Organize Marketing to Increase Pharmacy Cash Flow

Pharmacy managers and owners should dedicate some of their time to marketing efforts that can boost their bottom line.

Here is a systematic approach to increasing cash flow and profits:

• Choose 1 supplement that will markedly help people with a specific chronic ailment. When pharmacists choose one that is superior to anything else found in other pharmacies, they can set themselves apart and decidedly influence patient decisions.
• Market, both offline and online, the product and its unique benefits. Organize all efforts around marketing. Provide training so that staff members can educate and inform patients, demonstrating to the team how that education is best performed. And be sure to prominently display the product on an endcap.
• Arrange speaking engagements around the condition that the product targets and the specif- ic product itself. Present to different groups, such as garden clubs and junior league organizations, to influence those with money to spend. Audiences should also have an interest in improving their health as well as that of their families.
• Pharmacists should make sure that when they advertise, they give patients a reason to pay attention by offering solutions to whatever is ailing them. Be specific. The product could be anything from a solution to arthritic pain to one that fights influenza by building patients’ immune systems. Identify which products are superior and why. Provide cogent reasons for patients to buy an item at your pharmacy specifically.

Demonstrate leadership by showing team members exactly how selling is done. This step is critical because the demonstration can lead to “monkey see, monkey do” results from most staff members. That can in turn lead to higher profits.

Pharmacists who spend whatever time is necessary to ensuring that their product displays are the best they can be, especially on endcaps, typically see optimal results. Make sure that endcaps are accompanied by signs and a copy of the ad.

Next, free up time by training a strong second-in-command—an operations manager, for example. Delegating responsibilities for daily and weekly activities can open up time for marketing.

When a pharmacy manager’s or owner’s focus on marketing efforts is evident to team members, they will recognize that the pharmacy is serious about increasingsales.Butpharmacymanagerswhosayone thing and do another will find that their employees do not believe in them and will be reluctant to execute their plan. Pharmacists in charge must make sure that their actions align with what they say.

It is essential that all pharmacy managers to understand that marketing and entrepreneurship go hand in hand.

DO IT THE LOW-COST WAY

One of the best ways to attract customers to your pharmacy—and a key step in the process of organizing activities around marketing—is to present a solution for a chronic disease to a group of people. The subject can be based on your choice of product to market. This activity has no advertising costs and is called grassroots marketing.

Pharmacists who organize their time around this marketing machine, as well as the efforts mentioned above, will likely find that cash flow and profits soar.®

Lester Nathan, MS, offers free business resources for pharmacy owners on his website, thepharmacysage.co.