How to Get Past the Gatekeeper by Much Moore Marketing,llc

How to Get Past the

Gatekeeper RENEE MOORE MUCH MOORE MARKETING

How to Get Past the Gatekeeper Well hello! This is Renee Moore your virtual marketing director with Much More Marketing. And today I want to talk about a question that I get asked a lot. That question is, “Renee, how do I get passed the Gatekeeper?” Well as a pharmacist or a marketing specialist or pharmacy educator, you probably have this happen to you at least once in your career. You walk into the doctor’s office and you’re wearing your lab coat, or your dressed up in you suit; when you walk in the door and you get that infamous eyebrow, a sort of like, “Oh my god, here’s another salesperson,” from the receptionist at the front desk. And she proceeds to go into her explanation of why you cannot see the doctor or that it’s going to be a while if you want to wait. And that becomes annoying, especially if that happens over and over again. And so typically what happens is people come and they call me and they say, “Renee, how do I get passed her? She won’t let me see the doctor!” Well first thing I‘d like you to do is to stop thinking how to get passed

her and start thinking about how to get next to her. Then you may think, “Hmm, that’s interesting. And what exactly does that mean?” Let me tell you. The gatekeeper or the receptionist’s job is to keep you from getting in and wasting the doctor’s time. They have lots of patients to see, they have staff they have to work with. They have their own case load of work that they need to finish. And all throughout the day there are sales people coming to see them that I know you’re going to tell me, “Renee, I’m a pharmacy educator. I’m not a sales rep…Renee, I am a pharmacist. I have a PharmD. I’m not a sales person.” That may be true to you, but in their eyes, you’re a sales person, you’re interrupting their day. And if you think about it, if you clearly think about it, if someone came into your office and into your pharmacy, just for 5 -10 minutes every single hour that you’re open; imagine how much lost time in productivity you lose just stopping to talk with them. So when you look at it from that aspect, you could see that the gatekeeper is trying to do her job. And you have to give her a pretty compelling reason to get her to stop doing her job.

So I’m going to share with you a few secrets and how you can get her to get on your side and to actually start singing your praises about what you do in your pharmacy. Are you ready to hear this? I know you are.

Step 1: Scan the waiting room Okay let’s get started. When you first walk into the office, the first thing you want to do is scan the office. Are there are lot of people waiting or is the waiting room empty? Now if the waiting room is packed, full of people, I will want you to acknowledge that with her. Let her know that you see it’s busy. Now you may say, “Okay Renee, that’s stupid. She knows it’s busy, I know it’s busy. Why do I need to say it?” Well you need to say because oftentimes people come in and see it’s busy and they still want to see the physician. They just kind of ignore all those people that are sitting there. That’s just not going to work and it’s certainly not going to work for her when she’s got a case-load of people that’s got to get in and get out and see the physician for you come in and stop the physician to talk about your business. So if you see that the office is busy, the first thing you want to do is say, “Wow! I see you’re busy today. Is there a better day for us to come back, for me to come back?” And then if she says, “Yeah, you know this is just unusual today” or “Absolutely. Wednesdays are a much better day.” Then say, “Okay thanks. I really appreciate that.” and leave. You don’t have to leave a card; you don’t have to explain who you are. Just tell her that you’ll be back and then go back on that day.

Step 2: Get NEXT to the Receptionist Now you can leave a card. I’m not saying that you don’t have to. But don’t feel compelled that you have to explain why you’re there and all these other stuff. She’s busy! So just respect that. Now if you go in and then it doesn’t appear that they’re busy because there’s no one sitting in the waiting room, assume that they’re still busy anyway, okay. But this time when you walk in, introduce yourself. “Hi! I’m Renee Moore. I’m with ABC Pharmacy and I’m the new Pharmacy Director,” or you can say whatever’s going on in your pharmacy. If you’re new to the job, I’ll tell them that. If you’re a new pharmacy, I tell them that. If you’re putting in a new stereo-compound in that I will tell them that too. So whatever it is, tell them why you’re there. Explain to them and say, “Hi! I’m Renee Moore. I just took on a new position at ABC Pharmacy. I’m the new pharmacy educator, and I’m just going around today meeting some of the other healthcare colleagues. And I would like to know before I meet with the physician if it’s possible that you and I could get together before work or during lunch or maybe even after work for a cup of coffee or tea,” or whether

that she likes a smoothie. It doesn’t matter what the drink is okay? And watch her reaction. More than likely she would be shocked. Why? Because all day long people are trying to get passed her, they’re not trying to get next to her and get to know her. And this is a mistake. The receptionist is typically somebody that’s somewhat close to the doctor. They’re the frontline person for the physician’s office. Sometimes they’re the wife, or the cousin or the girlfriend or the sister-in-law, but usually somebody that the physician knows pretty well. That’s not always the case, but you don’t want to just disrespect her position completely. So acknowledge that you feel like she’s important, important enough to get to know. Once she tells you her answer or when you can meet, go ahead and say, “Okay we’re going to meet Thursday morning at 8:00 AM before the office opens.” Meet her at Starbucks because you want to meet her off site. You don’t want to meet her at the doctor’s office because you want her to feel free to speak. You don’t want to ask her any real deep, personal questions but you

want her to feel free to be able to say whatever that she’s going to say. So once you’ve set that up, you’re going to meet with her. So you already had one contact with her. Now you’re going to actually meet with her; this is your second contact with her. When you sit down to meet with her there are several things, there are several questions that needs to happen and that you need to ask. First thing make sure you get her the drink, alright? The coffee, the tea, smoothie, whatever it is, and then explain to her why you’re doing this. Tell her that you’re new; tell her you’re putting in a new pharmacy. Tell her that you’re putting in a new sterile lab. Whatever it

Step 3: Ask if she knows about compounding Now you can gauge right here if she knows what that means. So you might want to ask her, “Do you know what compounding is?” and she may say, “Yes,” and if she does, that’s great. Ask her how she knows about it, has she ever used it as something the doctor writes for; find out how she knows because it’s rare that people have actually heard of customized medications. If she’s like most people though, she will probably tell you “no.” And here is what I do not want you to do; I’m begging you please don’t do this. Please do not give her that very scientific answer of “compounding is the art and science of prepared, customized medication with FDA approved chemicals.” It causes people’s eyes to glaze over. They’re not really sure what it means and it has absolutely no benefit to them. It’s a feature; it sounds great and technically it’s true. But if you want people to do something with that information you have to talk to them in real people terms. As I say when I go to a mechanic and he’s showing me things underneath my car that I don’t know about, I always look at them and say, “Can you speak girl to me?” You need to speak people to people. Just speak regular English to them. There’s no need to be scientific.

Step 4: Ask her about the doctor’s prescribing habits So look at them and ask them; ask her this question: Do you have children or pets? Most people have one or the other, probably both and if she’s young, she doesn’t have either, it’s okay. She’s seen a child or she’s seen a pet okay so don’t worry about that. But then go ahead and explain, “Well as you may know, that’s what she says now and you say, “Well you may know this but sometimes it is difficult to give medication to children or pets. They spit it out, it doesn’t taste good, it’s too chalky, it’s too large to swallow. Most people will agree with you. They know these things about kids or about animals. Then go ahead and take the next step and say, “Well what we do at the pharmacy is we can take a hard to swallow pill and we can turn it into a great tasting liquid or we could turn it into a cream or a gel or a lollipop; something that makes it easier for the child to take. This just about always solicits a response of “Wow! I had no idea someone did that.” and that’s the response you’re looking for. I’ve never gotten that when I said, compound is the art and science of prepared customized mediations with FDA approved chemicals. And you’ve probably never had gotten that response either. But that’s the response you’re looking for. People can see the use and the need and the

benefit of having a compounded medication when they understand how it works and what a difference it will make in their lives. Now that you said that to her, and that she understands what compounding is, you can ask her if the physician’s ever written for. She may or may not know that, and that’s okay if she doesn’t know. If she does know, this is the opportunity to ask her who they’re using. You may be surprised to find out that they’re using someone out of state; or that they’re using someone next door or they’re using Walgreens or CVS or they may not be using anyone in particular at all, just kind of a hodgepodge of people. But if they are, find out who that is and then do a little bit of research to see what do you do a little bit better than they did. If they’re not using anyone or if she’s not sure, that is okay because that is a question that you can ask of the physician when you get the opportunity to meet him or her. Now that you’ve asked that question and your next question is going to be about insurance; do they take it. Do they take private insurance?

Do they take Medicaid? Medicare? Cash only? If they take Medicaid or Medicare and your state does not pay for either of those two compounded medications, ask her how much they do it. This will determine either if you want to go further with this physician. If she says, “oh we do a lot,” help her quantify what a lot is. A lot means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So a lot to her may be 10 percent, a lot for you may be 50 percent or more. So if she says 10 percent and you’re okay with that because the other 90 percent is having insurance or cash, then you may want to proceed with me with this talking. If she tells you that their practice is 75 or 80 percent Medicaid or Medicare, and neither of those pay well for compounded medication, you may not want to spend a lot of time with this physician.

Step 5: Who is the most influential doctor The next question that you would want to ask is, “Who is the most influential doctor in the practice?” This is the question I ask when there are typically more than three doctors listed on the door. And these days a lot of doctors are definitely going into practice together. I ask this question because sometimes the main doctor that you’re thinking about, may not be the most influential doctor, and they may not be the doctor who’s the most creative or the most innovative in the practice. You’re definitely looking for the doctor who is most open to use a compounded medication for his patients. The next question that I ask is about the pronunciation of names. Make sure that you know how to pronounce everyone’s name in the practice, especially if it’s a difficult to pronounce name. They will be ecstatic that you took the time to get to know them and to pronounce their name correctly. As the saying goes, there’s no sweeter sound to a person than to hear his/ her name especially when it’s said correctly. Then you want to set the appointment, so you’ve asked some questions. This shouldn’t take a long time. You’re not looking for a summit meeting with her; you’re just looking for 15-20 minutes.

Step 6: Get to know the practice You want to get to know a little bit about the practice. You could also ask her about the types, the conditions of people coming in for. Now she may not have this information. She may know a little bit from when they book the appointment because typically the receptionist will say so, “what are you coming in for?” and somebody may be really general with it: vaginal problem, head ache. And so they may go in to that reason but there may be several other things that they see when they go in to see the doctor. So she may not have detailed information on this and that’s okay. But you may be able to get a general idea on what they’re seeing on a regular basis, as well as the age ranges; do they see children? Do they see adults only? So they see seniors? Are they seeing people that are sort of 25 to 45? You can get a feel of that as well from the receptionist because she’ll have a good idea of that. Then you’ll want to go ahead and set the lunch appointment or breakfast, or after lunch appointment whenever it happens to be. My preference is breakfast then after lunch dessert, and then lunch. Breakfast because it’s

typically not expensive and people aren’t running behind and is very focused. After lunch because it’s not as expensive, you don’t get as much time with the physician which you usually get with a physician. And lunch is my least favorite. Although it’s the one I’ve done the most because it’s typically the time of the doctors have open to speak with sales reps, but lunch is my least favorite because they’re always running behind at lunch. Sometimes they run in, they get their food, they leave, they don’t stay to talk, so it’s definitely not my favorite but it’s what I end up doing the most simply because of the time factor for them, and I completely understand that. To help make lunch a little bit better and to make it a little bit more effective for you, here’s a couple of suggestions. First when you set a lunch appointment, ask her how many people will be there on that day or how many people are in the office that will be there on that day. Then here’s the difference and I’ll tell you why I ask this question. If you ask them how many people are there on that day, you may find out that 30 people work in the office. But on Tuesday when you’re going to meet them only 12 work for

some reason because the rest are at clinic and the doctor takes a nurse or two with them. And so you find out that more than half of the people are even there on the day when you’re having your lunch. That’s okay. But would you go when it’s about lunch with 30 when you only meet lunch for 12? The other thing that you want to find out is about dietary restrictions. So want you to know are they Vegan? Are the y vegetarian? Are they Muslim and they don’t eat pork? You want to find these things out before you set about making this incredible lunch or ordering this incredible lunch and then finding out that no one there can eat it. The third thing you want to know about lunch is that no matter how many people are there that day there’s always about 15 percent who are not going to eat. They went out to lunch. They brought their own lunch. They’re sick that day. But there’s always going to be a few that aren’t going to eat. So don’t feel compelled to bring food for 30 because maybe only 25 are actually going to eat that day.

Step 7: Thank her for her time Once you’ve set up the lunch, thank her for her time and for being with you, and immediately after you leave her, send her a thank you card; not an email, a physical card like from Hallmark. Get a box of Thank you Notes or use a service like SendOut Cards to send her a card right after you speak with her thanking her and saying, “I really appreciate your time in sharing this information with me, helping me to be a better prepared person for the meeting with Dr. Jones. I really, really appreciate it.” And you can send her a little gift if you want. If you see that she really likes Starbucks or something like that, get a five dollar gift card and send it to her. The whole point here is to endear yourself as much as you can to this gatekeeper. Because the next time you come around, you want her to say, “Oh yeah you can go back and see Dr. Jones,” or “He’s a little busy right now but if you want to wait a few minutes, I’ll let him know that you’re here. “ She will move mountains for you if you just show her some respect in the very beginning. So now that you have this information, you could stop thinking how to get passed the gatekeeper and you can start getting next to her, setting more appointments with physicians to get in and speak to them about compounded medications than you have ever done in the past. So try this out let me know how it works for you. You can certainly email me at renee@muchmoremarketing.com and I’ll be happy to take any questions you have about this; to go and take me with you again, to even role play with you if you like to do that to make sure that you’re comfortable with it. But in the meantime, start getting next to your gatekeepers and see the change and the difference it makes in marketing to your physicians. I’m Renee Moore, your virtual marketing director with Much More Marketing. Let me help you get Moore patients, Moore compounds, Moore money.

About the Author

Renee Moore

Renee does marketing for compounding pharmacists who love what they do but don't love the marketing. She worked for compounding pharmacists for several years and then for the Professional Compounding Centers of America teaching pharmacists how to market their business. In 2009, she started her own company marketing for compounding pharmacies and other small business owners. Renee believes that marketing doesn't have to be expensive, you can be yourself and be authentic and still make money. Renee has won numerous speech contests, spoken before as many as 500 compounding pharmacists about marketing and runs an online radio show. She is a recurring guest for the Majestic Mo'Mints radio show and Success In Motion radio show, a columnist for the International Journal of Compounding Pharmacists and a contributing writer for Pharmacy Marketing Quarterly. Renee enjoys kayaking, bicycling and reading. She is a triathlete who believes everything tastes better with feta cheese, black olives, capers and artichokes. She loves African, Latin Jazz and Armenian music. She loves all things by Apple and owns more MAC makeup than the law should allow. You can learn more about Renee by following her on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube and her blog.