Preparing to Contact the Customer

| 8 minutes

Promo Specialist needs to contact the customer no later than the estimated milestone PROMO 2 set by the Salesperson.

Before contacting the Customer, the following information needs to be checked if already available. If not, the missing information has to be requested to be provided from Customer in the 1st promo Email:

  • Promotional Task Description
  • Customer Profile

    • A quick view of the information about the Customer that is relative to the promotional support.

  • Feedback Forms

    • Customer’s feedback on the provided Promotional Materials in Sales & Marketing Feedback Form. These forms are saved under Distributor Folder -> Client Feedback

    For example: Z:\Shared drives\AdvaCare Distributors Control\SUN - Sunil Sookdeo Pharmaceutical International - Suriname (P; Iana - C; Geetika)\CLIENT FEEDBACK

  • Previous Promotional Materials

    • The previous promotional materials provided to the Customer for past order(s):

    Z:\Shared drives\AdvaCare Marketing Control\Promotional Distributor Material

  • Distribution Channels

    • The distribution channels , target audience and applicable promotional materials relative to the Customer.

  • New vs. Existing Distributors

Before deciding on what promo materials are suitable to be proposed, what their messaging will be and what the design and content will consist of, Promo Specialist has to check the following:

1. Promotional Task Description

Account Manager (Salesperson) is responsible to provide detailed information about an order and suggestions on what the promo should be about. If this is a new customer/new products launch, Account Manager is responsible to inform Marketing Dept. through task Description.

The task description is the most useful and important guide on what is expected to be done for this promo order.

To determine the type of promo, the necessary information required shall be taken from the promo task description:

  1. PRODUCTS: filled by AM when the promo task is created

    2. 1.1 New Products: [list of products in the order that have not been previously ordered]

    1.2 Reordered Products: [list of products in the order that have been previously ordered]

    1.3 Classification: [Rx or OTC, if applicable; if AM does not know, Marketing will fill]

  2. DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS: filled by AM when the promo task is created or by Marketing after receiving the reply for the 1st promo email

    3. 2.1 [Marketing: informed by distributor in promo emails, or if not refer to AM]

  3. TARGET AUDIENCE: filled by Marketing after receiving the reply from the 1st promo email

    4. 3.1 [refer to Distribution Channels SOP; include any additional target audience not in SOP]

  4. FEATURED BRANDING: filled by Marketing after receiving the reply from the 1st promo email

    5. 4.1 [promotion of product(s) / product range / AdvaCare brand]

    4.2 [promotion of AdvaCare+distributor/AdvaCare only]

  5. MAIN MESSAGING: filled by Marketing after receiving the reply from the 1st promo email
    • Increasing brand awareness through visibility
    • Building credibility
    • Educating consumers/patients about disease or medical condition
    • Introduce and explain our products to distributors’ customers or end consumer
    • Stimulate demand and increase sales
    • Thanking distributors’ customers
  6. CUSTOMER INFORMATION: filled by Marketing after receiving the reply from the 1st promo email

    7. 6.1 [required/not required on promo]

  7. ORDER SHIPPING INFORMATION: filled by AM when the promo task is created

    8. 7.1 [CBM: [#]

    7.2 [port of loading]

    *needed to determine quantities and volume of promo.

  8. CUSTOMER CONTACT INFORMATION: filled by AM when the promo task is created

    9. 8.1 [contact person name]

    8.2 [contact person email]

  9. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: filled by AM when the promo task is created (optional)

    10. 9.1 [requirement 1]

  10. AUTHORIZED USE OF BRANDING ASSETS (BA LETTER) TO BE SENT TO CUSTOMER: YES or NO

    11. Link in server:

    Note: This letter states the terms of the use of our branding assets such as our logo, trademark, images and other intellectual property owned by AdvaCare Pharma USA LLC and is sent to the customer by the Promo Specialist as it pertains to the marketing materials which includes AdvaCare branding assets. This letter will be prepared by the Account Manager and the link of where the letter is saved will be attached above. It is the responsibility of the Promo Specialist to receive the stamped and signed letter. Therefore, sending follow up emails until it has been received. This letter will only be sent one time to the Customer to sign and stamp.

    • Promo Specialist cannot send designs to the customer until this letter has been received stamped/signed by the Customer (Milestone 7).
    • When the stamped/signed letter is received, Promo Specialist will save the letter in the same folder link as provided in the Description.
    • Task will be sent to AM Specialist after the letter has been saved in the Distributor folder to inform that the letter has been received and saved in the folder (provide link).

2. Customer Profile

Customer profile is indicated for having related to the Distributor’s company information which is being updated by relevant Salesperson when they gather information during inquiries processing, Customer’s meetings, etc.

  • The Salesperson will always update the customer profile every time when closing the order. The profile normally has customer type, distribution channels, business model description, target audience, products notes. This is a good source of information for the Marketing Department.
  • If Promo Specialist has received information when communicating with Customer regarding promotional materials and this information was not recorded in Customer Profile before, Promo Specialist needs to add it in there to keep it recorded for future reference at one place where both Sales and Marketing Departments can see and use it.
  • If Promo Specialist did not update this information when processing Promo task, they will be asked to come back to this point of updating Customer Profile when closing Promo Task.

To locate the profile:

  • Go to “Opportunity Info” Tab
  • Click on “Contact”

This action will open Customer contact card where the “Profile” tab can be found:

3. Feedback Forms

After every order, Account Manager (Salesperson) sends a Feedback Form to Customer as a part of a mandatory process of order closing where most of the questions are related to the order promotional materials.

To locate the feedback form:

  • Go to Distributor Folder on the server (can be found) by Customer code:
  • Choose the relevant Customer folder and open “CLIENT FEEDBACK” folder:
  • Check the feedback form if received from Customer:
  • The feedback form consists of many valid points:

4. Previous Promo Materials

To locate the folders:

  • Go to Marketing Control on the server and locate the “Promotional Distributor Material” folder.
  • Locate Customer by Customer Code.
  • Check the folders with the previous orders which consist of the designs of provided items.

5. Distribution Channels

Before contacting the Customer about the promotional support, the Distribution Channels reference in the SOPs need to be referenced. Although at this point the Customer has not been contacted, reviewing the applicable distribution channels, target audience and potential promotional materials provide perspective and context for asking any additional questions with the goal of getting the answers necessary to provide the most effective promotional materials and over all support possible.

If a New Distributor, the distribution channels have to be assumed. If an Existing Distributor, the distribution channels identified from past orders shall apply when reviewing the related channels.

6. New vs. Existing Distributors

After gathering all relevant information, Promo Specialist will define the Distributor type:

  • New Distributor: Account Manager does not have information about the Distributor and/or Distributor does not have enough budget/relevance/order history to be given the possibility to decide from Catalog.
  • Existing Distributor: Distributor has enough budget/relevance/order history to be given the possibility to decide from Catalog.

For New Distributors, it is important to be as detailed as possible on what our promotional support can be, they take time to get answers to determine suitable promo items. For New Distributors it makes sense to consider requesting an approval for a bigger promotional budget, as normally the first order has low value which might be not sufficient for the launch to the new market.

For Existing Distributors the key is to understand the company’s current strategy for AdvaCare products and define the most effective items considering this is not the first time they are receiving promotional support.

Did this article help you?
 0
 0