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Effective Sales Strategies For Today's Pharmacy Challenges

Technical Report · March 2016

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2516.1840

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 The Prescription 

For Pharmacy
Effective Sales
Strategies For Today’s
Pharmacy Challenges

A Better Way To Drive

Growth And
Profitability by
Mouhamad Zoghbi
 

The Idea In Brief

THE PROBLEM THE SOLUTION THE OPPORTUNITY

The challenges facing The author has created
 By determining the most
pharmacies are creating a a plethora of “emotional powerful emotional
strong bottom line focus, motivators” and, using motivators, pharmacies can
but most have little idea common pharmacy re-architect their sales
how to connect with examples has linked them approach to leverage the
patients/customers in ways to specific profitable motivating factors of the
that motivate loyalty and behaviours. patient, providing them
repeat business. The with a stronger foundation
process is more about of competitive advantage

selling than connecting. and growth. 


What you will learn

- Be both service and discount based by creating two teams, the consultative
team and the transactional team.
- Differentiating through service
- Optimising sales techniques even for non-sales people.
- How to lead a culture of care when everyone works for the pay-cheque.
- The buying process
- The PATTERNS pharmacy based communication and selling skills
methodology

The majority of pharmacy sales people believe that sales is a

talent, you either have or you don’t. Fortunately, sales isn't a
talent, it is a combination of processes and behaviours which if
trained and practiced properly can transform into an effective
skill.
Sales is approached as a product feature customers need to be looked at as
in which many sales people sound like a patients, once we view them in this
walking talking brochure. What we manner, we have immediately shifted
need to be aware of is that the same our mindset to health in comparison to
customer buying from a department sales. This creates a health focus and
store has different needs to when s/he shifts the perception of the patient from
is in the pharmacy. Yet, the approach to being sold as a retail customer
sales is similar in most cases. Pharmacy compared to being valued as a human
being. As pharmacy has become
polarised between the discount and the
service model, patients are also being
polarised buying either transactionally
or consultatively.
The valuable question is… Do we have
to be either discount or service based?
Certainly not. We need to adapt to the
The balance between the ‘Retail’ and the ‘Community’ Pharmacy.
The pharmacy industry is fighting to
survive due to harsh reforms,
cannibalising competition, high rents,
wages... and the ultimate result is an
anaemic industry – one that suffers
from extreme fatigue, low drive and
vulnerability to the temptations (or
infections) of constant discounts and
up-selling.
These pressures have transformed the
face of the pharmacy industry. Rather
than remaining a customer-centric hub
of the community, where pharmacists
were trusted and respected, pharmacy
teams treasured their customers and
called them by name and customers
were loyal, pharmacies have been made
to transform into retail establishments.
The moment the ‘community
pharmacy’ became the ‘retail
pharmacy’, we lost the true essence of
the community pharmacy. The
moment that customer numbers, up-
sells and the bottom line became more
important than building a genuine
connection, listening to questions and
times and accommodate our services to
all types of patients.
This guide focuses on where pharmacy
sales is heading, what individuals and
teams need to do to distinguish
themselves from their competition and
how to adapt to the polarisation
between the consultative and
transactional customer.

reassurance, the idea of the ‘community
pharmacy’ lost its value. At that
moment, the ‘community pharmacy’
became replaceable with any large
discount chain or supermarket. With the
rise of the retail pharmacy, no value is
placed on the pharmacy serving a
deeper purpose, the pharmacy
nurturing its staff and providing a
nourishing culture for them, or the
pharmacy genuinely supporting
customers. Instead, the focus is making
the sale. Health is now a commodity
and it is only available to the highest
bidder. And this focus impacts every
area of the pharmacy.
It's time for pharmacy to get a solid
grasp on "Patient Service".
Why? Because Government reforms and
the forces that eradicated the corner
shop, private petrol station and the
local fruit shop will eradicate you.
If you aren't in a position to harness
patient service and loyalty, YOU NEED
TO BE.
Customer loyalty is not just a smiley
face, it's a serious competitive
advantage.
Unfortunately, pharmacy is externally
over-focused, it’s good to be focused on
your industry. But that leaves you
reacting to external disruptions such as
Understanding the patient’s mindset
Customer or Patient?
Why do your customers need to be
looked at as patients?
When someone is at the doctor, they
consider themselves as a patient,
interestingly enough, 72% of patients
feel that they become customers after
leaving a surgery and entering a
pharmacy. Why is this important?
Because once the patient feels that they
are a customer, they lose the health care
aspect and feel that they are being
treated at another retail store, and here
lies the problem in pharmacy. If people
feel that they are treated as another
number and not treated for their health
issues, you are no different to a
supermarket, news agency or gift store.
As health care professionals, we need to
differentiate ourselves from retail
outlets, by making ourselves aware that
people’s health and lives are inter-
linked, without quality health, there is a
poor quality of life and if health is
severely compromised, then death in
many cases is the consequence.
Pharmacies have the potential to
transform peoples’ health, which is
directly linked to their quality of life
reforms, competition, cost of goods
etc... If you are in this reactive position,
you carry a lot of risk.
This is the reason why this document
will guide you towards focusing on your
internal pharmacy performance and
harness your teams skills.

and this can never be addressed in
another retail store.
Disease affects so many parts of our
lives, making it human nature to
cherish our health. Even those who
have ignored their bodies and are obese
or drug abusers, when they are
confronted by disease and the thought
of their death bed, they will do what-
ever it takes to stay alive.
Pharmacy is one of the few professions
where we have the opportunity to
support people’s lives through
protecting this priceless asset - life itself.
Thousands of people within the
community rely on you and your teams
knowledge and experience as an
integral member of the health care
profession. This makes pharmacy the
heart of a healthy community.
For this reason, shifting the mindset
from a customer to a patient is a
stepping stone to better health
outcomes, greater trust and loyal
patients which is the union between the
purpose driven ‘community pharmacy’
and the prosperity of the ‘retail
pharmacy’.

 Do you have to be either service or discount based? Certainly Not.
As pharmacy becomes polarised
between the discount and the service
based model, it is polarising patients as
well. This shift in the profession has
inevitably influenced the buying
behaviour of patients who now have the
traits of the consultative patient and /
or the transactional based patient.
With this in mind, the general
consensus in today's pharmacy leaders
is that the time has come to be either
service based or discount based, I
disagree. Reality imposes a
revolutionary approach and that is to
How to establish the consultative team and the transactional team
The health Consultative Team:
1. Identify the percentage of patients
that are NOT price conscious and are
consultation driven. You can do that by
brainstorming with your team and
writing their names down. It doesn’t
matter if you only thought of 5-10
patients, this is a good start.
Throughout the day within the
pharmacy, start identifying your
consultative based patients when they
come into the pharmacy, write their
names down, they are usually the
patients who are health conscious and
are usually willing to pay for a service if
it is of value.
2. Choose the 4 main disease states
that your patients are affected by, each
area has its different demographic
diseases, for example areas where
accommodate to the needs of every
patient who enters your pharmacy, it is
illogical to send patients to a discount
pharmacy if their price conscious or for
a discount pharmacy to send a patient
to a service based pharmacy because
the patient is seeking a consultation.
The patient walked into your pharmacy
for a reason, if you don't have the
capabilities to attend to the health
needs of this patient, that is when you
can refer him or her to another
pharmacy or health care professional. 

there are high numbers of retirees such
as Port Macquarie would usually have
a higher rate of diabetes. Cities would
usually have higher rates of
depression, obesity or hypertension.
3. Segment the patients into the
disease states they are affected by. For
example are they diabetic,
hypertensive, chronic pain or
depressed and so forth. This is done by
analysing the medicines they are taking
or by searching for disease states
within your computer system. You will
also find patients who overlap into
other disease states, for example an
obese patient may have diabetes,
hypertension and joint pain. Add that
patients name in all of those
categories.

First Name Last Name Gender M/F Age Diabetes Hypertension Pain Obesity

Jason Smith M 64 Yes Yes

Sarah Stevens F 72 Chronic

arthritis
of wrists

Michael Quarry M 39 Yes

Amy Wheeler F 27 Yes

4. Create a specific disease focused package based on products you have within
your pharmacy. For example, for the (pain) patients, take a walk through your
pharmacy and collect:
• medications
• vitamins
• topical medications
• hot and cold heating packs
• footwear and insoles
• braces (this can be chosen when the patient is going to purchase the package
and is tailored according to the affected area.

5. Request patient educational information from organisations, pharmaceutical

companies, the PSA and numerous disease focused entities such as the arthritis
foundation, the cancer council and Beyond Blue that have quality patient education
pamphlets and information.
6. Approach the local physiotherapist or personal fitness trainers who can guide
your patients towards better exercise and teach the patients effective ways to
relieve themselves from pain.

7. Very importantly, educate your team on the package and what it constitutes, role
play ways the team members can educate the patients and promote the package.
N.B: Make sure you generate a list of the patients who are suffering from arthritis
and let the specialised team members approach the patients about this tailored
pain package the next time they are dispensing scripts or in the pharmacy. Patients
suffering from pain are usually compliant to their medications and treatments unlike
hypertensives who are asymptomatic.

8. Set a 3 month price plan for the package, remember that with the consultations
your packages value has significantly increased in comparison to having the
products alone. Supply the patient with constant follow up and support. Make sure
you always add value with your consultations by utilising many of the educational
resources you have available through the various health educational organisations
and the widespread resources many drug companies have to educate your
patients.
9. Make sure you document the progress and always document what products work
the best and are most desired within the package so that you can use them as core
products to relieve the patient from pain.

10. Create a 10 minute consultation with the patient every month to review the
progress of the patient. It is very important to constantly follow your patients up, this
is a valuable service that can help improve their quality of life, the consultation is
the core of this entire package, allowing the patient to have one on one time with
the pharmacist, nurse or health practitioner (preferably the same professional each
time) creates a bond with the patient.

11. Invite your patients to educational meetings, join forces and share the expertise
with other health care professionals such as the local general practitioner,
physiotherapist, nurse educator etc… where you can explain the packages you
have created and promote them to the patients who attend your events. Patients
who go to meetings are usually serious about their health, this is an ideal time to
discuss the benefits of your packages to people who are willing to listen to your
advice.

The price conscious team:

As for the price conscious team that will
be responsible for the price conscious
patient, your primary aim is to educate
and train your team on the different
products that are on sale within the
pharmacy. They need to work closely
with the purchaser to be able to get
quotes from sellers in the case that the
patient is wanting to go somewhere else
due to price differential.
It is very important to note that price
differential patient definitely seek value
beyond price alone, after all, the
majority of people truly care for their
lives especially that health is directly
linked to the quality of life of a human
being.
A person feeling pain is a person feeling
pain whether they can afford to buy the
most expensive treatments or not. The
inability to pay for treatment is by no
means due to the lack of desire to be
cured and symptom free, in the
majority of cases it stems from a sincere
inability to pay for a specific product
like new shoes for a back ache or a
blood sugar monitor because the
patient can not afford the refills.
This is where the discount team needs
to do everything they can to support
and educate the price sensitive patient
on self support by adding valuable
knowledge and know how to the
patients arsenal of treatment so that
they can reduce their costs and gain the
best possible outcomes at the same
time.
The discount team must be equipped
with brochures on common disease
states and educate the patient on
different methods of self treatment. A
vital factor with the discount teams is to
have access to the resources that the
majority of pharmaceutical companies
provide for their patients.
 “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a
man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”.
Such resources are:
- Education can be as strong as
prevention and as powerful as a
cure.
The same applies with the health
education we teach. If we are
capable of effectively educating and
motivating our patients to take action
towards a better health outcome, it
may cure a disease such as a diabetic
from diabetes, an overwhelmed
father from depression or a school
teacher from hypertension.
With the right education and support
many diseases can be cured.
It is extremely important that we
emphasise the value of self
motivation and dedication to the
cause of improving ones health,
because it can significantly reduce
the burden of cost on a patient.
- Samples of products that can be
ordered or that are readily available
for the patient to take as a free gift.
Most pharmaceutical companies are
more than willing to provide samples
to pharmacies that are promoting
their products.
- Translate education and self care to a
dollar figure, for example, by giving a
price conscious patient valuable
advice on eating the right foods, you
may help a diabetic reduce their
blood pressure and reduce the need
to pay for an extra medication.
- Negotiate material and samples when
purchasing stock for wholesalers and
pharmaceutical companies, all
businesses are willing to go the extra
mile to make the sale, so leverage
your purchasing power by requesting
resources that will promote the well
being of your patients but will also
promote the sales of the companies
you deal with, whether they are
pharmaceutical products, medical
devices such as sphygmomanometers,
shoes etc… I recommend that you
leverage every opportunity to request
everything that can add value to your
patients treatment, because it adds
value to your pharmacy and the
service you provide, creating better
patient retention and loyalty.
- Invite your patients to educational
meetings, join forces and share the
expertise with other health care
professionals such as the local general
practitioner, physiotherapist, nurse
educator etc…
It is very important to always add true
value to your patients, even though
price conscious patients may be
seeking the lowest price, if they
perceive your value to be of high
standards and care, they will be loyal
to you and your pharmacy regardless
of a minor difference in price.

Customer/Patient Loyalty

‘Create a tightly knit team driven by purpose,

who come to work not because they have to,
but because they want to’.

The era of the hard sell has had its day.
People simply don’t want to be sold to
anymore. It raises their defences to the
extent that they aren’t able to accept
your help; it means you and your team
members are likely to miss what they’re
really saying and not truly be able to
help; and this ultimately sends them
elsewhere.
All your discounts, rewards cards and
sales tactics are buying is customer
retention not patient loyalty, this means
customers do business with you only
because you are convenient. You may
be the closest pharmacy to their work or
home. Admittedly, there are many
companies that achieve great success by
simply being convenient, even though
their customers may be repeat buyers it
does not mean that they are
emotionally loyal.
Even when you may think that your
customers are loyal, ask yourself, will
my customers move somewhere else if
they had a cheaper and convenient
option? Loyalty is when people are
willing to purchase from you regardless
of price. They are not swayed by price
differentials and discounts they deal
with you because they genuinely believe
in who you are and what you care for.
Loyalty cannot be bought through
discounts, as the moment that your
price is not as cheap as your
competitor’s, bargain addicted patients
will immediately go elsewhere, only to
return when you drop your prices.
Today, loyalty is more important than
ever, especially when it comes to what
people care about the most, their
health. The pharmacies that have a
patient following will weather the
storms ahead, while the majority of
pharmacies are busy cannibalising each
other with their manipulative
techniques until they reach breaking
point laying off staff, employing
cheaper labour, dropping salaries and
creating an atmosphere of fear and
stress amongst their teams, you are
busy focusing on ways to enhance your
teams performance and build loyal
team members and patients.
To create this loyalty, you need to create
an emotional attachment through
consistent quality service and care.
Optimising sales techniques even for non-sales people
I conduct regular pharmacy team
workshops and one of the highest
comments I get is that sales is a talent.
Many pharmacy employees (and sales
people in general) believe that sales is
an intrinsic talent that could not be
learnt. Top sales performers are looked
at as proficient communicators who
have the ability to create sales because
they were born with the natural ability
to sell.
I then conduct a team exercise based on
one question:
Please note: I have started the exercise
on a new page so that you can print it
This cannot be earned overnight. It
starts with a leader who is driven by a
strong purpose and who values the
dignity of each individual’s life and
health. This leadership is key to
creating a culture of trust and empathy,
where each team member is respected
and guided in serving their patients. It
is key to creating a team of people, both
in your pharmacy and in your personal
life, who stick with you through thick
and thin because they are also devoted
to your cause.
This combination of the dedicated,
purpose-driven leader and the value
aligned team then provide the
foundation for patient service, not just
customer sales. And this will be your
differentiating factor. Loyalty is when
people are willing to purchase from you
regardless of price.

and create a team discussion around it.
It’s a great exercise for a meeting.
I usually open the discussion by asking:
Do you think sales a talent?
Do you sometimes find it hard to sell
something to our customers?
Have you ever felt that there is no
connection between you and the
customer?
The majority of team members find it
difficult to sell and believe that sales
is a talent.

Busting the Sales Myth Exercise:

Can you recall a time when you were the customer and the service the sales
person gave you was remarkable?

I would like you to remember the experience and answer the following
questions:

1. How was this person’s attitude like

________________________________________________________________________

2. How did they treat you?

________________________________________________________________________

3. Did they get out of their way to serve you?

________________________________________________________________________

4. How did they make you feel?

________________________________________________________________________

5. Did you buy something?

________________________________________________________________________

6. Did they solve your problem?

________________________________________________________________________

7. Did you talk about the great service with others?

________________________________________________________________________

8. Would you recommend others to go there?

________________________________________________________________________

9. Would you return to that store?

________________________________________________________________________

Based on question 1, write the answers of your colleagues below:

__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Now, I would like you to observe this need your full attention with this next
important finding. Every answer I get in statement.
the workshops is related to a feeling
If you get the entire process of
and not a process. What do I mean by
dispensing the script correct and you do
feelings and not processes? When a
not say a single word to the patient,
patient enters your pharmacy with a
then the patient would have received
prescription that needs to be dispensed,
the medicine that he has been
they are directed to the dispensing area
prescribed… but there are no emotions
where the script is received by the
towards your service, it is strictly a
pharmacy team and dispensed through
transactional process where the
the usual processes in which scripts are
patient feels indifferent or neutral.
dispensed, this is almost identical with
Unfortunately, this is what many
every prescription, they are all
pharmacies actually do, the prescription
processed in the same way by entering
is processed almost robotically and the
the information into the computer,
patient leaves the pharmacy with the
checking the patient’s name, physician,
medicine in his hand without a word
dosage etc… Then the medication is
being said. This is the process of
labelled and handed to the patient, who
dispensing a prescription.

then pays for the medicine and leaves. I

“Thank you for getting my name and

dosage right, I really appreciate it”

I want you to note, that if you get the
process of dispensing a prescription
right, no one is going to pat you on the
back and say, “Thank you for getting my
name and dosage right, I really
appreciate it” because it is an
expectation to get processes right, it’s
your duty.
On the other hand, get the process of
dispensing a prescription wrong, then
all hell breaks loose. I have heard of
patients deliberately taking the wrongly
dispensed medication and going to the
hospital so that they can claim for
damages. In other words get it right and
no one notices but get it wrong and you
are perceived in a very negative
manner.
Let’s get back to the question I
previously asked:
Can you recall a time when you were
the customer and the service the sales
person gave you was remarkable?
How was this person’s attitude like?
The answers I received during the
group exercise were the following:
- Enthusiastic
- Helpful
- Polite
- Professional
- Friendly
- Caring
- Pleasant
- Welcoming
- Honest
- Attentive
- Supportive
- Positive
- Willing to help
The answers are similar in the majority
of workshops.
What is the significance of the above
answers?
The significance is that they alleviate
the perception that sales is a talent.
Why? Because everyone can be
enthusiastic, caring, helpful, polite
etc… if they choose to, you see, no one
really cares too much about the process
or the transaction only unless it is
wrong, but everyone cares about the
standards of service they are given. The
feelings are the main things that
people remember from a remarkable
experience. That means, by having
quality attributes like enthusiasm, care,
empathy, being polite, honesty and so
forth - patients perceive with having
remarkable customer service, which
places you significantly ahead of the
majority of your competition, because
the majority of the workforce is there
just for the pay cheque, employees drag
themselves to work everyday and
customers feel that. So, to optimise
your teams sales performance they need
to be kind, helpful, honest supportive…
these attributes do not require talent,
they simply require the sincere human
touch, this is how you optimise your
pharmacy team’s sales performance and
bust the myth of sales being a talent. 

The PATTERNS Communication and Selling skills Methodology

In the seventeen years of conducting
over 7,600 pharmacy visits across the
globe, I was constantly curious about
why one pharmacy out-performs
another, even though they might be
next door to each other and share the
same demographic pool of patients.
Why does one team sell more products
than the other? How can some
pharmacies out-perform even the
cheapest of competitors? Why would
patients go to one pharmacy when it
was more convenient to go to another?
Over time, I began to notice certain
elements in each of the successful
pharmacies I observed. As I paid closer
attention, I tried to see if I could
condense what they were doing into a
single methodology that other
pharmacies could use.
pharmacies how to make use of it, they
started getting valuable results.
PATTERNS creates a consistent
approach to communicating and
selling by generating extraordinary
patient experiences that lead to
loyalty and growth.
PATTERNS is a step-by-step process,
however, while PATTERNS is a process,
it is also flexible enough to allow the
personality of whoever is using it to
shine through, thus creating authentic
connections between people and these
are the connections that give rise to
loyalty.

I called this methodology PATTERNS

and, when I started teaching other
The steps are: patients waiting, a new box of products
to shelve and a pile of scripts to
• Pause and collect yourself. 
 dispense.

How to pause
• Absorb and understand what the
patient is saying. 
 So how do you do it when there’s a line
of patients waiting, new staff members
to train, a delivery arriving and a
• Think about their situation and
shortage of a popular medication?
support them. 

Step 1 – Simply stop. Take a deep
breath, step back in your mind, and
• Build Trust with your team and
look at your environment from a
patients. 

different perspective. Allow the moment
to flourish in your mind – take the time
• Empathise with the patient. 
 to notice the little details you’ve been
missing.

• Respond appropriately and do Step 2 – Ask yourself:

not react.
• What can I do to improve this
• Nurture your relationship with moment? 

your patients.

• Smile! • How can I add my sincere human

touch to my staff and patients
How To Implement The PATTERNS right now? 

methodology: That’s all there is to it! Simply
taking a moment to breathe and
Pause: observe will lower your heart
Pausing is the first and most important rate, slow the adrenaline running
step of the PATTERNS methodology. It through your system, and make
sets the scene for the whole interaction. you able to connect and listen on
It is the first impression that makes the a deeper level so that you can
difference between whether you are provide the best service possible.
going to have a quality conversation
Example 1: One of the biggest
with your patient or not, and it is the
observations I see in pharmacies is
first step to building trust between you
when a pharmacy assistant is stocking
and the patient. If implemented
shelves. She is usually immersed with
properly, you will have a wonderful
her duty that she doesn’t notice any of
head-start to reaching a successful
the patients around her. This is a
outcome. Yet, it is the step we are least
frustration to both managers and
likely to take when there’s a line of
patients. Pausing triggers a conscious
awareness that tells her to focus on her
surroundings and not only on packing
the shelves, this means she will pause
and make herself aware of her senses,
such as peripheral vision and hearing so
that if a patient is passing by she can
acknowledge and serve.
Example 2: Many pharmacists are
inundated with prescriptions and must
be constantly focused on processing the
right medication to the right patient.
Yet, this creates an intense focus on the
computer screen (an auto-pilot state of
mind) which in-turn removes the focus
of interacting with patients. By pausing,
taking a deep breath and raising your
head away from the computer screen,
you have created a situation where you
can establish eye contact with patients
and acknowledge them. If you notice
that patients have been waiting for a
long time, you now have the ability to
say something as simple as “ Thank you
for being patient, I’d rather take a little
bit of time and make sure all the
prescriptions are dispensed right, better
safe than sorry:) - Now, you have won
yourself an extra few minutes because
your patients always want you to get
the prescription dispensed correctly.
Absorb:
Because pharmacists and pharmacy
teams are so inundated with patients,
managing team members, last-minute
requests, finding time for lunch, and
feeling stressed or frustrated, their
brain simply doesn’t have the ability to
absorb everything. As a result, it ignores
the majority of the information
surrounding it so it can focus on what it
believes to be most important.
Unfortunately, this can mean that you
or your team members can easily
become absentminded and forgetful
when they communicate with patients,
team members or tasks that they don’t
believe are important.
By contrast, absorbing relevant
information brings more clarity about a
patient’s or colleague’s situation as well
as the ability to relay accurate
information, which is vital in the health
care industry where one small mistake
could cost a life.
How to absorb
How do we stimulate our brain and
allow for better absorption of the
information we need to remember and
implement?
Focusing on and remembering key
points is one way to train yourself to
absorb. If you find that you struggle to
remember conversations, ideas, lectures
or what a patient is telling you, the
easiest way to remember is to absorb
the key words or points of
communication.
Step 1 – Start by remembering one key
word at a time. Keep a notepad in your
pocket and write down the key words of
any request. While I’ve heard several
pharmacy members say that it feels
wrong to write things down in front of a
patient, manager or colleague, I argue
that your patient, manager or colleague
would rather you write down their
needs and requests correctly and get
things right the first time rather than
make a mistake or forget.
Step 2 – Confirm your understanding
with the patient. Ask questions about
anything you’re unsure about or, if a
team member is speaking to a patient
for you, have them find out the
information you need to respond to a
request.
One of the most common examples is
when the pharmacy receives a phone
call from a patient which is answered
by a pharmacy assistant. This patient
may be worried about a potential drug
to drug reaction and has asked the
pharmacy assistant whether it is safe to
take drug x with drug y. The assistant
who answered the phone must relay the
information to the pharmacist
accurately. I have witnessed some
shockers, for example:
- There is someone on the line asking if
they can take two drugs together.
- There’s someone on the line who’d like
to talk to you.
The point that I make here is that the
pharmacist has not been given sufficient
information about the issue and the
patient on the phone will have to repeat
herself. Let’s say that the patient did
take a medication and has fallen into
shock, due to poor information
gathering the line is probably closed
while the person is suffering on the
other side.
. The easiest way to counteract this
problem is to give your team a standard
set of questions to ask every patient
before coming to you (I have created a
small note pad that you can print and
use for such cases).
Think: 

The reason you must pause and
absorb before thinking is because
this will ensure you are consciously
paying attention to your patients, it
serves as a platform to focus and
think about what is being
communicated.
How to think
Step 1 - Diffuse the situation
Deal with the situation that may impede
your thought process. We all have our
own personal and work related issues
that affect our mind. Take a conscious
moment to pause and focus on the task
that you need to complete. If there are
impatient customers or team members
making it difficult to focus on your
work, address them first.
Step 2 - Communication is key to
removing the pressure.
A typical example I see in numerous
pharmacies is the use of a bell to
indicate that there is a need for
more support staff. When
the bell is rung, other
team members have to
attend to their
colleagues distress call,
this removes much needed team
members from what they are doing and
in many cases causes a cascade of staff
deprivation in other areas of the
pharmacy.
Before you ring that bell! Think of ways - Printing disease information about
you can win yourself some valuable their disease/symptoms.
time.
- Provide printed information about the
For example: medication

- Communicate with patients waiting - Give advice

in line by saying something like “I
appreciate your patience, I’ll be as - Recommend accompanying products
efficient as I can”. or services

- If there is a specific problem with a - Refer to other professionals

patient such as an issue with his - Provide patient with website address
credit card which may take time, give
it a minute, if not resolved -
communicate with the patients
waiting in line by saying “We have a
Trust:
slight problem that should take a
moment, thank you for your patience”
“Trust Is When You Give
If the problem is not resolved, within
More In Value Than You
approximately a minute - communicate
with the patients in line by saying “Is Take In Payment”.
there anyone who urgently needs to be
served?” Usually the answer is No,
sometimes there are patients who have
specific pains or symptoms and are So what is trust? And how can you
waiting to pay for their medication to build it?
take it, serve them first or ring the bell
for back up. Trust is one of the hardest things to
explain. If I asked you why you trust
Step 3 – Snap Out Of Autopilot your best friend, chances are you
wouldn’t have a definitive answer. Out
Make a conscious decision to snap out of all the definitions of trust that I have
of autopilot and focus on the work at researched, the one that resonated most
hand. If you are dispensing scripts, was that people trust you when you
focus on the names, dosages and give them more in value than you take
information needed to make sure that in payment. This definition, or law, is
you have everything right. shared in a book titled The Go Giver by
Bob Burg and John David Mann, along
Step 4 – Educate Your Patients
with another four laws that are key to
Think of how you can educate patients building trust.
by:
 • The Law of Value: Your true worth
is determined by how much more you
give in value than you take in payment. 
 they will trust you and the more people
• The Law of Compensation: Your
income is determined by how many
people you serve and how well you
serve them. 

• The Law of Influence: Your
influence is determined by how
abundantly you place other people you
serve and how 
 that you are genuinely interested in
• The Law of Authenticity: The most
valuable gift you have to offer is
yourself. 

• The Law of Receptivity: The key to
effective giving is to stay open to
receiving. 
 remembered. If you don’t remember
Anyone is bound to trust you when you
give more than you take, selflessly serve
others, place other people’s interests
first, value yourself and sincerely
support others, and give without
expectations of receiving. 

I believe that if you approach every
patient interaction with these five laws
in mind, you are more likely to focus on
helping that person and not focus on
the sale. This personal focus then builds
trust between you and the patient,
which makes it more likely that they
will buy from you. Why? Because when
we trust someone, we are more likely
to listen to their advice and support
and follow their recommendations.
The more you and your team place the
interests of your patients first, the more
will gravitate towards you. The more
they will support you to help your
pharmacy reach its goals with loyalty
and referrals, and the stronger your
financial platform will be.
Building trust over the long term 

A key way to build trust is simply
recognising return patients. Showing
that you know them will make them
feel special and respected. It also shows
helping them with their issues, which
increases your perceived sincerity and
trustworthiness. 

Step 1 – If you remember the
patient’s name, call them by name –
if it’s early in your relationship, they’ll
be surprised and honoured that you’ve
their name, saying ‘Hi, it’s nice to see
you again,’ is a simple way to show
them that you are familiar with their
face and that you are happy to see them
again.
Step 2 – Refer to their previous visit.
If you previously served a patient, you
are likely to remember the problems
they were facing. A great way to show
you care and build trust is to ask how
their treatment went after their
previous visit. Patients will be
impressed that you remembered. ‘Hi,
it’s nice to see you again. Wow – that
cut on your finger has healed perfectly,
hasn’t it?’
Step 3 – Ask the patient a question
that is not related to business. By
bringing a personal focus into your
interaction, you affirm that the patient
is more than just a sale. There are so
many things we can ask that don’t have
anything to do with business. I walked
into a Darryl Lea store the other day
and the assistant said, ‘You’re by
yourself today. Where’s your daughter?’
I had forgotten that the last time I
walked in I was with my daughter
Anissa, and was so happy that she
remembered. When I told her that I was
having all the chocolates for myself that
day, she giggled and said, ‘I’ll make sure
I let her know that dad has been eating
chocolate behind her back.’ I loved her
response and said, ‘I’d better get the
whole family some chocolate then,’
which shows the economic benefits of
these personal touches.
Step 4 – Acknowledge the patient. If
you see a patient not being attended to
and you are in the middle of serving
another patient, politely say to the
patient you’re talking to, ‘Can you
please give me a moment just to let this
other patients know that I’ll be with her
in a moment?’ Then acknowledge the
waiting patient and let them know you
will be with them as soon as you or any
of your colleagues have completed
serving other patients.
Step 5 – Thank the patient for saving
your life. There are so many times a
patient walks in and you are right in the
middle of doing something like
dispensing, cleaning the shelves or
pricing. Rather than being irritated with
the interruption, thank them for it. Tell
the patient you will be with them in a
moment and when you greet them, say,
‘Thanks for saving my life – I’ve been
pricing for the past hour and you’re a
great excuse to run away from it all.’
Empathy
Empathy allows us to feel and
understand the emotions, problems,
suffering and needs of others, and paves
the way to giving sensitive and caring
support. Empathy is the human
paradigm in business.
Empathy is essential in pharmacy, as
patients do not go to a pharmacy to
solve small problems. They go to a
pharmacy to solve big problems. The
bigger the problem, the bigger their
need to be heard and understood.
Patients usually have the ability to
handle up to three problems before
they seek support. I believe that this is
so important that it is worth repeating.
Patients have the ability to handle up
to three problems before they seek
advice. Why is this so important,
because this is where you have the
opportunity to implement ‘Empathetic
Based Selling’ instead of ‘Up-selling’.
The difference is that you are selling
directly to the needs of the patient,
which means you are more likely to
make the sale compared to up-selling
techniques.
For example:
A teething child who cries during the
day and wakes up a couple of times
during the night is bearable for the
majority of parents because they
understand that teething is a natural
phenomenon. But when the crying
increases throughout the night, then
the original problem of teething has
transformed into a cascade of problems
such as:
- parents become fatigued
- Lack of productivity
- tension at home or work
- frustration
Notice how teething is the cause, but
the cascade of problems affected by
teething is what makes the parents
seek your advice.
How to be empathetic
Step 1 – Use empathy-based statements
in your patient conversations. Some
ideas are:
• I am sensitive to your pain. 

• I can feel your frustration. 

• I know how confusing it can be at
times. 

• I’m really sorry to see you in so
much pain. 

• You must be going through so
much at the moment.


You can use such statements after the
patient tells you about the main
problems they are facing, and these
statements will help create a powerful
emotional link between you and the
patient. 

Respond 

When you think of it, pharmacy is all
about responding or reacting to a
treatment. When taking a medicine, the
difference between responding to the
drug and reacting to it may be the
difference between life and death. A
great physical depiction of a reaction is
Will Smith in the movie Hitch, who had
a negative reaction to some seafood
where his face started swelling like a
balloon (if you feel like a great laugh, I
recommend you watch it).
In pharmacology there could
be a big difference between a
reaction and a response.
A response is related to progress,
whereas reacting is seen as a
regressive state that has negative
attributes.
Reactions may be circumstantial, such
as reactions triggered by stress, fatigue
and strong emotions. They may also be
linked to strong beliefs – if someone is
very passionate about their religion,
gender or another issue, they can
become very reactive. Where a response
is a conscious decision, a reaction is
usually instinctive. Not all reactions are
emotional, though. Some are simply
thoughtless, such as a customer asking
‘Where can I find baby rash cream?’ and
receiving one of the following answers:
• ‘Over there.’ 
 options…
• ‘Go to the next two aisles, turn
left and you’ll find them on 
 As I have previously said, many sales
the bottom-right shelf.’ 
 people immediately jump to the
• ‘I think,mmm, you might be able
to find them at aisle four or five.’ 
 reason, responding to the patient’s
No thought was put into these answers,
making them reactions rather than
responses.
Now imagine if the pharmacy assistant
had followed these steps in response to
the baby rash question.
Pharmacy assistant: Who is the cream
for?
Customer: My eight-month-old daughter.
Pharmacy assistant: Has she had
frequent rashes or is it just a one-off
rash?
Customer: No, she has had them for a
while now.
Pharmacy assistant: Have you changed
anything, like her food, nappies or
shampoos lately?
Customer: Yes, I’ve changed the nappies
because the previous brand was more
expensive.
Pharmacy assistant: We need to help your
daughter’s skin by getting rid of the
irritant. In this case it may be the change
of nappy brands, so let’s look at some
How to respond
solution by selling a product before they
have significant insight into the
patient’s underlying problems. For this
problem shouldn’t take place until you
have paused to ensure you are present,
have absorbed the information about
their situation, and have thought about
the appropriate solution.
To respond, you need to recommend,
advise and / or refer.
Step 1 – Make a recommendation
based on the information you have so
far.
This might be a specific product
according to the feedback you have
received from other patients, for
example, ‘I recommend using calamine
lotion instead of baby powder because
other patients noticed that the powder
was drying the rash and causing more
irritation to the skin.’
Step 2 – Advise based on your status
as a professional and expert in your
field.
Unlike making recommendations based
on other patients’ feedback, this advice
is based on your qualifications and
experience, such as when you advise a
patient on how they should take their
medication and potential side effects.
Step 3 – At times, two minds are
better than one, and in these cases
the next step is to refer the patient to
another health care professional.
The pharmacy is usually a patient’s
entry into the health care service, which
often takes place before a patient goes
to a doctor or hospital. This is why it’s
important to refer to the relevant
specialists in the eld if you don’t have
enough of an understanding of the
problem, or if it is out of your realm of
expertise.
Referring the patient to the pharmacist,
nurse or assistant in charge of a specific
section within the pharmacy allows the
patient to be given professional advice
from the professional in that field. The
same goes for referring a patient to a
specialist outside the pharmacy.
The Reactive Patient
When people are sick or expect to be
treated better, conversations can spiral
into angry confrontations and negativity.
These reactions are predominantly an
emotional, thoughtless, uncontrolled
driving force that is hard to stop once it
has spiralled. The best way to handle
such patients is to leave them alone and
not give them more reasons to react. Let
them know that you are aware that they
are not happy and that you will help
them resolve this issue when they calm
down.
Nurture:
How to nurture your patients.
Like trust and empathy, nurturing your
patients is an ongoing process as well as
something that needs to take place
within an interaction. Here are some
ideas to help you nurture your patients.
Step 1 – Treat them as you would
treat a loved one. Listen to their
problems, use empathetic phrases to
show you understand, be generous with
your time and advice, and go above and
beyond their expectations.
Step 2 – At the end of every visit or
interaction, ensure you ask whether
they have any other concerns. You
just never know what other issues the
patient may have; asking this question
makes the patient think and may bring
out other concerns that you can discuss.
Step 3 – Follow up in a few days.
When your team first serves a patient, it
is very important to write down their
contact details and the problems they
were experiencing when they first
visited so that you ask them whether
the problems have improved or not. By
referring to details from the original
conversation, you will show the patient
that you were actively listening and
they will be impressed with your insight
into their issues.
Remember that your relationship
isn’t over once you have given them a
solution to their problems – this is
actually the beginning of their healing
process and if you have the compassion
to follow up on their healing progress
when they leave your pharmacy, the
patient will be humbled by your care.

Smile:

In a pharmacy, a sincere desire to serve

is essential as it puts patients at ease
and makes them more likely to ask for
help. And the easiest way you can show
your desire to serve is to smile.

Team members with happy, smiling

faces who are genuinely committed to
helping a patient solve their problem
draw patients in, while those who seem There is no generic substitute for
too busy or act like the patient is a sincere human interaction.
hassle repel them. This is especially true
when a patient might have a problem
that they are a little embarrassed about.

How to smile

Just smile:)
 For any enquiries contact:
Mouhamad Zoghbi
Pharmacy Sales Performance Professional
+ 61 450 528 022
E-mail at:

mouhamad@theprescriptionforpharmacy.com
www.theprescriptionforpharmacy.com

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