For most of 2020 and 2021, if you are someone highly compensated that uses their brain to generate value while sitting somewhere you are doing just fine. You are safe, and probably banking money given cost savings on vacations , transportation, eating out, etc. If you are not someone who makes money using intelligence, but instead performs manual labor and/or Is expected to be physically present to do their job, then you are either at physical risk and/or occupational risk. 30% of reps will be unemployed before this is over. In the aftermath a chunk of positions will be converted to a cheap virtual model.
Possibly, but I don’t think office based reps will go after these jobs. I would think the better approach would be forget virtual and maintain a small office based sales force. As others have said and as we have seen, psych is the one specialty that is tailor made for telemed. It will never be as it was before Covid in terms of open offices, but maybe one day it will turn back around. When you have the type of products we do, ones that aren’t necessary or offer no real benefit over the many already on the market, do you really need a ton of reps telling the same story over and over again? Of course you don’t. Go with the old 80/20 rule and see how it goes. If you must have a virtual team, forget trying to get docs to talk over the computer because we all know it doesn’t work, because so many reps with the same drug are trying the same thing. Target the big telemed offices with ONE VIRTUAL REP ONLY, in a customer service role. But until Lundbeck deals with some very pressing problems, it will never debate any better than it is right now. I am not talking about money either. We all know we can make more and sometimes much more at other companies. Lundbeck refuses to address personnel issues for reasons known only to them. This job will go the way of the buggy whip salesman over the next 5 years or so. Technology will replace what little value we have. Most of us do not have a back-up plan. That’s when things will get real, real bad for you and your family.
Yep, it takes time, but people are always paid what their value is. When it was the Wild West and reps could do lots of shady stuff to boost sales, it was worth paying them. But now? Sitting at home emailing people? You could find someone in India for 10 dollars/hour for that. Going forward it’s all about how good your data and payer access are. Some Barbie bringing Starbucks to an office is not ROI.
