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Posted on June 7, 2008 by JSB | Posted under Careers Employment
Medical sales, knowing if your customer is lying?
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Specificity is truth. In general, people telling the truth are very specific, when someone starts to embellish things a little, or indeed simply lie, it can all become a little wishy washy and vague. So for example, you are a medical sales rep calling on a GP 3 weeks after your last visit, you ask him if he has used your product since the last visit, he replies 'oh yes, I think so' versus ' yes, I used it last week with a chap with back pain'. It's a pretty good rule rule to follow. In the first case, an immediate follow up question of 'what type of patient was it' will confirm your suspicion with an equally vague answer, such as 'err, I can't remember now' ! Eye contact can become poor when someone is not being entirely truthful. This can be equally consistent, it's very difficult to look someone in the eye and tell a straight lie. Gps are experts in busying themselves with a prescription or something while you conduct your call, avoiding any eye contact at all. Try stopping and remaining silent until they stop and look at you (if you shut up they will!). Then look them straight in the eye when you ask them probing questions and see if they can maintain contact, if not, it's probably not as they are saying. The body is more likely to be facing away from you when it's not quite truthful. I was in a medical sales role for 10 years and it's surprising how many GPs have swivel chairs, allowing them to strategically angle themselves away from you as you speak. Someone being honest with you is far more likely to be 'open' towards you in the way they sit. Volume can lower when someone is lying. You can see extreme examples of this in children. When they are trying to fib their way out of something, they start to mumble it, almost in the hope you won't quite hear the incriminating evidence. If you listen carefully in your call, and note your customers volume early in the call, try to notice whether there's any dip in volume when they begin to answer any questions on their prescribing and the use of your product. Watch out for hands up to the face and mouth. Again you can often see exaggerated examples of this with children. It seems to be almost a reflex reaction to bring the hands up around the face and particularly the mouth when lying. Almost as if to cover up your mouth to hide the untruthful words coming out of them. Like all of these kinds of tricks, they're not 100% and they can be manipulated by the knowledgeable. However, my guess is most of your customers in medical sales aren't knowledgeable about non verbal language. So next time you ask your customer if he's using your products, if he swivels in his chair to face away from you, looks out of the window whilst mumbling quietly with his hand over his mouth, why follow up with 'are you sure?'. About The Author: John Bult was a sales manager for medical sales in the UK and now runs an internet jobs site advertising medical sales jobs |
Tags: MEDICAL SALES, MEDICAL SALES JOBS
