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The Pharma Career Ladder · The medical rep · Step 5: The visit · Lesson 6

Listen twice

The two-to-one rule between listening and talking

By Ahmed El Menshawy · 20 years in pharma, from medical rep to country manager in the UAE. Founder of RepPharma. LinkedIn
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The best calls I have ever watched were the quiet ones.

When I sit in on a call, I listen to one thing before anything else: who is doing the talking. When the rep talks most, the doctor is being polite. When the doctor talks most, the rep is learning something he can use.

I call it listening twice. Two parts listening, one part talking.

Here is what it looks like in the room:

  • Ask a question, then wait. Do not answer it for him.
  • When he says "some patients", ask which ones.
  • Repeat his point back before you make yours.
  • Leave knowing what he needs, not only what you said.

None of this needs a new detail aid or a new study. It needs patience, and the discipline to stop preparing your next line while he is still speaking.

“If you talked more than the doctor, you visited. You did not call.”
Listen twice: The two-to-one rule between listening and talking

Lesson 6 of 15 in Step 5: The visit, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.

More lessons in step 5: The visit

Lesson 1First thirty secondsWhat the doctor decides before you open the detail aidLesson 2Opening without a pitchThree openings that earn the next two minutesLesson 3The patient type openingNaming the patient before naming the brandLesson 4The question you never askFour kinds of question, and the one most reps skipLesson 5SPIN in a two minute callSituation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff, compressedLesson 7Silence is a toolWaiting after a question instead of filling the gapLesson 8Reading the roomFour signals a doctor is finished before you areLesson 9What you say after the dataTurning a study into one sentence a doctor repeatsLesson 10Features, advantages, benefitsWhy reps stop at the featureLesson 11Three levels of a benefitThe patient, the practice and the doctor himselfLesson 12The value equationBenefit over cost, in the doctor's termsLesson 13Storytelling with a patient caseA case that lands in thirty secondsLesson 14Three minutes in a corridorStructuring a call you did not planLesson 15Group calls and lunch meetingsRunning a room without losing the individual

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