When you want to increase revenue at your independent community pharmacy, you probably focus on acquiring new patients and filling more scripts. But you have other options to boost revenue besides new business.
After all, isn’t your pharmacy busy enough?
As you find ways to add new business without increasing your employees’ workloads, you’ll work smarter, not harder. And that’s better for your pharmacy business.
Implement these ideas to increase profits—without burdening your business.
1. Drive sales toward your best margins
Being profitable isn’t only about making revenue. It’s about margins.
Figure out which prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) products have the highest margins and drive your sales and marketing efforts toward those items. (Use your pharmacy software system to run reports to pinpoint your highest-margin prescription and OTC products.)
2. Sell more to your best customers
Based on the Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 principle, 20 percent of your patients produce 80 percent of your pharmacy’s sales.
And, because your loyal patients create a majority of your pharmacy’s sales, why not generate even more revenue from them?
Increase sales from your pharmacy’s best patients with exceptional customer service and a loyalty rewards program. You can also collect data to determine which products and services best meet their needs.
You’ll make more money from your best patients without increasing your employees’ workload.
3. Provide profitable clinical services
Clinical services can set your pharmacy apart from the competition, attract new patients and boost your profitability.
Not only can clinical services generate additional revenue on their own, but they can also drive more traffic to your retail section, which can boost front-end sales.
Consider expanding your pharmacy’s clinical service offerings to include:
- Immunizations
- Medication synchronization
- Chronic disease management
- Health screenings
If you position your pharmacists to handle these clinical services and allocate more tasks to your pharmacy technicians, you won’t increase workloads. Instead, you’ll shift them around.
4. Get more from your front end
Carrying high-margin products in your front end can increase your profits.
For example, don’t focus on low-margin items, like bandages. Instead, stock wound care products with higher margins to supplement those bandages, like scar treatment products, skin protectants, wound drainage products and dressings for burns.
Or, carry a good selection of compression stockings, which typically offer high-margins.
It won’t take long to get a return on investment, and you can increase referrals from doctors who need a place to send patients for compression hose.
Refocusing your front end also saves your employees’ time. They’ll find it easier to manage inventory and they’ll know to direct their sales efforts to the most profitable products.
5. Improve pharmacy purchasing and inventory management
When you optimize your pharmaceutical purchasing and better manage your inventory, you’ll see your margins improve.
Better purchasing starts with your primary wholesaler contract. If you don’t have time to ensure you have a good deal from your primary wholesaler contract, your pharmacy won’t be as profitable.
A contract negotiation service like ProfitGuard® can help your pharmacy buy better. ProfitGuard manages primary wholesaler contract negotiations to secure independent pharmacies with the best overall cost of inventory possible. ProfitGuard also provides proprietary purchasing tools that maximize wholesaler rebates and item-by-item savings automatically. ProfitGuard members have averaged between $70,800 and $212,400 in annual savings on their cost of goods.
“It’s the industry game changer for the independent pharmacy owner or operator,” says Huy Duong, owner of Dale’s Pharmacy in Colorado. “There’s nothing out there like it on the market.”
In the case that your primary wholesaler doesn’t have what you need, you’ll need a reliable secondary supplier waiting in the wings.
BuyLine®, an NABP-accredited secondary supplier, offers a full line of brands, generics, OTCs, and controls at the lowest prices in the secondary market. In addition to having low list prices, BuyLine also rewards purchases with cash rebates and significant discounts on brands. Earn up to an additional 10% cash rebate on generics and up to WAC -4% on brand.
With online ordering and next-day shipping options, shopping with BuyLine is quick and convenient. There are absolutely no commitments with BuyLine — no fees, no contracts.
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