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Market Access Strategic Execution Consultant

Your Customers Should Feel Heard

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Your Customers Should Feel Heard

Everyone has a problem.

Believing that your customers have no problems is just as true as believing that everyone posting smiling photos on Instagram has no problems.

What’s the problem of your customers? What keeps them up at night? What makes it dreadful for them to come back to work the next day? Why are they right to think this way?

The sequel to this would be: How can you show up to delight them? But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 

Customers feeling like they’re heard is in itself a TREMENDOUS stride forward.

Nurture trust. Nurture relationship.

If your neighbor knocked at your door with freshly baked cherry pie, would you accept it? What if a stranger did the same thing: would you accept it?

Dance With the Struggle

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Dance With the Struggle

The J Curve has come up in several of my conversations over the past couple days. I first learned about it in Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well.

The journey towards a goal is not a straight upward line, but rather a J curve.

When tracing the letter ‘J,’ we start in the middle>>dip down>>then swing back up to the top.

The Dip (also called the Valley of Death by some sources) is inevitable in the J curve. The dip is when we feel the struggle and discomfort. It’s in the dip where the majority quits. The deeper/wider the dip, the more likely it is that people will give up and go home.

Be ready for the Dip. When it arrives, do not run away. Tell it, ‘I’ve been waiting for you—there you are.’ Embrace the pain. Lean into the Dip in order to come out the other end. Dance with the struggle.

Once I saw the J curve, it was hard to un-see it. It’s everywhere: career development, relationships, spirituality, education, physical fitness, learning a new skill, sales, manufacturing, distribution….

It’s easy to be a CEO. What’s hard is getting there.

You do 8 reps in weight training so that you can get the benefits from pushing through the last 2.

Staying in the game is magical.

When you face the Dip, how do you stay in the game?

Keep the ‘Exchange’ in ‘Preapproval Information Exchange’

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Keep the ‘Exchange’ in ‘Preapproval Information Exchange’

Preapproval information exchange (PIE) has become among pre-launch strategies since the update to FDAMA 114 in 2018.

Most of us have figured out that it’s important for a launch strategy to include PIE. However, I’m wondering how many of us take FULL advantage of these opportunities to engage with payers pre-launch.

HBR published an interesting article earlier this week suggesting that important consumer insights can be gained from unexpected opportunities like crowdfunding.

Here’s an excerpt: ‘Crowdfunding is not only a source of financing for start-up companies, it’s also a potentially powerful tool for big companies looking for customer input during product development because CUSTOMERS WILLING TO PUT MONEY INTO DEVELOPING A PRODUCT ARE GOING TO BE MORE ENGAGED THAN PEOPLE IN A FOCUS GROUP. Companies that use crowdfunding in this way should pay particular attention to the input of atypical customers.’

Back to PIE: striking a bi-directional conversation during a PIE engagement is key during the pre-approval stage. It’s an important opportunity for manufacturers to get feedback from the customers that will be paying for their assets. This group is possibly more engaged than people in a focus group.

How can your PIE deck be engineered to facilitate a bi-directional EXCHANGE of information rather than a one-way information dump?

Here’s a brilliant recommendation from Nancy Duarte in HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations:

‘Develop a clear, short overview of your key points, and place it in a set of executive summary slides at the front of the deck; have the rest of your slides serve as an appendix. Follow a 10% rule of thumb: If your appendix is 50 slides, devote about 5 slides to your summary at the beginning. After you present the summary, let the group drive the conversation. Often, executives will want to go deeper on the points that will aid their decision making. You can quickly pull up any slides in the appendix that speak to those points.’

What kind of consumer insights do you want to gain during this preapproval information exchange? How can PIE be used to gain these insights? How will you ensure the feedback gained during the PIE engagements reaches the right people that will act on it?

Meal Planning Saves Projects

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Meal Planning Saves Projects

I have nothing against eating out. Except when I INTEND to have a homemade meal, but it’s already dinnertime by the time I finally decide what to make.

The archenemy of homecooked meals in the Patel household is not its complexity, unavailability of ingredients, or lack of time—it’s the surprising culprit of indecision.

Meal planning helps because it’s a TEMPLATE that solves my single biggest obstacle to homemade meals.

Templates work. They establish boundaries backed by science.

Market access projects are as much science as they are art. When engineered by experienced professionals, templates make the science part straightforward.

Templates can take on many forms. Useful templates are simple yet profound. Questions that MUST be answered before diving into projects. Items that MUST be checked-off before handing over projects to Clients.

Once the science part is taken care of, the fun part begins: making art.

What are the most common reasons for project failure? Failure of specific PARTS of a project? How can you flip these obstacles on their head?

Do Your Best. It’s Good Enough Around Here

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Do Your Best. It's Good Enough Around Here

‘Do your best. It’s good enough around here.’

There are 2 reasons I like it when we say this.

First, it takes off the pressure of expectations. The release of this weight in itself improves performance. 

Carefree is important. Carefree is not the same as careless.

Secondly, it’s a shortcut to getting in touch with my Self that cuts through the noise. I hold no one else accountable for my actions except myself. This is my chance to see what I can really do. It’s a journey of Self discovery that makes me feel focused, clear, and alive.

I give it my all–so much that I can look God in the eye and say, ‘I did my best–now it’s Your problem.’

How do you strive to set your personal records?

Triple Your Time Estimates

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Triple Your Time Estimates

Harvard Business Review happened to discuss something today which has been on my mind for several weeks: timelines. 

Here’s an excerpt: ‘It’s no surprise that many of us overload our workday, assuming we can take on many tasks in a small amount of time. Yet, at the end of the day, we’re stunned to find that work remains unfinished. Despite past evidence, our predictive engines gum up, and we’re convinced we’ll be able to achieve the extraordinary in an ordinary day. This is called “magical thinking,” and it can cause you to disappoint others, miss deadlines, feel depleted, and lose your inspiration.’

Heather Chavin of GoGoDone (a thriving online community where people stop procrastinating and get the work done) provides a brilliant recommendation. Estimate how long the task will take. Multiply the time estimate by 3. That’s right: TRIPLE your time estimates.

Heather’s advice may sound a bit extreme, but I agree with it.

Anyone who knows me would be shocked to hear me recommend this. I haven’t missed a single deadline in the past decade where everything is always ‘due yesterday.’

You can later negotiate the time so it works for all parties—but start with the tripled time as your baseline.

I have NEVER seen people lose clients due to long deadlines. I HAVE seen people lose clients by delivering messy work to meet unrealistic deadlines.

Who are you really serving by setting fast deadlines without thinking through them? Who would you be serving by carving out sufficient time?

I’m Difficulty For Difficulty

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I'm Difficulty For Difficulty

Katherine May’s book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times has become the unofficial Covid book as it has given strength to many who are struggling in the face of the pandemic.

An excerpt from the book:

‘Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximising scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.’

There are difficult parts of our job that we sometimes wish didn’t exist: 3 deadlines back-to-back; Client meeting with the team leader unable to attend; work in a new therapeutic area; working with someone whose standard answer is ‘no’ to all requests; working for a difficult Client.

How do we react during those difficult times?

Do we fall flat on our faces and accept defeat? Feel self-pity and dream of escaping to a beach? Or roll up our sleeves and get to work?

Marketing is not just for the account managers or account VPs. EVERY single person on the team plays the critical role of a marketer because EVERY single part of our work (even the meetings and the work itself) is a form of marketing.

Pandurang Shastri Athavale explains that Chapter 2 Verse 40 of the Bhagavad Gita means: ‘there is no such thing as difficulty. Because I’m difficulty for difficulty.’

The Market Is Beginning To Side-Step Payers

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The Market Is Beginning to Side-Step Payers

Adam Fein published an interesting article today about how GoodRx’s discount card business is allowing PBMs to side-step managed care organizations, avoiding having to pay pass through payments.

In short, consumers can use discount cards, such as GoodRx, to save money on prescription drugs at the pharmacy. When they use GoodRx, they’re benefitting from a PBM’s network rate that they’re not even paying premium for. PBMs whose network rates are utilized through GoodRx are not obligated to pass through the manufacturer rebates to plan sponsors and can keep that money for themselves. It is important to note that 70% of GoodRx’s consumers already have commercial or Medicare Part D insurance, which they’re deciding not to use because GoodRx will save them more money.

Is the value of managed care organizations being questioned?

Reading this reminded me of something that I had read earlier this month by Fast Company. Providers (just like patients in the GoodRx example above) are finding ways to side-step insurers. Concierge practices promise more provider-patient time and more comprehensive health care for an annual membership fee in ADDITION to health insurance. Direct primary care goes a step beyond that by requiring monthly fees and with NO regard to insurance coverage.

Is the value of managed care organizations being questioned?

This is just the beginning. Managed care organizations cannot be completely done away with just yet. Just like colleges and universities can’t be done away with—yet. But changes are happening.

A rip has been made and the seam is ready to be opened.

I’m not rooting for or slamming any single party. I am, however, rooting for whoever is actually in the business of benefiting patients. And there ARE gems among manufacturers, payers, and providers who are honestly showing up for patients.

What’s important is: How will I benefit patients with [[heart failure]] today? What did I do this week to give patients with [[Medicaid coverage]] hope? Why did God give me this position? By the way, those who don’t ask why they have this will have no right to ask why it was taken away.

I need to ask myself these questions, as do you. Irrespective of your level in the food chain.

Experiment Like Amazon

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Experiment Like Amazon

Today STAT published a story about Amazon officially starting its ascent to the national telehealth stage — and its nationwide expansion is putting the rest of the telemedicine industry on notice.

AP provides more details.

This topic is interesting and relevant to market access in SO many ways.

Besides the fact that Amazon is disrupting the health care system right before our very own eyes, it’s important to appreciate the company’s willingness to experiment.

Amazon partnered with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase 3 years ago to solve America’s problem of high-cost health care system. This sent shock waves throughout the world of health care.

Then, in January 2021 we learned that this joint venture, called Haven, was disbanding and the stakeholders would individually continue to push forward in their efforts. While some considered this venture a failure, the news today suggests otherwise.

Today, we see what Amazon had been up to. I imagine that this is just the beginning.

Ironically, Fast Company wrote about experimentation today itself. The article asserts that leaders should democratize experimentation because their teams are bursting with untapped ideas. They just need tools and the authority to help drive continuous innovation.

It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of the world hangs on experimentation.

If we open our eyes, we’re surrounded by problems. How can we solve them? How can we measure the effectiveness of our proposed solutions? What would change if we decided to avoid experimentation and live with the status quo? Who would step up if we didn’t vote ourselves for this experiment?

What’s the Worst That Could Happen?

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What's the Worst That Could Happen?

Today I was reminded of an experiment by Professor Carol Dweck of Stanford University. This experiment is also narrated in Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen’s book Thanks for the Feedback.

When we fail, do we go back into the shadow OR assert, ‘I haven’t succeeded YET’?

Dweck brought children to her lab and had them engage with progressively tougher puzzles. As the puzzles got more challenging, about half of the kids grew frustrated, disengaged, and finally gave up.

The other half kept going.

  • Fixed mindset: The ones who gave up quicker did so out of discouragement, impatience, and embarrassment. They enjoyed the puzzles that made them look smart, but decided to quit as the puzzles made them feel dumb.
  • Growth mindset: In contrast, the kids who persisted viewed the tough puzzles as fun games that challenged them to improve. They didn’t even think they were failing—they thought they were learning.

Dweck noticed that the progression through the puzzles had little to do with interest or aptitude, and more to do with the OUTLOOK.

So many times throughout the day, I notice ourselves (including me) shy away because we’re afraid to look bad.

We’re afraid to speak up in meetings, try a new approach, ask for a raise, apply for a new position, or say our names in the Indian accent (still work-in-progress for me). What learning opportunity did we just lose when we did that? What would it look like if we side-stepped our fear of looking dumb and just did it? What’s the worst that could happen?

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