We recently sat down with Lisa Dougherty, V2V’s Vice President of Client Services, to discuss the value she and her team provide to BioPharma companies as a strategic partner in managing and maintaining speaker’s bureaus. Drawing on years of experience, Lisa shared her insights into developing lasting strategic partnerships that make raving fans out of our clients and the speakers in their bureau as well.
Here’s what she had to say:
1. What do you see as the key differences between a good speaker’s bureau and a great one?
A great bureau versus a good bureau consists of speakers who deliver consistent, accurate, and impactful information to their peers. They have good presentation skills and can effectively execute live Q&A, for example. A great bureau runs smoothly and is always in compliance.
2. What are some ways we help speakers deliver and present messages with greater impact?
We coach speakers on approaches to engage and interact with their audience. Our training formats vary from live in-person to virtual to on-demand. Training on content is important, of course, but equally important are presentation skills. Not all speakers are great presenters. It’s a skill set that we devote considerable time to. When we’re doing live training, we recommend sessions that focus on presentation skills while leveraging peer-to-peer engagement.
3. V2V strives to make raving fans of our clients, but what are things we do to make our clients’ speakers raving fans?
We anticipate speakers’ needs and listen to them. We know them, know their preferences, and know what they expect. Our team keeps travel profiles on each speaker and documents which hotels and airlines they prefer. Everything is ready ahead of time, so it makes their travel super easy. If I had to sum it up, I’d say we make it a very seamless, stress-free experience.
4. What advice would you give to a client who is new to managing a speaker’s bureau?
I would advise them to vet speakers carefully and consult with their clinical research and development, field sales, and medical affairs teams to build a balanced bureau. And most importantly, work on building strong relationships with their speakers from the get-go.
5. When is the ideal time to vet speakers and right-size a speaker’s bureau?
It really varies on the life cycle of the product, whether it’s a new product or a new indication. We recommend that our clients regularly vet their bureau to determine who is effective and who may need to be replaced. We have a research team that makes sure speakers are still practicing, seeing patients, and that their credentials are up to date.
Most of our clients require speakers to execute a minimum number of programs. There’s nothing more frustrating than having too many speakers and half of them are underutilized. Right-sizing your bureau is done when you find you have more speakers than you can effectively use. That’s aggravating for our clients and for the speakers, too, because they’re never being called upon. By right-sizing, you’ll be able to use all your eligible speakers in the most effective manner possible.
Need help vetting or right-sizing your bureau?
Vision2Voice can help you with these tasks so you can create raving fans of your speakers, too!
