3 Reasons MSL Insights Never See the Light of Day

Everyone in Medical Affairs probably experienced the frustration of seeing MSL insights die quick painless deaths. MSLs spend countless hours building relationships, understanding their perspectives, and collecting valuable insights. But, too often, these insights never lead to anything. According to the McKinsey A vision for Medical Affairs 2030 report, only about 20% of insights are acted on. That means 80% of the insights generated from MSLs’ work disappear into the ether.

This is a huge issue because gathering insights is one of the most valuable contributions MSLs and Medical Affairs teams make. It takes significant effort to collect these insights, and even more effort and resources to analyze and report them. Yet, in many cases, nothing happens. Why is this?

Here are three reasons why MSL insights often fail to drive action and how both MSLs and HQ teams can work together to change this.

There are lots of tips to help MSL insights come to life. Please also share your tips! 

1. Lack of Relevance to Medical Strategy

One of the biggest reasons MSL insights fail to see the light of day is that they aren’t relevant to the medical strategy. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard medical directors or insights analyzers say, “What am I supposed to do with this?” When insights aren’t aligned with the current business objectives, they become difficult to act on and even more challenging to analyze.

Don’t have a medical strategy? That definitely throws a wrench into the whole idea of gathering relevant insights.

A good way to gather valuable insights with a strategy is to leverage the product life cycle.

Check out this mini-course to help you start gathering insights without strategy. 

How to Gather Insights Without a Medical Strategy Mini-Course 👇

Relevant Insights Tips for MSLs:

• Know the Strategy: Make sure you have a clear understanding of your company’s medical strategy. Regularly review strategy documents, listening priorities, and key questions provided by your team. Pre-meeting planning is crucial here. Use it to align your interactions with KOLs around the strategic topics that matter most.
• Use Listening Priorities: If your company provides listening priorities or key insights questions (KIQs), incorporate them into your conversations with HCPs. This helps you gather insights that are directly relevant to the strategic goals.
• Tailor Your Approach: Not every piece of information is an insight. Focus on gathering insights that are relevant and have the potential to influence strategic decisions. For more guidance, check out my template on Etsy for pre-meeting planning. It’s designed to help you stay focused on gathering insights that matter.

Relevant Insights Tips for HQ Teams:

• Provide Clear Direction: Give MSLs feedback on what you want. Create and share listening priorities, key questions, and provide resources that guide MSLs on what to focus on during their interactions.
• Regular Feedback Loop (No Insights Black Holes!): Make sure there’s an open line of communication between MSLs and HQ. Offer feedback on the insights they provide to help refine their focus and ensure that future insights are more aligned with strategic needs. Check out my hack with Ralph Rewers on how to effectively use listening priorities.

Start Having More Strategic Conversations with This Pre-Meeting Checklist 👇

2. Poor Communication Throughout the Insights Cycle

Communication breakdowns can happen at various stages of the insights cycle, from the initial gathering of insights to their final reporting and discussion within the organization. It’s not enough to collect insights and input them into a CRM or insights tool. There needs to be an ongoing dialogue about these insights to truly understand their value.

Insights Communication Tips for MSLs:

• Take Ownership: Don’t just stop at gathering and submitting insights. Be proactive in asking questions and participating in meetings to discuss how your insights are being used. This is something I emphasize in the MSL Insights Course. MSLs need to take responsibility for ensuring their insights drive action.
• Facilitate Conversations: Engage in regular conversations with cross-functional teams to highlight the insights you’ve gathered and discuss their implications. Don’t assume that just because you submitted an insight, it’s understood or being acted upon.

Insights Communication Tips for HQ Teams:

• Hold Regular Insights Meetings: The most effective insights cycles I’ve seen have active involvement from medical directors and leadership in regular insights calls. These meetings provide MSLs with valuable feedback and foster a deeper understanding of how their insights impact strategy.
• Close the Loop: Insights are a two-way street. Provide MSLs with feedback on the insights they’ve submitted and communicate how these insights are being used to inform strategy.

3. Lack of Context in Insights

The third major reason why MSL insights fail to drive action is the lack of context. Often, insights submitted by MSLs don’t contain all the relevant information needed to understand their implications. Without sufficient context, it’s difficult for those who weren’t present during the initial HCP/KOL interaction to interpret and act on the insights.

Insights Context Tips for MSLs:

• Provide Full Context: When reporting insights, include all relevant details. Make sure your insights contain the context, the “why” behind the HCP’s thoughts or actions, and the implications for the company. Remember, if someone who wasn’t in the meeting can’t understand the insight, it’s missing context.
• Use a Rubric: In the MSL Insights Course, we provide a rubric to help guide MSLs in capturing complete insights. Ask yourself: Does this insight provide enough context? Does it explain the why behind the HCP’s decision-making? Does it have clear implications for the company?

Insights Context Tips for HQ Teams:

• Facilitate Insights Discussions: Context often comes from discussions. Hold regular insights meetings where MSLs can elaborate on the insights they’ve gathered. This discourse helps clarify what the insights mean and how they can be used to inform strategy.
• Offer Training: If you’re noticing a trend of insights lacking context, offer training to MSLs on how to report insights more effectively. This can include workshops on how to provide the necessary context, the why, and the implications in their reports. If you need help with insights training and workshops, give me a jingle! Happy to help. 

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