It’s been over a quarter-century since contract sales outsourcing (CSO) emerged as a model for supplementing in-house field forces. Since then, the biopharma industry has experienced seismic shifts — and there’s no evidence that the complex forces of change are letting up any time soon.
As organizations continue to navigate changing business fundamentals, the CSO model offers compelling value in the form of lower fixed costs, greater operational agility, and access to top-tier talent and technologies.
Even so, we often talk with commercial leaders still operating under inaccurate assumptions about the CSO model, what it offers, and the potential impact on commercial performance. Are you still holding on to outdated views? Here are four frequently asked questions, and reasons to set aside old assumptions as you rethink your organization’s commercialization approach.
1. “Can CSOs attract experienced, top-tier talent?”
Early on, CSOs were hiring entry-level reps to help commercial teams promote “me too” pills and tablets. Back then, the goal was to drive share of voice, reach, and frequency, with healthcare providers (HCPs) largely accessible for in-person entertainment and relationship building. In that environment, CSOs focused on feet on the street.
Today, of course, the dynamics have changed dramatically. Commercial teams are still determining the right balance between personal and non-personal promotion, and top-tier CSOs have transformed accordingly. We now routinely build integrated teams that include seasoned specialty account managers, medical science liaisons, field reimbursement managers, inside sales representatives, and other specialized roles. That elite talent is complemented and enabled with robust data and digital tools for supporting omnichannel engagement.
2. “Can a CSO effectively promote complex therapeutic areas?”
Years ago, it may have been unthinkable to engage a CSO for oncology. Today, however, leading CSOs excel at supporting specialty biologics and rare diseases, including rare oncology treatments. Success requires not just the right talent, but also supporting tools to help empower the field force to engage with the right HCPs at the right time and with the right messages.
When managing a rare oncology product, working with a CSO is often more desirable than building and maintaining an in-house team. At various stages of the lifecycle, you may need to scale up (or down) depending on whether you’re launching as a first-, second-, or third-line therapy. Over time, your own and your competitors’ data readouts may shift your positioning — forcing you to restructure and refocus limited resources in the field.
3. “Why outsource when we have all the resources we need in house?”
In-house teams remain an option, but relying heavily on them can compromise operational efficiency and agility due to higher fixed costs and lower flexibility. By contrast, a CSO enables you to reduce fixed costs while increasing flexibility. Rather than bearing the weight of fixed overhead, apply resources when, where, and how you need them. You can even use field sales vacancies as an opportunity to implement the outsourced model in a measured and stepwise approach.
As you address the relentless demand to do more with less, consider the benefits a CSO partner can provide like dynamic deployment — recruiting, training, profiling, data analytics, and other competencies that support field force creation and management. With a more flexible, pay-as-you-go cost structure — a CSO could help drive significant cost efficiencies.
4. “Are all CSOs essentially the same?”
Admittedly, there may be some CSO providers that function as body shops. But assigning that view to all CSOs could be the riskiest assumption of all. The best CSOs offer you cost-effective agility — making it possible to quickly launch, scale, and adjust highly experienced field forces and remote sales teams. The very best also offer proprietary tools that help ensure that your sales teams can be precise in deciding which HCPs to engage, as well as how, when, and with what messages and materials.
That kind of precision and insights are woven into IQVIA’s Orchestrated Sales Specialist offering. IQVIA provides reps with precise, patented, and proprietary HCP insights based on clinical and digital behavioral data. We also apply machine learning or business rules to clinical data — spanning prescriptions, diagnoses, lab results, and patient profiles — to help sales teams focus on HCPs caring for patients most likely to benefit from the therapy.
Whether you’re preparing for launch or managing challenges at other stages of the product lifecycle, take a fresh look at our differentiated CSO model. Facing financial, regulatory, operating, competitive, and other pressures, leading companies are engaging IQVIA Contract Sales as part of their commercial strategy to become more agile and flexible, to improve HCP targeting and engagement, and, ultimately, to ensure their organizations can thrive in today’s challenging environment.
Authors:
Kirk Harmon, Vice President and General Manager, Contract Sales Organization, IQVIA
Jave Castillo, Vice President, CSO Solutions, IQVIA