Mals Musings: Why I hate sales reps
And why its time to bring the era of the pharma sales force to an end.
Tough times call for tough questions to be asked. The reality is that the questions we have danced around thus far are being asked by shareholders and governments: Do we really need a sales force? Whether we like it or not, this question is only going to grow in momentum, so we might as well face up to it. Instead of reversing the sales force arms race, is it time to end it all together? Looking at this from a neutral and objective perspective, I think it is time that we called time on the sales force.
Lets look at the evolution of our sales forces. In the 1980s, sales force as a key driver of success became a popular choice. The fact was that leveraging relationships and applying pressure on decision makers (who was not the payer) was a fruitful ploy. This trend continued to gather momentum into the 1990s with exponential growth in the number of sales reps being matched by equally impressive growth in sales. Many saw the birth of blockbuster products as justification for this effective strategy. The growth in sales force size was coupled with other trends, like subtle changes in their role and depreciation in quality. Nonetheless, the return on investment was compelling
In time, the medical representative became a fully fledged sales representative, focused on selling and selling only. Yes there were programs, training and support programs for their customers, but with the sole purpose of selling. Sales representatives turned up to see physicians barely knowing the contraindications of their product but able to walk the customer through the detail aid with military precision. The visits became more frequent and there were also colleagues of theirs that followed up to ensure that the physician did not forget why they should use the products.
Unfortunately there were a few other trends that occurred simultaneously that combined to completely take the value out of the sales reps role. Firstly, customers started to opt out of seeing sales reps, which meant that there were more sales reps trying to see fewer customers. The pressure on time meant shorter visits, which in turn meant they did the bare minimumdeliver their well rehearsed key messages. Secondly, blockbuster success led to an unforeseen side effect: a growth in speed to market and numbers of me-too products. Thirdly, a number of big blockbusters were withdrawn due to questionable safety profiles. Finally, the big, easy-to-do unmet needs were becoming saturated. These trends meant that the sales reps were getting less time with fewer customers and trying to differentiate products with limited differences. The scene was set for a further development.
What happens when you have too many sales reps chasing too few customers and selling similar products? They succeeded in disengaging an increasing number of customers and resorted to out of the box and often unethical tactics to win business. By now the sales forces were a fully fledged selling machine and had totally lost their initial position as a key part of the value chain. Customers were disengaged, and frankly so were a significant proportion of the graduates that were employed as sales reps. Driven by a need to improve ROI, organisations reluctantly started to reverse the growth in sales forces. And the trend continues. The challenge for the industry is that whilst the sales force is the elephant in the room, a proper replacement for them remains a subject for conferences and academic papers rather than practice
I hate sales forces because they have ceased to add value, and they are a cost to the healthcare system, which often means higher prices and an inability to get products to the patients who really need them. We do not really need sales forces; the savvy marketers came to this conclusion a while ago. The growth of digital media, Facebook, Twitter and the use of these by the medical community is further evidence that it is time to bring the era of the sales force to an end. When the consumer world is slowly coming to terms with the death of advertising, should we pack it in with our walking advertisers? It is time to put these talented graduates out of their misery, create cost-effective value and serve the wider community ethically. Consider what would happen if we all cut our sales forces by 100%. The accountant is drooling about that P/L and promising a portion of it for reinvestment.