Not doing anything Wednesday night? Then stop by the fourth-floor auditorium of Belcher Hall on the South Carolina State University campus. That’s where a Pfizer regional sales manager will be making a speech as part of the school’s weekly Executive Speaker Series.

This week’s featured orator is Hank Allen, a 25-year Pfizer veteran who is responsible for the Illinois and Wisconsin territories, and oversees about 150 employees whose sales allegedly exceeded $1.5 billion (presumably during 2006, but that’s not clear, unfortunately).

Regional sales managers usually don’t offer themselves for public consumption. And given the flap over the AstraZeneca regional sales manager, Mike Zubillaga, who was fired last week after a company newsletter disclosed he likened a doctor’s office to ‘a bucket of money,’ this may be a rare opportunity to hear more about the professed tension between greed and ideology.

AstraZeneca is hardly the only drugmaker to become a lightning rod for controversy and criticism over sales philosophies. Pfizer pfolk have also caused a stir; a former rep wrote ‘Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman,’ which drew back the curtain on questionable practices. Another alleged rep runs a new blog called the Pfizer Sales Representative Bill of Rights.

Anyone who attends Mr. Allen’s speech is encouraged to send a tape.

Source: The Times and Democrat of Orangeburg, SC

[tags]Pfizer, Sales Reps[/tags]