Awareness to advocacy

Many of us during this holiday season will be looking for gift recommendations and will choose different ways to get them. Most will check the internet for online reviews or suggestions but the most powerful marketing tool is word of mouth or a referral or recommendation from a trusted source.

The same is true when it comes to adoption, penetration and diffusion of medical technologies, like drugs, devices or digital health products or services, so manufacturers of those products are always interested in creating advocates to spread the word. The traditional advocate has been a key opinion leader (KOL), a clinician who has influence with peers because of their standing, reputation or accomplishments, but times are changing.

1. Physician KOLs can come from different backgrounds and can be a full time academic or not. They also can have different advocacy interests. Some advocate for systems or policy change. Some advocate for patients with a particular disease or circumstance ( e.g.uninsured or homeless) while others advocate for a particular technology or interest, like innovation. Advocacy can also be local, regional, national or international and can target multiple touch points like advocating for a particular technology in an integrated delivery system or for a particular bill in the halls of their state legislature or the US Congress. In the right setting, they all serve the purposes and assist medtech, biopharma and digital health companies.
2. KOLs don't necessarily have to be doctors or other sick care professionals e.g they can be patients, celebrities or other high profile personalities or others on the internet using social media
3. KOLs follow a path from awareness to neutral advocacy (recommend a particular product, person or service as one among other equals, like the names of three doctors they recommend in referral) or they can be more positive advocates for a particular product (there is only one doctor you should see for your particular problem, and she works in LA, or , the best drug for your disease is this one)
4. Developing KOLs into advocates takes a plan and execution using a combined digical solution i.e. some face to face time and some online digital tools.
5. KOL advocacy is preceded by awareness, relationship and engagement.
6. KOLs engage when their needs and values coincide with the needs of the manufacturer
7. Here are the main ways manufacturers engage KOLs

8. Here are 8 KOL development best practices

9. The key to a successful advocacy relationship is the ability to translate technology into patient value with someone who has an entrepreneurial mindset.

10. KOLs, like everyone else, buy emotionally and justify rationally, so you will need to address their non-cognitive barriers and biases.

11. Biopharma companies spend more on marketing than they do on R/D and creating advocates for their products is a key part of their strategy.

12. Just like AI and deep intelligence are raising questions about the need for the doctor's touch, similar questions arise about the need for sales and medical science liaisons and medical affairs departments. Maybe they should be virtual.

Developing KOL advocates, be they patients, doctors or others, covers a lot of AREA and means moving them from awareness to a relationship to engagement to advocacy. Finding innovation champions, particularly employed physicians, is not easy.

Here are some tips:

1. Create a free to the customer model so they don't have to pay for it

2.Make it painless. Be sure to make your product as easy to buy and use as possible so that you do most of the work and they client gets most of the value.

3. Find an internal mole, connector, maven, salesperson or doer who knows the landmines and knows how to remove the gatekeepers.

4. Be sure you know your potential target pain, who it affects and how your solution aligns with their strategy. 

5. Find a third party advocate or ex-employees who can provide you with the necessary support and business intelligence.

6. Ask the grunts in the trenches . They know the leaders, who does what and who can get things done.

7. Contact those with a track record. While past accomplishes are no guarantee of future accomplishments, nor, as they say, if you want to get something done talk to someone who is busy always works, at least it will give you some warm leads. If they say no, ask "Who else should I talk to?". Doers know other doers.

8.Social media tracking is a great place to listen. Most use it to shout.

9. Find disproportionate pain points and who has the most to gain from treating them.

10. Go big or go home. Focus on big market opportunities, not tinkering. 

Once you have an engaged audience, then you have to convert them to fans. Take a page out of the psychology of fandom for some tips on how to do it.

First, measure the level of engagement of your employed doctors. Next, use an intervention strategy. Finally, remeasure the levels to see if you made a difference and adjust your approach based on the results.

You know you have succeeded when you see KOLs in the drug store or the doctors lounge wearing your T shirt.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs