7 Tips for Making Pharma Speaker Programs More Effective

Speaker programs can be effective if done correctly. Follow these tips to help improve speaker programs for the pharma, biotech, and medical device industries.

Keyword(s): speaker programs

If you’re a life science organization, you may be considering using speaker programs as a solution to market your products. Many companies also produce educational programs in conjunction with their speaker programs.

These programs aim to train physicians and other health care providers about prescription drugs. They also cover the benefits, risks, and use for patient care.

If you’re considering running a pharma speaker program for your brand, it can be challenging to make it as useful as possible. That’s where we come in to help. Here are seven tips on how to host the best pharma speaker program possible.

One Training Doesn’t Fit All

Remember, one training style doesn’t fit everyone, and this is essential to consider when planning a pharma speaker program. Different employees with various responsibilities must be included in speaker programs, from the actual speakers to evaluators and selectors to program organizers.

These diverse roles and responsibilities require different training requirements. For example, medical affairs personnel deliver a different role than their peers in the marketing team.

The core training for the event should be customized, and with training relevant to each group to increase effectiveness.

It’s All About the Details

When it comes to training staff for the speaker program, don’t stop at the obvious points when discussing the topics to be covered. Remember that the exceptions can be just as useful to know as the rule, so don’t leave these essential parts out.

For example, commercial representatives must learn the rules for attendees like government staff members from organizations like the department of defense and veteran’s administration.

Give Attendees What They Want

When hosting a speaker program in the pharma industry, it’s easy to discuss your feature products. You may be keen to focus on the information you want to deliver about how excellent your products are.

But what most attendees want to know is how your product will improve their lives. More specifically, how your products will improve the lives of their patients.

When making your sales pitches, and showing your marketing materials, try focusing on how your products can help attendees provide more effective care to their patients. Your pitch should show how your products can save time and energy and help them to become more successful in their work.

Focus on Feedback

Aim to incorporate surveys, questionnaires, and extra opportunities for your target market. This will provide you with information that will teach you how to meet their requirements better. That way, you can improve your speaker program for next time.

Ask program attendees to give you feedback on the event. While it’s useful to ask for attendee’s thoughts on basic parts of the program like event communications, food and drinks, and the meeting space, don’t be afraid to dig deeper.

Find out what attendees thought of the speakers, the information provided, and whether the program will have an impact on their behavior in the future.

It’s also a great idea to take the opportunity to make the most of any social and networking opportunities offered. Be open to attendee’s feedback, even if it isn’t what you want to hear. Then, let them know of any changes you’ll make in the future via an email marketing campaign.

While criticisms aren’t nice to hear, they can help kick you to improve your speaker program planning and delivery.

Review and Use Your Data

When you receive data following a pharma marketing speaker program, don’t forget to use it. If you have plenty of potentially useful data, but you’re not sure what to do with it, look into your options.

There are platforms available that help you find solutions to improve the effectiveness of your speaker programs, learn more about what you’re doing right and wrong, and seek trends that can help you make decisions about future programs.

With some solutions, you can track essential information and data relating to speaker utilization, budget, attendance, cost per program, prices per team, and more without the requirement of using various tools and resources.

Don’t Forget the Vendors

Third-party vendors are essential for so many aspects of speaker programs, so it’s crucial not to forget them. Vendors must understand and be familiar with your brand’s speaker program policy.

Vendors should be trained in venue selection, attendee requirements, meal limits, and more. Make sure vendors are fully versed in delivering relevant program information.

Refer to Real-Life Situations

To keep attendees interested, your speaker program training must extend beyond delivering information on rote concepts and policy. To make the training memorable, include situations that staff members are likely to face during the event.

When teaching the commercial team, don’t just recite the FDA’s rules on product promotion. Teach the team about knowledge checks that include speakers veering off the selected slides to discuss anecdotal and unsupported product claims.

Planning Speaker Programs With Success

With our tips and advice, you can plan speaker programs bound to be a roaring success.

Speaker programs allow companies to provide healthcare professionals with training and education on the safe use of their products, provided by an expert. With the right program, brands can deliver engaging, effective, and on-going training that reduces the potential for risk while strengthening a business’s compliance culture.

Here at Frictionless Solutions, we know that planning an event can be challenging. If you need assistance planning and strategizing the perfect pharma speaking event, we’re here to help. Learn more about our event planning services here.