The simple things in life and selling pharmaceuticals
At our recent Sales Force Effectiveness USA conference in Princeton in May, we conducted a little survey among conference attendees on, among other things, how participants feel their reps are viewed by doctors and the value they may (or may not) bring to them.
By on Sep 1, 2009At our recent Sales Force Effectiveness USA conference in Princeton in May, we conducted a little survey among conference attendees on, among other things, how participants feel their reps are viewed by doctors and the value they may (or may not) bring to them.
While the mini-survey is by no means scientifically significant (due to its size and methods of administration), there were some interesting and I believe telling outcomes on several of the questions.
Bear with me, for while these may seem to be disjointed tidbits, theres great value in the nuggets of information here, I think.
First, I was quite interested in the responses to a question we asked about to what extend participant believed their reps were viewed as consultants by their customers. Among 78 respondents, 34% said their reps were well on their way to being considered consultants by their customers and 12% said they were nearly there. Only 6% said they felt their reps were fully there.
Clearly, although it is something we say we must achieve, even by our own admission, we seemingly have a ways to go to get there.
The next question that was quite telling, in my opinion, was one that asked how many times the survey participant had changed jobs due to a merger or acquisition. A whopping 34% had changed jobs at least once due to M&A, 19% said they had done so twice, and another 16% said they had changed jobs due to company upheaval three or more times.
Although we know that M&A activity is disruptive, did anyone out there really think it was quite that much so? I must say, I was surprised by the number of people affected by multiple job changes. No wonder we dont have more reps viewed as consultants by their customers, they cant stick around long enough to gain their confidence.
Next, we asked the audience which sales rep characteristics had the most influence on physician satisfaction. Among the 60 participants who responded to this question, 12% said presents information in a fair and unbiased manner, 15% said understands the needs of my practice and another 15% said makes good use of my time.
Certainly not earth shattering revelations, but telling none the less. The simple things the common courtesies are what prove to be most valuable to our customers. And the simple truth is we know it thats why we can report it, but are we delivering it?
And last but not least, the simplest and most basic message from our little survey comes with this last question: Does asking for the business increase doctors prescribing intent? More than 60% of you said yes.
We spend a lot of time looking for silver sales bullets and investing in sales force excellence strategies and while thats all well and good, when was the last time we simply asked our customers point blank for their business? Sometimes its the simple things in life and pharma selling that are the most rewarding.
Just a little food for thought.