As anyone in the pharmaceutical sales field is all too aware, the average amount of face time physicians grant to salespeople for detailing calls continues to shrink every year. The five- or ten-minute sales call is rapidly being hunted to near extinction, typically whittled down to two minutes, one minute, or even a mere 30 seconds. As pharmaceutical sales trainer Jane Chin observes, under such severe time constraints, the importance of being able to clearly, concisely, and persuasively describe clinical findings to physicians becomes an essential selling skill.

Writing recently in Pharmaceutical Representative Magazine, Chin explains that clinical trial selling typically boils down to two critical components: 1) Understanding the clinical trials themselves; and 2) Effectively communicating to physicians what the studies show.

So what does it mean to understand clinical trials? Chin offers the following basics that underpin what she calls “clinical trials competency”:

- Knowing what clinical trials consist of and how they contribute to the body of scientific evidence.
- Knowing the principles of Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and why these principles are critical in bringing a drug to market.
- Understanding clinical studies’ design and what purpose each stage of clinical development serves.
- Knowing the ways clinical studies can be interpreted (and misinterpreted), including specific data concepts relating to statistics and p-values.
- Understanding the key differences between company-sponsored trials and company-supported, investigator-initiated trials. While most concern about conflicts of interest has revolved around the issue of sponsored versus supported trials, a separate set of regulatory burdens exists between sponsoring and supporting a clinical trial as well.
- Developing a foundation of sound scientific knowledge that allows you to truly understand what a clinical study consists of. There’s more to understanding a study than simply memorizing and repeating key sentences – you have to know, among other things, the rationale for identifying a patient type, choosing an end point, and selecting a study design.

Clinical trial competency is particularly important, Chin notes, for reps who hope to advance into specialty sales. In the meantime, you’ll be able to gauge how well you’ve mastered the clinical development process when doctors inevitably raise objections about the data you present.

Effectively addressing objections is, of course, one aspect of the clinical trials communications process. Other key recommendations Chin offers include the following:

Your Info, Your Way
Determine how your physicians prefer to receive information, and then customize your approach to match. While psychological profiles can help with this process, the best way to find out what a physician prefers is to ask.

What’s Your Evidence?
With the growing influence of evidence-based medicine, you’ll need to know the different levels of evidence and what the key differentiators are. The goal is to tailor each interaction to the level of evidence preferred by individual doctors. This approach is vastly better than trying to psychoanalyze physicians by what’s hanging on their office walls or displayed on their desks. And if a certain physician requires more in-depth responses than you can provide with a medical information letter or a product information request, you can always arrange for a physician peer or medical affairs constituent in your company to meet with the customer.

Objections Are Opportunities (Really!)
Thinking of objections as something you need to “handle” is the exact wrong approach to take, and will only convince physicians to not take your conversations seriously. Instead, consider that the physician’s objection might have some validity, especially when you view the data presented from his or her perspective. And don’t just pay lip service to the doctor’s objection, because physicians can see through that and will quickly shut down the conversation.

The Truth Will Set You Free
One way truly professional salespeople set themselves apart from their less capable colleagues is by discussing, openly and honestly, difficult topics like safety, patient compliance, patient types, and generics. Doctors will grow to trust you if you admit that your drugs work well in certain patient types and you acknowledge that generics will often be the best option for lower-income patients. Broach the topic of safety issues so that your docs don’t get blindsided by patient calls. Discuss issues surrounding patient compliance to therapy so that you can proactively assist physicians to deal with patient compliance problems.