A chronically underperforming territory was not simply a sales execution problem. The underlying constraint was reimbursement—and solving it required understanding the market, mobilizing physician support and working across the organization to change access.
Situation
Before I assumed leadership of the region, the Washington, DC territory had consistently underperformed.
Rather than treating the problem simply as a sales-force issue, I spoke with physicians, office staff and members of the sales team to understand what was preventing greater product utilization.
The discussions revealed an important market-specific barrier.
Washington, DC has a particularly high concentration of federal employees. For many of these patients, the Federal Employee Program (FEP) represented an important source of insurance coverage.
Our products did not have the same favorable access as key competitors.
The territory was therefore competing at a structural disadvantage: physicians could be interested in prescribing the product, but reimbursement limitations made it more difficult for appropriate patients to receive it.
Approach
Once the underlying issue was identified, the strategy shifted from simply asking the sales team to generate more prescriptions to addressing the reimbursement barrier itself.
The field team worked with physicians and their offices to build support for improved patient access.
At the same time, I collaborated with the company's Market Access team to communicate the significance of the FEP opportunity and the disproportionate effect that improved coverage could have in the Washington market.
The objective was clear: solve the access problem first, then position the commercial team to capitalize on the opportunity.
Within approximately six months, improved formulary access was achieved.
The work did not stop with the reimbursement decision. The sales team then concentrated execution around the newly accessible patient opportunity, ensuring that physicians and their staffs understood the change and could translate improved coverage into appropriate product use.
Result
Following the access change and focused commercial execution, sales in the Washington, DC territory approximately doubled.
The improvement was sustained. The DC team achieved All-Star recognition for three consecutive years, transforming what had historically been an underperforming territory into a consistently high-performing business.
The PharmaKonsult Principle
The solution was not simply to tell the sales team to sell harder.
The first responsibility of commercial leadership is to understand why the business is performing the way it is.
In this case, the answer was reimbursement.
Once the actual constraint was identified, the solution required several disciplines working together: field intelligence, physician engagement, Market Access collaboration, communication and focused commercial execution.
That reflects a problem-solving approach I have applied throughout my career:
Diagnose the underlying constraint. Collaborate with the people who can change it. Communicate a clear direction. Then focus commercial execution where the opportunity is greatest.
About Joseph McCoy
Joseph McCoy is Founder and Principal Consultant of PharmaKonsult and an executive commercial strategy advisor with more than three decades of pharmaceutical and biotechnology commercial leadership experience across neuroscience, rare disease, endocrinology, institutional healthcare and specialty pharmaceuticals.
