Blog · Board and management reporting · Pharma
The ten commercial KPIs a pharmaceutical sales organisation should run on, each with its formula, the export it comes from and what it tells you: reach and frequency among accounts that can prescribe, calls on blocked accounts, access-weighted territory potential, pull-through after a formulary win, call plan attainment by plan version, sample to prescription relationship, target list currency, new prescriber activation, share within accessible accounts, and off-plan call rate. Also the three measures most teams miss, the figures to drop, the identities, and who owns what.
A pharma rep can only influence prescribing where the product can be prescribed. The measures that matter put access status under everything, and connect calls, samples and formulary wins to what was actually written.
| # | Measure | Formula | Export | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reach and frequency, access-aware | Accessible targets called ÷ accessible targets; calls ÷ accessible targets called | Call log; dated access file | Coverage where a prescription is possible |
| 2 | Calls on blocked accounts | Calls made while the account was blocked ÷ all calls | Call log; dated access file | Effort that could not convert |
| 3 | Access-weighted territory potential | Category volume of accounts, weighted by access status, per territory | Prescription data; access file | Where reps should be |
| 4 | Pull-through after access win | Change in share in accounts covered by the win, months 1 to 6, against own prior trend | Prescription data; access file | Whether prescribing followed access |
| 5 | Call plan attainment by version | Planned calls completed ÷ planned, each against the plan version in force on its date | Call log; versioned plan | Attainment that can be reproduced |
| 6 | Sample to prescription relationship | Change in prescriptions against samples left, per territory, with lag | Sample log; prescription data | What the samples moved |
| 7 | Target list currency | Targets with status reviewed in the cycle ÷ targets; high prescribers not on the list | Target list; prescription data | Lists built on last year |
| 8 | New prescriber activation | Targets writing a first prescription in the period ÷ targets with none before | Prescription data | Whether calls create prescribers |
| 9 | Share within accessible accounts | Product prescriptions ÷ category prescriptions, in accessible accounts | Prescription data; access file | Performance where it could be achieved |
| 10 | Off-plan call rate | Calls on accounts not in the plan ÷ calls, with the outcome of those accounts | Call log; plan | Reps following judgement the plan lacks, or avoiding the plan |
Every one of these is computed per account, per territory and rep, and in total, and every one carries an identity that must hold before the table is shown.
Access as a dimension. The access file sits with market access, the call log with sales force effectiveness, and the two are rarely joined by date.
Pull-through. A formulary win is celebrated and never followed account by account.
Plan versions. Only the latest plan is kept, so last month's attainment cannot be recomputed.
A territory reports reach of 80 percent and frequency of 3.5 over ten targets. Two targets are blocked and one is unknown. Among the seven that can prescribe, reach is 71 percent and frequency 2.6. Fourteen of twenty-eight calls went to blocked accounts, including seven on one. Two open-access accounts, one of them tier one, received no call in the cycle.
Calls per day. Without access it counts doors, not opportunities.
Reach over all targets. Always beside the access-aware figure.
Samples distributed. What they moved is the measure.
| Table | Must hold |
|---|---|
| Access | Targets = open + restricted + blocked + unknown, on any date |
| Calls | Calls = on plan + off plan; on accessible + on blocked + on unknown |
| Plan | Every call is assessed against exactly one plan version |
| Prescriptions | Account prescriptions sum to the territory total in the data source |
A table whose identity fails is a table with a row missing or counted twice. It is not shown until it is fixed.
| Measure | Owner | Reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Access-aware reach and frequency; blocked calls | District managers | Each cycle, weekly within it |
| Pull-through | Commercial head with market access | Monthly after each win |
| Attainment by version; off-plan rate; list currency | Sales force effectiveness | Each cycle |
| Access-weighted potential; share in accessible accounts | Commercial head | Quarterly, and at realignment |
A measure with no owner is a metric, not a KPI; see KPI versus metric versus measure.
Ten measures from the call log, the dated access file and prescription data. Put access under every one, follow each win to the prescriptions, and keep the plan versions. Covirage computes all of them from the exports pharma commercial teams already produce, files only, with the definitions stated and the identities checked. See Covirage for pharma commercial teams.
Because a call on an account where the product is not on formulary, or where reps are not admitted, cannot lead to a prescription. Reach over all targets might be 80 percent while reach among accounts that can prescribe is 65, with a third of calls going to blocked accounts. The access-aware version is what happened where it mattered.
The change in prescribing in the months after a formulary win or access improvement, account by account, against the accounts' own prior trend. A win with no pull-through usually means the field was not told, or was not redeployed. It is the measure that connects market access work to sales effort.
Call plans are revised during a cycle: targets added, frequencies changed. Attainment measured against the final plan flatters, and against the first plan penalises. Each call is assessed against the version in force on its date, and the versions themselves are kept. Otherwise attainment is unreproducible.