Healthy Skepticism Library item: 11604

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Sales rep mirroring declines
PMLive.com 2007 Sep 28
http://www.pmlive.com/index.cfm?showArticle=1&ArticleID=6036

Notes:

Link to report summary available on PMLive page

Full text:

Doctors can no longer deal with enormous numbers of sales reps vying for their time daily, so pharmaceutical companies have been cutting down on how many reps are responsible for calling on them, according to a Cutting Edge report.

The report, entitled “Pharmaceutical Sales Management 2008” publishes the results of a survey which revealed that fewer reps from each company currently call on an individual doctor, compared with two years ago.

The report says it was not unusual for the average high prescribing doctor to have more than four reps from each company visiting, but the average is now closer to three reps from each company per high value doctor.

The trend started when companies, such as Wyeth and Pfizer, instituted a strategy change to reduce the mirroring of reps in their field forces. The current study reveals that this strategy has spread to other companies as well.

The report, which is available in summary
investigates pharmaceutical companies’ sales investment, structure,
strategies models and field tactics.

David Richardson, senior analyst at Cutting Edge Information, said: “When the dust started to settle toward the end of the pharmaceutical sales arms race, companies started hearing that many of the top doctors were unhappy that their waiting rooms had as many sales reps in them as patients.”

“Sales leaders are responding to their targets by pulling back on their mirrored strategies and trying to get back to the more personal relationships that were the norm with doctors prior to the massive expansions that occurred in the last ten or so years,” added Richardson.