90 seconds with a cardiologist: what to actually say
The cath lab door opens, your physician is walking toward the workroom, and you have about the length of a voicemail to be useful. Most reps use that window to compress a 20-minute deck. That is the mistake.
Compression is not the answer
A 90-second conversation has room for one idea, not five. When you try to fit the full story into the hallway, the physician hears a blur and reaches for the exit line: "send me something." You have spent your window and gained nothing you can put in the CRM.
Treat the hallway as a qualifying call, not a selling call. Your goal is a single piece of information and a single agreement about time.
The three-beat structure
Almost every effective hallway conversation has the same shape. Say the reason you are standing there, ask one question that is cheap for them to answer, and make one concrete ask.
- Beat one, about 15 seconds: name the clinical situation you are there about, not your company.
- Beat two, about 30 seconds: one question they can answer from memory, no data pull required.
- Beat three, about 15 seconds: a specific ask with a time attached. "Can I get ten minutes Thursday before the board?"
Cheap questions beat smart questions
"How are you thinking about your access strategy this year?" is a question that requires a physician to compose an essay in a corridor. They will not. "When you get a heavily calcified vessel, what are you reaching for first?" takes four seconds and tells you everything about where you sit in the decision.
Write the cheap version of your question before you walk in. In the moment you will default to the essay version.
Leave with time, not interest
"That's interesting, send me the data" is not progress. A calendar slot is progress. If the answer is no, ask who owns the decision instead and you still leave with something real.
Take this in
One idea, one cheap question, one timed ask. Write all three down before you walk through the door.
Walk in knowing what to say
RepBrief turns your next meeting into an opener, three prioritized questions, confident objection responses and one clear next step.
More field notes
- RepBrief vs generic ChatGPT prep: what a medical-sales brief addsSame scenario, two answers: a generic AI assistant's prep versus a RepBrief brief for 90 seconds with a cardiologist.
- The 15-minute staff lunch that actually moves a decisionLunches get eaten and forgotten. A simple change in who you talk to, and when, turns a catered tray into a real advance.
- Raising reimbursement without making it awkwardReimbursement is the conversation reps avoid and clinicians worry about most. Here is language that keeps it clinical instead of commercial.