Life, part one of the Life Sciences industry name, is after all, what it is all about. The sector focuses primarily on the rehabilitation, preservation, optimization, and salvation of human life.
Then there’s the other Life.
The cereal.
I am talking about Mikey. You remember? The kid brother at the end of the table who ‘hates everything’? In this iconic 1972 ad the older brothers, too cautious of something new, slide the bowl of stuff that’s ‘supposed to be good for you’ to Mikey. They gaze skeptically as their canary in the coal mine sibling dangles his spoon over the foreboding bowl and digs in. To their surprise he does not spit it out or fall over gagging. He goes deep in the bowl for more - “he likes it.”
They are eager to follow.
Mikey was a pioneer - submerging his spoon where no kid had gone before and then into his mouth.
His two older brothers - they were fast followers.
The trepidation of being first, plunging into the proverbial murkiness of uncharted territory and the potential of a regulatory quagmire, has long kept pharma from being first in digital, social, influencer, service models etc, with the bravest preferring to follow other regulated industries and early adopters dipping their spoons in directly after a peer survived or better still, thrived.
But the pandemic was different - it was pharma’s moment to lead. There was no kerning the fonts of logos or weak metaphorical stunts contrived by the empathetically challenged. We didn’t have to endure moody pharma TV spots with a gently haunting piano trickling, papers tumbling down empty streets, and a comforting voice speaking softly about ‘these unprecedented times’, ‘new normal’, or any other host of platitudes signaling that ‘we are here for you.’
The Game of Life
This was not the moment to follow, imitate, or emulate the marketing prowess of CPG, automotive, or big tech.
No. Life Sciences leaders simply went to work with a focus on the pillars of the industry: innovation, education, access, and service to humanity. When the moment demanded it their gears shifted from fast follower to forerunner. It may not have been glamorous, but much of what we saw was glorious. Life science companies found speed in discovery, decisions in data, empathy in access, and innovation in customer experience.
COVID-19 had barely rolled onto the US shores (formally) and research was underway. Then, decades unfolded in months. There is work to be done to be sure.
We have options. We need optimization.
We have distribution. We need communication.
We have evidence. We need confidence.
But something else happened. We saw leading drugs invest dollars in letting patients know they would work with them to ensure they got their medicine. We saw an industry that largely struggled with the promotion of telemedicine, adopt and promote it to patients and professionals directly via digital. And we saw the industry come together to figure out the best way to communicate medical and commercial content to their professional customers.
We saw companies really listening, observing, empathizing and responding. We saw essential adaptation and innovation to design and optimize people’s experiences.
When we listen carefully and respond completely to customers, we realize the truth behind Anabaptist author and theologian, David Augsberger’s notion that, “Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.”
The Power of Experiences Designed
There have been countless examples of essential adaptation across healthcare. Case in point, on January 4th a freezer in a Northern California hospital that was holding 800 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine failed. Officials quickly identified four vaccination sites, distributed the vaccines and staff to them and vaccinated, first responders, prison staff, teachers, nursing home workers, homeless people, and the general public. Ukiah City Manager Sage Sangiacomo said they “sent out a mass text to all staff and partner agencies to let everyone know, but it was mostly word of mouth for the most part.” And that “All individuals who were vaccinated received vaccination cards and will be contacted for their second dose in 28 days.”
This is a case of ‘now that you know you can, you are out of excuses for why you aren’t.’
Designed experiences, ones that involve feedback and responsiveness can move mountains. In the times prior to COVID-19, consumer sentiment and trust toward the industry was exceptionally low. In the Gallup poll on Industry and Business Sector Ratings, Pharma edged the Federal Government out in 2020 for last place. But, in the February results of the Harris poll on the industry’s reputation, Pharma leaped to 60% positive today vs. 34% just one year ago and an industry high since the poll initiated in 2007.
So we are clear, the odds of this being temporary are not in the industry’s favor. The path back to where we were in the darker years leading up to January of 2020 versus our current trajectory is familiar. It may feel safe and comfortable to go back to what we used to do and forget what we have learned by listening and how we have adapted through resolving.
But you know that.
So, Who Owns Experience Optimization in our Game of Life?
Simple, everyone. We have to think about where Life Science’s professional and consumer customers end up when something goes sideways and how the data points from these touch points are harmonized, democratized, and resolved. The operational metric of website, sales rep visits, downloads, calls, opens, etc. are tied to key measures of impact, but lack specific causality and sentiment. There is a difference between a product and customer journey. Journey’s can be broken down to understand the lines of defense utilized and likely during a prescriber or consumer path to better care.
According to Tiffani Bova, Sales Force’s Global Growth and Innovation Evangelist, "When people say 'CX should be owned by marketing,' they don't acknowledge that when a customer reaches out to talk to a brand, it's usually to sales. And then if there's a problem, they reach out to service -- not marketing. You can't ignore the resources that are touch points for customers -- sales and service. . . It matters less who owns CX and more who executes on it.” And, execution is the not so subtle difference between being aware of experience optimization and optimizing experiences as an aspect of your corporate culture.
Take the sales model. The life sciences sales model has been in a state of transformation for years - untethering itself from the arms race and some unfavorable promotional tactics of the past. The mistake had been a belief that Pharma was doing the transforming. No, the model transformation was emanating from burned out customers, short on time, and focused on outcomes. The realization is that transformation lies in the value delivered not just in the medicines and devices. Transforming is in the services and support that are born when patient centricity is converted to an action. It is listening, observing, asking, understanding, and delivering an elegant service model based on real world and real time needs along with efficacious and accessible products.
When our traditional approach is impossible, we gain the distinct advantage of a pre post test we’d have never undertaken. What we gain is a more direct understanding of what is valued and essential and what we may wish to leave in the pre COVID past. We are seeing a shift from selling to selling with a deep philosophy and support of customer success. It is a great time to be what reps are becoming!
On the consumer front - we are seeing similar patterns of focus on needs and expectations. In his 2020 book, Post Corona - From Crisis to Opportunity, outspoken NYU Stern Professor Scott Galloway cautions leaders across industries that “If you make a living on the back of 30 second spots ….. this is not the future you were hoping for.”
The pandemic has expedited the shift from ads (convincing) to experiences (connecting) because it demanded immediacy, purpose, and clear outcomes. Examples like shifting a call center for patients from an anonymous person on a phone to video call with another human working from home and there to help you - are indistinguishable from magic.
It is the difference between speed and velocity. Speed embodies the rate at which something is moving. It is not defined by direction in the least. Velocity is the rate of movement plus the direction, or in this case, purpose. Content Velocity is a case in point. It was never meant to mean more stuff sent and spread across a target audience’s pathways faster. It demands the lessons learned in COVID-19, that we Observe, Listen, Ask, Orient, Decide, Develop, Distribute, Repeat at the speed of the need and with the passive and direct involvement of the person healing and the one being healed.
We also saw leaders embrace the employee experience with tools, resources, and empathy. The ripple effect will take years to unfold and the new musculature needed will be around re-skilling.
There was no roadmap for the pandemic and life sciences, marketing, sales, and service. But perhaps we learned that you can no longer stand before the industry as a pioneer when you were looking outside for a roadmap.
“Electric word, Life.
It means forever and that's a mighty long time.”
- Prince
In the moments we needed to be, we were electric. And forever is not only a mighty long time - how it looks and is experienced is shaped by these moments, what we’ve learned from them, and what we take to the other side.
Perhaps we will look back at these dark days as valuable and the manner in which we once engaged patients and professionals will seem crass, even barbaric. Perhaps things will not always feel starkly changed, but I imagine there will be moments, two or three years down the road, when we pause and realize we have new approaches unlike those in the world formerly known as normal. The gravitational pull of what we used to do will be strong.
When we wait for others to clear a path we forfeit opportunity and the responsiveness people need. I don’t think we will stop following fast all together, but we now know we can follow faster and that fast is not just speed - it is velocity.
Life is like a box of chocolates after all.