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The Pharma Career Ladder · The medical rep · Step 5: The visit · Lesson 7

Silence is a tool

Waiting after a question instead of filling the gap

By Ahmed El Menshawy · 20 years in pharma, from medical rep to country manager in the UAE. Founder of RepPharma. LinkedIn
Published

The most underused tool in a medical rep's bag costs nothing. It is silence.

I watch reps ask excellent questions and then ruin them. "Doctor, what happens to patients who stop treatment?" Two seconds pass. "I mean, do you see many of them? Or maybe it is more about side effects?" The doctor was thinking. Now he is choosing from the rep's list.

What I coach instead:

  • Ask, then stop. One question, no second one on top.
  • Count to five in your head. His first thought is rarely his real answer.
  • Keep your eyes on him, not on the tablet.
  • When he finishes, nod and wait once more. The useful part often comes second.

The pause feels long to you because you are nervous. To the doctor it feels like respect. It tells him you actually want his answer, not just a gap before your next slide.

“The answer you need is usually on the other side of a silence you are afraid of.”
Silence is a tool: Waiting after a question instead of filling the gap

Lesson 7 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 6Listen twiceThe two-to-one rule between listening and talkingLesson 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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