4. DON'T HOLD DINNER PROGRAMS

MSLs generally don't hold dinner programs. Instead, they get a small group of key doctors together at a nice restaurant to discuss the topic at hand. Instead of hiring a speaker, they hire a doctor to be the moderator, and he starts the discussion about the product or disease and keeps it on track. This doctor may even give a short presentation at the table, but it's usually done with handouts and journal articles, rather than with PowerPoint slides and rubber chickens. Most importantly, it's always interactive the entire way through. There is not one expert (speaker), a bunch of customers (doctors) and a company representative (you). You are all colleagues. Therefore, the MSL always participates in the conversation at hand, and never sits back to let the so-called experts have their discussion, while the MSL waits to pay the bill. Instead of holding one or two large dinner programs a month, start having one or two intimate dinners a week for a very small group of select physicians.

5. DON'T BRING IN LUNCHES

By ceasing to bring in lunches, you can avoid being seen as a caterer. Most lunches end up as small talk with the nurses, or chatting about what happened on "Grey's Anatomy" or whether Paris Hilton should have really gone to jail. Instead, take the doctor(s) out. Taking the doctor out to a restaurant not only helps you to quickly build rapport, but it also gets you away from the doctor's turf and puts you on neutral ground. This tends to put you on more equal footing with the doctor. A tenured MSL once told me, "There is nothing better to help you build rapport than to break bread with a customer." I never forgot this, and the more I took my customers out to lunch, the more my rapport with them grew. So quit catering lunches for the entire staff, and start taking out individual doctors to a local restaurant.

6. KNOW YOUR SCIENCE

According to Eric Depperschmidt, a National MSL Manager at Genentech, the best way to ingratiate yourself with a key opinion leader is to know your science. You should be the expert on your product, for both on-label and off-label information. Even though you are not allowed to discuss off-label topics, that's no excuse for looking like a deer caught in the headlights when a doctor brings up a new study on your main disease state that was just published in JAMA. You should at least be able to say, as an MSL would, "Yes, doctor – I saw that article. It was by Patterson, et al, at Johns Hopkins, wasn't it? Unfortunately, I can't discuss that article, as it's not consistent with our product labeling, but I'd be happy to have our medical team call you if you have a specific question you'd like answered." This type of response shows that you are indeed very knowledgeable, yet at the same time are ethical. Doctors will understand and appreciate this, and your stock with them will rise. Therefore, keep up with all the medical journals related to your field, and scan them daily for relevant articles on the drugs and disease states you work in.

7. KNOW YOUR COMPANY'S INTERNAL PROCESSES

Eric Depperschmidt also wisely points out that you are the key contact for guiding your customers through the labyrinth of Big Pharma. Knowing how to connect your doctors to the right people at your company to help them do studies, get grants and ask off-label questions will certainly help you to get their attention. For anything that you can't do in the scope of your own job description, you should be able to immediately connect your doctors to the right people at your company who can. So keep a list of important contacts within your company and be able to connect them immediately to your customers.

8. DETAILS SHOULD BE PROBLEM-FOCUSED, NOT PRODUCT-FOCUSED

Details should always focus on a problem, never a product, because doctors are faced with problems all day. The product is merely the solution to the problem – but never the focus. Knowing this, restructure your details so that they always focus on solving a problem for the doctor.