You can’t discuss selling supplements in the practitioner channel without talking to those very practitioners. NBJ, in partnership with several manufacturers and distributors engaged in the channel, fielded a survey to a wide array of practitioners in November-December 2016. In total, more than 400 practitioners participated.
This survey targeted practitioners who have a connection to supplement sellers, with 86% of participants selling supplements either in their office or online. Through these practitioners, we were able to gain insight into what motivated them to enter the channel and how to keep them involved.
Allopathic practitioners are increasingly becoming important participants in this channel, but as we’ll see, they don’t always approach the channel in the same way as their alternative counterparts. For purposes of this discussion, NBJ is defining allopathic practitioners as MDs, osteopaths, nurses, nurse practitioners, optometrist, dentists, and pharmacists. The alternative practitioner group consists of chiropractors, naturopaths, nutritionists, dietitians, physical therapists, homeopaths, acupuncturists/TCM, and other practitioners.
Catalyst for Engagement
The leading catalyst for practitioners to begin selling supplements is a desire for their patients to have access to high quality supplements (77%). Practitioners recognize that the American food and healthcare systems don’t provide patients with the quality nutrition that they need, and 62% began selling supplements in order to provide patients with the nutrition that is key to better health.
Practitioners, like most humans, are highly influenced by their personal experiences. Nearly two out of three shared that their personal experience with taking supplements was an important factor in their decision to begin selling supplements.
For 76% of allopathic practitioners, selling supplements was part of an effort to incorporate a more holistic, functional approach—an approach that most alternative practitioners practice from the start. Half of these allopathic doctors were strongly motivated by frustrations with traditional prescription drug options.While patient requests were among the least cited reasons for practitioners beginning to sell supplements, it was a much more important for allopathic practitioners (cited by 39% of this group).
Current Engagement
A desire to practice functional medicine is an important catalyst leading practitioners to sell supplements, and in turn we found that these supplements sellers are indeed active users of integrative medicine approaches. Of the practitioners selling supplements, either in their office or online, 87% indicated that they incorporate integrative medicine into their treatments. In contrast, the small group of surveyed practitioners not currently selling supplements were much more likely to have a desire to practice integrative medicine that they hadn’t yet turned into a successful reality (27%).
While about one fifth of the practitioners surveyed have been selling supplements for more than 20 years, many are still relatively new to the industry, with 37% selling for 5 years or less. Allopathic doctors have much less experience with the supplement industry, averaging only 8 years selling supplements, versus alternative practitioners with 11 years selling. These doctors with less supplement industry experience may need more assistance to engage successfully.
Practitioners get most of their supplement education via education events or webinars (61%) in combination with their own research (51%). Allopathic doctors are more likely to learn about supplements at conferences and trade shows (45%).
For most of these practitioners, manufacturer websites or sales representatives aren’t leading sources of information on supplements. Only one in four indicated that a manufacturer representative is one of the three leading sources for supplement information. In fact, 40% never see a manufacturer representative, especially the alternative practitioners (44%). Doctors don’t just want representatives arriving unannounced or selling brands they don’t represent.
As one nutritionist commented, “[Yearly or less often] is just fine, I do not have time for this. If I want more information or education, I prefer to attend [a] symposium/webinar or receive updates about new products via e-mail so I can review at a time that is convenient to me.”
Channel success
While getting practitioners interested in selling supplements is the majority of the battle, it is important to support their efforts and keep them satisfied with the products and tools supplement manufacturers provide.
Practitioners who are selling supplements are mostly satisfied with the quality of care they are able to offer their patients, with average satisfaction falling at 5.9 on a 7-point scale. However, this group isn’t as happy about the financial side of the business, with 37% feeling some level of dissatisfaction.
For some practitioners, the lack of insurance coverage for their services is a major source of financial frustration. Fifty-seven percent of the alternative practitioners we surveyed rely on cash business more than 90 percent of the time, while only 39 percent of allopathic doctors selling supplements rely on cash to this same level.
Supplements sales are a meaningful number in the practitioner income equation. For 31% of those surveyed, supplement sales accounted for more than 20% of annual income. Fortunately, most of these doctors experienced an increase in their supplement revenue in 2016. Reported supplement sales growth for those practitioners dispensing long enough to track was 7 percent. Another 9% of respondents were new to selling supplements.
Selling supplements
Practitioners who sell supplements are much more likely to recommend specific brands (83% frequently or always) than their counterparts, and they are most likely to recommend that patients buy those supplements in their office. What is interesting is that the second most popular recommendation location is health food stores, even over various practitioner channel websites. In their offices, most practitioners carry a selection of supplements brands, with 5 being about average. Despite these practitioners dispensing multiple brands, the top brand on average accounts for 46% of their supplement sales.
Practitioners are most interested in the efficacy of the brand’s products, supporting clinical trials, and evidence that they can trust brand’s manufacturing process. If those criteria can be met, practitioners, especially allopathic ones, will likely work around the fact that the brand can be found outside of the channel or that the distributor they use doesn’t carry it. They also aren’t overly concerned about patient convenience, with patient inquiries or patient ordering platforms being low priorities when deciding to dispense a new brand.
Beyond the nuts and bolts of product quality and clinical trials, non-product focused manufacturer programs are of less concern. Only about 1 in 4 practitioners considered issues such as competitive pricing and free shipping to be important to selection of a brand.
Practitioners are consistent in their concern to help patients get healthier through supplements, but they aren’t as worried about patient convenience or finances.
Allopathic doctors are more likely to be concerned about competitive pricing (36%) and having condition-targeted formulations that are easy to understand (29%).
Maintaining engagement
So how can supplement manufacturers and distributors help to ensure that practitioners remain engaged in the channel and satisfaction levels remain high? As a start, practitioners are most interested in educational opportunities, especially ones that help to keep them abreast of the latest advancements in medicine or formulations or that will help them better implement functional medicine practices. Because practitioners aren’t typically turning to manufacturer websites or representatives for this information, it is important for brands to offer educational events or have a speaker presence at conferences and trade shows.
Practitioners are also interested in tools that would better assist them in determining what supplements are best for individual patients. Perhaps because they haven’t been selling supplements as long, allopathic doctors (39%) are more interested than alternative doctors (33%) in educational literature that would help them link consumer’s supplement needs to symptoms. On a related note, 25% of surveyed practitioners overall would like an application to help them find the correct formulations for patients.
The majority (72%) of practitioners also felt that product-based clinical protocols for would assist them in their ability to sell supplements. One nurse practitioner suggested the type of help many new to supplements likely are seeking need: “1) dosing range, what would be the max dose; 2) what are potential interactions; 3) what are potential side effects—should product be stopped immediately or will symptoms resolve itself with time?”
Perhaps due to a lack of education, practitioners aren’t necessarily using all of the tools that are available to them currently to help them more effectively recommend and sell supplements. The majority of supplement sales are still occurring in-office, and practitioners may not be fully aware of the advantages that patient fulfillment tools have to offer. Only 29% are currently using any of these tools, with 22% more planning to start using them next year. “I haven’t heard of these tools, but I am not opposed to learning about them and using them,” one chiropractor commented.
While functional medicine is known for its personalized approach and heavy reliance on biochemical, nutrient, and stool testing, these practitioners are still learning about genetic testing services. Only 21% of surveyed practitioners are currently using genetic testing data, but another 55% are open to using it in the future. Twenty-five percent indicated that supplement manufacturers could assist them by partnering with genetic and other testing services to optimize and validate supplement efficacy.
Brand preferences
Pure Encapsulations and Metagenics are the top selling and most recommended brands across the practitioner channel. Practitioners, however, are loyal to a wide range of brands in the channel, typically dispensing five brands, with their top brand accounting for roughly 40% of their total sales.
The bigger picture
Patients want to get healthier. Practitioners want to help patients get healthier. Supplement manufacturers and distributors want to help their practitioner customers help their patients get healthier.
It’s a sequence of benefits that can lead to health, happiness, and financial success across the value chain, but practitioners need assistance from supplements manufacturers to help make the process easier for themselves and, whether they realize it or not, their patients.
Practitioners need education and assistance in how to most effectively prescribe supplements and how to use the diagnostic tools that are becoming popular in the industry.
Practitioners also need manufacturer partners that can transparently provide services that make the patient experience easier. Patients want practitioner supplements to be more convenient to purchase, which could be as simple as manufacturers engaging practitioners in making the switch to more online purchase options. Patients are also worried about pricing ,but that doesn’t have to mean big discounts. Educating consumers and practitioners on something so simple as meeting minimums for free shipping might make all the difference.
No comments:
Post a Comment