Only 10-20% of my sales calls were ever real calls

Discussion in 'Pfizer' started by Anonymous, Mar 15, 2014 at 2:45 PM.

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  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I was walking by the Sales Doomsday Clock in NYC HQ and noticed it's at 3 minutes to midnight. I think the end is near............
     

  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Back in 2006 I was put on a PIP. My hours were 10- 6pm. I found the later part of the afternoons a great time to converse with physicians. But my team mates, who worked 8:30-1:30 pm, thought I was lazy because of the late start. Most team mates worked out at the gym from 1:30-3:00pm and picked kids up from school. ( I didn't have kids and in a Real world of mature people this would be Team Work). But no, the snarky littles beeches complained.

    I also didn't stick to the Reach and Frequency BS. Focusing on the Top Prescribers was most important and it drove our sales.

    Of course I was let go and now own my own company.
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Those were the days. Primary Care had 11 different divisions/ 11 different reps working in some of the major cities in the Midwest and Northeast where physician access was terrible.

    I worked hard and made as many calls as I could, but the bulk of the slackers on my team and even a few of the managed care reps all congregated at a big health club in town in the early afternoon.

    And they wonder why this company has downsized so many times
     
  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I've been in three different territories and have been here since 1999. From what I saw, the vast majority of the field "worked" from 9:30-3:00 back then. When I say "worked", I mean dropped off samples and collected signatures, and ran dinner programs. Managers with all of 4 years of pharma sales experience prior to getting promoted ran their districts like little fiefdoms.
     
  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Exactly ! 10% of your doctors write 80% of your product so you focus on them.
     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    10 - 20%? Seriously? I would call you an over achiever! Congrats!
     
  7. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I have been blessed with some good teammates, but I also did very well when I shared no targets.

    Nice try, though.
     
  8. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    That Reach and Frequency crap they rammed down our throats was such BS!
     
  9. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    It led to the proliferation of pharma sales forces! Once we decided to throw LATs of hordes reps for each drug in each territory, our competition followed so that they could keep up with us. Now that I think of it, on the strategic side, this industry isn't very smart.
    Doing stupid things because your competition also does it is downright expensive and dumb. Any fool could see that having 5 to 6 reps selling the same drug in each office would lead to pissed off customers and lazy ass reps. My sister was an office manager of a group of Orthos outside of Cleveland. She told me that she counted 7 different Celebrex/Bextra reps over a 2 or 3 week period. I could only come up with 6: Alta, Powers, Roerig, a couple of Pharmacia divisions and a Specialty division. All calling on the same docs with the same sales aid and the same 1 or 2 studies.

    Yep, pretty strategic move right there!
     
  10. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    They still use the reach and frequency model too, and apply it to docs who are sheltered in bunkers who are completely off limits to reps and work in big health systems.

    This company still believes its own BS about how calling on the high decile physicians X times per month or quarter drives revenue. Maybe in the late 90's it did, when territories were a lot more wide open and docs could prescribe what they wanted

    And you wonder why people in pharma are not marketable in any other type of sales. I have never seen an industry so resistant to change. The reach and freq model is the first thing that should be thrown out the window. Its the equivalent of looking at your business with an old green screen Apple II Computer
     
  11. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Of course this company still believes its own BS. NY HQ has always been a lethal mixture of arrogance and ignorance. Too bad they made us pay the price for that.....over and over again.
     
  12. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    What you forgot to mention was that 10-20% the receptionist handed your iPad to doctor to sign for something he has no idea.