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The Same Information Told Differently

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The Same Information Told Differently

True story: a brilliant executive was trying to penetrate a new market, but could not get the customers to buy into his idea. The proposal written for this new customer segment was similar to the ones he would write for his current customer segment. Why didn’t it work? Rather than giving up, he asked his colleague (another brilliant executive) to write the same proposal differently. It worked! The customers bought his services. 

Right content matched to the right people moves them.

Who am I trying to persuade?

In order for them to take action, who do THEY need to persuade?

What do I need to provide them so that they’re well-prepared to persuade their colleagues and not putting their reputations on the line (because who would take such risk at work)?

Good writers : customers :: chameleons : environment. Adaption.

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The Buck Stops Here

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The Buck Stops Here

President Harry S. Truman famously kept a desk sign that read, ‘The buck stops here!’

Rather than passing the ‘buck’ (responsibility/blame) to someone else, he took on the responsibility for the way the country was governed.

What a professional.

A consultant has the same responsibility to Clients (manufacturers), who have the responsibility to their customers (payers and providers), who have the same responsibility to patients. It’s hard to be mindful of this bigger picture when we’re busy in the day-to-day churn—but imagine what would happen if a single stakeholder in the chain passed on the buck to someone else instead of taking on the responsibility. That stressed out single mother who is barely getting by and working double shifts to put food on the table is counting on me to make sure she receives the proper rheumatoid arthritis treatment.

We expect electricity to relentlessly charge our homes (no excuses). We expect Covid vaccines to work (no excuses allowed there, either). Patients expect to get the treatment they need so they can move on with their lives (no excuses).

Market access is in the business of service.

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Learning Is Like Stretching

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Learning Is Like Stretching

We don’t stretch to burn calories. However, in order to do the work that burns calories, stretching has to happen first. Who knows the value of stretching better than those who rushed onto the treadmill without stretching, only to end up injuring themselves and unable to get back on the treadmill for a month? Besides suffering pain, they were unable to do exactly the thing that they so eagerly rushed into doing.

Taking out time for learning is the same. Learning itself doesn’t bring in revenue. However, I need to learn in order to do the work that brings in revenue.

How much time should I set aside to learn? The highest performers are learning 17 hours/day.

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Collaborations Among Stakeholders

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Collaborations Among Stakeholders

How can us market access professionals (strategists, writers, editors, and everyone else) possibly do our work if we’re not curious enough to seek out our customers’ voice?

In market access, we often treat our asset as our own child and customers’ needs as a stepchild. This backfires on the business as the stepchild always turns out to be the Cinderella of the story.

Isn’t the goal of manufacturers, payers, and providers ultimately the same? To keep patients healthy enough so they stay out of the health care system? It’s just that the market demands each stakeholder to address this call in a different way.

AMCP’s Partnership Forum is a platform where these stakeholders collaborate on tactics and strategies to drive efficiencies and outcomes.

Tapestry Networks is another platform that brings together such stakeholders.

I wonder if there are other such collaborative platforms out there.

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Interpreting Ratios

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Interpreting Ratios

It starts with data and it ends with data. This is why it’s critical for market access professionals to understand biostatistics.

Here’s a cheat sheet of how to interpret ratios in biostatistics using a hypothetical example. It’s one of the few resources from pharmacy school that I still refer to even after a decade.

Morbidity from Prostate Cancer of 400 Men

Measure of Risk

Formula

Radical Prostatectomy (PR)

(n = 200)

Watchful Waiting (WW)

(n = 200)

# men with erectile dysfunction (ED)

 

160

90

Absolute risk reduction (ARR)

Risk in PR – Risk in WW

(160/200) – (90/200) =

0.80 – 0.45 = 0.35 = 35%

Risk of ED was 35% less with WW than with PR.

Relative risk (RR)

AR of PR / AR of WW

(160/200) / (90/200) =

0.80/0.45 = 1.8

Risk of ED with PR was 1.8 times that with WW.

Odds ratio (OR)

Odds of PR / Odds of WW

(160/40) / (90/110) =

4/0.82 = 4.9

The odds of ED with PR are about 5 times those with WW.

Number needed to harm (NNH)

1 / ARR

1 / 0.35 = 3

For every 3 men undergoing radical prostatectomy, 1 will experience ED.

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I Get To…

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I Get To...

I have to attend this meeting
I have to turn in this by next week
I have to prepare for this pitch

Vs

I get to attend this meeting
I get to turn in this by next week
I get to prepare for this pitch

How would your world be different if you switched out ‘have’ with ‘get’?

Would your colleagues, employers, and Clients notice the difference?

Would your family notice the difference?

It’s more efficient to pull than to push.

Efficient = less effort, man-power, time, and money for the same outcome.

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Formidable

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Formidable

Good strategies supported by bad content are lame.

Good strategies supported by good content are formidable.

It’s time to stop living with crappy content.

Everyday I get a chance to practice my art.

Doctors and lawyers are highly educated professionals, but still use the word “practice” for their professions, indicating they always have something to learn or sharpen. A good practice is specific, focused, and helps me to continue rising.

Bad content ≠ bad writer (rookie mistake!). Bad content can be flipped into good content by the same writer.

Content development is a skill that can be learned.

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Questions to Ask at the Kickoff Meeting

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Questions to Ask at the Kickoff Meeting

Professionals ask smart questions. Smart questions set off lightbulbs around the room. They also spare money and headache down the road.

If they haven’t already been answered in the Creative Brief, it might be worth getting them answered by the Client before going off to do the work.

  • What problem is this project trying to solve for?
    • What is it for? When someone hires our service, what are they hiring it to do?
    • Who (or what) are we trying to change by doing this work? From what to what?
    • How will we know if it’s working?
  • How can we build on existing assets and experience?
    • What does it remind us of? Are there parallels, similar projects, things like this that have come before?
    • What assets do we already own that we’ll be able to leverage?
  • Anticipate obstacles.
    • What’s the difficult part?
    • How much of our time and focus are we spending on the difficult part?
    • What part that isn’t under our control has to happen for this to work?
    • How much (time and money) is it going to take to find out if we’ve got a shot at this working out?
    • What do we need to learn?
    • From which people will we need help? Do they have a track record of helping people like us? 
    • What assets do we need to acquire?
  • Belief in this project despite all odds.
    • After the project launches, what new assets will we now own?
    • Why do we believe this project is worth it?

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Today is the First Day of Your Product’s Life Cycle

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Today is the First Day of Your Product's Life Cycle

What a phenomenal shape the circle is.

Where does it begin? Now, where does it end.

Is it possible that the circle could’ve started at any another point?

Yesterday ended last night. Today is the first day of the rest of your product’s life.

70% of launches fail. There’s evidence to suggest that the first year sets the trajectory for the rest of the product’s life cycle.

Cycle = circle.

Even if your drug has already launched, do you get another chance to begin?

How you got here is not how you will get there. 

The asset inventory is what it is. It takes months-years to generate new evidence. What will you do in the meantime? Your product already has what it needs to penetrate the market in a way that no other product can–if you allow it.

Take a page from Zig Ziglar’s playbook: If you give them enough of what they want, they will give you everything you want.

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Shortcut to Understanding a Therapeutic Area

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Shortcut to Understanding a Therapeutic Area

Fredrick Haugen recently pointed out to me a brilliant observation. Brahe was a famous physicist/astronomer who did countless measurements but didn’t do anything with them. Kepler (whom we might remember from grade school) used the data to figure out the law of planetary motion (planets move in an ellipse instead of a perfect circle).

A higher starting point leads to higher reach.

When working with a new disease state, I look to the hard work done by others as my starting point. I’ve found that good continuing education (CE) courses are a shortcut to:

  • understanding the nuances and current issues surrounding the disease state
  • listening-in on happening conversations surrounding the disease state
  • getting a list of recent and reputable references that might be used to cite my work
  • bonus for pharmacists: collecting continuing education credits!

Here are some CE providers that I check out first:

Important note: referencing these CE courses will not fly with medical/legal review. The references that these courses use, however, are fair game.

How do you effectively understand a therapeutic area?

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