How To Overcome The Most Common Objections On A Pharma Sales Call

An objection is an opportunity for you. By the time you finished a typical objection-handling techniques and methods training in a pharmaceutical company, you can consider yourself an "objection handler" pharma rep. You need to overcome physicians' objections during a sales call, for example on drug price complaints, and this post is your quick reference to how you do it the right way.

Preparing pharma reps for handling an objection

Typically, there are 2 most common concerns and objections you'll face in medical sales. They are:

• Technical objection
• Competition objection

How to overcome physician technical objection on a sales call

When you face any complaints, you'll find it to be very tempting to point out where the physicians are wrong or in short, to argue with them. If you win the argument, you'll feel good about it, but the good feeling does not necessarily translate into profit. You're not in the business of proving people wrong. A more desirable approach for you is to redirect the conversation to something more positive.

Steps to handling a technical objection

These are 4 steps you can take in handling technical, medical sales objections:

1. Clarify
2. Acknowledge
3. Respond
4. Check

Step no.3 (Respond), where your focus should be, consists of 3 steps:

• Show product features and benefits that refute or minimize the objection
• Use third party info to emphasize any claim.
• Restate the related feature and benefit of the product

How to overcome physician competition objection on a sales call

One of the most common complaints and concerns that you'll hear when making your pharma sales call is drug pricing. You can practice handling this, and other physicians claim smoothly during your preparation for a pharma sales call. Competition objections that you get from physicians indicate their satisfaction with a competitor's product.

This type of objection requires the use of "basic differentiation technique."

Steps to handling competition objection

These are the steps you want to take when handling competition objections in medical sales:

• Express your respect for the physician choice
• Provide proof that your product is as good as or superior
• Provide them with additional benefits unique to your product
• Check

When you provide your physician with a proof, take these steps:

1. Show the similarities between product
2. Show the difference where your product is superior.
3. Check

These steps summarize objection-handling techniques and methods you can use as a "pharma objection handler." When handling objection in medical sales, knowing what to do is not enough. A complete pharmaceutical sales competencies cover, at least, 9 core competencies. Objection handling is one of these competencies. Preparing pharma reps to overcome objections and concerns of physicians is an ongoing process, not a one-off exercise.