Dumb or Dumber?

20 something years ago I started my pharma career as a sales rep for Astra. Following 6 weeks of training I went out on the road armed with my sales aid, some pads and pens and a few demo models of the device I was promoting. Within a few calls I discovered that the last thing a GP wanted to see was a sales aid! Within a few more calls I learnt my most powerful selling tool was my product. A few calls after that I learnt the most common questions and ensured I had the relevant clinical papers to answer them.

All in all in a few weeks I was an efficient (and dare I say pretty effective) sales person.

With 8 odd years in sales the sales aid was always the least effective tool I carried in my bag and so when I moved into sales management my team and I focused on the story telling rather than the sales aid (once again very successfully!) My next step was into product management and with all the grand ideas brought from my experiences in sales I started with the obvious question "why do we spend so much money on sales aids?"

I must say the answer came much more quickly than I expected! "We know the best reps don't use them but we have to cater for the lowest common denominator!" 

So like every other product manager in the industry at that time I started on my first sales aid to ensure the 'lowest common denominator' had a crutch on which to lean when in front of a customer.

So where are we now? Well the sales aid is now invariably on an iPad and contains a lot of all singing and dancing apps to provide even more 'crutches' for when the discussion gets too hot! We now have metrics which show us which pages have been used, how much time they were open and what journey the rep went on through the sales aid (amongst others) We can correlate these things with sales and start to identify the 'key drivers'.

I'm still not convinced!

Could you imagine walking into a shoe shop and the assistant pulling out an iPad to show why one shoe is more comfortable, harder wearing, trendier, more environmentally friendly etc. than the next? Wouldn't you just want to try it on?

Or how about a restaurant:

"sorry waiter I can not decide between the steak and the fish"

"Ah let me help you sir." waiter pulls out his iPad sales aid. "As you can see the steak is packed with protein and if we compare it too the fish there is a significant benefit of the steak over the fish. The steak has also been shown to increase quality of life as measured by smiles per customer whereas the fish has never been tested in that way. I hope you agree that the steak is definitely the best choice, now shall I put you down for one steak and chips?"

Interestingly enough this is how the pharma industry has treated an intelligent segment of society for many years and continues to do so to cater to the "lowest common denominator" in the field force!!

So where is the problem? The 'lowest common denominator' is too low? Physicians really do like to be patronised? Pharma marketers are too scared/stupid to break the mode? No one has come up with anything better?

My guess is that it is a mixture of reasons with a very strong drive from senior management wanting 'innovation' and 'change' but only with in the scope of their experiences. i.e. they were brought up with sales aids and the risk of moving to a different sales method is considered too high.

I remember a phone call from a very successful rep during the days of 'mega field forces'. The conversation went something like this:

"Chris can you get all the idiots off my territory? They can still stay with the company but can you tell them to stay at home? I'll deliver the sales and they can still pick up their bonuses as long as they stay off the road and stop calling on my customers, they are making it more difficult for me to sell!"

Did we do anything? Nope, other than reassure the successful rep that he was valued and an unfortunate victim of the cult of the 'lowest common denominator'!

Of course we have moved on from this but I wonder how far?

Talking with friends in other industries the 'lowest common denominator' would never exist! Sending out someone to meet with customers who may do more harm than good would be unthinkable. A sales person is considered a true asset to the organisation (often amongst the highest earners in the business) and is nurtured and supported as an individual and as an ambassador for the organisation.

As digital media encroaches on the traditional role of the rep is the Pharma industry inadvertently killing off it's most powerful tool by not respecting the customer, the sales person or the key role of personal relationships in the selling/buying process?

Marketing; misunderstod and poorly implemented!

The "ideology" - Simply put marketing is identify the needs of customers and then finding a way to meet those needs more effectively than competitors and making money in the process!

The "reality" - Unfortunately, for a number of companies in the pharmaceutical business, marketing is all about how to push products via a sales force to meet top line sales targets.

In practice it is finding the balance between the "ideology" and "reality" which defines a successful marketer.

Where is this most obvious?

I am sure that every marketer in the pharma business has at some stage heard the cry from sales for more data!
The market research (presented to senior management!) shows that doctors choose products based on efficacy, safety and ease of use.
While your insight tells you the doctor chooses products based on their need to be seen to be doing the right thing.

So where do you go?

Re cut the data and give the reps a new "unique" claim?

Focus on your "differentiation" of better efficacy, tolerability or ease of use?

Or do you explore your insight and build a campaign on what the customer needs?

In real life you need to do all 3!