Relypsa

Epic fail for Relypsa to have lost PB. One of a kind, genuine servant leader. Hands down best RD I’ve ever had and should have been our head of sales. If people don’t leave a company but leave their boss, what does that mean for those of us remaining?

 

I agree she is a loss but Was she unhappy here? I did not get that sense. I’m sure she could get frustrated by the sales ops mess, etc. but otherwise she seemed happy. Maybe she felt like pursuing a new and exciting opportunity with startup equity...good for her.

 

Was she unhappy? Sure. Because she was a great leader she also showed a ton of professionalism by not making her superiors look incompetent all the time. She fought for the right things and was ignored, dare I say retaliated against at times.
The new regional boundaries are another sign of the brother in law mentality this company is building. Yet to see who they will promote to the new RSD positions but I have a strong suspicion it will be JT and PH. JT has at least performed. PH, should not even be a consideration based on his performance. Now that they took Texas out of the West and stuck it in the East MG won’t get a shot and he is easily the top performing DSM to date.

 

Too late now but, plain and simple, PB should have been promoted to VP of Sales. She was a class act to the end.

 

sometimes it is so damn easy to know who posts something and this one could not be more obvious....

 

I thought the exact same thing!

 

Beyond frustrated with this company and I am not alone. Many are deciding if there is a viable future here. Decisions being made aren’t smart. Profitability isn’t in sight and instead of holding off hiring for vacancies, BN is very proud of keeping all 133 and 17 DSMs, regardless of many territories and divisions being very low on volume. Nothing has changed, except to move some of the volume around and potential was “redefined”. This will cause disruption and will not have a net effect on sales. No one wants anyone to lose their job but we’ve had a lot of TAM and DSM vacancies in Q2 and Q3 that if not filled, would have allowed a true look at revenue generated and employee needs. There are two ways to get to profitability, sell more and reassess needs to cut the bottom line. Both need to be done. We don’t need unnecessary expenses retained or added. Why on earth are we moving to 3 regions? Let’s be clear, no one understands why this is being done and It won’t increase our sales. Two RDs was plenty. With PB’s departure, BN should have been moved into her spot and that would have saved 1 salary. Now we are adding in 2 more high priced salaries by not moving BN and adding another region. That’s got to be costing the company 1M in compensation and benefits. 1M that could have been saved or used towards a necesssity like contracting. That’s a lot of Veltassa that will need to be sold to cover two RD’s, and there is no way we will see a “value” equal to the cost of a million. If Relypsa wants to survive as a business, we have to start thinking like a business. Every cost means more Veltassa to sell and should generate the cost plus add significant additional revenue. Why do we have so many people flying bi-weekly to the home office? Flights, airfare, meals, etc are costing the company a fortune. If they need to be at the home office they should live there and if they can do their work from home, we shouldn’t be paying the tab. Some need to be at HO but apparently a lot from managed markets and logistics are flying in bi-weekly. What is the reason they can’t complete work in field on webex or phone. More Veltassa to sell. Group dinners with all in town bi-weekly or from HO, more Veltassa to sell. We’ve “Restructured” sales and FLMs but are all RAMs needed? What about those we don’t hear from or use the same recycled PowerPoint for meetings. Why going into year 5 do we still have RAMs or MSLs asking us to introduce us to customers? They’ve had the same time to build relationships with key customers. This isn’t a complaint post but a real concern. There’s a solid core group that want to see Relypsa succeed. We are sick and tired of the lack of accountable leadership and some not running Relyosa like a business that needs to turn a profit and survive. Instead they are treating it like their own cash cow.
Stephane and Etiene, look under the hood so we can survive!

 

There he is again! Get over it or just leave

 

It’s sad to see some of the decisons being made. I don’t think decisions are clearly explained. Relypsa was a great company and I’m hoping we can turn things around and have a bright future here.

 

you have no idea how naive you sound....

 

agree...Someone should remind the Mark Cuban wannabe “drug rep” that we did just go through a very detailed strategic realignment that I assure you was closely monitored by our very capable SWISS (yes Swiss pharma company - they are pretty good at forensic level business analysis) parents and this realignment was done to support Relypsa’s US needs now AND into the future. Keep patting yourself on the back for your high Veltassa volume that was achieved all bc of your skill (not bc of territory differences) and stop Monday morning quarterbacking decisions that are made at a table you have never sat at.

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Talk about naive! You are obviously not only drinking the kool-aid but the maker of the kool-aid. Thanks for your two cents sales flops and TU/BN.

 

What decisions? Examples?

 

To me it’s more of a lack of decisions that have hurt us
Not proactively expanding the specialty pharmacy network.
Not developing (until recently) relationships with dialysis leaders so reps can access more easily. This should have been a major focus since day 1.
Not properly preparing for the launch of a competitor (sticking your head in the sand doesn’t count)
Not communicating effectively with the sales force for months re missing numbers and data. Both Sales Ops and HO lost a ton of credibility.
Not recognizing that the disconnect between HO field sales is serious and needs to be remedied. TU is missing some info. Needs to dig deeper.

We have a great product with great clinical data. Overall the culture is still decent. We are paid well. But expecting the sales force not to question decisions/ or lack thereof that have clearly hurt, or at least delayed, business is ludicrous. We are by nature analytical. We have to be.

 

My DM told me the missing numbers were being carefully qc’d and they finally get released and they are screwed up. They can’t even qc and do simple math. Unbelievable....they keep killing their credibility

 

Hearing that it’s wide spread, again. Know several people where new prescriptions are confirmed filled, but not showing up in data. This has been a problem since day 1.

 

The “unbelievable” part is that we keep expecting leadership to change and somehow advocate for us. History is the best predictor of the future which is why most have their resume updated. The fact that we’re expected to do new product training “on our own time” before certification in Houston is one more sign of the out of touch direction from our top sales guy. No credibility left. You’d think someone would be concerned with the high cost of rehiring.