Imagine this scenario…

You're driving on the highway, far from home, when your engine suddenly starts sputtering and shaking. You don't know anything about how to fix a car, so you pull off at the nearest exit and into the first service station you can find. A man in a mechanic's uniform walks over, introduces himself and asks you to have a seat in the waiting room while he takes a look. He returns soon with the good news: It's a minor problem with an easy fix. $75 and thirty minutes later, you're back on the highway and headed home.

Here's my question: Would you bring your car back and/or recommend this mechanic to others?

If you're like most people, the answer is a resounding, "Yes!" Not because he's the world's best mechanic (you have no way of knowing at this point). You like him and recommend him because he proved his trustworthiness beyond a doubt by not selling you repairs you didn't need. Even though you were in a strange town, and with no understanding of the cause beneath the symptoms — the epitome of vulnerability — the man did nothing to take advantage of the situation.

	If you ask me, our industry could learn a lot from the "Honest Mechanic's School of Sales."

A counterintuitive approach

As professional marketers and salespeople, we've been trained to paint the best picture regarding whatever it is we sell. Benefit-heavy product descriptions which emphasize positive results and minimize any mention of side effects or weaknesses (beyond what's required by law) work best. Or so the argument goes.

Unfortunately, this is a narrow approach to selling which fails to appreciate the long term sales efficiency inherent in having earned a reputation as an "honest mechanic."

This is why:

1. Reputation matters.

   Barely a week goes by without a high profile media outlet, medical journal, or member of congress leveling some form of criticism against our industry. To read the news, you'd think our intent was to poison our customers rather than improve their health. You may not agree with this one-sided view (I don't), but like it or not, it's a fact that the public is enormously skeptical regarding the value of some of the drugs in the marketplace.

   Effective selling under these circumstances requires a soft touch; one that explicitly takes into account the mindset of the people (physicians and patients) whose confidence and trust determines our success. A clear and open disclosure of side effects, for example, rather than an approach which buries the information in DTC fine print or required black box warnings, would go a long way in assuring those outside our industry that we are not shading the truth.

   (Self-serving side note: "Comprehension testing" is a program we offer to our pharma clients. It gives patients a tool for testing how much they really understand about the benefits and risks of a particular drug. Based on patient response, it fills in the information gaps as necessary and reports back to the doctor.)

2. Compliance is tied to trust.

   For many patients, sitting in a doctor's office with a new and mysterious symptom feels very much the same as pulling into a service station with a badly behaving vehicle. The patient may be scared and/or uninformed, and may very well have concerns about being "oversold by the mechanic." Her willingness to comply with the treatment regimen recommended, therefore, is very much a function of how much trust she feels in both the doctor and the drug manufacturer.

   The view held by many in our industry that "telling people about side effects only causes them to occur" is outdated and condescending. If a patient senses that the drug prescribed is likely to be effective, and she understands the potential side effects and risks involved at the outset, she's much more likely to continue with the treatment as prescribed, and not become one of the 50+% of patients who fall into the noncompliance zone.

The communication void is ours to fill

In the harried, confusing, real-life world of medicine in which we live, our industry needs to understand that it's in the best interests of both our customers and our bottom line to clearly explain the value and risks associated with the products we offer.

If we want to influence the healthcare discussion in a significant way, we must first improve the public's perception of our own trustworthiness. And like an auto mechanic standing before a stranded motorist, not maximizing every sales opportunity just may be the best long-term marketing tool around.

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Ordering the questions in a survey

At first blush, it may seem that the order in which one asks survey questions is irrelevant. After all, provided the questions are well constructed, isn't the sequence itself trivial?

In a word, no. Question order is of great consequence, particularly with respect to important and/or sensitive questions in a medical setting.

Those undergoing some type of treatment are often anxious, and it's important to build trust and order questions in a way that reassures and relaxes the survey-taker. This helps to ensure that the information gathered is complete and accurate. If, instead, you begin with intimate, personal questions — even if asking these at the start seems to follow a logical flow — you're likely to increase resistance.

We always begin by asking peripheral questions first (e.g. How old are you?; When did you first notice this problem?; Where do you live?). In fact, we may even ask questions that we don't need the answer to, just to help put the patient at ease.

As a physician, I learned the importance of good bedside manner. For example, I would never begin an exam without first touching the patient in a non-threatening place, such as on a shoulder or with a handshake. All of this was done to reinforce a patient's confidence and reduce resistance.

In a nutshell, effective question ordering seeks to achieve the very same thing.

We are thrilled to announce that Gene Guselli, InfoMedics CEO, has been named as one of "PharmaVOICE's 100 Most Inspiring People." He is being honored this year for his work as a champion of physician-patient communications

Scheduled to be announced in the July/August 2007 issue of PharmaVOICE, the annual award recognizes "the risk takers, thought leaders and mentors in the pharmaceutical industry who are impacting their fields, changing the shape of tomorrow and inspiring others to do the same."

Follow this link to the PharmaVOICE web site.

"The patients can spend as long as they need on the phone talking to someone who can answer all of their questions in these programs. I don't have that kind of time to spend with them."

— Doctor of Internal Medicine, regarding the benefits of InfoMedics' programs

On average, how many professional conferences do you attend each year for your own education?

InfoMedics creates an interactive, real-time means for helping patients and physicians better communicate about a diagnosed condition or prescribed treatment.

This results in improved health outcomes and consistent increases in prescribing levels for new prescriptions and refills.

June 2007

April 2007

March 2007