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Market Access Strategic Execution Consultant

Content Development

Visualizing Information

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Visualizing Information

When the SAME information is available in both Word and PowerPoint files, people will likely pick up the deck first.

There is something to be said about visual elements and white space.

It becomes a problem again, however, when the slide decks are so verbose that they should’ve been Word documents instead.

It takes someone who cares in order to compile the information from all different sources and condense it into a visually appealing story.

When SmartArt doesn’t have the right template to effectively present your information, check out Diagrammer.com. It is a phenomenal place for free templates.

Strive for brevity that packs meaning.

Tiny but mighty is a good thing.

Trust

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Trust

Great stories are trusted.

What can you do to build trust with your customers?

Do you have strong evidence? Is the evidence consistent in the real-world setting? Have you shown commitment to improving care in the therapeutic area? Did you care to seek out what they want—or are you simply tooting your own horn? Does your language signal that you care about your own profit or service to them?

Trust is earned.

Inconsistencies break trust. Just like that.

Sometimes payers have no choice but to cover the one and only drug in the therapeutic area. But when competitors enter the market, they have choices.

If they trust you enough, they will go out of their way to MAKE SURE your product is granted favorable access.

Start With the Story

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Start With the Story

The story fits into frames that we call slides.

If you don’t have a story to tell, what are you trying to convey with your slides anyways?

Most people start with slides, and then try to reverse engineer them into a story.

Try it in the opposite order: clearly write down the story, then make the outline, then create the slides. Always. In this order.

Notice how many fewer revisions and manpower it takes to arrive at the final product.

Prepare To Be Lucky

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Prepare To Be Lucky

It’s important to be prepared before meeting your clients.

What are your clients expecting from you?

A polished deck with design prowess?

Strong messages backed by sound evidence?

Well-dressed contractors?

Contractors that show up on time and are waiting for them (rather than the other way around)?

Evidence that the work is a product of team effort (that more people cared about their project than just the writer)?

Thoughtful market insights and wise advice?

Perhaps it’s ALL of this.

Imagine what the client is seeking—then follow through with it.

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

Great Stories are Trusted

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Great Stories Are Trusted

Everyone knows you’re meeting them to sell your product.

When the audience feels like you’re being transparent, they’ll be willing to actually listen.

Before sharing the results from your cost effectiveness model, share the methodology and limitations.

When sharing your value proposition, bring attention to the footnote which explains the scientific evidence that supports your messages.

Coconut Shell

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Coconut Shell

Two heads are better than one.

Good writers can create good work—even in a vacuum. But there is ALWAYS room for improvement.

It’s important to receive feedback gracefully rather than become defensive.

Be prepared for the colleagues who know no other way to give feedback, other than it sounding like pointed questions.

Be ready to take this. Have a thick skin. As thick as a coconut shell.

And enjoy. Notice how much more of a pleasant experience it is for everyone in the room when your mental body guard isn’t bouncing feedback.

We Are All Storytellers

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We Are All Storytellers

An important part of storytelling is first establishing the problem. If there’s no problem that your product solves, don’t bother showing up in the Pharmacy Director’s office.

Catch the resistance in order to sail forward.

When you’re sailing, you need wind, with which you move your boat back and forth, back and forth. You actually have to capture oncoming wind’s resistance. Interestingly, if your sail captures the wind just right, your ship will sail FASTER than the wind—it’s a physics phenomenon!

So if your story first plants what you’re going to resist, and THEN introduces the solution, it’s actually going to draw the audience towards your idea quicker than should you simply state your product’s efficacy and safety data.

Tension and release, tension and release, tension and release…causes forward motion.

Paying the Price for Inaction

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Paying the Price for Inaction

Bad actions are costly.

Inaction can be just as costly—even deadly. This is the premise of 99%–if not 100% of payer value propositions.

Things That Show Up Along the Way

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Things That Show Up Along the Way

Payer Value Propositions are behemoth projects. They entail capturing numerous inputs from numerous people, accurately referencing and annotating, organizing the flow in a way that makes sense, aligning with previously approved material, ….

When things show up along the way, how do you finish faster? (A) Charging ahead without heeding to the nuances that arise along the way; or (B) Taking care of the nuances as you go along, so you don’t have to look back later.

With (A), SOMETHING is ready quickly, but that something may hardly be what you’re proud to show the world.

With (B), the process can quickly become tedious. So tedious that after a certain point, you lose patience and rush to get it done.

The correct answer lies somewhere in between these 2 extremes.

At some point, EVERYTHING that comes up will have to be addressed (nothing can be ignored). Therefore:

  1. If it makes sense, just take care of the nuance right now, so you can move on.
  2. If it makes sense, don’t bother with it right now. Take good notes on paper, and revisit this checklist at the end before handing off your work. Writing down these nuances is the ONLY surefire way that you’ll remember all of them (relying on your memory is not).

To the Point

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To the Point

Ironically, some of the best Market Access writers don’t like reading.

They will never write something that they’re not willing to read themselves. No fluff, just the important stuff.

Who benefits? The customers who are always in a hurry—which are all of them.

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” –Benjamin Franklin

Krishna Patel, PharmD
Market Access Strategy and Execution Consultant
info@sojusllc.com
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