interventions and wholeperson wellbeing. The following are examples of some of the factors accelerating the change. - Necessity. With access to healthcare hugely curtailed, patients sought ways to take matters into their own hands to reduce their health risks. - Increased public health education, has reduced transmission of all respiratory infections. - More awareness of the impact of our lifestyle choices (for better and worse) on our health - More recognition that mental fitness is part of overall health This shift is reflected in changes in the front of shop sales mix in pharmacies. For example, in many pharmacies, there has been a significant decrease in sales of OTC Cough, Cold and Children’s Analgesics and a corresponding increase in sales in the Vitamin, Mineral and Supplement Categories.
Promotion Challenges and Opportunities
Pharmacy has a present opportunity to - promote itself more and more as care destinations, at the heart of the community, - to be seen as a one-stop shop, in sickness and in health, - to partner with patients to move up the illness-wellness continuum, towards optimal health. - Support more people, to live well, for longer, at home it is not only good for communities. It is good for business.
2. Shift in Healthcare Access and Use During COVID-19
During the pandemic, - GP practices shifted from almost exclusively in-person consultations to predominantly phone consultations. - Many patient supports, such as out-patient clinics, dental, physiotherapy and other healthcare appointments were postponed indefinitely. - At a time of great uncertainty, fear and worry, pharmacy was one of the few parts of the healthcare system that stayed open to the public, for in-person consultations. Public trust in local pharmacists remains high.
Veracity Index 2021 (ipsos.com) However, due to ongoing concerns with regard to COVID transmissibility indoors, many
patients continue to limit pharmacy visits and instead avail of delivery via representatives, or pharmacy delivery services.
Promotion Challenges and Opportunities
How patients engage with staff, products and services to inform their buying decision has changed. In the past, patients had to physically attend their GP, walk in the door of the pharmacy, bearing a physical prescription and personally collect their medications, beauty or OTC products. In so doing, they walked passed your window display, visual displays, merchandise, shelf talkers and offers.
3. The Accelerated Shift from Real World to Virtual
Remote working. Healthmail. Telehealth & Video conferencing. Cyber-Security. Alexa. Chat bots. Mobile commerce. Data analytics. Wearable technology. Machine Learning. Growing demand for Personal, Video Communication.
Promotion Challenges and Opportunities
IPN 4Front Pharmacy Business Excellence Article AUG 2021 With more virtual freedom, pharmacies need to be more proactive to build and maintain The Accelerated Shift customer loyalty. Keeping up with the breathtaking pace of from Reacting to Illness Towards Optimising Wellness technology changes can be Pre-COVID, the consumer trend already indicated a move AWAY from the more passive symptom management approach to health TOWARDS a more daunting. However, learning proactive approach to how to capture the attention of your patients and add value to disease prevention, lifestyle interventions and whole-person wellbeing. The following are examples of some of the factors accelerating the change. them on a 12cm x 6cm screen - (their phone) is a non-negotiable promotional requirement and a huge opportunity for those that Necessity. With access to healthcare hugely curtailed, patients sought ways to take matters into their own hands to reduce their health risks. - Increased public master it. health education, has reduced transmission of all respiratory infections. 4. Trend Towards Diversity and - M Inclusivity in an epidemic of ore awareness of the impact of our lifestyle choices (for better and worse) on our health Loneliness and Isolation - More recognit There is increasing awareness that ion that mental fitness is part of overall healthpeople do not need to live alone to feel misunderstood, marginalised This shift is reflected in changes in the front of shop sales mix or lonely. The COVID-19 pandemic in pharmacies. For has affected different generations, different cultures, people working in different industries and people example, in many pharmacies, there has been a significant decrease in sales of OTC Cough, Cold and Children’s Analgesics and a corresponding increase in sales in the Vitamin, Mineral and Supplement Categories. with different health care conditions
Image Attributed to John W Travis MD
in different ways. Pharmacies that proactively respond to diverse customer needs, and communicate how they are listening and adapting, will have a competitive advantage.
Mitigate Against Unconscious Bias
Sensory Input matters. Visuals and colour in category management matters. Words matter. Scents and tastes matter. Texture and experience matters. Context matters. Identical inputs can mean very different things to each of us. Not everybody thinks like you! The meaning we attach is driven by (often) unconscious, habitual thinking patterns, experiences, assumptions, attitudes, beliefs and values.
When promoting your products and services, be aware of unconscious bias. Do not assume you know what your customers think or want. One of the most effective ways to do this is to seek input from a diverse range of people, who can shine a light on your personal, professional or cultural blind-spots.
5. Shift in the balance of Power in the Patient/Pharmacy Relationship
For years, pharmacy (and other healthcare professionals) have had an unsatisfactory relationship with ‘patient-centred care’. In the traditional, paternalistic healthcare system, patients often feel disempowered, intimidated and passive managers of their health. Healthcare providers and patients alike collude to create the illusion that the healthcare provider manages the patient’s health. Of course, on objective reflection, we know this is untrue,in all but the most ethical cases.
More and more patients are waking up to the fact that a person living with a long term health condition may have 60 mins per year with their pharmacist (5 mins once per month), 20 mins a year with their practice nurse, 20 mins a year with their GP and perhaps a 20 mins appointment with a consultant. For better or worse, the remaining 8,758 hours of the year, the patient is managing their OWN health. To empower the pharmacy/patient consultation, one of my projects during the pandemic has been supporting the HSE to bring the
Living Well Programme Online
Over the past 12 months, I have had the privilege of learning from hundreds of inspiring patients, as they learn the self-managemet skills to become CEO of their life. Some have even gone on to become programme leaders themselves. I have found that when both pharmacists and patients have developed really good healthcare consultation skills, the results are transformational.
Living Well is a free group selfmanagement programme for patients living with their long-term health condition. Over six weeks, we facilitate workshops designed to help them make choices to improve their health such as becoming more active, eating more healthily and stopping smoking. It may also include more complex tasks such as taking medication, monitoring their symptoms, coping with the emotional aspects of the condition and communicating with healthcare professionals. Be sure to refer suitable patients/ colleagues who live with a longterm condition to this programme. Patients can also self-refer.
You can find out more at Living Well programme - HSE.ie
Promotion Challenges and Opportunities
As more patients embrace their role as CEO of their life, pharmacies have the opportunity to embrace being a central member of the patient’s team. Expanding this opportunity will require innovations such as - building relationships and two-way referral pathways with self-management support service providers such as the
Living Well Programme. - promoting paid pharmacy services to equip, enable, empower and engage patients to be proactive about managing their own health and wellbeing, - building more expertise in
Lifestyle Medicine and Health
Behaviour Change Skills and - developing mastery in using
4Front’s STEPS Framework in
Pharmacy Consultations. While it is easy to intellectually understand how to apply this framework, mastery requires Constant And Never Ending Feedback (CANI). It requires that you continually - master your own Saboteurs,
Judgements and Stress (an essential pre-requisite for demonstrating real empathy) - demonstrate empathy (not sympathy), - stay curious long enough to understand your patient’s ideas, concerns and expectations (not assume), - identify the cause the problem (not just respond to symptoms), - offer context specific advice (not generic) and - safety net with (not for) your patient.
How can you can leverage these trends to positively influence your customer experience?
The new normal requires that pharmacies do more active outreach, to continue to engage with patients where THEY are. Consider the following with your team, to help you decide on the highest value promotional strategy to implement. - Can you map your patients’ journeys through the healthcare system? What has changed?
What has stayed the same?
How has that affected them? - Have you conducted a category management audit and re-fit in your pharmacy to reflect the changes in customer buying patterns? - What social medial platforms are they currently using? For what purpose? - Do you know where you can engage with them? Social media? If so, which platform?
Email? Local club or group?
At home? At their workplace? - How have their needs and interests changed in the past 18 months? - How can you engage with
patients both inside your pharmacy and inside their world? How can you can leverage these trends to positively influence your customer experience? - For each engagement channel, what specifically is the ONE next step you want them to take? The new normal requires that pharmacies do more active outreach, to continue to engage - Have you conducted a category management audit with patients where THEY are. Consider the following with your team, to help you decide on the highest value promotional strategy to implement. and re-fit in your pharmacy to - reflect the changes in customer buying patterns? Can you map your patients’ journeys through the healthcare system? What has changed? What has stayed the same? How has that affected them? - Is your messaging, and brand consistent across all platforms Have you conducted a category management audit and re-fit in your pharmacy to reflect the changes in customer buying patterns? e.g. in-store, window display, - delivery van, website, social What social medial platforms are they currently using? For what purpose? - Do you know where media, stationery etc? you can engage with them? Social media? If so, which - Are you and your staff promoting free self-management resources platform? Email? Local club or group? At home? At their workplace? - How have their such as the Living Well needs and interests changed in the past 18 months? - How can you engage with patients both i Programme to patients? nside your pharmacy and inside their world? - Have you considered ways to mitigate against unconscious bias in your promotional For each engagement channel, what specifically is the ONE next step you want strategy? them to take? E.g. Phone the pharmacy? Click a link to your website? Text - Have you completed a recent ‘Yes’ for prescription renewal. Contact their GP? Comment on a social media - technology audit in your post? Click a link to book an appointment with the pharmacist via the online pharmacy to ensure it is fit for purpose?calendar? Have you conducted a category management audit and re-fit in your pharmacy to reflect the changes in customer buying patterns? What could sabotage the success of your promotion - activities? (personal, Is your messaging, and brand consistent across all platforms e.g. in-store, professional, people, products/ services, promotion, prosperity?)window display, delivery van, website, social media, stationery etc? Are you and your staff promoting free self-management resources such as the - How will you compete for your patients hearts and minds Living Well Programme to patients? (Remember, more proactive patients make higher value customers) in the future of pharmacy? - What business model will you adopt? What time and financial investment is required? What Have you considered ways to mitigate against unconscious bias in your promotional strategy? E.g. Use different languages in messaging? Hiring multilingual, multi about this business model will -cultural staff? Use different digital platforms and styles of attract your ideal customers and provide you with a messaging? Overcome barriers to access to information, expertise and pharmacy and other health services? prosperous life? Summary: In summary, you explored how 4Front’s Promotion pillar means in the context of 4Front’s 6Ps of Pharmacy Rachel Dungan – 4Front Pharmacy 28 June 2021 Excellence. You examined what promotion means to you. You identified five market trends and discussed ways to leverage opportunities to inform your promotional strategy and future growth opportunities.
Next Steps
- Document and measure your baseline promotional strategy where possible - Review promotion, growth and risk mitigation ideas with your team - Decide on your decision making criteria and prioritise your next steps - Review the sample CPD Cycle to use as inspiration to take action and record the impact in your own CPD Cycle in your ePortfolio. Share your successes and submit your questions for the IPN/4Front Pharmacy Business Excellence to rachel@racheldungan.com
RESOURCE ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. As an IPN reader, we invite you to register for FREE pharmacy team training www.4FrontPharmacy.ie. You can also browse our range of online programmes to support you and your team to develop your consultation skills this summer.
2. 4FrontPharmacy Solutions will be hosting two cohorts of the Positive Intelligence® flagship 8-week Mental Fitness Programme specifically for pharmacists and their teams over the summer. Contact rachel@racheldungan.com with enquiries or expressions of interest.
AUTHOR: Rachel Dungan MPSI, ACC.
Rachel Dungan MPSI, MICF, ACC. Community Pharmacist. Lifestyle Medicine Advisor. Positive Intelligence Certified Coach. European Mentoring & Coaching Council Senior Practitioner. Award-Winning Wellbeing and Leadership Coach known as ‘The Pharmacist Coach.’ Rachel worked for 20 years as a supervising and superintendent pharmacist. Now, more than ever, her vision is to empower, equip, enable and engage pharmacists and their teams with the knowledge and skills required to focus on what is most important, rediscover joy and happiness and help them build the habits to put their own oxygen mask on first. She is co-founder of www.4FrontPharmacy.ie. Its mission is to raise the global standard of pharmacy consultations by empowering pharmacists and their teams to expand their perspective, knowledge and skills to create sustainable health behaviour change.
Self-Appraisal WHAT I intend to learn and why
COVID19 has changed how pharmacy is perceived in society, the methods by which we engage with each other and the healthcare system and customer shopping behaviour.
I want to evaluate existing patterns and future trends so that I can future proof my career and my pharmacy business in the new normal.
P
Personal Plan HOW I intend to learn it
I plan to • Review national and international trends in front of shop sales • Identify and leverage technology changes • Engage in qualitative research with my customers • Gather quantitative customer behaviour data • Identify potential barriers to myself and my team fully embracing opportunities
A
Action What I actually did
• My book-keeper completed management accounts and compared front of shop sales by category, year on year. We reviewed our till data analytics and loyalty card data. • I reviewed IPU Behaviours and Attitudes most recent survey, read the IPN business CPD article on Optimising
Sales Aug 2021 and made an appointment to speak to the article author Rachel Dungan MPSI. • I conducted two customer focus groups by zoom to gain their insights • I held a staff meeting by zoom to brainstorm trends, changes in customer. behaviour, explore ways to leverage technology changes and expand pharmacy services. We also explored strengths, weakness, opportunities and theats and what would be required to address these constraints and leverage opportunities.
D
Document What I have learned specifically
• Year on year sales analysis shows a 50% sales reduction in OTC Cough, Cold and Children’s Analgesic
Categories and 44% sales increase in Vitamin, Mineral and Supplement Categories. • I had not appreciated how significantly the profile of pharmacy had changed for patients or how important our accessibility has become. The customer journey has changed radically in the past year due to healthmail, technologiy, COVID restrictions, lack of access to other healthcare services etc. • I learned how stressed, overwhelmed and worried my staff are, and how this is impacting their ability to plan for and respond to professional opportunities. • I learned compelling research that individuals with positively primed brains consistently demonstrate x3 more creativity, x10 higher engagement, 31% more productivity and 37% higher sales than those who are more negatively predisposed. Changing the positivity/negativity ratio in our team has major implications for the future of our pharmacy in the new normal.
E
Evaluate ONE example of how I put my learning into practice
• My team has re-merchandised the Front of Shop to reflect the change in increase in demand for proactive wellness supports and reduction in reactive symptom relief. • In response to this trend towards a focus on wellness, we plan to expand our paid pharmacy service offering over the next 6 months • Since this will involve both knowledge and skill update for the entire pharmacy team, I have enrolled my team for 4Front Pharmacy’s Online OTC and Consultation Skills Training. I have also enrolled our entire team for 4Front’s 6-week Positive Intelligence® Leadership and Service Excellence Programme to support us to improve morale, wellbeing and team performance, develop a positive mindset towards opportunity, growth and sales and improve patient safety
CCF Domains (and Competencies)
The Pharmacist selected Competencies under the following domains for this CPD Professional Practice (Engages in appropriate CPD), 2. Personal Skills (Leadership Skills, Decision Making Skills, Team-Working Skills, Communication Skills)
Contributed by Rachel Dungan MPSI of 4Front Pharmacy. To find out more about how 4Front Pharmacy’s Positive Intelligence® Programme and Coaching can help you improve morale, wellbeing and team performance, drive your sales and improve patient safety email rachel@racheldungan.com and use the subject line ‘IPN Aug 2021.’
