Written by and published in Elements magazine, March 15, 2017

When your pharmacy forms partnerships, you probably look to physicians or local community centers. But other—more unusual—partnership opportunities exist in your community that could benefit your pharmacy and your patients.

“I think if pharmacists looked around their community, they would see a tremendous amount of opportunity for unusual partnerships and alliances that help with the holistic care of the patient,” said Dave Wendland, vice president, strategic relations and member of the owners group at Hamacher Resource Group, a leading partner in category management, business strategy and marketing services focused on consumer health care at retail.

Wendland believes consumers today are looking to stay well (prevent illness), get well (recover from an illness) and live well (learn to live with a chronic condition.)

“If you think about those three states—stay well, get well and live well—it involves more than just pills or lotions as a temporary fix,” he said. “It’s really an environmental question about what you’re putting in your body, on your body and around your body.”

When you consider these environmental factors, innovative partnerships emerge as a way to bring added value.

“Selecting a partner business that has a common goal can be so valuable,” Wendland said. “Your investment is lower and you’re tapping in to another locally-owned business, which helps the whole community rise.”

The benefits of partnerships

Wendland said the biggest benefit of an unlikely partnership with another local business is the increased value to the patient. “It gives them confidence because you’ve done the legwork for them and identified other ways they can improve their health and wellbeing,” he said.

When other businesses promote your pharmacy, it broadens your reach. For example, consider the goodwill that would result from your pharmacy partnering with a local florist to send flowers to patients when they’re discharged from the hospital.

Unlikely partnerships also affect patient loyalty. “When customers are taken care of beyond just receiving a prescription over a counter, it shows there’s compassion there and that pharmacist’s loyalty quotient goes up significantly,” he said.

Forming unusual partnerships

Finding a partnership that makes sense for your independent community pharmacy requires research. “First, pharmacies should look at the need states of their current customers, and identify things beyond what their pharmacy provides that their customers may require,” Wendland said.

He also suggested considering the type of relationship. “It could—and should be—a two-way relationship,” he said.

Pharmacy owners shouldn’t think of the partnership as a legal arrangement, but rather a spirit of alliance. “It’s an informal handshake and business relationship under a common interest,” Wendland said.

New opportunities for partnerships exist all around us, but the key is to take the time to find them. “To remain relevant in any industry, especially a fast-moving, morphing industry like pharmacy, companies need to stretch their horizons,” Wendland said. “My advice to pharmacy is to define where it can bring value to its customers, assess how to achieve that, and once that’s done, fill the voids with alliance partners.”

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