Frequently Asked Questions

Expertise:  When Should You Engage Six Bridges?

The efforts at Six Bridges Advisors are focused on six areas of expertise where we are uniquely positioned to deliver outstanding results for our clients.  

I. Commercial Strategy: From the Lab to Launch to Loyalty 

II. Crisis Management: Thriving in the midst of the Threat

III. Consumer Engagement: From Awareness to Activation to Adherence

IV. National Account Team Performance: Understanding the “Real” and Training to the “Ideal” to Ideal

V. Policy and Reimbursement: Codes, Cash, and Clinical Pathways

VI. Developing a U.S. Presence: Bringing your brand to the land of the red, white, and blue 

I. Commercial Strategy: From the Lab to Launch to Loyalty 

Six Bridges Advisors help marketers frame the argument for their product with consumers, physicians, ancillary professionals, advocates, and payors.  Our work can begin during the pre-commercial phase where defining the market, isolating the highest potential patient portraits, and preparing the market for accelerated adoption is critical to success.  For currently marketed products, we work with leadership and brand teams to effectively position or reposition products for broader adoption or to leverage adjacent channels to drive revenue growth.  

We believe effective positioning is fundamental to realizing the potential for a brand.  The Hix Group can do the work necessary to ensure the organization and the brand manager nails positioning.  Ultimately, optimized positioning for the brand yields effective messaging, marketing tactics, and channel alignment.  

1. Ask Six Bridges to conduct a marketing audit of your proposed or active marketing plan.
2. Ask Six Bridges to develop the marketing plan for your product or portfolio.  

II. Crisis Management: Thriving in the midst of the Threat

Complex and dynamic markets, defined by increasingly narrow advantage windows, present both thrills and threats.  Thrills and threats come in many shapes and sizes for life science companies and can be the result of a change in the 

- competitive landscape,

- policies and protocols impacting intervention selection,

- reimbursement environment, favorably or unfavorably, 

- factors influencing alignment across the supply chain (i.e. white label substitution),

- sales channel.

If your organization is facing a threat, our team can help you analyze your position and work with your team to develop the immediate, near-term and ongoing strategic and tactical plan to position you for success.  

Our approach is not one-size fits all.  We understand that the response by the organization requires not only leveraging our expertise in the prevailing market forces impacting the opportunity or threat, but also understanding the internal culture and competencies operating in the organization. 

1. Ask Six Bridges to help you assess and isolate the opportunities and threats facing your business. 
2. Ask Six Bridges to coach your account team through the negotiation process with a participant in your value chain.

III. Consumer Engagement: From Awareness to Activation to Adherence

Stop for a moment and consider, how much is your organization investing to acquire a single consumer?  Did you consider the cost of advocacy development?  The cost of your clinical program?  The cost of the sales effort?  The marketing effort?  Logistics and fulfillment?  Payor relations?  Ultimately, when we consider the full cost of consumer acquisition for both prescription and over-the-counter products, we are motivated to 

- ensure the user crosses the required clinical threshold for the product, a critical factor in driving the outcomes necessary to further motivate both consumer and professional audience, 

- reduce the cost of consumer acquisition, and 

- extend the engagement with the consumer, which can translate to deploying  an integrated marketing platform to drive compliance, persistency and advocacy.

Six Bridges Advisors has developed and operationalized the patient journey for many leading pharmaceutical and medical device brands, including brands managed by Fortune 50 entities dedicated to servicing the pharmaceutical industry.  These journeys have included using technology, including mobile technology, to appropriately activate, engage, incentivize and retain consumers.  

1. Ask Six Bridges to help you understand the journeys your users are taking to become aware of your product, acquire your product, and sustain a conversation with your product.
2. Ask Six Bridges to help you advance your conversation with your target audience and your acquired audience using an integrated, optimized customer relationship management (CRM) deployment that recognizes and addresses the audience profile, HIPAA, and budget constraints.  
3. Ask Six Bridges to help you manage the RFP process to identify and source a mobile provider to support consumer acquisition, consumer engagement, and mobile-enabled incentives, including co-payment coupons.

IV. National Account Team Performance: Understanding the “Real” and Training to the “Ideal” to Ideal

The time spent negotiating an agreement with a payor, provider network or strategic partner can be the most productive time for a national account team and the organization they represent.  The Hix Group can prepare your account teams for value-added negotiations to best position your product(s), clinically, economically, and strategically with purchasers and providers. 

1. Ask Hix to serve as a silent or participating partner in active negotiations with payors, health systems, and partners in the value-chain.
2. Ask Hix to lead a negotiation skills workshop to develop and refine the value-based negotiation skill set of your national account team.

V. Policy and Reimbursement: Codes, Cash, and Clinical Pathways

Policy decisions at the federal, state, payor and provider levels can differentially benefit or disadvantage a life science product.  And, of course, policy decisions specific to reimbursement or clinical protocols can dramatically impact revenue, profitability, the lives of patients, and the stability of the organization.  Today, we are finding that policy decisions are migrating across the provider and payor communities at an accelerated rate.  “Policy migration” is being accelerated by a culture of accountability operating at the payor and provider levels, the increased availability of structured data sets within EMR platforms that equip decision makers with practical evidence, and pressures on insurers to cover items and procedures which have typically been outside the benefit design.  

1. Ask Six Bridges to develop a policy plan for your business to help you build or leverage the assets required to favorably impact the policy landscape for your product.
2. Ask Six Bridges to develop the advocacy team required to support your business at the national, state or payor level.