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Sales pros frequently ask, “What’s the #1 change I need to make, as I prospect by phone instead of face-to-face?”

Here’s the emotional truth behind this seemingly innocent question …

Most sales pros

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

confess they’d rather have their toenails pulled out with pliers than cold call prospects by phone. Took me a couple of years to figure out for myself why my stomach knotted up into a queasy ball every

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

time I glanced at that gray lump of plastic on my desk and thought about dialing-for-dollars.

How do you make sense of it? You’re bigger than the phone, smarter than the phone. So, how can a talented

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

ales professional be totally paralyzed by the thought of using the darned thing to prospect?

Here’s what I finally figured out. When on the phone, you no longer see the whites of their eyes.

Before y

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

u roll your eyes, shake your head and say, “Duh!”…

Think about it. The phone keeps us from reading the prospect’s body language. For folks like us who take pride in our ability to quickly glance at an

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

assess a situation, overturn every objection, and close a sale on the spot … the loss of visual input is quite frankly, unnerving.

This does not compute unless you know that ...

More than half of fa

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

e-to-face conversation is communicated through the eyes. So, as funny as it sounds, during an in-person sales presentation you’ll “quickly hear" your prospect with your ears AND your eyes—at the speed

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

f light.

According to Roger Ailes, in his book “You Are the Message” 55% of an interpretation of face-to-face conversation is determined by nonverbal cues, 38% by our voice and 7% by the words themsel

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

es."

What’s important to you about these statistics is …

When you’re prospecting by phone, you and your prospect "slowly hear" only with your ears –at the speed of sound. This is a very big deal.

Wh

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

? Because, a whopping 55% of the information you normally take in and process in the blink of an eye—is gone, unavailable, poof. Critical information vanishes the instant you transition from face-to-fa

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

e to phone communication! And immediate loss of that much information, my friend, would disorient anyone.

So, how do you compensate for the loss of visual cues when you’re on the phone talking “blind”

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

to a “blind prospect” doing your best to sell-ice-to-an-Eskimo?

Let’s start with what not to do …

Don’t do what most folks do when talking to unsighted people … talk loud and fast as though the perso

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

was deaf instead of blind!

If you’re like me, you’ll function from one of two extremes. Your brain will freeze and leave you speechless or you’ll spray hundreds of words at the prospect and pray that

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

some comment will compel them to invite you in to see them.

This may come as a shock but, prospects on the receiving end of “spray and pray calls” report in focus groups their incredible frustration a

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

d irritation with the assault of words coming through the phone, directly toward them, in rapid-fire succession. They admit they never really “hear” the sales pro and generally hang-up rather than do t

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

e work to make sense of the call.

The worst cold calling mistake you’ll make is to …

Talk too fast and shut down your prospect’s ability to hear you. For a smooth transition from in-person to telepho

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

e prospecting you’re going to have to do an unnatural act. You’re gonna have to talk slowly … excruciatingly slowly, so your prospect can hear, register, and process your words. Even though you’ll feel

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

awkward and uncomfortable, if successful cold call prospecting is your goal, you must make this adjustment.

How can you get objective feedback as to whether or not you articulate well, you articulate

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

learly, and give a compelling benefit statement on the phone?

An inexpensive, private way to observe yourself is to dial your voice mail: leave your name, phone number, and state the purpose of your c

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

ll. Then, listen to your message and ask yourself, "Based on your ability to clearly understand what you said, would you do business with you?"

Forward this article to friends—they’ll thank you for it

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Remember the movie “Miracle on 34th Street”? Sending people to Gimble’s did not hurt Macy’s in the least. In fact, it endeared customers to Macy’s for being so helpful.

Why on earth would you want to run an event for your business? Events take a lot of organizing and publicity, not to mention the time you might not have and, depending on what you want to do, they can also cost quite a bit of money.

When you feel the anxiety, engage your audience. Getting them participating will help calm you down and establish your mastery of the material. My art workshops are designed to engage.

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