In my early days in medical sales, retail chemist calls were a bit of a mystery. On the training course they were presented as a quick way of gaining useful information regarding your local GPs prescribing patterns. As I visited pharmacies to ask what the local GPs were doing it was rather soul destroying to be frequently told to bog off!

What my training course had failed to teach me, is that although calls on retail pharmacy can be invaluable, as a general rule in both life and business, people rarely give you something for nothing!! Up to a point, all I was getting out of the 1 hour a day set aside for chemist calls was a little bit of exercise and a few free cups of tea. It was an experienced peer who suggested I needed to provide my pharmacists with a useful service to build a relationship with them. Once the emotional bank account is in credit, your chances of gaining something back are far higher.

From this point forward, I took a different approach to my calls. Patients are often a little daunted by their visit to the Doctors. As a result, it's only when they reach the chemist with their prescription they realise they actually no nothing about their new treatment, so they ask the pharmacist. At this point, a pharmacist who has recently been briefed regarding the treatment by a medical rep can look very good in front of his customer through being able to explain what it's all about. Every time we had an change in license, a new dosage or any developments, I would visit the pharmacies to keep them updated. The impact was excellent. All of a sudden I had pharmacists readily available to track local prescribing, happy to put stock on their shelves for me with new products, and supporting my cause in their capacity on local prescribing groups.

Here's my 5 top reasons to work with retail chemists.

1.A pharmacist who builds up confidence in you over time 'will' reveal prescribing patterns of local Doctors to you. they will often be able to tell you instantly who is prescribing what products for which indications. 2.When you are promoting newer products, perhaps not stocked by the pharmacist, all your hard work can go to waist when the patient turns up at the pharmacy, only to find there's no stock....a quick call to the GP and your script is changed to a competitor which is in stock! a solid relationship with your pharmacist may enable you to persuade the pharmacist to order your new product in, or perhaps call the GP to confirm they will be using it after your call so that they can stock up. 3.A pharmacist well versed in the benefits of your product can instil confidence in the patient which may stop the patient returning to the GP and asking to change back to and older product. 4.Good rapport with a pharmacist can often generate access to tough GPs who they may be friendly with. 5.Many pharmacists are now key figures in local Health groups, holding positions on PCTs and having influence over general prescribing decision in your area.

Ultimately it's pretty boring and pointless making calls for which you perceive no or little benefit. With a little extra thought into providing retail pharmacists with a valuable service up front, you can build that emotional back account to provide a healthy return.

Good luck.

About the Author

This article is written by John Bult of Pharma Jobs