Before anything else, sell yourself first! Remember the market is being dominated by products having the same generic name with different brand names. Most of the products on the market today have been on the market for more than 5 years. The doctors know almost everything there is to know about these products.
Make an impression, a good impression. This could make or break your career. It’s always better to under promise and over delivers than over-promising and under-delivering. When you do the latter, some of your clients would feel offended. They will feel shortchanged. In short, never commit something that you cannot give. If for some unavoidable circumstance you would not be able to deliver on your promise, be strong, face your client and explain with all honesty and sincerity why you wouldn’t be able to deliver on your promise. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Selling Skills
Calls or coverage is a face to face interaction with your target customer, the physician, with a planned business objective done on a regular clinic day. The purpose of the call is to achieve the physicians’ commitment to continuously prescribe the product you are promoting by means of providing product information (action, indication, adverse effects, etc.) and quality customer service (uncovering needs, address concerns, etc.).
The call starts not on the actual visit but on the planning, usually outside the clinic. Pre-call is conducted in preparation for the actual call. Usually, a review of the past conversation is made and then formulating a new objective for the call. Pre-call should be made using the SMART format:
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Actionable
R – Results Oriented
T – Triggers Action
Pre-calls should include qualitative and quantitative objectives. In qualitative objectives, you may want to ask the doctor about his practice, about the profile of patients he sees or how he treats them. You may also want to have the doctor to agree to a key product message you intend to deliver. Quantitative objectives may include the number of prescription you want the doctor to produce or the number of patients he may try your product.
A good pre-call plan will allow you to directly influence the flow of the call because you already have the outline in whichever way the call should go. Your strategy should include assessments of his current prescribing status:
1. Awareness
2. Interest
3. Trial
4. Usage
Was he still in the awareness stage or has he already moved on the interest phase? You can indicate in your plan your desire to upgrade his prescribing continuum to trial phase and that desire should be accompanied by what types of questions to use, or what materials to utilize and what message to emphasize.
The actual selling starts with Opening. Opening is the skill of obtaining the doctor’s attention. It is the introduction phase wherein you capture the attention of the audience and makes them want to listen to and/or want to know more about you, your company and most especially, your product.
Your opening strategy should have a link in your previous call, known patient conditions or it may contain a reference to current events, such as politics, weather, showbiz, etc. If you are going to use current events, you must be able to link or bridge it to a feature or benefit of your product. But, if it’s going to be your first visit to the doctor, introducing yourself and your company will suffice.
In the example below, we will be using a hypothetical product called TUCOX, a cox-2 specific inhibitor. Cox-2 specific inhibitors are a kind of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug or NSAID that has fewer side-effects than traditional NSAIDs such as diclofenac and naproxen.
Example of an Opening Strategy:
PMR: Doctor, I’m sure that you would agree that the onset of action is very important when choosing medicines to address pain.
MD: Yes!
To have an in-depth understanding of your customer, you should ask questions that will provide you with information regarding his practice. A good probing strategy is needed for this. Probing is the skill of uncovering customer needs, belief and concerns.
There are three types of probes. An open probe is a type of questioning strategy where the ultimate goal is to allow the doctor to freely express himself. This is usually used inthe beginning of your questioning or with a very communicative customer. Closed probes are a type of questioning answerable by yes or no. This type is mainly used in “funneling technique”, a series of probes to uncover specific areas of concerns. The third type is choice probes. This type of probe is similar to the closed probe in uncovering specific customer concerns but it uses options to pinpoint the concern.
Example of a Probing Strategy:
PMR: Doctor, in pain management what do you usually use?
MD: It depends on the case…
PMR: What about in post-operative pain, do you use Cox-2 inhibitors?
MD: Of course!
Once you have identified the need of the doctor, you must tailor fit your response. Do not divert the flow of the conversation or you may run the risk of annoying the doctor. Stick to the topic, and with sufficient product knowledge, you can win the confidence of the doctor. Issues and concerns sometimes arise from your interaction with the doctor. This may be due to various reasons, such as real objections, misconceptions or skepticism about the claims of your product.
Example of Handling Concerns:
MD: I seldom use Cox-2 inhibitors because of cardiovascular complications.
PMR: Doctor, why did you say that it causes cardiovascular complications?
MD: Well, there have been several studies about it and the FDA had issued warnings about them.
PMR: I understand your concern, but what if I can show you that my product, Tucox, have comparable cardiovascular risk profile with that of diclofenac and naproxen, would you be interested?
MD: Yes!
Delivering the message requires you to master the contents of the detail aid. You should not relay all the contents of the material to the doctor. You only have to highlight a key message relevant to the topic being discussed. Key messages should also be translated to benefit in order for that feature to be more appreciated.
Example of Message Delivery:
PMR: Doctor, Tucox is a highly selective Cox-2 inhibitor with rapid onset of action and long duration of effects, allowing your patients Freedom from Pain.
MD: Is that so…
PMR: Yes doctor, aside from its fast on long-lasting action, Tucox is generally well tolerated. In fact, studies show that Tucox has the same cardiovascular risk profile with diclofenac and naproxen.
MD: Wow, Tucox is indeed better...
In Closing, you should be aware of the signals that are indicative of when you will conclude the call. You may have uncovered a need from your probing strategy and had provided the feature and benefit of the product that satisfies that need. If the doctor agrees or is satisfied with the feature or benefit of your product, you may then close the call by paraphrasing or reviewing the agreed benefits and then ask the doctor if he may prescribe the product to the appropriate patients.
Example of a Closing Strategy:
PMR: Doctor, since we have agreed that Tucox will provide your patient with fast and long-lasting action that will give your patients Freedom from Pain, would you prescribe Tucox to your next patient suffering from acute pain?
MD: Yes...
Once the call concluded and have left the doctor’s clinic, a review of what has transpired should take place. Ask them yourself if you have elicited the expected response planned in your pre-call objective? If not, what would you do differently next time? The result of your post-call analysis will be the basis for your pre-call on your next visit to the doctor.
