Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16545

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Roner L
The power of persuasion – a rep’s guide
Eyeforpharma.com 2009 Sep 29
http://social.eyeforpharma.com/story/power-persuasion-–-rep’ s-guide

Full text:

Persuasion is a powerful selling tool that has perhaps been overlooked a bit
by pharma. Lou Sawaya, MD and author the SUPER REPS series, has recently
published a new book on how to improve the persuasive skills of pharma reps
and overcome physicians’ resistance to change. Sawaya’s keen insight and
exhaustive research and knowledge of the latest trends and thinking of the
industry and doctors it serves are showcased once again in The Persuasion
Report.

Persuasion and social influence are not new topics within business, but
little has been written, Sawaya points out, on persuasion in the
pharmaceutical marketing context. And persuasion, as he reminds us, is a
legitimate endeavor, not to be confused with deception or coercion.

Sawaya begins by emphasizing that a solid understanding of physician
behavior is a required for any intervention aimed at informing, educating,
influencing or persuading physicians. But despite a wealth of literature, he
points out, there remains a lack of real understanding of physicians’
behavior and the factors that influence their clinical and prescribing
decisions.

What physicians do and why

He compares physician behavior to an iceberg, explaining that we have a
fairly good understanding of the visible part, but can only surmise about
what goes on underneath. And although pharma spends much time and money
tracking physician prescribing profiles, it devotes little to understanding
the precursors or determinants of prescribing behavior.

“[Prescription records] can tell us who prescribed what and to whom, and
indicate how much of a drug was prescribe, when and where,” Sawaya says.
“However, they are seldom able to enlighten us about the why, the why-not
and the how of drug prescribing.”

One of the most striking features of physicians’ behavior is how extremely
variable it can be, Sawaya says.  “Indeed, everyday clinical practice is
characterized by wide variations that cannot be explained by the severity of
the disease or the preferences of patients,” he says.

And changing physicians’ long-held patterns is a complex, difficult, costly
and unpredictable undertaking. “Physicians are famous for frustrating the
best efforts of marketers, educators, regulators and hospital
administrators,” Sawaya says.

Physicians, he says, are hard to persuade and particularly resistant to
change. Doctors are deliberately trained to be conservative and cautious in
their approach, Sawaya notes. Persuading them to deviate from ‘accepted
practice’ or long-held traditions has always been met with limited success,
he says.

And the pharma industry’s ‘credibility deficit’ isn’t helping. Both the
medical and general media vilify the industry for a variety of ills,
including undue influence on governments, greed, questionable competitive
techniques and promotional tactics, tight control over biomedical research
and undue influence over doctors themselves. In fact, one industry observer
said: “All of modern medicine is floating on a sea of drug money and the
result has been utterly corrosive…”

Sawaya says as physicians become more knowledgeable about the persuasion
tactics used by pharma companies and their reps, the approaches begin to
lose their effectiveness, requiring reps to constantly develop and perfect
new ones.

“Doctors and drug companies are locked in a ‘vicious circle,’ encouraging
each other to do the wrong thing,” Dr. Peter Mansfield, director of Healthy
Skepticism once wrote in a memo to UK Members of Parliament.

Getting it right                                   

Sawaya’s own research among physicians reveals that doctors rank a rep’s
three most important attributes as: (1) knowledge, (2) trustworthiness and
(3) friendliness. In fact, doctors unanimously select ‘knowledge’ as the
most sought-after quality in a pharma rep. So it follows, he says, that the
single most important step reps can take to improve their credibility (and
therefore, their persuasive powers) is to expand their learning and
expertise.

Reps also should avoid any actions that might diminish or destroy a
physician’s trust and ramp up kind acts and friendliness to facilitate
repeat access to physicians. Sawaya says they contribute to rep likeability
– another critical factor in the persuasiveness equation.

The Persuasion Report goes on to discuss other factors that can be leveraged
to build stronger relationships with physicians, including appropriate
attire, humor and effective message delivery. And Sawaya talks of persuasion
techniques sure to backfire, including scripted presentations, “pimping” (or
the use of loaded or leading questions), and hard closings.

Reps, Sawaya urges, must learn to pick the most effective persuasion
techniques and apply them. “A poorly devised persuasion strategy is not just
ineffective – it can backfire and lead to quite opposite results,” he warns.
“In fact, it can make a doctor more resistant to subsequent sales pitches,
and might even boost the sales of a competitor’s product.”

The Persuasion Report is a thorough and thought-provoking examination of the
proper use of persuasion tactics to ethically and effectively market drugs
to physicians and is a must-read for reps, sales managers and marketers
throughout pharma. To learn more about this and other books by Sawaya, visit
www.super-reps.com