The challenge
In a radically changing health provider landscape and with increased competition, Biogen UK recognised the need to change how its team approached account planning and in turn worked with its customers.
By adopting a more robust account planning approach, Biogen’s salesforce would be better equipped to move customer conversations away from price and features, and towards more value adding interactions. By achieving this, more meaningful, sustainable customer relationships would be established – something the competition couldn’t easily replicate.
The solution
Biogen asked Rubica to help deliver on its objective – recognising their expertise and experience in high performing teams, key account management and the delivery of robust, virtual programmes.
The initial focus was to equip the sales team with the skills and mindset to positively approach and navigate the changing and challenging health provider landscape. This was achieved through the delivery of 2 modules that would build the team’s resilience and ability to better manage change.
From here, the focus was to transform the team’s approach to account planning and as a result how they engaged with customers.
“Prior to the programme, account plans tended to be very ambitious and weren’t informed by insights that wouldn’t truly move the business forward” says Jenny Butcher, Associate Director of Marketing at Biogen.
“We used to go through the same account planning process each year, but on reflection, what we developed was a company plan – it was agnostic, not account specific” says Key Account Manager Carole Johnson. Andrew Hunter echoes this sentiment “When I first started working at Biogen the account planning process homed in on us as a business”.
To transform the approach to account planning, every level of the business had to be involved. To achieve this:
Leaders
Leaders participated in a series of workshops – building their understanding and commitment to:
- Support the team in developing the capabilities needed to embed a new way of working.
- Prioritise effort so the account planning aspiration could be realised.
- The change roadmap – establishing roles and responsibilities to embed the change being sought.
Team
A focus was placed on Rubica’s 5 Key Account Excellence principles:
- Prioritisation of Accounts
- Information to Insight
- Defining the Prime Opportunity
- Customer Engagement
- Delivering Value
These principles were taught through 8-weekly learning cycles, where participants were not only taught a principle but given the opportunity to practically apply their learning to a live account, gain peer and mentor feedback, and further refine their plans to reflect that feedback and Rubica’s best practice benchmark.
Whilst all our KAMs are capable of developing an account plan, the programme provided a really clear step-by-step process, with clear outputs at every stage. It enabled people to write a well-constructed account plan, benchmark it against clear standards and then understand where and how to improve it so the final output is much enhanced.
Jenny Butcher, Associate Director of Marketing, Biogen
These learning cycles were informed by Rubica’s 4C’s of change i.e. to embed this new approach, Biogen’s people needed to:
- Comprehend (the change).
- Feel Capable to do it.
- Have the Confidence it’s possible and safe.
- Are fired up with Conviction to make a different choice and act on it.
To uphold the 4 C’s each learning cycle was comprised of a ‘learn-do-review’ approach:
- Learn – deepening understanding on a topic via teaching webinars – sharing best practice around a Key Account Excellence principle and accessing practical tools to support its implementation.
- Do – the application of what’s been learnt through the support of a self-coaching workbook and practicing it in a live account.
- Review – an opportunity to access peer support through peer-to-peer mentoring sessions – improving the quality of critical thinking, sharing what’s been learnt and building accountability for delivery.
Rubica really cemented a robust account planning approach. They broke everything down into bitesize chunks that were ordered, easy to follow and apply. As a result, they’ve completely changed how we collectively perceive and approach account planning. Now we are developing plans that are truly focused on a particular account. Plans are far more relevant and engaging, and it’s easier to see where and how we will deliver real results for the customer, patient and Biogen.
Carole Johnson, Key Account Manager, Biogen
I was given a new set of accounts in geographies that I physically couldn’t visit due to government restrictions (COVID-19). This was a challenging situation. I had to find other ways to become known and begin building customer relationships. The weekly sessions that Rubica delivered challenged my thinking, provided great opportunities to understand best practice and gain peer insights too. It was a fertile learning ground.
By adopting Rubica’s approach and adapting my own 20 years of experience, I have seen a marked difference in how I work with accounts and how customers engage with me, even in this new virtual landscape.
Andrew Hunter, Key Account Manager, Biogen
Individuals
On completing the learning cycles, individual account plans were evaluated by Rubica’s expert coaches and against their best practice benchmark and databank. This assessed the ‘fullness’ of the account plan and the anticipated impact it’d have.
Armed with this insight, 1-2-1 coaching sessions were then run to build understanding around where to enhance individual account plans.
“I’m really seeing a difference in terms of how the team are interacting with customers. They are no longer phoning them for the sake of phoning them but acting with empathy and getting in touch for the right reasons at the right time – really adding value within their calls” says Steve James, Associate Director BBU Sales, UK, Biogen.
Key Account Manager, Carole Johnson echoes this sentiment: “The programme has created a marked shift in my approach and mindset. I am actively listening to customers more – pinpointing their strengths, weaknesses, current and future issues, then looking at ways to support them in overcoming these, whilst delivering a mutual benefit to Biogen too”.
The results
In just a 10-month period, the transformation of the team’s account planning and customer engagement capabilities have increased significantly. Most notably, manager perception scores indicate a:
- ↑ 103% in team members ability to develop account plans that clearly identify the short and longer-term opportunities in priority accounts.
- ↑ 39% in team members ability to clearly understand the opportunities that exist in an account which will truly improve patient care.
- ↑ 64% in the team’s ability to identify key influencers and instigators of change within an account.
- ↑ 36% in the team’s ability to truly understand and articulate the goals and motivations of critical customers.
“The team’s key account plans have significantly improved – they tell a much stronger story, are grounded in reality, are action orientated and really deliver against specific customer needs.
In turn we’ve seen a significant increase in the team’s confidence – they now feel that they can truly achieve their account plans and feel empowered to work cross-functionally and leverage the strengths of others to really deliver their plan.”
Jenny Butcher, Associate Director of Marketing, Biogen
At an account manager level, recent survey scores highlight:
- ↑ 21% in confidence that account managers know how to recognise and demonstrate when an account is ready to make a change.
- ↑ 19% in confidence that their proposition within key accounts is compelling enough for customers to act.
- ↑ 16% in confidence and ability to build customer advocacy that supports short and longer-term strategic goals.
Through Rubica’s robust approach, I’ve adopted an account-first mindset and seen a big difference in how customers engage with me as a result. I now have customers actively contacting me – this didn’t happen before I embarked on Rubica’s programme.
Carole Johnson, Key Account Manager, Biogen
I had a new account, who I hadn’t been able to meet face to face. Leveraging a multi-channel approach, I managed to secure a presentation with a key department on the ‘nocebo effect’ – the idea that if the right language is used, patients feel more positive and are more open to switching products.
The delivery of this presentation has built a strong customer relationship. Resulting in referrals and conversations with other departments and culminating in a key Trust hosting a virtual event where the Chair of the Rhematology Network will be speaking on my behalf – something that I’d never have achieved if I hadn’t adopted a different approach to my account plan.
Andrew Hunter, Key Account Manager, Biogen
From a customer perspective, one stand-out success of the programme is the uptake of Biogen’s Patient Support Programme (PSP) – an initiative that is designed to help Trusts help their patients in accessing support and guidance in usage of particular medicines:
Trust sign-ups to the PSP had slowed significantly. But following Rubica’s programme, the team gained clarity and confidence around how they could use the PSP as a conversation starter and customer engagement tool.
As a result, customers are now actively participating in conversations with us about the PSP and truly seeing how it will benefit their Trust and patients – leading to a further 5 Trusts joining the PSP in just 4-months. This is a marked increase that not only benefits the Trust and their patients, but also Biogen as we are building more meaningful customer relationships and offering value beyond price whilst working in partnership with the NHS – this only bodes well for the future.
Steve James, Associate Director BBU Sales, UK, Biogen
