What is one of the saddest things that could ever happen in the MSL world? An MSL works his or her butt off engaging an HCP and digging deep to understand this person’s motivations. All this hard work leads to a fantastic insight (yay!), but then the MSL doesn’t capture it right away and it gets lost in the ether! So sad! This triggers a chain reaction of bad events:

• The MSL doesn’t report the insight
• The company can’t use it to make better decisions
• Medical Affairs misses an opportunity to demonstrate impact

Ensure this doesn’t happen with these 4 tips to capture MSL insights right away and maximize impact

Why It’s So Important to Capture MSL Insights Right Away

It’s so important to capture MSL insights right away because brains forget things. Important details disappear quickly. Especially in the busy Medical Affairs world.

4 Tips to Capture MSL Insights Right Away

1. Schedule time after every interaction to write the insight down

It’s important to recognize that your brain forgets things quickly. Avoid losing details by taking notes as soon as possible. Better yet capture the insight in the CRM or insights tools directly. This will save you a step later. After every interaction, create space in your calendar to get that insight and all the important details out of your brain.

2. Look for ways to make capturing insights more efficient

Pre-load related info (institution, meeting details, content shared, etc) ahead of time so that you don’t have to do it after the interaction. This will save you time and enable you to focus on capturing the insight. If your company uses a CRM or insights tool, hopefully it pre-populates this info for you. If not, provide yourself with the relevant details in your notes tool. Find ways to make your future self more efficient and more likely to enter the insight right away.

3. Address your insights capturing pain points

Spend time reflecting on why you aren’t capturing your insights right away and create habits and solutions that address these pain points. Are you not capturing insights right away because you don’t like typing on the iPad or phone? Get a keyboard or use voice dictation. High-performing MSLs know how important it is to get insights captured right away and constantly work to make this process frictionless.

4. Review insights captured in your weekly reset

It’s not going to be possible to immediately capture insights after every interaction. To ensure that insights don’t get lost, add reviewing all your interactions and capturing insights to your weekly reset process. A weekly reset process is a way to review the prior week’s accomplishments and stay on top of everything. Add reviewing interactions and capturing insights to your weekly reset to help ensure that insights don’t fall through the cracks.

Conclusion: Capture MSL Insights Right Away to Benefit Your Company AND Yourself!

When MSL insights are captured right away it minimizes the risk that important details get lost. Companies can then use this info to make better, more patient-centric decisions in a timely manner. Strategic insights are one of the best ways Medical Affairs teams can demonstrate value.

But capturing MSL insights doesn’t just benefit the company, it also helps the MSL create a better experience for their HCPs and build trust by remembering important details. These details help MSLs find ways to add value at every interaction.

Streamline your pre-meeting planning to help gather great insights. Download the MSL Pre-Meeting Planning Checklist 👇