Many times in life, we repeatedly do something that we are comfortable doing. We do not reflect on whether our actions are yielding results or not. Often, there is a better way to do the same thing which we do not notice because we are besotted with our ways. Read below, a 4 minute story from a time long past that has a lesson in In – Bound Marketing for Pharma Marketers.

I have been a hosteler for too many years.

Like most hostelers, I was a part of a big group of frustrated, lonely chaps away from home who only felt that nirvana in hostel life means having a bike to ride and a girl to sit behind after the classes were over.

As such, in most boys hostel (I guess, things would not have changed much) 80% of the time is spent discussing girls, 15% on finding someone to sponsor (bakra) food, beer and cigarettes and remaining time to see if there is anything worth studying in the class or the books. The order flips over just before and during the exams, the 15%, however remaining the same.

Valentine’s Day used to be a festival for us and hold an equivalent position of any standard Indian festival like Dasera or Diwali or Eid. Hostelers would start preparing for the day well in advance as much as anyone would prepare for a festival.

There were few differences, however.

Festivals came with real people, family members, celebrations etc. In case of Valentine’s Day for the hostelers, the people in most of the preparations were imaginary. Almost everyone imagined that there was a girl in the campus who was dying to have a cup of tea with him in the canteen or go for a movie or… and the preparation for Valentine’s Day accordingly happened.

Predictably, by the end of the Valentine’s Day, there would be some of us inevitably returning to the hostel clutching hearts, their respective broken hearts. Inevitably, there would be an evening gathering around crates of beer or Corex and inevitably some girl (who would not even have a clue) would be spoken about in very impolite terms. Some of us were always ready to stand by the broken people… Bhai, hum hain na tere saath…

It was a ritual.

I remember 2 people from among this unusually painful festival.

Rajesh (imaginary name) was an ultra-friendly, day – scholar guy who always used to loan us his bike and money for our beer, and hence was our best buddy. And the other, Vipin (imaginary name), was one from our hostel and our batch mate. Very serious kind, normal looking chap and hardly showed any affinity for the girls. There were whispers that he may not be normal.

On the Valentine’s Day, Rajesh used to do a peculiar thing. He used to purchase a single Valentine’s Day Card and write with PENCIL, “I Love You, XXXXX”. He approached one girl and that XXXXX became that girl’s name. No success? The name written in pencil was erased and new name was written. No Success, again? Repeat.

Rajesh was such a jolly chap that he did not mind that the day ended without any success. His satisfaction used to be that his investment was also very less. And like others he did not spend days on preparing for the day.

Vipin, on the other hand was far too skilful. Now we understand that he used to identify his hunt very well in advance and set out on an agenda.

He used to make best notes for some specific subjects where some girls were weak, showed his preparedness in group activities, always spoke sensibly and kept a respectable distance with the ladies. He was also perceived to be the most responsible among the group of hostelers in the class.

In short, he had every single thing that made girls eager to associate with him. And that they did, not only on the Valentine’s Day but on a regular basis.

Now, is there some correlation with the story of Rajesh with what we do today in Pharma Marketing ?

Do you see our field force going around with the same VA, LBL etc. to EVERY Dr? Is that not what we routinely do to catch the Drs’ attention? Is that not what Rajesh used to do? Did it work for Rajesh? Is it working for us, nowadays?

Whereas, what Vipin used to do was a classic case of In – Bound Marketing (a very successful Digital Marketing Tool). He first identified his customers, elevated his stature and services, projected himself in appropriate circles and had customers approaching him and not the other way round.

Rajesh targeted multiple customers without any success. Vipin selected his few customers well and sometimes got more than 100% success. Pharma Marketers, it’s time to Think