Physicians and other healthcare providers have less time and more prescribing options than ever before. Studies show that
as few as eight out of every 100 sales calls end with the physician meeting the rep and remembering what was said. How can
you be one of those eight memorable reps?
If you want to change prescribing behavior on every call, you need to CREATE sales presentations that are clear, relevant,
engaging, accurate, timely and enthusiastic.
Clear
One of the first lessons in journalism school is "Don't bury the lead." If readers don't find something interesting in the
first few sentences of an article, they move on – maybe to another article, maybe to another newspaper. The same rule applies
to your sales presentations. You have only seven to 10 seconds to gain your customers' attention before they mentally move
on to something else. With that in mind, ask yourself: How will you use the first seven seconds of your next sales presentation?
Start strong by clearly answering the three unasked questions in the forefront of your customer's mind: Why are you here?
Why should I care? What do you want from me? For example, you might say, "I'm here with Build-a-Bone, a new oral option for
your osteoporosis patients that has been shown to increase patient compliance and reduce fracture risk. Do you have three
minutes for a demonstration?" Seven to ten seconds of clarity can orient the prescriber to your sales presentation.
CREATE impact
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Stay strong by staying on-message throughout your presentation. Plan ahead of time which approved promotional materials you
will use to support your core selling message. Apply the "less is more" philosophy and resist the urge to start flinging information
if you think you're not gaining prescriber support. You will accomplish more with a clear message and meaningful questions
than with a flurry of disjointed sound bites.
Close strong with a clear action plan. Ask the prescriber if he needs any other information; then ask for a specific action,
tell him exactly what you're going to do and set a clear timeline: "Dr. Lawson, is there anything else you need to know in
order to prescribe Build-a-Bone for your osteoporosis patients who want an alternative to injectable agents? ... I'll leave
three starter kits with you if you will use them to start three of your patients this month. I will stop in again in two weeks
to answer any questions you have and hear about your patients' success."
Relevant
Ensuring relevance seems to be one of the easiest steps in developing a compelling sales presentation. You paint a patient
picture, draw a connection to the prescriber's patients and segue into a mutual agreement about product efficacy, right? In
theory, yes. In practice, not always.
Painting a patient picture can be an effective way to gain agreement about product efficacy, but unless you demonstrate relevance
to the prescriber – not just to a patient type or disease state – you will not advance the sale. Your sales presentations may be relevant to
patient demographics and prescriber specialty, but are they relevant enough to change prescribing behavior?
One way to make the benefits of your product real in the eyes of prescribers is to focus on the total office call. Be an active
listener in your conversations with office staff. If you ask a nurse how she's doing and her response is that she's tired
of giving nebulizer treatments in a too-small exam room, point out that your nebulizer unit has the smallest footprint on
the market or that your chronic obstructive pulmonary disease treatment nebs in half the time of the generic equivalent, which
means less time spent in a cramped exam room.
