How to Reach Out to New KOLs and Get Responses
Important Disclaimer: Follow your organization’s specific policies and guidelines for reaching out to HCPs via email. If you are unsure, reach out to your manager or compliance officer.
The pandemic has thrown a wrench into everything. Medical Affairs teams are adapting to this new normal and finding creative ways to engage virtually, generate insights, and understand how COVID-19 is affecting their therapeutic areas.
One area that continues to be a challenge for MSLs is building relationships with new KOLs without being able to meet in person. Reaching out to KOLs that the MSL already has an established relationship with is easy. The trust is already there.
How can MSLs reach out and start to build a relationship with a KOL that they don’t know? It’s not easy! Keep reading for ways MSLs can reach out to new KOLs.
This article will be helpful for MSLs that are able to write their own emails or for MSL leads that help develop templates for MSLs to use.
You can also follow your KOLs on social media.
Want to find Digital Opinion Leaders in your disease area? Check out this terrific article from Medical.watch!
Before reaching out
Do your homework
Who is this person? Have they interacted with your company previously? If yes, see “Ask for an Introduction” section.
What is important to them? Check out their publications, websites, social media, news articles, internal company databases, etc. What do similar KOLs that you already know care about? It’s likely this new KOL will have similar goals and needs. Make your outreach personal and relevant to them. Aligning to their goals is how you will get their attention. Use similar KOLs you know to personalize the email to the new KOL.
Is this the right KOL to reach out to?
As you work through the steps to reach out to the new KOL, you may learn that this KOL’s goals may not align with the reason for the outreach. Your company may have provided you with a list of KOLs in a specific disease area to develop relationships with. Does the KOL’s interest align with why you need to reach out? You may discover this is not the right person. In this case, you may consider the following:
Is there another person I should be reaching out to?
Who else should I reach out to?
Ask for an introduction
Do you know someone that knows the KOL? Ask this person for an introduction. Using warm introductions is the best way to get a meeting with a new KOL. Aoife O Dwyer from MSL Consultant highly recommends leveraging relationships that sales rep may hear. Learn more in this podcast. Jump on LinkedIn and see if you have any shared connections. Ask others on the MSL team if someone they know can give an introduction. Check the CRM to see if this KOL has a history with your company and who their main contact was.
Pro tip: have the person introduce you versus sending an email that says you have a shared contact.
Figure 1: Flowchart describing steps for preparing to reach out to a new KOL via email.
Subject Line
Choose a good short subject line
This KOL probably receives a lot of emails every day. Think of what emails look like in their inbox. Look at how emails show up in my Gmail account (see Figure 2). The name of the sender, the subject line, and maybe the first few words of the email is all that is visible. When sending an email to a new KOL, how can the MSL get KOL’s attention and ensure they don’t just scroll past? Or worse, delete it?
There is no perfect subject line that works every time. Experiment and try different things. Figure out what resonates with the new KOLs you are trying to reach. If the MSL wants to review new study data with the KOL, use why the KOL will benefit from learning about the new data in the subject line.
Include the call to action
Make the purpose of the email clear in the subject without being overly wordy.
Figure 2: Screenshot of what an email preview looks like in Gmail. Notice that the name of the sender, the subject line, and part of the first sentence shows up. Keep this in mind when composing your subject line and the first line of your email. This is your chance to capture their attention. Each email provider will have a slightly different layout and may not look like what you see in Gmail.
Pro tip: ask your fellow MSLs what subject lines are working for them. Share best practices!
Body
Use the correct salutation
Is this person an MD, PhD, RN, etc? Be sure to use the correct title. When the incorrect title is used, it shows you haven’t done your research and that you probably don’t understand their interests.
Use a clear call-to-action
Is the purpose of your outreach clear? Is the intent to set up a virtual meeting? Make sure this is extremely obvious in your email. You don’t want a KOL feeling confused about the email and unsure what you want from them. “Can we set up a 15-minute virtual meeting to update you on the new study data?”
Let your personality shine through & don’t be overly formal
Very formal emails scream sales. People don’t want to feel like they are talking to a robot. Be yourself in the email. The email should feel conversational and be similar to how you would talk to a KOL you haven’t before met at a Congress. On the same note, some KOLs prefer more formal email correspondence. This is where doing research on the KOL ahead of time helps. When in doubt, it’s better to be a little too formal instead of not formal enough.
Personalize to the KOL’s interests
Who wants to receive a generic email from a random person to set up a meeting? Make the email about them. Personalization is key to getting a response. This is where the research on the KOL comes in handy. Make it clear how they will benefit from meeting with you. This doesn’t necessarily mean promoting your product or company (remember you must follow your company’s compliance guidelines). Possible reasons or ways to personalize:
Get updated on new study data relevant to their research or practice
Discuss new trial opportunities
Discover ways for future collaboration
Keep it short and sweet
The KOL will not read a long email. They are busy people! Try to keep it to 200 words or less. Get right to the point. You’re probably thinking, “200 words or less, how is that possible?” Download these templates for inspiration:
Share useful content in the email (if allowed)
Many organizations do not allow MSLs to proactively send content unless approved. Make sure you are allowed to do this or just skip this tip.
From your research on the KOL, you likely have a good idea of what their interests are. Share a useful piece of content relevant to their interests. Perhaps they posed a question on social media, and your company has a great resource on this. If allowed at your organization, share this in your email. Sharing relevant content indicates that you have the KOL’s interests in mind and help establish the MSL as a helpful resource.
After sending the email
Persistence pays off
Didn’t get a response to your first email? Don’t take it personally. They are probably just busy. In a week or two, send a follow-up email. Keep following up, but be sure to add additional value each time. You may need to follow-up 5-8 times.
The point is not to be annoying about it. Be polite and refrain from writing things like, “you didn’t respond to my last email.” No one likes to be guilt-tripped about not responding. Stay positive and keep in mind that they are busy. Your persistence will pay off. If you get complete silence after several attempts, put a reminder in your calendar to try again in a few months. Do your homework again before reaching out to see if anything has changed in the KOL’s world.
Pro tip: develop an email sequence for reaching out to new KOLs. Write templates for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd… emails and set reminders in your calendar to follow up.
Pro tip #2: if allowed to send content, send something useful to the KOL in one of your follow up emails.
Who else could you reach out to?
Does the KOL have an assistant or an office manager? Perhaps they run a research lab and have a lot of postdocs. Reach out to this person and ask if they would be open to discussing what they think are the critical challenges in this area. Maybe they just published a paper. Ask for a meeting to discuss the results. Don’t email them just to ask for help getting a meeting with the KOL. Figure out a way to add value for this person as well! Remember, this is about building the relationship. Once you establish rapport, then ask about getting an introduction to the KOL.
Why did they respond to your email?
When you get a meeting with that new KOL ask what they liked about the email. This will help you hone in on what works well. Once you figure that out, practice and refine. Share this with other MSLs on your team as well. Reaching out to new KOLs is hard for everyone and it helps to know what is working for others.
Conclusion
Reaching out to new KOLs is more of an art than a science. There isn’t one way to do it. MSLs should experiment and see what works best. Share best practices across the team. The key is to focus on the interests of the KOL and what they will get out of the meeting. MSLs will need to build relationships with new KOLs throughout their careers, so this is an excellent skill to master!
For additional tips and tricks listen to this podcast from MSL Consultant.
Once you set up a meeting with a new KOL, be prepared to host a productive virtual meeting and gather great insights with these tips.
