I Dare You

It only takes a small change in habits to make a big difference in the number of people that you help.

I dare you to check to see if your field force has this opportunity

Simple test. Ask your sales reps to tell you about their top two or three customers. Why do they prescribe the medications that they do in your therapeutic area?

If the answers that you get back are general terms like efficacy, safety or tolerability, you have the opportunity to take your field force’s performance and more importantly, their relationship with their customers,to a whole new level.

Here is why. Somehow, and in my years as a rep I was a part of this, pharma has come to use the terms efficacy, safety and tolerability to represent the reasons why healthcare professionals (HCP’s) do or do not prescribe given products.

The problem with that habit is that efficacy, safety and tolerability are general terms and really don’t tell you much about what is actually important to your customer. You need to go deeper.

Imagine just for a minute that you are a car salesperson. Apotential client tells you that they are looking for something to drive around in. What do you tell them about the car that you are selling?What do you focus on?

If after a few good questions you learn that the client is using the vehicle to take their children to hockey games, you can be much more effective. You can talk about things that are important to them like winter driving features,heated seats and storage space for hockey bags.

This information will resonate with the customer and they will be much more likely to engage and ultimately buy from you because you are talking with them on their terms about what is important to them.

Now, imagine if your reps knew exactly what efficacy, safety or tolerability looked like for each of theirindividual customers. Efficacy for example.For one customer that could be speed of action, for another, low relapse rates.

Imagine how much more interested and engaged the customer is going to be when the reps speak specifically to what is important to them? How much better will the customer understand your medication and how many more patients who can really benefit from that medication will receive it?

It is hard to make a change in habits. Even a small one. When I was a Sales Manager, I worked hard on this opportunity with my team. Had more than a few failures before I finally learned, through trial and error, a few techniques that, over time, developed the habit of going deeper and helped members of our team better understandand connect with their customers.

This paid off big time with improved conversations, more engaged customers and ultimately, more patients helped. The team became #1 in the nation in sales performance.

Yes, the down side is that if you do this test and find out that your reps are not going deep enough in their understanding of their customers, you have to do something about it.

But, imagine the opportunity. Better relations with your customers and more patients helped by your products.

If you want some ideas around how to make the small change in habits that can have such a big impact on performance, check out this video (Understanding Conscious and Unconscious Decision Criteria) from my YouTube channel SolutionsMRC YouTube channel Or just contact me directly at Marc@SolutionsMRC.com.

Bottom line, if your reps have not yet learned what efficacy, safety or tolerability actually look like to their individual customers, you have a significant opportunity to improve your relationship with those customers and to help morepatients.

I dare you.