The best phone system for pharmaceutical companies and laboratories
Add systematic phone coverage of your territory to the visits you already make.
Hundreds of companies use 
to make every call pay off
The situation
What holds you back today
Field coverage limited by geography
Pharmacies unreachable at peak times
Activity reporting that eats the day
The answer
What Skipcall changes
Specific to your industry
Pharmacy objections, and what they actually mean
On the phone a pharmacist or a dispenser answers you in seconds, usually between two patients. Three or four sentences come back almost every time. None of them is a final no, but each one calls for a different answer.
“We buy through our group”
The objection is real: listing and terms are negotiated by the buying group, by head office in a multiple, or through the wholesaler. It does not close the door, because visibility in the branch, the shelf and what the team recommends over the counter stay with the pharmacy. Ask whether your range is already available to them: if it is, the call is about visibility; if it is not, the pharmacy becomes the one asking their group for it.
“Send me some information”
It is rarely a refusal, it is a lack of time right now. Accept, but send nothing without an agreed call-back date and a question asked before you send: what do you dispense today on this segment? Information sent with no call-back booked is a door politely closed.
“I am on the counter, call back later”
Take it literally: footfall peaks at opening, in the middle of the day and late afternoon when the surgeries finish. Do not push, ask for a precise window and write it on the record. Calling back at exactly the time you were given buys a credibility no argument can.
“We are not allowed to accept anything”
What may be offered to health professionals is limited by the industry codes and by the pharmacy's own policy, and teams are used to having to justify it. On the phone the right answer is to promise nothing: what you bring is information and service. Pushing on that point costs you the contact and exposes your company.
Promotional information about medicines has a framework of its own: content consistent with the summary of product characteristics, trained staff, and for prescription medicines the ABPI Code of Practice, administered by the PMCPA. The phone loosens none of it, and what cannot be said on a visit cannot be said on a call.
The script
The script for a call to a community pharmacy
You are calling a pharmacy on your territory that you do not visit, or not this week. There are people at the counter and you have a minute to find out whether you are talking now or later. This script is there to get past the counter, ask one useful question and leave with a date.
The opener when a dispenser answers
“Hello, [first name last name], from [company], I look after this area. I can hear you are busy: is [pharmacist] there, or shall I call you back at a time that suits you better?”
Acknowledging the queue before asking for the pharmacist avoids the reflex no, and it often gets you the right window on the very first call.
The opener with the pharmacist
“Hello [name], [first name last name], from [company]. I am not going to take you through a range. One question: on [segment], what do you dispense today when a patient asks for it at the counter?”
Starting from what is dispensed, rather than from what you sell, separates a useful call from a placement call.
If they say they still have stock
“That is exactly what interests me. Since when, and how fast is it moving? If it is not moving, that is not a stock question, it is a question of where it sits and what the team says about it, and there I can be useful.”
If they say they have no shelf space
“I am not asking you for space. I am asking what your team recommends alongside on [indication], because that happens at the counter rather than on the shelf. Do the dispensers offer it today?”
Shelf space is a fixed constraint, what the team recommends is not. Moving the conversation there reopens a call that looked closed.
If they say three companies have already called this week
“I am sure they have, and I am not going to take ten minutes off you. I will leave you one piece of information, the one that is useful at the counter, and I will call back when you tell me to. Would you rather I came in on the next round instead?”
Closing the call
“So I call you back on [day] around [time], and I will send over what we talked about before then. I have also noted that you would rather be called mid-morning: I will not ring you at the busy times again.”
The window written on the record is what makes the difference across a whole territory. On the second call you land at the right moment.
At Skipcall, every call is recorded, transcribed and summarised, so the script gets corrected against what your reps actually say rather than what we imagine they say.
Avoid this
Three mistakes this industry makes on the phone
The mistake
Running through the range with whoever answers while you wait for the pharmacist.
Do this instead
Listing is not decided at the counter, but dispensing happens there. Qualify in one sentence, get a window with the pharmacist, and keep for the team what is genuinely useful to them: what to recommend alongside and the questions patients ask.
The mistake
Answering a question that goes beyond the licensed indication rather than leaving it unanswered.
Do this instead
On an indication, a dose or a combination outside the marketing authorisation, the right answer is not to answer yourself: say it is a medical information question, take the details and have it passed on. An improvised answer commits your company, and the recorded call keeps the trace of it.
The mistake
Leaving an adverse event mentioned during the call in the commercial report.
Do this instead
Any adverse event mentioned on the phone falls under pharmacovigilance and has to go through your company's own procedure within the deadlines it sets, alongside the MHRA Yellow Card scheme that exists for reporting. Report it the same day, separately, and do not rely on the automatic call summary for someone to notice it.
Frequently asked questions, Pharma & laboratories
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See what it does on your own lists
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