Start-up Injects Automation into Sales Effort

In a few short weeks, sales reps at JHP Pharmaceuticals LLC will be pushing past any preconceived Big Brother notions while being trained on a customer relationship management system. The implementation is part of the company’s effort to capture sales-related data consistently and then capitalize on it. The idea is to give the privately owned sterile injectable products maker some much-needed flexibility in adjusting its marketing messages.

“That’s important in a startup environment,” says Chris Deluzio, national sales director. “We have to assess and adapt quickly.”

Deluzio explains that despite the newness of the company, JHP has an antiquated way of tracking calls and other sales-related activities. “Everything is done on paper, so there’s a lot of subjectivity,” he says. “Reps don’t always put in all the information on who they are seeing and when, and on which messages they are conveying to physicians and accounts.”

The drug company chose Verticals onDemand’s VBioPharma

SaaS customer relationship management

application and VInsights analytics product. Deluzio drove the selection process and prioritized the features required of the system. “We needed a system that would grow with our developing sales team,” says Deluzio. In previous positions at Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb, he had worked with client/server CRM systems. The analytics capability, he says, “is necessary in our prescription and branded generics business to evaluate and drive sales force targeting.”

Ease of use is key to Deluzio. “What made it easy to use is that it’s online—the reps can use it anytime, anywhere. The way we set it up, call entry is designed to be very user friendly. I’m not sure we would have gotten that flexibility from other systems,” he says.

The online system also aids in developing market strategy. “We can pull information on demand and use the system to track the messages that we need reps to send. All reps need to be saying the same messages first.”

JHP has completed an alpha-stage trial of the products and expects to enter the beta stage soon. Implementation will be done in time for training classes in late February or early March.

JHP, headquartered in Parsippany, NJ, is a specialty pharmaceutical company that makes and sells aseptic injectable products into the hospital segment, and provides contract manufacturing of sterile products. The company was formed in 2007 in conjunction with the acquisition of selected specialty products from King Pharmaceuticals.