CHALLENGE
In-person access to Health Care Providers (HCPs) was dramatically reduced due to COVID-19, and pharmaceutical sales reps struggled with gaining access and engagement even as things have “returned to normal.” This lack of face-to-face customer access had the potential to impact revenue, and Novartis wanted an innovative solution that would allow their Sales Associates to improve engagement and drive sales—and it needed to work in their highly-regulated environment.
SOLUTION
Novartis turned to Storyvine’s automated, Guided Video platform as a solution that allowed their Sales Associates to create personalized videos that were compliant, professional, and scalable.
“It was quite powerful to break through the usual email noise to get appointments.” Kavya Gopal, VP Sales, Solid Tumor Franchise, Novartis Oncology
Storyvine’s 10-year track record with healthcare and pharmaceutical companies gave Novartis the confidence to develop an innovative video program that empowered Novartis Sales Associates to create short, personalized video messages embedded in their email outreach. We created both Logistical (Meeting Requests, Personal Notes, Thank You’s, etc.) and Branded video templates.
RESULTS
Given that humans are visual creatures—55% of communication is nonverbal, 38% is vocal, and 7% is words—personalized videos break through, especially when HCP’s receive so many emails. Personalized videos embedded in those emails rise above the noise, and the results bear that out. Not only did customer engagement increase, but so did the number of meetings booked, as well as sales that would not have happened without the “human element” that Storyvine videos provide.
A 5x INCREASE… “I booked 10 meetings from 40 video intros, vs. only 2 meetings from 40 text-only emails.” Ross H. – Senior Regional Marketing Associate, Novartis Oncology
Another Sales Associate put it this way, “Since I started using Storyvine videos in my sales outreach, I’m now getting appointments with prescribers who I’ve never had success with and it's not just appointments, it’s new prescriptions as well. I’m seeing a double digit increase in new sales because of Storyvine.
WORKING WITH STORYVINE
While the Storyvine platform delivers impressive results and makes new things possible, we do not simply hand clients a pile of technology and wish them luck. We are very much there as a partner to collaborate and strategize, ensuring that teams are supported to be successful.
“The Storyvine Team far exceeded my expectations, and delivered exactly what they promised on—or ahead of—schedule. They are professional and an absolute pleasure to work with. I would recommend them in a heartbeat.” Mike Ostrow – HCP Promotion Lead, US Solid Tumors
NAVIGATING COMPLIANCE & REGULATORY
Compliance and regulatory teams collaborated with Storyvine to develop approval workflows and training for Sales Associates that ensured that all communications stayed safely within all required guidelines while still allowing the Associates to communicate effectively via video messaging. Since there were thousands of videos conducted at an enterprise level, alignment with compliance & regulatory was critical to the viability of the program.
EASE & CONVENIENCE
“Creating video” sounds complicated and time-consuming, but with Storyvine, Sales Associates simply answer some prompted questions in the Storyvine app on their iOS (or Android) tablet/phone and a few minutes later their fully-edited video is delivered and ready to share.
“I like that it's different and adds another element to the conversation. And it's easy.”
“It was fun and easy to do!”
“It's a unique platform, and easy to use.”
Anonymous Responses – Internal Survey of Participating Sales Associates
Because the videos are pre-recorded—vs. having to schedule a live video call—the video can be created when the Associate has time, and watched at the Health Care Provider’s convenience.
EFFICIENCY & SCALE
The structured nature of how videos are created with Storyvine allows Sales Associates to record one video message, and then easily personalize that message for multiple HCPs without having to re-record everything. This approach allows for a very efficient use of the Sales Associate’s time.
“I was able to ‘meet’ 100 doctors in one day!” (After filming 100 videos in a single day, and emailing those intros to Health Care Providers in his new territory.) Eric G. – Senior Hematology Specialist at Novartis Oncology
Automation is the key to scaling the video production, and with Storyvine’s “Automagic” editing process, professional-grade videos are generated automatically in the cloud within minutes of being recorded. In the first six months of the rollout to the Oncology sales organization, Sales Associates have created and shared more than 5,000 personalized videos!
Peer-to-peer training & learning is the key to scaling best practices and organic adoption, and the Storyvine & Novartis teams collaborated on a rollout strategy that collected learnings on a weekly basis and developed a system where experienced participants were partnered with new members to accelerate their time to mastery and success. 700+ Sales Associates were trained in two months.
The impact of personalized video communication can only be realized if it is efficient, scalable and rolled out effectively across the sales organization. Storyvine’s approach from our technology to our engagement philosophy is designed to maximize efficiency and scale.
INTERESTED?
If you want to learn more about how Novartis used Storyvine for Sales Innovation or to explore other use cases for your organization, please reach out to Sales Manager Rich Ryan: rich@storyvine.com or 720-449-7077 x111.