Personal Selling
in Pharma
Marketing
Shilpa Garg

PERSONAL SELLING
• The purpose of personal selling is to
bring the right product into contact
with the right customer and to make
certain that ownership transfer takes
place.

SALESMANSHIP
• It is a direct face-to-face, seller-to-
buyer influence, which can
communicate the facts necessary for
making a buying decision, or it can
utilize the psychology of persuasion
to encourage the formation of a
buying decision.

AIDAS Theory of Selling
• Securing Attention
• Gaining Interest
• Kindling Desire
• Inducing Action
• Building Satisfaction

AIDAS
• During the successful selling interview, the
doctor's mind passes through five
successive mental states: Attention.
Interest, Desire, Action and
Satisfaction.
• Implicit in this theory is the notion that
the doctor goes through these five stages
consciously, so the sales presentation
must lead the doctor through them in the
right sequence if a sale is to result.

AIDAS
Securing Attention
• The goal is to put the doctor into a receptive
state of mind.
• The first few minutes of the interview are crucial.
The MR has to have a reason, or an excuse, for
conducting the interview. If the MR previously
has made an appointment, this phase presents
no problem, but experienced MR's say that even
with an appointment, a MR must posses
considerable mental alertness, and be a skilled
conversationalist, to survive the start of the
interview.
• The doctor's guard is naturally up, since he or
she realizes that the caller is bent on selling
something.
• The MR must establish good rapport at once.

AIDAS
Securing Attention
• The MR needs an ample supply of
“conversation openers”.
• Favorable first impressions are assured by,
among other things proper attire, neatness,
friendliness and a genuine smile.
• Skilled MR's often decide upon conversation
openers just before the interview so that
those chosen are as timely as possible.
• Generally it is advantageous if the opening
remarks are about the doctor (people like to
talk and hear, about themselves) or if they
are favorable comments about the doctor's
business.

AIDAS
Securing Attention
• A good conversation opener causes the
doctor to relax and sets the stage for the
total presentation. Conversation openers that
cannot be readily tied in with the remainder
of the presentation should be avoided, for
once the conversation starts to wander, great
skill is required to return to the main theme.

AIDAS
Gaining Interest
• The second goal is to intensify the
doctor's attention so that it evolves
into strong interest. Many techniques
are used to gain interest. Some MR's
develop a contagious enthusiasm for
the product. When the product is
technical, flip charts, or other visual
aids serve the same purpose.

AIDAS
Gaining Interest
• Throughout the interest phase, the hope is to
search out the selling appeal that is most
likely be effective.
• Sometimes, the doctor drops hints, which the
MR then uses in selecting the best approach.
To encourage hints by the doctors, some MR's
devise stratagems to elicit revealing
questions.
• Others, ask the doctor questions designed to
clarify attitudes and feelings towards the
product. The more experienced the MR, the
more he or she has learned from interviews
with similar doctors.

AIDAS
Gaining Interest
• But even experienced sales personnel do
considerable probing, usually, the questions-
and-answer variety, before identifying the
strongest appeal. In addition,
doctor’s­interests are affected by basic
motivations, closeness of the interview
subject to current problems, its timeliness,
and their mood - receptive, skeptical, or
hostile, and the MR must take all these into
account in selecting the appeal to emphasize.

AIDAS
Kindling Desire
• The third goal is to kindle the doctor's desire
to the ready-to- buy / prescribe point.
• The MR must keep the conversation running
along the main line towards the sale. The
development of sales obstacles, the doctor's
objections, external interruptions, and
digressive remarks can sidetrack the
presentation during the phase.
• Obstacles must be faced and ways, found to
get around them.

AIDAS
Kindling Desire
• Objections need answering to the doctor's
satisfaction. Time is saved and the chance of
making a sale improved if objections are
anticipated and answered before the doctor
raises them.
• External interruptions cause breaks in the
presentation, and when conversation
resumes, good MR's summarize what has
been said earlier before continuing.
• Digressive remarks generally should be
disposed of tactfully, with finesse, but
sometimes distracting digression is best
handled bluntly, for example, \"well, that's all
very interesting, but to get back to the
subject ... \"

AIDAS
Inducing Actions
• If the presentation has been perfect, the
doctor is ready to act - that is, to
prescribe.
• However, prescription is not automatic
and, as a rule, must be induced.
• Experienced MR's rarely try for a dose
until they are positive that the doctor is
fully convinced of the merits of the
proposition. Thus, it is up to the MR to
sense when the time is right.

AIDAS
Inducing Actions
• The trial close, the close on a minor point,
and the trick close are used to test the
doctor's reactions. Some MR never ask for
a definite \"yes\" or \"no\" for fear of getting
a \"no\", from which they think there is no
retreat But it is better to ask for the order
/ prescription straight-fowardly. Most
doctors find it is easier to slide away from
hints than from frank requests for an
order / prescription.

AIDAS
Building Satisfaction
• After the doctor has given the order /
prescription, the MR should reassure the
doctor that the decision was correct. The
doctor should be left with the impression that
the MR merely helped in deciding.
• Building satisfaction means thanking the
doctor for the order / prescription, and
attending to such matters as making certain
that the order / prescription is filled as
written, and following up on promises made.
• The order / prescription is the climax of the
selling situation, so the possibility of an
anticlimax should be avoided - doctor
sometimes unsell themselves and the MR
should not linger too long.