Docs To Sales Reps: Don’t Call Us…
4 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // January 24th, 2008 // 10:32 am
There are two ways to interpret the numbers, of course. On one hand, 72 percent of all docs surveyed say they’ll see a rep anytime, anywhere, no matter what. But 19 percent won’t see any rep at all. So the majority still want info, samples, pens, tchotchkes, meals, study grants and whatever else. But 19 percent is a pretty sizeable figure. Unfortunately, SK&A Information Services, which conducted the survey, didn’t provide comparitive data to see how much this has changed recently. The chart appeared in Medical Marketing & Media, by the way.
Hat tip to Pharmagossip
DAB
The 2008 Sales Force Survey by PE, I think, had a more important number which makes this 72% number look very misleadingly low- 75% of rep calls DO NOT result in face time with a practitioner. Physicians may indicate that they don’t NOT SEE REPS, but they in reality just don’t. The Industry benchmarking that I have seen lately indicates that the old “8 details to get the first script” figure continues to increase to 12-17 details to get the first script (I would guess that this is an average across all adoption types), and that these calls cost between $400-$2000/call. The data keeps piling up against the current model of promotional influence; technolgy advances in EMR, continued payor pressure, office efficiency demands from the owners of physician practices, public pereption, and P4P will very quickly reduce the utility of PCP sales forces, along with the research pipelines that are about 80% sub-specialty focused. The question is: where are the premptive actions by Pharma to move to a new model which might have them riding in on a white horse rather than a dinosaur?
EEJ
LOL! Pharma be pre-emptive?
That’s like asking Bill Gates to invent and market a new Operating System….he just doesn’t have any incentive.
By the time Pharma FINALLY realizes how many times it’s shot itself in the foot in recent times, they’ll have resorted to shooting themselves elsewhere.
Dan
Presently, I disagree with the conclusions of 72 percent of doctors seeing or having any sort of conversation with pharma reps. As a rep, I find the opposite to be true, where most doctors will not see or speak with pharma reps in most of the offices I encounter daily in my area. Yes they will accept samples, primarily, but it seems the doctors are quite aware of the limited and, more importantly, valid information pharma reps attempt to share with doctors is quite biased if not inaccurate, unfortunately.
Matt
http://nofreelunch.org/
Unfortunately not enough doctors beong to the above group.
Most doctors are just whores for the pharma business.