Objection Handling: For Medical Representatives

By Suman Deb

The objections faced by the pharmaceutical sales professionals are different from the objections faced by the sales professionals of automobile, FMCG or electronic goods. The basic difference in pharmaceutical selling is; customers (doctors) are not buyers (patients). And thus the patterns of objections are also different. Thereby handling those objections is also different. Moreover, there is no specific guideline, literature or book written on the different objections faced by the pharmaceutical sales professionals. This has motivated me to write a book on objection handling, particularly for pharmaceutical sales professionals.

In this book, etiology of objection, attitude towards objection, types of objection, strategy for handling objection, techniques of handling objection SLUAAC Technique, methods of handling objection have explained elaborately. And lastly 22 commonly encountered objections and how to handle those objections have been discussed.

In this book more applied aspects have bben incorporated; because books meant for practical use should contain much of applied discussion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Oct 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9781482838183

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Suman Deb.

ISBN:          Softcover          978-1-4828-3819-0

                   eBook               978-1-4828-3818-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1)   Objection Handling - ‘An Art’

A. What is an Objection?

B. Etiology of Objections

C.Attitude Towards Objections

D. Types of Objections

a. Relevant or Genuine Objections

b. Irrelevant or Not a Genuine Objections

c. Subjective Objections:

d. Unspoken Objections

E. Strategy for Handling Objections

F. Technique of Handling Objections SLUAAC Technique

G. Methods of Handling Objections

a. Indirect Denial Method:

b. Question Method:

c. Probing Method:

d. Pass-up Method:

2)   Handling Commonly Encountered Objections

A. Price Objection

B. Controvercial Product

C. Past Bad Experience

D. Old Molecule

E. Popular Brand/OTC Brand

F. Many Brands

G. Irrigularity

H. No Good Input

I. Irrational Combination

J. Quality

K. Unavailability

L. I Am Satisfied

M. Formulation

N. Prefering Monotherapy

O. Combination Preferred

P. Company

Q. No Activity

R. Side Effect/Toxic Effect/No Effect

S. Insufficient Sample

T. No Scheme

U. Committed

V. Apporovals

3)   Wrapping Up

4)   References

Objection Handling - ‘An Art’

What is an Objection?

An objection is a feeling or expression of opposition or disapproval or is the resistance offered by the doctor to the proposition of the Medical Representatives (MRs) *.

Just as a good trial lawyer; a good representative of pharmaceutical company anticipates beforehand every probable objection doctors might have.

Every doctor expects that we should know everything about the product. If the in-clinic interaction is well planned (proper pre-call planning) and the essential facts are skillfully presented, there would be hardly any objections. Just as a good trial lawyer; a good representative of pharmaceutical company anticipates beforehand every probable objection doctors might have. Preparing the objections and answers is an excellent way to improve in-clinic interaction. It requires considerable research work on the product/brand and profiling the doctors.

Etiology of Objections

Why do doctors raise objections?

Doctor likes to defend his/her way of doing things and refuse to admit there are better ways of doing things than they are used to.

Natural human tendency

is to resist any change in the working pattern, behavior or environment. Our job is to change the prescription pattern/prescription behavior

of the doctor. And thus objection during in-clinic interaction is inevitable. In general there could be five reasons for raising objections.

1. Defensiveness

2. Unpredictability

3. Sales pressure

4. Decisions making & accountability

5. Doubts

1. Defensiveness: Every doctor likes to defend his/her way of doing things. They refuse to admit there are better ways of doing things than they are used to. Still many doctors are using 1st generation molecules instead of 3rd or 4th generation molecules. If we try to explain