Sales force effectiveness or just sales effectiveness?
Theres something cooking in the pharma kitchen: the term sales force effectiveness seems to imply that our main mission is to make the sales force more effective. Logical? Perhaps. But doesnt that sidestep the question of whether a sales force is necessary at all?
By way of a parallel, there are those in the car industry that seriously question how much of a future sales reps have. With precariously thin margins, customer feedback less than glowing about sales people and the growing sophistication of manufacturers websites, do we really need sales people at all?
Current marketing best practice suggests carefully analyzing the customers buying process and then designing an approach to fit that. Isnt it the case that our industry is a bit guilty of grandiose campaigns designed to tell physicians about what they need?
Isnt it time we started with a clean sheet of paper for the next product launch?