Do Good-Looking Reps Do Better?
7 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // May 24th, 2007 // 4:20 pm
The assumption one often hears about sales reps is that very pretty women and good-looking guys do best with docs. But a poll on CafePharma, where sales reps dish about nearly everything, suggests this may be a myth. Most say knowing the product is more important or there are too many other factors anyway.
Now, before putting too much credence in this poll, please keep in mind that CafePharma surveys are never scientific - anyone can vote, even visitors to the site who aren’t in the industry. A person can vote more than once. And some skeptics say the truly productive and effective reps don’t waste time on the site, so the opinions are skewed. No way of knowing.
With this said, it’s still interesting to take a temperature reading now and then. This latest poll began last month. Here are the results, so far, from 149 respondents:
Which type of rep gets the best results?
- An average looking rep that knows their products and can sell: 69, or 46.3 percent;
- Doesn’t matter. Too many other factors come into play: 56, or 37.6 percent;
- A super attractive rep that is an idiot and can’t sell: 24, or 16.1 percent.
So what do you think? Are they right? Or are the ugly ones doing all the voting?
Here’s the link.[tags]CafePhama, Sales Reps[/tags]
John Mack
Hi Ed!
I’ll take you up on this.
This survey can’t possibly yield any insights.
To sell, you first have to get in the door. So, a better question would have been: Do attractive reps get better access to physicians than do slovenly piglets?
I think a lot more than 16% would answer “Yes” to that!
And if you ask the corollary: Do reps who know their products get better access than those who don’t?
Well, that’s a chicken and egg kind of situation. How does the doc (receptionist actually) know if the rep is knowledgeable about products?
Etc., etc.
roccaas
The better question was asked by a professional survey group several years back. They asked DOCTORS what made them more likely to Rx a particular Rep’s product(s). The DOCTORS were by far most impressed by a Rep’s enthusiasm for their product(s) than: product knowledge, looks, samples, etc. Personal relationship was a close second, so there may be some credence to the good looks theory!!
ed
Hi folks,
John, you make a good point about slovenly pigs. And I agree. It just wasn’t worded that way in the poll, although maybe it should have been. If only those sales reps could do what we do all day, which is hide behind computer screens!
And to roccaas, thanks for pointing out that poll. I seem to recall something like that, but don’t remember the specifics anymore.
Anyway, thanks to both of you for writing in.
ed
John Mack
To the point made by roccaas:
What doctors say and what they do may be two completely different things. In this case, they may have been embarrassed to rank “personal relationships” (what the hell does that mean anyway?) #1, so they put something else first — something they thought the pollster wanted to hear or something a “professional” should be influenced by!
roccaas
To John Mack’s point, as I remember, the poll’s idea of “personal relationship” was that an MD would be influenced by Reps they had known for some time. It was a measure of trust (?) and longevity. This was a late ’90’s poll, so some of that was influenced by how often we golfed/fished/dined out/took to “speaker training” programs at resorts those MD’s. All of that stopped with the PhARMA regulations.
I always got a laugh out of the personal relationship answer because we all knew Reps (mostly female, but some male) who took a job in the industry to find an MD to marry (even if they broke up a marriage!). I’ve seen this on three occassions (Trophy Wife, Man on Man, and Female Rep breaks up a marriage to live with the female spouse of the MD!!) I think these are the areas that John Mack is pointing to, and I agree with his point. I think the “enthusiasm” answer was a cover for want of a better answer( T and A!)
jason
This is one of my favorite sites for getting information, but if I see one more reference to CP I am going to scream! The people on there are obviously idiots, or those going to mess with the idiots. Have you seen most of the other posts on there. I am embarrassed to read them, let alone repeat anything.
lk
I believe that reps are somewhat like the rest of us: we want to think our work is valued because we do it well, not because of how we look. It may be true that looks count, but does everyone honestly want to admit that? We’d like to think we have some abilities and value beyond looks that will be gone someday and that our self worth is tied to more than our appearance.