My sales rep, Meredith, and I, were ushered back to the nurse’s station soon after we introduced ourselves to the receptionist. We were excited to get back to see the doctor as she had been trying for months to get in to meet the busy neurologist. We stood and waited, trying to stay out of the way of all the nurses, assistants, techs and patients.
After about 15 minutes, the doctor came up to us and said, “You’ve got 30 seconds.” I looked at Meredith and she promptly said with a smile,
“Good Morning Doctor Sami! We are with BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy and have been in business for 23 years as a home-based infusion company. We provide immune globulin to your patients with neuromuscular disorders and stock all brands of IgG. We have a staff of clinical pharmacists who partner with you to make sure your patients get the appropriate medication, and utilize only skilled IV nurses experienced in Ig therapy to administer the drug—making sure that the nurses stay for the entire infusion. Here’s my card. Thanks so much for taking a moment to see us, and we hope to hear from you soon with a referral. Do you have any questions?”
The doctor paused and smiled, and then looked at me, and then back at her, and said, “No.” Meredith turned to leave, thanking him again and looking at me to come with her. I followed, but was a bit mixed on what had just happened. On the one hand, she had done exactly what she was supposed to do by hitting the appropriate highlights and respecting the doctor’s wishes. On the other, I felt like maybe we had missed an opportunity to do a little more.
Later that afternoon we were thrilled to find out that the doctor had referred a CIDP patient to us! Wow, what a great feeling. And, that’s a great lesson for everyone on our team to remember and it’s also a good message that I would like to convey to our prescribers. The lesson is to always respect the wishes of prescribers by not taking more of their time than they have given to you. If a prescriber is too busy to talk, we will ask them if we can meet at a better time because we do indeed have something important to discuss with them.
To our prescribers, our message is that we value your time and your business greatly and will always strive to be respectful and resourceful to you, your practice, and your patients.
Good luck out there! Bill