JPK

Gro

up2016 Product Intelligence & Innovation Summit

September 21-22 • Chicago, IL

Strategic Elicitation Strategies

Collect strategic & competitive intelligenceby talking to people

September 21, 2:30pm

Carrie Zakson leads Competitive Intelligence for Walgreens Boots Alliance, theworld-re-known global healthcare company based in Deerfield, IL. Carrie washired to establish the Competitive Intelligence role within Walgreens in 2008.

She is now an integral part of the Walgreens Boots Alliance Corporate Strategyorganization, responsible for optimizing the utilization of company and industry

insights across the global enterprise.

View presentation online at:www.jpkgroupsummits.com/attendee6

Carrie Scott Zakson, Walgreens Boots Alliance Corporate Strategy

Prepared by Carrie Scott Zakson

September 21, 2016

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*

*About me

*What is Elicitation

*Real world examples

*Prepare yourself

**Live in Chicago suburbs – but always trying to fix that

*Wife

*Mother of 7th grade boy and Freshman girl

*Walgreens Boots Alliance Competitive Intelligence since October 2008

*SCIP IL Chapter lead 2012-2014

*Learned CI on the job at Motorola Mobility 2002-2007

*16 years at Motorola doing various jobs

*Product Intelligence Manager

* International Sales Development Manager

*Product Management

*Technical Operations (i.e. Manufacturing Engineering)

*B.S. Industrial Engineering, Iowa State

*MBA international Business, DePaul Kellstadt

*

Asking

questions to

answer

questions

*

*Elicitation is a valuable tool when the answers to important

questions are not accessible in print. You have to interact with

people to get answers.

Private Investigation

Expert Interview

Mystery Shopping

Trade Show

Elicitation

Win Loss Analysis

*

Simplest

Most Complex

*

**Service Description

*Collect information that is not easily obtainable to the public

*Benefits

1. Answer important questions sooner than the public

2. Ethical and legal collection

3. Sometimes free

8

** Assignment:

* Is Walmart trying to replicate a drug store and win

pharmacy market share?

* Key Question:

* What’s going inside the small format stores?

* How Did It Get Answered?

* I sent a local store operations district manager to visit the local municipal office in the town where Walmart was building it’s first small format store to collect insights about Walmart’s plans, knowing they’d have paperwork available for public consumption but not accessible online. The district manager discussed the plans with the clerk, snapped a photo of the layout, then emailed me his findings which I reviewed with a real estate expert.

* So What?

* It was determined and reported to senior leadership months before it was common public knowledge that the first few Walmart Express pilots would not have pharmacies or retail clinics, allowing our execs to sleep better at night knowing Walmart was not trying to replicate our small format stores.

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** Service Description

* Scheduled consultations with external experts

* Useful scenarios

* Gain knowledge or guidance about arenas your company does not operate in

* Learning external points of view quickly and easily (i.e. decision logic, important perspective)

* Benefit

1. Answer external research questions faster

2. Get better quality insights

3. Work more effectively

4. Ensure confidentiality

5. Sometimes free

10

** Assignment* Determine if our company should offer certified DOT physicals

for fleet drivers in its retail clinics.

* Key Question* How do benefit managers select DOT physical providers?

* How Did It Get Answered?

* I used a third party to connect with people who purchase DOT physicals for large fleet operators. Then, I spoke with those purchasers to understand provider selection dynamics, market dynamics and provider differentiation while Product Innovation managers listened and took notes.

* So What?

* After a few phone calls it grew apparent our company was not in a competitive position to enter the market because DOT physicals were always bundled with employee drug testing, which our company was not prepared to offer.

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*Service Description

*Collect specific information about products or services via store

or medical office visits

*Benefits

1. Faster and cheaper than outsourcing

2. Ensure confidentiality

3. Ethical and legal collection

4. Sometimes free

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*

*Assignment:

* How will our future service compare to the competition’s existing service, and how could our company differentiate itself when the service launches?

*Key Question

*What’s it like to try to use the

existing competitor’s service?

*How Did It Get Answered?

* A volunteer and I both spoke with multiple Nurse Practitioners at various retail clinics to fully understand a new service. We both played the role of caretakers inquiring with our parent’s interest in mind. It required multiple conversations with multiple NP to collect all the information and ensure reliability.

*So What?

* Our company’s service launched with a better patient experience than the competitor’s by avoiding the pitfalls of the competitor’s service.

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**Service Description

*Collect specific information about products or services via

planned conversations at trade shows

*Benefits

1. Faster and cheaper than outsourcing

2. Ensure confidentiality

3. Ethical and legal collection

** Assignment

* How does our camera phone

pipeline compare to the competition?

* Key Question

* What key features will be offered within

each price tier for important competitors’

product pipeline?

* How Did It Get Answered?

* I attended industry trade shows where I’d talk with competitors’ booth personnel, competitors’

strategic partners booth personnel, industry analysts and industry bloggers about “Announced but

not shipping” phones to learn what we needed to know. Frequently a single phone’s information

would require multiple conversations with multiple people to answer and validate everything.

* So What?

* Months (and sometimes years) before cell phones were available for sale to the public, we could

compare them to my company’s new product pipeline to identify and learn about differentiating

features like cameras, price, form factor or usability for numerous product and marketing

managers to enhance technical specs, pricing or positioning.15

**Service

*Understand why payers make the purchase decisions they do, and

how our products, sales force and company compare to the

competition to enable more future sales

*Benefits

1. Improve sales, marketing and operations

2. Hear from both existing and lost clients

3. Consistent and unbiased collection and reporting

4. Aggregated insights enables trend analysis

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** Assignment

* Understand why employers and health plans choose the immunization providers they do, and how our company compares to them enabling more future sales.

* Key Questions

* How do buyers decide who to purchase immunizations from?

* How do we compare to the competition on important factors?

* How Did It Get Answered?

* I partnered with a third party to conduct several well-planned, one hour phone interviews with our prospects after they’d made their decision to purchase immunizations. Everyone knew who the research was for.

* So What?

* We confirmed the primary drivers for decision making and how we compare to the competition.

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*

**What are the key questions?

*Are the answers most easily collected by talking to someone?

*Is it worth the effort?

*1. Who knows the answer? These are your conversation targets.

Multiple options or not?

2. How can targets be reached?

Is access restricted?

Appointment required?

Travel?

3. Under what circumstances with they answer?

Who will they tell?

Why will they share?

Avoid being a nuisance.

4. What’s the target’s reliability?

Blinded conversation?

Multiple conversations required?

5. How should responses be recorded for posterity? Notes, audio, video

6. How long will it take to collect everything?

7. How much will it cost to do the work?

8. Would your parents be okay with this plan? How about the WSJ?

**Practice, practice, practice

*Practice somewhere it’s okay to screw up, like your own company.

*Practice consolidating & analyzing responses, if it could be tricky.

*Dress for success

*

**Compare responses to one another

*Compare to expectations

*Ask the client for their opinion

*Does anything need clarified?

*Could findings change anything?

*

**Constructive criticism always welcome.

carrie.zakson@gmail.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carriezakson

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**Look like a shopper. Low income consumers and bargain hunters are plentiful.

• The area is extremely casual.

• Weather is very hot.

• 1-2 adults together is fine. 3 or more gets awkward.

• Mix in predictable combinations. (Age groups. Families. Couples.)

*Shop like a shopper. Baskets are typically full, and customers typically pay cash.

• Grab a cart and abandon it later discretely (without refrigerated items !!!).

• Grab a basket and buy some stuff that you really need.

• Don’t handover your corporate credit card, but swiping it yourself is fine.

• Use the in-store cash station and get cash if you want.

• Keep the receipt for reference.

*Behave like a shopper, or be invisible.

• Move quick and confident in departments you’re expected in by staff.

• Move slow and inquiring in unfamiliar departments you’re not expected in by staff.

• Don’t take photos of people.

• Avoid snapping photos in front of security cameras or employees. Wait or move.

• Itemized shopping lists are fine to carry around. Clip boards and notepads might be confiscated.

• Text, email voice recorder/mailbox or e-notes instead.

• Go into the bathroom if you want to be left alone.

*Talk like a shopper. Don’t be direct if a typical shopper wouldn’t discuss it.

• Bad: How many of these do you sell? What’s your lowest price for these? Why so many stock outs?

• Better: Are these as popular as they seem? Do these ever go on sale? Can you help me find these things?

• Don’t talk shop in front of staff.

** Prescription Delivery Elicitation

* Store:

* Phone:

* Time:

*

* Hi. I’m hoping you can help me. I’m wondering if you deliver to homes from the pharmacy or not? I have an elderly

neighbor next door who’s usually got a caretaker to run for prescriptions and groceries but last weekend that system broke

down and I offered to call around to see if I could help her find a pharmacy that would deliver next time that happens.

(Patient name: Glady Johnson)

*

* When could a prescription be delivered? Could she have it same day?

*

* How do I submit a request for her?

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* I’m wondering will they deliver milk and vitamins too? Save someone another trip?

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* Ok, what are her choices for payment? Can it be paid for in advance for her, or does it have to be when it gets delivered?

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* Um that has me thinking …. Does she have to answer the door?

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* Who does the delivery anyway? Is it a pharmacist? Man or woman?

*

* Ok, cool. Thanks. We’ll give it a try. Bye.