Cegedim Strategic Data (CSD) Evaluates Physicians' Perception of Sales Representative Calls
93.8% of Physicians Worldwide Find Rep Calls Useful and of Value to Their Practice
PARIS--(Marketwire -12/05/11)- Cegedim Strategic Data (CSD), leading provider of integrated healthcare market research, has released audited marketing figures on physicians' perception of sales representative calls.
The analysis was conducted through CSD's detailing audit according to a continuous diary-based methodology in over 30 countries and showed that overall 93.8% of physicians worldwide, both GPs and specialists, find sales representative calls useful and of value to their practice, based on over 5.6 million product detailing mentions.
This 93.8% includes 33.3% who find rep calls "very useful and of value", 60.5% "somewhat useful and of value". The remaining 6.2% represents those physicians who find visits from reps "not at all useful or of value" to their practice. At the end of 2010, traditional detailing spending represented 61% of audited marketing channels worldwide.
CSD selected 11 key pharmaceutical markets and analysed their results focusing on the extreme scores: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, Brazil, Russia, India, China, USA and Japan.
Physicians in Russia and Brazil show a keen interest in rep calls with the highest "very useful and of value" score of 47.7% and 46% respectively. For Russian physicians there seems to be no question of the legitimacy of rep interaction with only 0.4% considering the rep call "not at all useful".
Japanese physicians seem the least convinced with the lowest "very useful" score of 17.1%. This however, is not surprising as e-detailing is a major influence in Japan and is more developed than in the 10 other key markets. Nevertheless, 75.1% of Japanese physicians find rep calls "somewhat useful".
Two of the main European markets show the highestscores for "not at all useful or of value" -France with 15.4% followed by Italy with 9.3%. However, overall usefulness (very useful + somewhat useful) in these two countries remains high France 84.6%, Italy 90.7%.
Although the general trend in the USA is sales force level reductions, rep calls are still considered as influential by US physicians with 97.9% finding it of use, of which 44% see it as "very useful" and only 2.1% of US physicians find visits from sales representatives "not at all useful".
Overall, the study does not show distinct differences between the more mature and emerging markets, despite the current scaling up of sales force and marketing investments in the emerging pharmaceutical markets. For example China's results show 31.2% "very useful", 63.4% "somewhat useful" and 5.5% "not at all useful" even though China's total industry sales force has doubled since 2006 (60,000 reps at the start of 2011) putting it in second position for sales force levels worldwide.
Bruno Sarfati, CEO, Cegedim Strategic Data commented "The results of CSD's study show that physicians still value visits from sales reps. However, it is clear with the differences in results between not at all, somewhat and very useful there are gaps to be filled. A recent qualitative study showed that physicians are looking for rep interactions which are tailored to their daily practice. In the current industry environment it is inevitable that changes will be made to the way rep calls are conducted as we know it today."
CSD went further to investigate results of the top ranked international companies in total promotional spending (Jan-June 2011) for the selected 11 countries. CSD's "Balance of Opinion" indicator was implemented to show the differences in satisfaction levels among companies. The "Balance of Opinion" is the difference between the percentages of "very useful" and "not useful" responses.
Among the top ten pharmaceutical companies, Lilly shows the highest level of satisfaction (Balance of Opinion), followed by Johnson & Johnson in second position, and Novartis in third. Pfizer ranks number one in spending worldwide and is in sixth position with regard to the level of mentions concerning the usefulness of the Rep visit.
The above analyses are also available by specialist type depending on the country.
About Cegedim Strategic Data:
CSD is a leading Market Research company dedicated to the healthcare industry and operating worldwide. With over 40 years experience in the Pharmaceutical industry, CSD offers a comprehensive range of market research services and solutions to its customers, which include more than 50 global and 500 local Pharmaceutical companies. CSD integrates primary and secondary analyses with its medical expertise to meet its customer's research needs.
To learn more, please visit our website: www.cegedimstrategicdata.com
About Cegedim:
Founded in 1969, Cegedim is a global technology and services company specializing in the healthcare field. Cegedim supplies services, technological tools, specialized software, data flow management services and databases. Its offerings are targeted notably at healthcare industries, life sciences companies, healthcare professionals and insurance companies. The world leader in life sciences CRM, Cegedim is also one of the leading suppliers of strategic healthcare industry data. Cegedim employs 8,500 people in more than 80 countries and generated revenue of EUR 927 million in 2010. Cegedim SA is listed in Paris (EURONEXT: CGM).
CSDPhysiciansPerceptionRepCalls = http://hugin.info/141732/R/1568307/487402.pdf
To learn more, please visit: www.cegedim.com
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