Advanced pharma sales tips: a training checklist
Even seasoned sales teams struggle to overcome HCP objections around cost and coverage. Your representatives may have gotten good at skirting those tough conversations, but research suggests the avoidance approach might be hurting your brand more than you’d think.
According to a recent study, HCPs only base half of each prescribing decision on a drug’s clinical attributes, like efficacy and safety. A full 50% of their choice comes down to their perceptions of a brand’s cost and coverage.
Making the most of your HCP touchpoints demands a lot from you and your team. You may rely on a formulary tool to give your team a general sense of your product’s market access position in a broad geographic area. You might even use Access Genius to get the best market access message to deliver to a specific HCP.
But does your sales team know how to use these tools to their full extent?
Do they know how to lean into difficult cost and coverage conversations?
Your team needs market access pull-through training
Market access pull-through training helps your sales representatives get more from your formulary tool. When your team understands how to use the market access tools available to them, their pre-calling planning becomes much more strategic.
And when the time comes to put that strategy into action, being familiar with the tools at their disposal empowers your representatives to make more effective sales presentations.
Here’s what to include
Whether you develop your own training or use customizable modules from Access Genius IQ, as you plan your training content, be sure to include these four key pharma sales tips to boost your team’s market access pull-through savvy:
TIP 1: BE A FORMULARY TOOL POWER USER
Having a tool is step one. But sales calls last a matter of minutes. When time is of the essence, your team can’t afford to scramble from app to app, searching screen after screen for relevant information. To be effective, your pharma sales training can’t be basic. Each team member needs to know exactly how to leverage your formulary tool – fast.
Teach your sales team to:
- Access and use your formulary data
- Find out how to locate up-to-date market access information
- Understand each feature, and when it would be useful in the sales process
- Navigate to the right screen quickly
TIP 2: KNOW WHICH MESSAGING WILL RESONATE BEST WITH YOUR TARGET HCPS
Even within a single geographic territory, different practices see different patients, and are impacted by different payer mixes and restrictions. How your brand’s access compares to competitors can shift from provider to provider just as dramatically. Knowing how to position your brand with each individual HCP can radically impact your prescription rate.
Train your sales team to:
- Analyze how your brand’s position stacks up against HCP decision factors
- Find out how much competitive advantage your brand has with a particular practice
- Understand how different messaging and stats might work better than others when your cost or coverage changes within a specific patient population
- Choose the right message to deliver to each HCP – at the right time and using the right medium
TIP 3: INTEGRATE MARKET ACCESS INTEL INTO PRE-CALL PLANNING AND PULL-THROUGH
When it comes to pre-call planning and pull-through strategies, pharma sales veterans know that quality beats quantity. To get the most benefit from your team’s planning time, be sure they’re equipped with high quality data and insights – and that they know how to apply the information to optimize results.
Train your sales team to:
- Drill down for the most applicable and effective data
- Apply statistically proven message guidance in pre-call planning
- Use up-to-date data to create more impactful presentations
- Know which messaging and statistics will fit the circumstances best
- Engage cross-channel pull-through more effectively
TIP 4: PRACTICE OVERCOMING ACCESS OBJECTIONS IN REAL-WORLD SCENARIOS
Overcoming HCP objections in the moment can be challenging, even for your most experienced pharma sales representatives. One of the best pharma sales tips we’ve found – in terms of impact and return on time spent – is to practice using the types of scenarios sales representatives are most likely to hear given your drug’s market position. To make that practice even more effective, tailor the scenarios to your overall brand strategy and make the training an interactive, multimedia experience.
Train your sales team to:
- Quickly and effectively respond to common questions
- Answer objections they are most likely to hear
- Know how to respond when HCPs have misconceptions about your brand’s coverage
- Counter outdated or inaccurate perceptions with real-time information
Make each of your representatives a pharma sales genius
Creating a comprehensive market access pull-through training from scratch — or even adding an Access Genius segment to your existing pharma sales training program — takes a lot of effort. Instead of reinventing the wheel, consider a customized Access Genius IQ program.
Access Genius IQ shows representatives how to multiply wins faster with an engaging, multimedia onboarding and upskilling approach full of pharma sales tips tailored to your brand strategy.
