Pharmacy managers often find themselves caught in a frustrating dilemma: balancing the need to serve existing customers while also seeking new ones to expand their business. Your competitors continue to multiply, and you begin to see one or more customers get picked up by a competitor you never heard of.

At the beginning of summer, our minds usually drift towards thoughts of vacation, gardening, long weekends, and sand between our toes. However, this year we might want to spend some of our sun-filled days thinking about the future direction of our business and how we’ll get there.

Which Direction?

Before jumping into the details of your marketing and sales plan, think about this: do you want to stay in the same sectors? If most of your business is with SNFs and ALFs, should you just focus on adding more homes in your customer portfolio? Even though the nursing home industry is not on a growth path, you know the industry, you have contacts, and your competitors may have decided to expand to other sectors, giving you a more open field to hunt.

The other option is to expand into markets in which you haven’t previously invested. We’ve discussed some of these in previous posts (home care and employee benefits). You could do a bit of both; continue prospecting for new LTC customers while looking for opportunities outside of your normal emphasis. Regardless of the path you choose, it’s crucial to recognize that if you haven’t dedicated much effort to marketing your pharmacy recently, it’s time to shift your mindset and try something new. Read more >