A recent survey by G&S Research conducted in conjunction with Pharmaceutical Representative magazine offers some interesting insight into what sales reps face in the field. While the survey results confirm that a strong relationship between reps and physicians coincides with better access and market share, reps say developing that bond is tougher than ever.
Stephanie Chen, senior methodologist for G&S, says she’s surprised given the survey’s findings, that sales reps in the industry continue to be successful in the face of the “continually pressured environment.”
“Return on investment models for pharmaceutical and biotechnology field force analyses continue to show incremental benefit of additional representatives – above and beyond the costs associated with these new reps,” she says. “Yet growing sales teams make the selling environment more difficult for individual representatives needing to interact with physicians.”
It’s just the kind of thing Philip Watts talked about in his presentation at eyeforpharma’s SFE Europe event in Monaco (see today’s story Actions Speak Louder than Words), when he said, “Competition for access is hard enough without competing with ourselves.”
The survey goes on to confirm one of Watt’s other arguments – one that is coming to be shared widely throughout the industry – that physicians are looking to reps to fill the role of trusted advisor.
In the G&S survey, reps who classify themselves as Trusted Advisors (based on how they think they are perceived by the physicians they call on) report more time with physicians than those who classify themselves as Sample Suppliers. More than half of Sample Suppliers say they talk to a physician less than one minute per visit, while only 14% of Trusted Advisors say they visited with the physician a minute or less.
It plays into what PricewaterhouseCoopers said in its Pharma 2020 report earlier this year and has been argued by eyeforpharma for quite some time, that pharma must demonstrate more value and do more to contribute to the overall improvement of human health. As we’ve so often said, the industry must become more than a commodities provider, positioning itself as an integral part of the complete health care continuum.
Companies, like Pfizer, are starting to hear that song and dance to the music by gradually paring down their mega sales teams in favor of key account managers and specialist liaisons working in close enough proximity to physicians, payers and patients to provide the kinds of valuable service that will deliver the industry from its days of being glorified Sample Suppliers.
Author: Lisa Roner, editor, eyeforpharma
