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Analyst: Contract sales reps rule
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It's not a shocking, breathtaking conclusion, but it's certain to get pharma sales reps talking: Über-analyst Barbara Ryan of Deutsche Bank predicts that, in the wake of enormous layoffs in pharma sales, contract reps will become the order of the day. Revenues are now following a "cyclical pattern surrounding patent expirations," In Vivo quotes Ryan as saying. So pharma companies need to have sales forces that can follow the same kind of cycle, shrinking as revenues sink, she suggests.
Pharma recruiter RSA concurs--not surprisingly, because they place interim staff--saying that as economic conditions worsen, companies will be looking at ways to "switch headcounts 'on and off.'" Of course, when head count varies, costs vary, too, helping drugmakers maintain margins on drugs that aren't maintaining sales.
Some companies are already doing this; for instance, Merck inked a deal with InVentiv Health for marketing Cozaar and Hyzaar--right after it laid off 1,200 sales reps. The most sensible outsourcing approach, to Ryan's mind, is to use contract sales forces to manage "mature brands" and in-house staff for launches and newer meds.
- see the article at In Vivo
- check out the release from RSA
Related Articles:
Sales force cuts have only just begun
Ranks of sales reps thinning
1,200 Wyeth reps out of work
Pfizer mulls massive sales-rep cuts
Sanofi to shed up to 650 reps
Comments
By Anonymous | Posted 4:55pm | March 23, 2009
Today's phrama rep needs to offer physicians tools and solutions that are medication agnostic and can help improve health literacy and medication adherence. The doctor will be interested in speaking with the pharma sales reps that provides value to their patients. The average time a pharma rep speaks with an office based physician is approximately 2 minutes. The 2 minutes can turn into 10/15 minutes with the correct message!!
I cold called 6 physicians offices two weeks ago. The following message provided me safe passage past the gatekeeper and into a 10 minute conversation with 4 of the 6 physicians:
Hi my name is John Doe and I work for X company. We have a new wireless medication management tool that can help your patients improve health literacy and medication management right over their personal cell phone. The gatekeeper said tells me more and the next thing I knew I was face to face with the physician. The product I presented: The Pill Phone Mobile Application
By Anonymous | Posted 8:45pm | August 27, 2009
A consultive sale sound more rewarding than begging for signatures to the same group of targets as we do with PDI over and over again. We may mention market share but get almost not data on market share. Never once had a conversation with a manager about market share.
Would love a sale where I could enjoy the process while performing a service.
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