Analysts supporting reps

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Supposing you had a analyst working for you providing you with research and analysis support, would this help you? How would you use this support?

 

[Anonymous]

The problem right now and most empirically shown is the number of offices, hospitals, and health systems which are limiting or eliminating access to physicians, hospitals, or prohibiting the use of sampling, which is the primary reason pharmaceutical reps are able to do their job.

Unless an analyst can provide strong evidence to physicians and health administrators as well as pharmaceutical company executives, it's going to be harder and harder for the latter to justify several thousand rep sales forces and the overhead that goes with it ... perhaps Obamacare helped the pharmaceutical industry in the short run, but in the long run, when something has to be cut, an overloaded and high selling cost industry is going to take the hit.

Unfortunately, pharmaceutical sales reps are going the way of buggy-whip salesmen. But the damage was probably as self-inflicted as anything that killed it.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your views! I meant to ask, in your opinion, if commercial analytic support in the hands of the rep, being driven by the sales reps need would help reps be more effective?
If yes, how could reps leverage such support?

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your views! I meant to ask, in your opinion, if commercial analytic support in the hands of the rep, being driven by the sales reps need would help reps be more effective?
If yes, how could reps leverage such support?

I’m not sure what you are asking? We have a plethora of “analytic tools” at our disposal. It sounds like you are tying to sell some service, but to be honest this job is not that complicated. You have a list of doctors, you know what they use and don’t use, and what their volume is. Not sure you need much more than that. We, for the most part, are walking tv commercials, who in some therapeutic areas leave samples.

At my company we get numbers weekly delayed one week. Not sure what analysis you could do that would change one’s approach.

 

[Anonymous]

Just like the last poster said, we get plenty of analysis and data. The problem is that most of it is not accurate. The prescription data is getting less and less accurate because so many pharmacies don't report and it is not clear exactly what is reported by mail orders. It is becoming more of an issue and my company, at least, does not want us to know or question any of this because we should accept it is equal across all territories. It isn't though and small differences of only a dozen prescriptions affect our rankings and performance. Do all Walmarts capture the same percent of the business? How many urban residents or patients in wealthy areas are going to Walmarts? The lack of transparency makes it worse.
Also, marketing teams collect a TON of meaningless data. The number of details, the number of samples, what the doc recollects, what features and benefits the docs like and are looking for. Has anyone in marketing or on a brand team ever completed a feedback survey? Check the box, press 5 for highly important and 1 for not at all important. These methods are a joke!! How can anyone take this info seriously? I'd love to see what this data looked like if it the reps were asked vs what the companies spend millions on!