Question-Based Selling for a Competitive Oncology Market

Our Challenge: A specialty oncology team needed to help reps navigate conversations in a market rapidly shifting toward fixed-duration regimens. Despite strong data for continuous therapy, clinicians relied on shortcuts — assuming patients prefer shorter treatment, overweighting convenience, and treating other treatments as interchangeable. Reps struggled to challenge physician's surface objections without insight into the deeper beliefs driving fixed-duration preference. The client requested a behavioral approach to expose true decision drivers and strengthen questioning skills.

Our Unique Approach: We conducted multi-country field interviews to map the cognitive shortcuts shaping clinicians' defaults toward fixed-duration therapy, including perceived safety, projected patient preferences, and underestimated relapse risk. We translated these insights into tailored "challenge questions" designed to surface assumptions and reopen consideration of continuous therapy. In a hands-on workshop, leaders practiced spotting shortcuts and using targeted questions to shift conversations toward long-term outcomes, patient fit, and clinical nuance.

Successful Outcomes: Reps gained sharper instincts for diagnosing the real barrier behind fixed-duration choices and used the challenge-question framework to reframe assumptions more effectively. We delivered a behavioral map of the shortcuts driving fixed-duration preference, a prioritized set of challenge questions tied to each shortcut, and a workshop-in-a box format that leaders could use to contexualize shortcuts and challenge questions to their local country teams.