Training and supporting confident spokespeople – a guide for health sector communicators

Ask any pharma Communications Director for his or her list of non-negotiables, and a strong roster of spokespeople will be at the very top.

These individuals are the external face of your organisation, providing the crucial human voice that brings your messages to life whilst winning trust amongst your patient and clinician audiences.

Whether they are navigating a tough media grilling as a crisis unfolds or translating a complex research breakthrough for a breakfast TV crowd, skilled spokespeople are worth their weight in gold.

However, the best spokespeople are not born; they are made. It’s a rare organisation where colleagues are queueing up with enthusiasm to face journalists and conference crowds.

More often, a combination of nerves, a lack of role clarity and the absence of formal training prevents talented individuals from stepping forward.

This creates a common but critical bottleneck: you need experts and leaders to front company announcements; showcase expertise at events; and join podcasts and panels, but they lack the specific skills and confidence the role demands.

So, how do you bridge this gap? Try this strategic approach to transforming your internal experts into confident, compelling ambassadors.

Before you can train, you must identify your talent and structure your approach. This will make it much easier to manage inbound requests and ensure the right person is always put forward.

You can subdivide your tiers by topic area or format of opportunity, so it becomes even easier to identify the right person at a glance. For example:

Tier 1: The C-Suite and top execs are best suited for the highest-profile thought leadership opportunities, fronting up milestone company news and announcements, and fronting up the defining moment of a crisis.

Tier 2: Managers and department heads are well suited for vertical-specific news announcements, public speaking and thought leadership opportunities.

Tier 3: Call on your subject or technical experts – including in-house clinicians, product managers or customer success leaders – to provide the human voice and niche expertise that journalists and audiences seek out.

At this point, it’s so important to look beyond the usual suspects and those with the loudest voices! To fill your tiers, make it your mission to find a truly diverse group of people who demonstrate not just expertise, but also natural communication aptitude. That means clarity of thought, passion for their subject and composure under pressure.

For pharma companies, it’s also recommended to select for those who can bridge the gap between global data and local relevance.

In 2026, a spokesperson who can speak to a specific UK health inequality is more valuable than one who only knows the global trial results.

Comprehensive training is the most critical investment. Remember – effective training is a hands-on, tailored experience that goes beyond drilling key messages and instead focuses on build lasting skills and confidence.

What good media training should include:

• Helping spokespeople to get to grips with company messages, but also helping them to translate them into their own voice, weave them into narratives and adapt them to fit the conversation
• Explanations of the core techniques, from bridging difficult questions to steering interviews towards preferred topics and landing those all-important soundbites
• The bulk of the training should be practical, recorded interviews. A trainer (often an ex-journalist) must conduct challenging interviews to test the spokesperson’s command of the techniques under pressure
• A skilled trainer will coach on the nuances of different platforms – as you know, appearing on live TV is not the same as a pre-recorded podcast! The trainer should also help the trainees to perfect their body language, posture and vocal tone, so their physical presence matches the authority of their words.

A single training session is just the start. Skills fade without consistent practice and a structured approach to building experience.

• Build your spokespeople’s confidence by starting them with trade press, industry podcasts, or print interviews with journalists who know your company and with whom you have a positive relationship. These are often less intimidating than live broadcast opportunities and provide a safer space for newly qualified spokespeople to refine their skills
• Use your PR agency or internal communications team to help keep skills sharp. They can set up mock interviews for quick practice and feedback and offer extra top-up training as required
• After every external engagement or media interaction, conduct a debrief with the spokesperson. Discuss what went well, which questions were toughest and what could be improved. This ensures continuous learning and helps with refining of messaging.

For your Tier 1 spokespeople and senior leadership teams, taking part in an immersive crisis simulation will help them feel ready for anything.

These simulations are an excellent add-on to standard media training, and they serve to test teamwork a decision-making under extreme pressure. A good simulation involves a realistic, unfolding scenario with evolving information, social media firestorms and high-stakes media engagements like mock press conferences.

For example, the simulation could replicate the demands that would be placed on spokespeople if your organisation were to be struck by a cyberattack resulting in leaked clinical trial data. Running simulations with different themes at least every six months should form the cornerstone of your organisation’s crisis comms preparedness.

It’s important to acknowledge that being a spokesperson is an addition to, not a replacement for, an individual’s primary role. To keep your front bench happy and engaged – and not overburdened – you need a support system that works.

• Create and update comprehensive resources for all trained spokespeople. This should contain company messaging and proof points, a ‘fact sheet’ with up-to-date stats, approved bios and headshots, and preparation tips
• Your internal team or PR agency should be doing the bulk of the legwork before every opportunity to provide thorough briefings, anticipated Q&As, and handle all logistics for any media engagement
• To retain spokespeople, the comms team must act as a gatekeeper. Ensure duties do not become stressful, demanding, or interfere with their core job
• Acknowledge their work publicly in company meetings and privately with their line manager. Who doesn’t love a shout-out? Recognition is a powerful motivator for them and an encouragement for others to step up.

Jess Farmery is Senior Account Director, Health at Lexington Communications