Moving Beyond Claims-Based Messaging

Improving communication means appealing to physicians' heads as well as their hearts. A message that incorporates both claims-based and emotional characteristics should be a more powerful advocate for a brand than a strictly claims-based message.

There are many questions about the role of sales detailing these days. The main one, however, is "What can be done to improve the impact and effectiveness of sales representatives and the messages they deliver to physicians?" Physicians are trained to base their prescribing decisions on quantitative results of drug trials, along with their own clinical experience. They are generally rational beings, and therefore only rely on information that is fact-based (i.e., quantitative).

The message development process within many pharmaceutical companies has evolved to fulfill this expectation. Beginning with claims development, head-to-head trials, and the constant presence of a regulatory committee, claims-based messaging has become the default position of most message development processes. Acceptance of this conventional wisdom leads to sales reps focusing almost exclusively on claims-based messages. And generally the same claims are presented to all physician segments.

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