As the business environment has shifted, the challenges for pharmaceutical sales professionals accustomed to gaining face to face access have increased exponentially.

• Office staff, nurses, and physicians are inundated and, in many cases, re-organizing their offices and ensuring the health and safety of their patients.
• Conversations and interactions are not spontaneous occurrences, but rather planned dialogues that are scheduled based on the physician’s/customer’s need or interest.
• HCP’s interacting directly with patients can likewise find access and time allocation waning in the face of other more pressing priorities. In fact, according to McKinsey, physicians expect a 15% decrease in overall interactions with pharma representatives compared to pre-crisis levels.

Given these and associated obstacles, pharmaceutical sales professionals need to enhance their skills so they are better equipped and prepared to generate the interest of customers, gain access and schedule appointments for more in-depth discussions. And once discussions are scheduled, the goal is to make those discussions productive, compelling, and of value to the customer in a way that deepens the relationship.

This is a time when there is a true opportunity to differentiate and become the trusted partner who demonstrates an interest in the customer, the practice, and patients while demonstrating a sensitivity to the current environment.

Equipping sales professionals to succeed in this new healthcare environment means ensuring they have the specific skills, strategies, tools, and best practices to move through each phase of their pursuit.  This includes gaining access to key stakeholders, identifying business opportunities aligned with customer and patient needs and conducting successful clinical and business conversations that win and expand business.

Pharma reps trying to reach potential buyers need a framework for reaching physicians and other healthcare providers, using approved messaging and savvy use of clinical data to demonstrate their credibility and to initiate qualified business opportunities.

Reps now require a more strategic approach that builds trust, adds value to the physician/customer, and creates a foundation to strengthen the relationship.

How you prepare, who you leverage to gain access, and what you say and do when requesting access all contribute to your ability to be successful with Physicians, Total Office, Hospital Administrators, and other buyers.

Richardson Sales Performance offers a Connected Selling Curriculum™ that helps pharmaceutical sales organizations find, win, and grow more business in today’s environment. We’re seeing the programs below support our Pharma customers particularly well:

• Virtual Selling: Empower your sales team to more effectively engage customers in virtual meetings. This program equips pharma sales professionals with the skills and techniques to increase credibility, create connection, foster openness, and build trust in a virtual setting to drive momentum and win sales opportunities.
• Evidence-Based Solution Selling: Teach your team to help their healthcare provider clients solve problems based on clinical evidence using a repeatable methodology, clinical selling skills, and tools to provide the customer experience that healthcare providers expect.
• Consultative Prospecting: takes an in-depth look at the critical dynamics of reaching new customers. Training includes exploration of four powerful elements that will increase your team’s effectiveness in gaining access to HCPs.