Diagnosis
You've got the science down pat, but do your doctors have time to hear you out?

Prescription
The short-call protocol will help you make the most of your all-too-brief time

Laura has nearly a dozen clinical studies she can use to promote her products. Most of the doctors she calls on expect to hear clinical evidence from her and they do. She knows the statistics, from survival curves to p-values. Still, there are times when she hesitates to use studies in a call. "When a doctor says they have just a minute and I can tell that is really all they have, how can I discuss the Cox proportional-hazard model in 60 seconds? I stick to the abstract and ask for more time on the next call." Not completely happy with her compromise, Laura was looking for solutions.

When she has a shorter call, should she even use a study, and if so, how?

Laura's situation is becoming more common in the field. Physicians are using evidence-based medicine strategies to make treatment decisions and they expect sales professionals to understand and use evidence-based medicine principles, too. Evidence-based medicine is a set of validity and usefulness criteria physicians use to review studies and make treatment decisions. As they base their prescribing habits on the most valid clinical data available, they look to sales professionals who can provide this data and discuss what it means for the physician's patients. At the same time, physicians are busy and short calls, sometimes very short calls, are the norm in many offices. It seems like a paradox: While physicians expect more clinical evidence, they have less time to hear it.

The "abstract" approach Laura used left her knowing she was not moving market share like she could if she had just a few minutes to really dig into a study and share its findings. As frustrating as it may seem to sales professionals like Laura who brush up on their studies and have the confidence to use them consistently – if not the time – a short call does not have to short-circuit sales goals. There is a solution. It is the short-call protocol.

Before a clinical study can even begin, researchers write down all of the details about the proposed study. This exhaustive document is called the study protocol. This complete plan is a vital part of the study. Likewise, the short-call protocol is an important part of planning for a shorter call, leveraging clinical evidence.

Focus

Focus is an essential element of an evidence-based medicine call. Studies can be overwhelming and too broad-based to leverage in some shorter calls. If you dilute complex statistics to fit the compressed time, you risk losing credibility with the physician – your credibility and the study's. Instead of trying to stuff as much data as possible into 60 seconds, focus on a specific patient type and the data you have that supports treating this patient type. The patient profile should represent a type of patient your physician sees. It also can be a patient type the physician sees but is not currently treating with your product. Next, focus on the clinical evidence that supports treating, or expanding treatment to, the specific patient type you have selected. So, instead of planning for a call by beginning with a study, begin with a patient type then locate the evidence that supports treatment. This may be found in a subgroup analysis. Or, it may require you to look at the demographics of the patient population studied (usually located in Table 1 of a clinical study) and draw parallels to the patients your physicians see.