The good ol days

Discussion in 'GlaxoSmithKline' started by Anonymous, Jan 12, 2011 at 9:00 PM.

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  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I remember when I started we had no data and no computer. We used the yellow pages and kept a notebook in handwriting of our "call records."
    We would take a ton of samples into certain mom and pop pharmacies (there were a ton of them at the time) and trade samples for soaps, sundries, basically anything in the stores.) They sold the samples! It was very very common. I had so much detergent, soaps, shampoo, cig lighters, cameras etc it was unreal. My basement was full. Food items too! Soups etc. Ahhhhh. What a great life. We also got ONE kicker for Tagamet at the end of one year that was a single check for 48K! Ask around. Find a grey and ask.
     

  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Yah, and then we at Glaxo Inc. kicked your ass with Zantac and your bonus went away.........so much for a happy ending........lol!
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I was out of the field as the market share of TG was getting crushed by Glaxo. Was in Managed Care by then. Ahhhh. made it just in time. huge bonuses in MC not to mention huge raises and salary. 10 or 12% raises in those years.
     
  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Oh yes the good old days in the mid to late 80s- I kicked it by going right into the cytochrome P 450 sections of the Tagamet PI. Then would take residents out golfing and dinner and drinks weds to sun and hit top offices until late afternoon. Receipts could almost be hand written and accepted. We received a gold one ounce coin for hitting our first billion dollars with Zantac. You would be lucky to see another rep once or twice a week and back then you knew them all and they knew you- Home office had signs on their desks stating " What have you done to HELP a sales rep today "

    Fast forward- 2010 I took vrif as non of my reps could even use a sales piece to sell Advair-I had to get my masters in accounting to review all the expense reports on line. And.......no one in upper management knows how to run a successful company. Signs now say - how do we get rid of our sales force today and replace with contract people..... Sad
     
  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I am another old fart rep that like many people started with another company before having the opportunity to work for Glaxo. There were some good things about the so called "good ol days". However, these stories are a little like our grandparents talking about something a hundred years ago. Some things have always been the same. Asshole DMs and RMs must have been created when the earth was formed. Sales numbers, quotas, reports and all that crap have always been goofy. There have always been plenty of jerk docs around also. The one thing that was better was we didn't have the constant threat of layoffs at any moment. You could still get your butt in a sling with a pain in the ass DM, however, most folks that got fired deserved it. Not the case today.
     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I miss Suzzie Soo R. She was so sweet even though she was overweight. I think she was a pretty good rep.
    Sorry to hear she got laid off.
     
  7. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Ha, ain't that the truth?
     
  8. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Fun stories but also many of these practices hurt pharma reputation as a whole. There's a reason why EVERYONE in medical makes money, but only pharma bares the blame for it.

    Shame on you.
     
  9. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Gray hair here, over 35 years in sales. Trading samples in drug stores was hush hush, but there were some who did just that and RPH's would even ask me to trade samples. I was with a small company then and knew better...... we would lose our jobs. Pharmacy employees respected the fact that I couldn't, and shouldn't, and wouldn't. I once found a dispensing doctor who sold samples and I let other reps know about him. There is right and wrong.....after mergers I ended up with SKB. We came in and straightened out Glaxo and stopped that foolishness quickly.
     
  10. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    You watched too many "Lassy" and "leave it to beaver" and act like a goody two shoes! Everybody back then used samples in pharmacies to boost business. I was with Glaxo and management was fine with us doing it. We were competing with Schering who had the same inhalors that we sold the rights to them to sale? So we would give them samples, which back then were full-size stock samples. In the process they would order tons of our product and substitute instead of using Schering's inhalers. But I never traded samples for goods to take home!!!
     
  11. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    So you were a Glaxo rep and can't spell " inhaler " ? It is not spelled " inhalor " kid.

    Also " .....to sale " should have been spelled " ....to sell " kid, and never begin a sentence with " But ... "

    By the way, it was " Lassie " , and not " Lassy " my friend. It was " Leave It To Beaver " , and not " leave it to beaver "

    So you want "......to boost business " by giving away product ? I can see you now in a SKB interview with your poor English and lousy spelling on your resume.......saying " I can improve sales by giving away your drugs ! " You were def a Glaxo rep and not SKB....if at all you were in the business.
     
  12. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    I'll bet you wore black socks to gym class and had the shot beat out of you on a daily basis and I was probably one of the guys being the shit out of you! Did I spell that correctly Boomer?
     
  13. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

     
  14. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Yep that time was a blast. Worked with my regional manager one time and he spent the day in the car erasing the "professional sample not for sale" And I made the pharmacy call one free MDI with each 6 ordered. Back in the days we really took orders at the pharmacy level. Selling was a skill.
     
  15. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    I remember when I first started, we had horses and would tie our samples around the saddle and ride into town. Then detail the doctor over shots of whiskey
     
  16. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    SKB was better.....we were called Medicine Men and drove into town on a covered wagon and sold direct to the people !