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Market Access Strategic Execution Consultant

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.

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Laggards on the Team

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Laggards on the Team

No one works in a vacuum in Market Access. We all rely on everyone else.

Be mindful of the weakest person on the team. Giving attention to them is well worth it.

How can you help them level-up? Do they need to additional skills? Do they crave nourishment?

It’s not that laggards will hold you back; but rather, they can actually bring the entire team down with them.

(After all, because of those of us who CHOSE to remain unvaccinated, EVERYONE has to brace themselves again for an uncertain future).

Before they bring everyone else down with them, what can you do to pull them up?

We are one. We are in this together. I need you.

Organizations have a competitive advantage when they have a culture where team members look out for each other.

Laggards on the Team Read More »

Evolution

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Evolution

An evolution in career goal is a healthy signal of evolution of the person himself.

Most people enter the workforce as a small fry that’s eager to catch up to everyone else.

5 years into their career, some may settle on a niche and decide to charge forward in that direction.

10 years into their career, they’re eager to help patients in more meaningful ways. They’re looking for bigger problems to solve. It’s time to play the ‘Ages 10+’ games. It feels more gratifying to think beyond themselves and wonder about their purpose in this world.

By this time, a big part of their professional goal is to serve those around them—which was hardly a concern in the beginning.

This has been my journey, at least. As I reflect on my birthday about how my wisdom and perspective have evolved since I graduated from pharmacy school.

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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.

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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.”

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“I Am Needed”

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"I Am Needed"

It’s undisputable: every person on the team is necessary.

But how many people on the team actually tell THEMSELVES that “I am needed”?

Having the feeling of “I am needed” gives a sense of purpose. A reason to put ourselves through the wringer. A reason to face our fears. An opportunity to say, “I don’t have to do this…I GET to do this.”

Who needs you? The bigger the person is that you decide needs you, the bigger your pride and purpose will be, and the more indestructible you will become.

“I Am Needed” Read More »

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.

Great Stories are Trusted Read More »

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.

Coconut Shell Read More »

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.

We Are All Storytellers Read More »

Choosing a Battle Worth Fighting

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Choosing a Battle Worth Fighting

A price has to be paid for everything.

Action and inaction.

The price to reimburse a drug is the drug’s price tag.

The price for denying reimbursement is what’s paid to live with the status quo.

If a payer makes intentional efforts to block a patient from receiving a drug that they could benefit from, are they ready to pay the price? Are they willing to pay the price?

Right drug for the right patient at the right time is an important mantra. If their systems aren’t equipped to efficiently handle the logistics, perhaps THAT’S a problem worth chasing after.

Choosing a Battle Worth Fighting Read More »

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