Guides for biotech commercial teams
Short, plain-English answers to the questions that take up a commercial team's week. Each one leads with the answer and a table, then works an example on synthetic data.
What to measure
What each role should see first, and which numbers tell you whether a launch is working.
What should a commercial dashboard show for each role?
What a rep, a first-line manager, commercial operations and leadership each need on their first screen, why one dashboard for everyone fails, and one Monday in a demo read from each chair.
136%of pace in one territory, 110% in its regionHow do you know if a launch is working?
Which numbers tell you whether a launch is working in its first weeks and months, when each one becomes trustworthy, and why a referral cohort read at a fixed age beats a running total, with a worked example.
10 pointsapparent drop, gone at the same age
Agreeing on the number
Why two reports disagree, when a period is final, and how to tell whether the data is current.
Why do two sales reports show different numbers?
Why two sales reports built from the same data show different numbers, with a worked reconciliation: unmapped sites, returns, which 13 weeks, the open week and accounts in two territories.
1,966 unitsgap between two same-label reportsWhich time period should each sales report use?
How to choose a closed week, a closed month, quarter to date or a trailing window for each sales report, with a worked example of an open week that reads as a drop.
59%apparent drop from an open weekIs my data actually fresh? Check "data through", not "last refreshed"
How to tell whether each data feed is current: date it by its newest row, not by when the refresh job last ran, and compare that with the cadence you expect.
4 daysmost a daily feed should lag
Credit and territories
Which territory gets an account's sales, and how goals follow territories, not reps.
Which territory gets the sales credit when an account is aligned to two?
How to give an account's sales credit to one territory when it is aligned to two, so territory totals add up to the company total, with a worked example.
8.6%of net units would count twiceHow to set sales goals by territory and call goals by rep, with a worked example
How to set pharma sales goals by territory from 12-month share and call goals by rep from call rate and field days, with a worked example.
158 unitsone territory's Q4 goal, worked out
Your data sources
What each feed contains, what it leaves out, and what to do when it changes.
What data does a commercial team need, and who sends each piece?
The data a biotech commercial team works from, who usually sends each piece, how often, what it answers and what it can't, and a worked example of how the feeds join.
89%of hub prescribers matched by NPIWhat is 867 data? The distributor sales file, explained
A plain-English guide to 867 data, the distributor's sales file: what each field means, why returns and unmapped sites matter, and a worked example of mapping a ship-to to an account.
6.0%of net units shipped to unmapped sitesHow long does it take a patient to start therapy? What hub and specialty pharmacy data show
How hub and specialty pharmacy status data measure the days from referral to first shipment, where the time goes, and where patients who never start therapy leave the process.
22 daysmedian referral to first ship
Every guide’s example runs on the same synthetic data as Ardlow’s open demo.