Adapt to a New Environment and Prove Speaker Programs' Value

Pharmaceutical Speaker Programs provides innovative, actionable strategies and best practices that will make your speaker events more effective and generate better ROI. Our data benchmarks - developed from input from marketing executives, brand managers, speaker programs directors among others - will anchor your decisions. The report will help you build a clear and easy case to key stakeholders for speaker programs resource support.

State laws are changing at a dizzying pace. Restrictions are clamping down on speaker programs, threatening to eliminate them altogether. To fight against these challenges, you need the most current information available.

Prove department value

Learn companies' methods to obtaining hard-to-measure ROI and communicate program success - to potential speakers, attendees, key stakeholders and outside agencies.

Cut program costs up to 75%

Companies underuse new technology that could attract attendees, resulting in tens of thousands of wasted dollars from outsourcing collateral development. Use our detailed metrics and rankings of new media - including webcasts and teleconferences - versus traditional events to find the most cost-effective ways to deliver your messages.

Drive attendance

Benchmarks will tell you when, where, and what medium will attract the most attendees, provide educational value, and keep them engaged. Our study also shows companies' proven strategies for recruiting and contracting top speakers.

Navigate confidently through the sea of regulatory changes

Find an in-depth discussion on how state legislation and regulatory changes are affecting speaker programs. Executives discuss and project the future of speaker programs.

Companies Included in Report

Pharmaceutical Speaker Programs' four chapters include budget, staffing and key performance metrics data. Surveyed companies include six top 20 and nine top 30 pharmaceutical companies, as well as biotechnology companies and medical device firms.

Sample Content

The following excerpt is from Chapter 1, "Speaker Programs Management." For full information on optimizing your speaker programs group, please see the full report.

Speaker Feedback

Sales reps and other company representatives also monitor speakers for their performance, collecting data through surveys or questionnaire forms. This submission can be integrated with compliance reporting. This information also affects a speaker's role with the company.

The form that Company 24's sales reps fill out, which is a fairly standard feedback questionnaire, contains these five questions. Answers are a ranking ranging from 1 to 5:

1. Did the speaker convey a clear understanding of the product and the target patient?
2. How passionate was the speaker when incorporating his or her own experience with the product?
3. Did they answer questions about the product in a positive way?
4. How strongly do you recommend the speaker for future speaking engagements?
5. Place for additional comments.

At Company 24, this form is submitted through an online portal. If the additional comments include report of a compliance infraction, the speaker bureau notifies compliance. Company 20 follows a similar approach. Sales reps submit the feedback forms to sales and marketing, and the data are culled and documented. If the feedback contains compliance issues, that department also receives the form.

Metrics Overview

Chapter 1: Speaker Programs Management

Structure and Reporting Relationships

• Percentage breakdowns of speaker programs structure centralized at the corporate level, business unit or therapeutic area

• Reporting relationships and company interactions for speaker programs

Recruiting, Selecting and Contracting Speakers

• Ranking of recruitment tool effectiveness on a scale of 1 to 10. Tools measured:

• Speaker program challenges on a scale of 1 to 10. Challenges include:

• Process for incorporating a physician into the speaker bureau

Speaker Training

• Average hours of new speaker training per company

• New speaker training per pharmaceutical company, medical device company

• Compensation methods for speaker training - flat rate, by the hour, or do not compensate - by company type

• Percentage of pharmaceutical companies with annual compensation caps for speakers, by company type

Speaker Bureau Management Systems

• Percentage of pharmaceutical companies with annual compensation caps for speakers by company type

• Average annual speaker compensation caps (in US dollars) by company type

• Breakdown of compensation caps by company type

• Breakdown of aggregate compensation caps by company type

• Applicability of compensation caps at companies without companywide limits

Chapter 2: Ensuring Effective Speaker Programs

• Rating the challenges facing pharmaceutical speaker programs (e.g., cost, regulations, coordinating schedules, training)

• A separate graphic shows challenges, as they are ranked by medical device companies.

Choosing the Types of Speaker Events and the Best Times to Maximize Program Value

• Stage in a brand's lifecycle when speaker programs begin (by percentage)

• Stage in a brand's lifecycle when speaker programs are most effective (by percentage)

• Effectiveness of speaker programs, by type of program

• Typical length of each type of speaker program in hours

• Best time [of day] to conduct each type of speaker program

Driving Speaker Program Attendance

• Rating the best drivers of attendance, e.g. face-to-face, email/fax invitation, phone

• Average attendance levels for:

Speaker Program Costs

• The average overall costs for four types of speaker events and average per attendee cost, including:

Chapter 3: The Future of Speaker Programs

• Change in speaker program effectiveness over the past 3 to 5 years (less effective, effective, or more effective)

Prevalence of New Media

• Average percentage of pharmaceutical companies conducting the following types of speaker programs:

• Effectiveness of speaker programs by type (on a scale of 1 to 10)

• States that have proposed pharmaceutical marketing legislation in the past 3 to 5 years

• States that have passed legislation affecting pharmaceutical marketing

Speaker Compensation
The following metrics broke compensation data by company type: small, mid-size, large, biotech, pharma (average), medical device.

• Compensation methods - flat fee, hourly rate, or a combination of both

• Compensation methods, by percentage, for pharma average and medical devices

• Average total compensation for live speaker programs

• Total compensation ranges - maximum and minimum amounts - for live speaker programs

• Average total compensation for virtual speaker programs

• Total compensation range - maximum and minimum amounts - for virtual speaker programs

• Average number of speaker programs conducted annually, by company type

• Average number of speakers in the speaker bureau, by company type

Chapter 4: Speaker Programs Resource Allocation and Outsourcing Strategy
Staffing Levels for Speaker Programs Departments:

• Speaker Program events per FTE by team size and by company type

• Speaker program staffing within business units (in FTEs)

• Speaker program staffing (in FTEs) - by company type and size (large, mid-size, small, medical device, biotech)

Budget Benchmarks for Speaker Programs Departments

• Average speaker programs by company type

• Speaker program budgets for different company sizes and types: large, mid-size, small, medical device, biotech)

• Average budget allocation for speaker programs by company type and company size

• Percentage of pharmaceutical companies' (including medical device, biotech) speaker program budgets, dedicated to specific regions

• Brand-level speaker program spending by phase for brands of different sales ranges:

Outsourcing Speaker Program Activities

• Pharma companies' outsourcing budget allocation for speaker programs

• Average outsourcing budget for speaker programs by company type and size (aggregate and by company type)