Thoughts

Presenting the PMF at the Pharmacy Show 2018

We had the pleasure to present an overview of the Pharmacy Marketing Formulary at this years Pharmacy Show event in the NEC Birmingham. It was another blockbuster event attended by 000’s of pharmacy people and supported by 000’s of exhibitors. It was an honour to speak and share the ideas in the PMF with an engaged audience who didn’t ask many questions but many of whom did come and see us on our stand shortly after the show to purchase a copy of the book and ask some marketing related questions.

We thought we’d share the presentation we delivered with you so that you can enjoy the same overview. Sadly you won’t be able to get the full, immersive experience and hear the wonderful commentary by Gavin, the author of the Pharmacy Marketing Formulary, but it should still give you a hint as to the wonderful content of the PMF.

Download [6.76 MB]

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Work begins on a new book

Following the successful launch of our first book, the Pharmacy Marketing Formulary (PMF) I am really excited to begin work on our next publication. For many the fear of a blank page is overwhelming and can be too much to bear. Luckily the first book published by DOSE Publishing was the second book I wrote if you get my drift.

I am starting on our next publication with a clear idea of what I want to produce and a lot of material to work with. That makes it a whole lot easier than actually starting with the dreaded blank page. That said it isn’t exactly easy. This time I know what is ahead, how much work is involved and how much energy it will take! However I am confident about the material so here are some of the tips I’ve gathered to help overcome the inertia when getting started on a new work.

Write: Sounds simple and it is but it can be the hardest step to take. If you want to be a writer you have to write. Thinking about writing will not get anything done. Writing will. Write.
Suspend judgement: It doesn’t have to be perfect first time. If you set yourself too high a bar in terms of what you write in your first draft it may well lead to not writing at all which we know from tip one is key. You will inevitably come back, review and re-write what you have written a number of times.
Be disciplined: Longer works of writing take time to produce. There is a limit to how quickly you can get your thoughts down so anything that is approaching a well considered book will take months to write. Don’t rush. Set yourself a target for writing each day. It can be an amount of time, a number or words, a chapter or something else. Then stick to it come hell or high-water. You will find that before long you have something worth reviewing.
Stream your consciousness: If you are really stuck just write anything you can about the project you are working on. Describe it. Where you are up to. What the next steps are. Anything to get you moving. For extreme cases write whatever is in your mind irrespective of whether it relates to your project or not. You could, for example write a blog about starting your next book and overcoming the blank page.
Know when to stop: The blank page isn’t just there on day one of a project. It is there every time you sit down to write. Ernest Hemingway had a failsafe way to tackle this. He’d stop writing each day when he knew what he was going to write next. That way he’d know where to start when he sat down the following day. Which means he could always just write and brings us back to tip one.

There, now that feels good. I’m eager to get going with todays writing now that I’m writing, I’ve got some of my thoughts down, I’ve reviewed and improved and while I’ve been writing this my subconscious has worked out where to begin on the new book…

I hope these tips were useful and get you writing.

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Johnathan Laird reviews the Pharmacy Marketing Formulary

Johnathan Laird is a progressive talent in the pharmacy profession leading with passion and connecting people to advance the work of pharmacists.

He is editor of Pharmacy In Practice, a pharmacy news publication focusing on the work of pharmacists North of the border, a general practice pharmacist, a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Scottish Pharmacy Board and Co-ordinator and Administrator of @WePharmacists on Twitter. Busy man!

‘The Pharmacy Marketing Formulary (PMF) is a very important modern textbook for anyone working in the pharmacy business. I found the book very relevant and engaging.

I read it in two sittings.

Gavin takes a simple five-step approach to assimilate and explain many of the core marketing concepts in business. He has cleverly moulded these five steps around the priorities of a busy community pharmacy.

A must read and an excellent reference I would say particularly if you were planning a marketing campaign.’

Johnathan Laird.

Learn more about Johnathan.

Read all reviews of the Pharmacy Marketing Formulary (PMF).

Buy your copy of the PMF today

£20.00

Postage and packaging | Delivery details | £2.50 UK | £10.00 Overseas

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If you’d like to stay in touch and receive the odd update you can subscribe here. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Michael Holden reviews the Pharmacy Marketing Formulary

Michael Holden has and continues to have a profound impact on the evolution of community pharmacy in the UK and across the globe.

With over 30 years experience he has managed pharmacy groups, owned his own pharmacies and led the sector in its thinking and in practice as a former Chief Executive of the National Pharmacy Association. He is a fellow of both the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Royal Society for Public Health. He was the prime driver behind the Healthy Living Pharmacy initiative and continues to push for development within the profession as Principal Associate with Pharmacy Complete.

‘The creation of this much needed work, although not many have historically recognised that they need it, is very timely. It comes in a period when the pharmacy profession and in particular, community pharmacy, needs to truly recognise itself as a profession and as a healthcare provider.

A time when the rest of the healthcare ecosystem is moving on into an integrated and digital age, but community pharmacy has changed very little in the last decade. The Pharmacy Marketing Formulary (PMF – love the pharmacy analogy) provides the knowledge and tools to understand our market (the NHS, public health and patients), to develop a plan to address the needs of that market and how to promote itself and its offer to that market; the latter being the most common failing.

The PMF feels good, looks good and should be good for those who read it and act on it – strategy then tactics!‘

Michael Holden.

Learn more about Michael.

Read all reviews of the Pharmacy Marketing Formulary (PMF).

Buy your copy of the PMF today

£20.00

Postage and packaging | Delivery details | £2.50 UK | £10.00 Overseas

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If you’d like to stay in touch and receive the odd update you can subscribe here. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Michael Ball reviews the Pharmacy Marketing Formulary

Michael Ball is a pioneering community pharmacist who has been pushing the boundaries of pharmacy practice in Lancashire in recent years. He is Pharmacy Director and Superintendent Pharmacist at Broadway Pharmacy, in Preston, LPC Director at Choose Health Ltd and Committee Member of Community Pharmacy Lancashire.

‘Quite simply, employing the principles described within this must read, could flip your business from survival mode into thriving mode!

Rightly or wrongly, it’s now time to take hold of what we can control within our pharmacy operations, and by Jove, studying the Pharmacy Marketing Formulary (PMF), is for me a fantastic place to start.

Gavin has perfectly instilled his many years of vast industry experience alongside his passion and dedication for effective business operational and marketing strategy.

It’s written in such an incredibly compelling way, your mind is blown page after page when you repeatedly experience the ‘light bulb moments’.
I am absolutely convinced by both the theory and the methodology that is articulated within the textbook, and more importantly it elicits a motivation in me to really focus mine and my teams efforts.’

Michael Ball.

Learn more about Michael.

Read all reviews of the Pharmacy Marketing Formulary (PMF).

Buy your copy of the PMF today

£20.00

Postage and packaging | Delivery details | £2.50 UK | £10.00 Overseas

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If you’d like to stay in touch and receive the odd update you can subscribe here. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Robbie Turner writes a foreword for the Pharmacy Marketing Formulary

It is with great pleasure and abundant thanks that we would like to announce that Robbie Turner, Pharmacist, @RobbieMTurner, has written a foreword to the Pharmacy Marketing Formulary (PMF). His words herald the acute need that we as a profession have for influencing how we are perceived by everyone in society.

We asked Robbie to write the foreword as we recognised a common belief that this is the case and a common steel to try and do something about it.

Here is the foreword for you to enjoy in all of its glory.

‘In this book Gavin Birchall gives us a clear, concise and easy to follow answer to the question ‘How can we help the public understand what pharmacy has to offer’? The principles behind effective marketing are often misunderstood and misapplied. Trying to join the dots in a more traditional marketing textbook and applying it to pharmacy can be a step too far. However, this book has done the hard work for you and contextualised marketing for the pharmacy world.

Anyone who has worked in pharmacy knows the difficulty we have in explaining what we’re here to do and how we can help improve the lives of the people we serve; helping prevent ill health through public health interventions, supporting patients in their use of medicines and being there when our communities need us. If pharmacy is to have a positive future we all need to get better at helping the people who use our services to understand why they need our help in the first place.

However this book isn’t just about pharmacy as a profession. It’s also about you as an individual and how you, your pharmacy or your pharmacy services can stand out from the crowd. As pharmacy continues to become more competitive, understanding why your customers chose to use you pharmacy or service is more important than ever. The Pharmacy Marketing Formulary (PMF) will help you to understand, will give you 5 clear steps and dozens of really useful ideas to grow your business in a way which will make you proud.

This book deliberately starts with strategic considerations and that’s exactly where you should start too – without this the rest of the journey through the book will be interesting but nowhere near as useful. Read it cover to cover and then come back and read bits again. Then again, and again. The tools will help you transform your understanding of what your customers want and need and help you to be their number one choice in fulfilling their wants and needs. If this makes no sense to you now, it will do when you’ve read the book. Trust me.’

Robbie Turner.

Learn more about Robbie.

Read all reviews of the Pharmacy Marketing Formulary (PMF).

Buy your copy of the PMF today

£20.00

Postage and packaging | Delivery details | £2.50 UK | £10.00 Overseas

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If you’d like to stay in touch and receive the odd update you can subscribe here. Looking forward to hearing from you.