Taren Grom Companies are striving to improve competence in the key sales drivers — targeting, frequency, message, and coaching. May the force be with you… Anyone who has been to the doctor’s office in the past few years no doubt has noted that the waiting room, which was once occupied by other patients in need of care, is now filled with well-dressed men and women carrying large cases. These pharmaceutical sales representatives, more often than not, outnumber patients, which shouldn’t be a surprise. According to some estimates, the industry is fielding more than 100,000 pharmaceutical sales reps, who outnumber office-based physicians. According to RM Consulting International (RMCI), pharmaceutical companies have tried to ensure continued double-digit returns by entering a seemingly endless pharmaceutical “arms race” with each company constantly increasing the size of its salesforce. But that model, which once almost guaranteed profitability, is becoming a proposition of diminishing returns. Pfizer, which has been cited as having the industry’s largest salesforce, has announced plans to redesign its field force to respond to changing market dynamics, including time demands on its physician customers. In a published statement, Karen Katen, Pfizer vice chairman and human health president, notes, “We’re reorganizing our sales regions around states to better align with our increasingly important Medicare and Medicaid customers. We intend that the field force will remain at a scale that is consistent with meeting current customer needs and with the capacity required to support the launches of the 20 products that we have filed and expect to file in the 2001-2006 period.” Pfizer’s statement doesn’t go into details regarding workforce reduction, but according to The Wall Street Journal, Pfizer plans to revamp its 11,000-person salesforce in the United States. In addition to reorganizing sales territories along state lines to reflect new Medicare coverage areas, The Wall Street Journal has reported that the company will reduce the number of different representatives calling on doctors to about two or three per product from as many as five. Analysts say this is part of an overall plan aimed at reducing the company’s cost base by $4 billion, or about 12%, by 2008. According to some industry experts, if Pfizer does scale back its salesforce, this might have a ripple effect throughout the industry. Pharmaceutical industry insiders have speculated that it would take a salesforce reduction by a major pharmaceutical company to motivate other companies to re-evaluate and possibly reduce the number of sales professionals in the field and improve salesforce productivity through better training and education. According to RMCI, the growth in salesforce size over the past few years has masked the gradual erosion of basic selling skills and that few companies display consistent competence in the key sales drivers: targeting, frequency, message, and coaching. RMCI research shows most sales managers (90%) find less than half of their company’s sales calls are effective. The executives interviewed for this forum emphasize the importance of having their sales professionals equipped with the best knowledge and education to forge better relationships with physicians. So who knows, maybe in the future the waiting room will be a little less crowded. Taren Grom Editor letter from the editor

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