Influence Intelligence

The Death of a [Pharma] Salesman?

Yesterday's Pharmalot ran an interesting piece that suggested rumors of the pharma salesman's death -- with apologies to Mark Twain -- have been greatly exaggerated. It's worth a read.

Our thoughts? The "downsizing" of field staff's (from a high of 105,000 to nearly 75,000 now) has been a boon to the CSO industry and digital agencies to name just two who are benefitting from this change.

It's clear that there is still a need/vale in s "rep service", but that is evolving into a tier strategy; reps to service the sample closet, MSL's for high end resource linking and disease management discussions, hospital/medical center reps focusing on education and the future physicians, national account people calling on key managed access customers.

The sheer volume of reps has and will continue to fall, but there has been a rise in "specialty reps" who are considered very valuable in the area of oncology, infused, injectable products and specialty pharmaceuticals.

The days of the "dine and dash" are gone, but the need and value of reps that can bring "clinical utility" and "practice value" for their products to key providers is still strong and growing. Our company, in fact, specializes in working to matching the needs of the providers with the type of rep needed.

Digital Tools Replacing Pharma Reps - A Data-Driven Approach to Smart Drug Sales

The trend is indisputable: drug manufacturers are phasing out their legions of sales reps. What's taking their place? According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, it's "digital sales tools that seek to sell doctors on drugs without the intrusion of an office visit."

What's especially interesting in the article's comment thread is outcry from people pushing back on this trend's inevitability. Many people are simply blind to the reality: The shift has already happened!  

Technology is allowing us to make targeted, highly aligned approaches to physicians both online and in person (where allowed). Of course, these must be more educational, rich with information that has to be pertinent to the patient population and their needs.  

And it's working: Online sales tools provide a more effective means of outreach because they are more aligned to the right data. They access information resonates EXACTLY with what physicians and patients need to know. In other words, the homework has already been done, streamlined and easily disseminated -- and all without the high cost of a giant field of reps. This actually liberates pharmaceutical company sales representatives to be more focused on their products and their customers. The evolution is inevitable and the interaction is much more effective.