The Death Of The Sales Rep Is Greatly Exaggerated
23 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // December 5th, 2011 // 8:51 am
As the marketing teams in the pharmaceutical industry twist themselves into pretzels trying to rework their sales efforts, a fundamental premise has been that the sales rep is going the way of Willy Loman. Or at least, most reps As always, there are numerous surveys to measure the trend, sometimes yielding differing results, and the latest shows that many doctors actually still like seeing reps.
The newest effort, however, attempts to take a more global approach by querying docs in 38 countries, including countries - France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, Brazil, Russia, India, China, the US and Japan. The upshot? Nearly 94 percent of docs, both general practitioners and specialists, find rep calls useful and valuable to their practice.
To break it down, one-third of this group report reps are very useful and of value, while 60.5 percent say somewhat useful and of value. The remainder say reps are not at all useful or of value, according to Cegedim Strategic Data, which conducted the survey and based it on more than 5.6 million product detailing mentions.
Among specific countries, docs in Russia and Brazil says rep calls are “very useful and of value,” responses of 47.7 percent and 46 percent, respectively. Less than 1 percent of Russian docs say rep calls are “not at all useful.” By contrast, only 17 percent of Japanese docs say reps are very useful, perhaps due to e-detailing, Cegedim speculates. About 75 percent say reps are somewhat useful.
Similarly, docs in France and Italy - two other developed markets - reps are not seen as particularly worthwhile. In France, 15.4 percent of the docs say reps are not at all useful or of value, and in Italy, the percentage was 9.3 percent. However, Cegedim points out that overall usefulness still remains high at 85 percent and 91 percent, respectively.
What about the US? Nearly 98 percent of the docs find rep calls to be useful, of which 44 percent say the reps are very useful and 2.1 percent saying not at all useful.
In China, meanwhile, 31 percent say reps are very useful, and 63.4 percent report reps are somewhat useful, with 5.5 percent saying reps are not at all useful. Interestingly, Cegedim notes that the number of reps in China has doubled since 2006 - there were about 60,000 at the beginning of 2011 - which means there are more reps in China than anywhere else in the world, except the US.
Another point worth noting is that, in so-called emerging markets, there are varying degrees of oversight of promotional practices, including what sales reps are doing. This suggests that value may be perceived differently in different countries, especially as drugmakers race to further beef up their marketing teams in such countries as China, India, Brazil and Russia, and regulators try to keep up.
Megann Willson
“Useful and of value”…what exactly was the question? And “useful and of value” in what respect? Given the number of languages and regions, there is so much room for interpretation that I’m not sure this question can give us an answer that is useful (or of value).
Observer
Ed - there may be more reps in china “than anywhere else except the US” - but do they give a rep / physician ratio? (For China and for elsewhere…)
It might give a different view - after all “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics” - Disraeli (but often attributed to Mark Twain)
Ed Silverman
Hi Observer and Megann,
Thanks for the notes and good questions. I have actually asked Cegedim to provide that info and, if it arrives, I will add an update. As for the language, I agree that such questions may be open to interpretation. Value is, after all, in the eye of the beholder. And sometimes, survey questions can be imperfect. Presumably, Cegedim left this to be determined by the doctors. Nonetheless, I have also asked Cegedim to provide any further insight. I hope this helps, at least for now.
Regards
ed
Glengarry Glen Ross
How do you say A-B-C, “always be closing” in Chinese? I’d hate for second prize in the Beijing sales contest to be a set of steak knives, since I’m not sure what kind of meat they will be used to cut.
Observer
@GGR - May i observe that your commnet may be considered “tasteless” at best? Albeit that such was your intention IMHO …
Koichi Hayashi
This is so interesting article.
In Japan, the environments surrounding medical sales rep have been changing rapidly.
In my opinion medical sales rep who make effort to contribute to doctors clinical activities would win the reliance by them.
Glengarry Glen Ross
Observer, nice to know that the Taste Police are locked and loaded.
Observer
AGGR - actually I don’t work for “the taste police” - however, I find that firearms work much more efficiently when one ‘loads and locks.’
Dan Abshear
As a former pharmaceutical sales representative with primarily big pharma, my job, by definition, was to influence the prescribing habits of health care providers for the benefit of their patients.
However, the number one influencer of a doctor’s prescribing habits is, quite simply, samples of particular drugs they will prescribe.
After I left big pharma, I got on with a very small pharmaceutical company as one of their sales representatives, that allowed doctors to fax an order sheet into their office, for samples to be shipped directly to their office, of drugs I was suppose to promote to them.
Instead of making any calls on these doctors, I just mailed these order forms to their offices, to see what would happen.
Within 6 weeks, I was the number two ranked sales rep with this company in the United States.
I never made one sales call on a health care provider, and still achieved this ranking, by having the doctor’s offices order samples of drugs I was suppose to promote to them.
Mystery solved, about what is really effective………
JP
As a previous sales rep and DM I think the relationships that the industry has created with physicians has tainted the truthfulness of their responses. When asked if a physician think their sales reps are useful (or provide value) I would guess most physicians quickly envision the 3-4 reps that they “like” the most or their top 3-4 reps who visit their office, and correlate them with being useful or valuable. Out of a very large physician practice there are probably 25-30 reps who come in there everyday. I find it hard to believe that the majority, or even 25% of these reps are providing a true value to the physicians.
company insider
There will alsways be salesmen. Samples help you get in the dooor and help with the use of the drug. Sounds like that one rep did not have much competition. On a big drug, samples are not everything because the physcain might use all the samples in one day.
THe messages have lost any punch becuase many of them are fabricated half truths or fictious lies made up by the management. Even the reps don’t know if there details are truthful because the business teams say what they want in big pharma whether they have support or not.
So a physcian would be a fool to beleive what he hears unless he has years with a rep telling the truth. I use to start with a specialist and see if he liked the message. If he thought it was junk, I did not use it. He helped me come up with a message that would be useful to the physicians in the area. Now that worked very good for me.
The Monk
The Sales Rep.-Physician quandary. Over my tenure in the field, I observed a switch from sales driven organizations spending valuable time discussing patients and respected research. Then, to marketing driven organizations delivering a clever marketing messages and now to now a marketing-legal hybrid dividing that message among multiple sales forces. The changes happened when Sales Reps. became message delivery units.
I was well respected as a Rep and Manager when there was consistency, longevity and honesty in my presentations. As soon as a physician saw Reps becoming expendable, moving territories, multiple sales forces, can’t handle anything beyond the “message”, and slicing and dicing of data, things changed. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle…just ask a Rep who covers teaching hospital with medical affiliation!!!
Steve
then why do50% plus not see reps in the US….Major institutions (ie THE CLEVELAND CLINIC) are CLOSED to reps
The percentages may refelect rep friendly responders primarily…not all physicians
Steve
forgive the spelling error …….reflect
many physicians want samples and lunch but that’s it
company insider
There is no doubt they like the lunches the cute girls bring!
Bonnie Rishell
The rep will never go away. Most of our market research still shows that reps are important and majority of the way in which physicians want to gain an understanding. The content push is in conjunction to what the rep visits provide. I don’t believe it is a true replacement. Additionally, the rep profile is changing, highly effective and customer focused.
Dr. B
When I was in pediatric practice, I found the reps’ calls to be very helpful. Look: we practitioners knew that they had an agenda, but they still supplied great info.
Anyone who thinks that the pharma reps’ disappearance would enhance patient care and physician knowledge does not understand medical practice.
Dr No
Tell us, Dr. B, do you wear one of those pediatric logo stethoscopes you received from the drug rep, you know, the ones with the funny looking creatures designed to fit on the bell of your instrument peddling the drug du jour, and guaranteed to be within the view of the young impressionable patient whose heart you were auscultating? Luv to know.
pharmagal
The previous poster was right about the shift to a Marketing/Legal based system we operate under these days. We are definitely stifled by the constant threat from our employers about discussing anything that has not been approved by our legal departments. While the exchange of information has been whittled down to only the “approved” information there is still very valuable peer reviewed published study data that we share on a daily basis with the physicians we call on. If you have earned the trust and respect of the physician by offering said information then you have are ultimately doing a service to the patients they treat. With the increasing demands of physicians these days do you thing they have the time or desire to go home at night and research all that is new in medicine? Let’s be honest, Nope! Would you want to see a doctor that was not up on the latest drugs to treat your illness? If the doctor is competent then he/she will want to know about all available treatments and take the information from the reps with a discerning mind. If you are seeing a doctor that can be persuaded to use a drug because the rep brings them lunch or is attractive then you might want to reconsider your choice!
pharmaguy
Hate to burst your bubble, pharmagal, but since you use the word “attractive” I take license to do so as well. I’ve done focus groups pre new drug launch, sitting behind one way glass and viewing doctors give facilitators their reasons for prescribing a drug. One that I recently attended interviewed a group of surgeons. One surgeon remanrked that his decision to write the rx depended on the attractiveness of the rep. The other docs in the group nodded knowingly.
You do playbook very well, but this is what doctors think about when deciding whether to allow you into the Sanctum Sanctorum.
Specialty Sales
Pushing pills is one thing. Providing samples often goes with pushing pills. Once I moved into Oncology I was introduced into a world where patients come first and samples are not given. I think that this report would be better served if it were delineated by specialty. There are not often the typical “cute” girls bouncing in and out of chemo units, but reps who are seasoned and who care about the patients because they more often than not have been touched by cancer themselves. The role may be evolving for sure, but I am hopeful that it continues the way of the specialty rep - not the pill pusher/ show up and throw up/ sample leaver.
Howard
I agree with ‘The Monk’ - “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle. Just ask a Rep who covers teaching hospital with medical affiliation!!!”
Pharmavoice
Interesting perspective from a company who’s profitability is directly linked to the total number of reps… I think there is ongoing exaggeration as there will always be a place for face to face but this survey is profoundly flawed.