Moving to a new therapy area feels like starting again. It is not. Half of what made you good comes with you.
The other half does not, and the reps who struggle after a move are usually the ones who assumed everything would transfer.
- What comes with you:
- Call structure and good questions.
- Planning and territory discipline.
- Honesty and follow-through.
- The skill of handling objections.
- What you must rebuild:
- Disease knowledge and the current guidelines.
- Your doctor list and your relationships.
- The clinical data and the competitor landscape.
- The specific objections of the new specialty.
A rep moving from diabetes to respiratory, for example, can plan and question just as well on day one. What he cannot do yet is speak the specialist's language, and the specialist will notice within one call.
So invest the first weeks where the gap is: disease, guidelines and data. Let your skills carry the rest.
And never detail a new specialist as if he were your old one.
“Your skills travel with you. Your credibility has to be earned again.”
Lesson 7 of 11 in Step 9: Growing your career, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.