Validity and usefulness

By beginning the call with a focus on the types of patients the physician sees every day, you effectively grab his or her attention. Once you have done that, you will want to underscore the validity and usefulness of the data you are presenting. A critical appraisal is a series of questions that helps you determine the validity and usefulness of a study. It answers the questions, "Is this study biased? Was there a chance of bias?" In general, a critical appraisal includes questions on the patient population, questions on the data analysis and study design, and questions that help you assess statistical significance and clinical relevance. Statistical significance refers to the key findings of the study – the results of the data analysis. Clinical relevance is turning statistics into selling by showing physicians how the key findings apply to their patients and practice.

So when you are on a shorter call, quickly demonstrate the validity of the study by mentioning the most important aspects that make this study sound. Was it a randomized, controlled trial with thousands of patients and a lengthy follow up? Then, shift to how the study can impact the physician's patients. How can the physician use the study's findings to make informed treatment decisions? This is precisely where you have the opportunity to leverage your clinical selling skills. It is not so hard to talk about a study. However, it takes deep knowledge, skill and practice to be able to appropriately discuss a study and what it means for a physician's patients.

Courageous questions

Once you have presented the validity and usefulness of the clinical evidence, it's a good time to ask a thought-provoking question. Avoid the temptation to use a quick, close-ended question to preserve selling time while moving to the close. Such a short cut can cause you to miss important intelligence about the physician's treatment decisions. Instead, make an impact with a question that requires the physician to stop and think (and remember you). Try a comparative question. Since you have just presented clinical evidence, compare that evidence to current treatment guidelines. For example, ask the physician how the study's findings might change how he or she uses the treatment guidelines in the patient type you have been discussing. Or compare your study to a competitor's study. Just be sure you have performed a critical appraisal on the competitor's study first so that you can discuss how the evidence compares.

Close

With all of the focus on the clinical evidence, don't forget to close. Your close can refer back to the patient type you have been discussing and link the patient once again to the evidence so it is set in the physician's mind: this patient, this evidence, this drug. You might also ask for more time on the next call to discuss the study's findings in more depth. With shorter calls, you may not get all the results you want immediately. Think of short calls as a series of calls building upon each other until you have presented the evidence a physician needs to make a change in prescribing patterns. When you share valid, useful information with physicians, you build your credibility and create a more consultative relationship with the physician. You may not always get a 10-minute call, but if physicians can count on you to deliver the type of information they need, while acknowledging their schedules, you increase your chances of longer future calls – and more business.

With physicians demanding more clinical evidence in shorter amounts of time, the short-call protocol can help you adjust your evidence-based medicine calls to meet the dynamics of today's competitive and fast-paced selling environment.