Sales Reps: Don’t Call Us…..
2 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // April 16th, 2007 // 4:13 pm
Pharma sales is teeming with metrics, and so here’s another glorious number: Sales reps spend an average of 13.7 hours each week managing internal communications. Most of this time is spent managing e-mail, checking voicemail and talking on a cell phone. Of this time, 4.4 hours, or 32 percent, are perceived by reps to be unnecessary.
This finding is from a new study by Best Practices, a consulting firm, which notes that reps and managers experience a significant level of “noise†as colleagues in the field or at corporate send communications that are poorly targeted, redundant or inappropriately timed.
When managers become overwhelmed with internal communication, they often reduce the amount of time they spend coaching in the field in order to keep up with all of the communication they receive that is self-labeled “high priority.†And when reps receive high levels of unnecessary communication, one of the following three effects often occurs:
Reps reduce the time spent in the field with doctors in order to keep up with internal communication. They put in extra evening or weekend hours in order to manage communication, cutting into their work-life balance and potentially leading to a fast burnout. And reps begin to select the communications they wish to read, often ignoring critical info because it can’t be distinguished from info that’s not as important.
Hmm….Imagine if the reps were left alone a little more. What on earth might happen?
Study overview from Best Practices.[tags]Sales Reps[/tags]
JS
I got a headache just reading this can you imagine being the rep. I was with a rep the other night for dinner who carries a blackberry and she never put it down. These facts are especially true when it comes to field reps everything is an emegency, everything is due yesterday, and all your free time is spent with sorting corporate junk mail. What can make this even worse is if the manager is not sending along email in a timely fashion. This is important because much of the emergency comes when due diligence by the manger isn’t happening which adds another layer of hurry up to it. Many times I have been called to be told a report is due the next morning with many appologies etc. It is then your job to put it together working til the wee hours to cover for someone elses incompetence. It seems minor but if you are in the field all day and have to travel long distances the time left for writing, managing, and brown nosing is cut down to your free time. Just think of all the money your making…
ed
Hi JS,
Yes, technology is helping us all revert to the days of ‘The Jungle,’ by Upton Sinclair. The more means we have at our disposal to do work, the more work we do - and we do it all the time. And that’s before the sort of incompetence you mention. I don’t have a blackberry yet, but my laptop is always on.
Anyway, sales reps have my sympathy if this survey is half accurate. Seems like there’s not enough to think if one is always responding to messages.
Thanks for writing,
ed