drug rep chronicle: vol 1 no 1 (canada)
DESCRIPTION
Canada's new publication for professional pharmaceutical representatives: All About Professionalism, Performance, And the Pursuit of Selling ExcellenceTRANSCRIPT
Welcome to Drug Rep Chronicle. We’re
here to help you make the transition
to the exciting new times we face
Drivers of change
Once viewed both inside and outside the sec-
tor as a sheltered safe-haven, Pharma looks
very different now than it did just a few
years ago. And more changes are inevitable. What
are the key drivers of these changes, and how do
they affect the drug industry salesforce?
The factors driving change can be categorized
as financial, customer, or key success.
Financial: It costs more to run a Pharma
business today than ever before, and revenue is hard-
er to get. Data from the third National Pharma -
ceutical Congress1 in Toronto shows that in 1996 our
industry spent $17 billion on R&D and introduced 53
New Molecular Entities (NMEs). Eleven years later,
we spent $47 billion on R&D, while only 17 NMEs
were introduced. Get out your abacus: that means
one-third the NMEs, with two-and-a-half times the
spend.
4 out of 5 physicians say you may not be taking the right approach to this unique selling opportunity
‘Please don’t makeme work anothermedical conference’
Studies have shown that 80 per cent of doctors believe they can
learn something new as a result of visiting company exhibits at
medical conferences. More important, as many as 50 per cent of
doctors have indicated that they are more likely to recommend or pre-
scribe a company’s drug product after doing so.
Medical conferences provide a unique opportunity for pharmaceuti-
cal sales representatives to interact with “hard-to-see” high prescribers in
a relaxed selling environment. However, to capitalize on this, you must
have the “right” attitude, and use the “right” selling approach.
Let’s talk about attitude. At a recent medical conference in Toronto,
I spoke to a number of pharma sales reps about how they felt. While
some were very positive about attending the event, other sales reps
described it as “boring” and “a waste of time”, and said they would rather
be making calls with doctors on their own sales territory.
However, only a few sales reps recognized that medical conferences
allowed them to spend a lot more time with each doctor than they
would normally get during a sales call
What reps need to know about
persuading MDswith evidenceby Lou Sawaya, MD, MBA
Reticulum, Kanata, Ont.
Medical practitioners and
researchers have developed
several approaches for deal-
ing with the huge amount of data and
evidence generated by the large
number of clinical trials and stud-
ies conducted each year.
Consensus methods, such as
expert panels, are a common
means of dealing with scientific
findings using a qualitative assess-
ment of evidence. They allow a wider
range of study types to be considered, in
addition to those customarily
FACES/PLACES: A PHARMA
SALES CAREER LED AAMIR SYED
ACROSS THE WORLD ........14
SAMPLING: AFTER 90 YEARS,
THERE’S FINALLY A NEW WAY
TO OFFER SAMPLES ..........8
HOW WE DO IT: HOW
PURDUE PHARMA MAINTAINS
ITS SALES MOJO ..............10
For Canada’s Professional Healthcare Representatives No. 1, 2009/10 Preview Edition
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All about Professionalism, Performance, and the Pursuit of Selling Excellence
37695 drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd:drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd 07/12/09 3:46 PM Page 1
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37695 drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd:drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd 07/12/09 3:46 PM Page 2
Preview Edition • 2009/10
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Drug Rep Chronicle 3
Drug rep ChroniCle welcomes contributions from readers. In particular, we’re interested in hearing aboutyour personal experiences in the field, and you are especially welcome to keep us informed about your team’snew developments, new appointments, and new practices.
If you’re submitting an article, opinion piece, press release, or letter to the editor for consideration, pleasebear in mind that we select material for publication from a large volume of submitted material, and that we maynot be able to publish your submission in a specific issue (or at all) due to space constraints and other considera-tions.
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industry; andMy Turn: Opinion pieces of approximately 500 to 700 words, offering original commentary on issues facing the healthcare
industry.Please refer inquiries to: Editor, Drug Rep Chronicle, 555 Burnhamthorpe Rd., Suite 306, Toronto,
Ont. M9C 2Y3 Canada. Fax 416.352.6199, E-mail: [email protected]
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
R. Allan RyanASSISTANT EDITOR
Lynn Bradshaw
SALES & MARKETING
Henry RobertsPRODuCTION & CIRCuLATION
Cathy DusomeCOMPTROLLER
Rose Arciero
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Surviving (and thriving) at medical conferences ......1, 4Most likely, you go to enough out of them, but are you getting enough out of them?
Danny Dean offers suggestions on the do’s and don’ts of working congresses
Persuading MDs With Evidence ....................................1, 6Guidelines are a straightforward way to impress a physician, right? Wrong. Dr. LouSawaya cautions often they do not follow the tenets of evidence-based medicine
Drivers of change ................................................................1,4Welcome to Drug Rep Chronicle. We’re here to help you make the transition to the
exciting new times facing professional pharmaceutical representatives
Sampling in the 21st Century..............................................8A 90-year-old pharma tradition finally gets a facelift, and Stacey Nauss explainswhat that means for bag-carriers everywhere
How we do it... at Purdue Pharma ..................................10Chris Kostka describes how his Pickering, Ont.-based company, a specialty pharma mar-
keter, is succeeding to a greater extent than competitors with a broad focus
Stop waiting and start becoming drug rep 2.0 ..........12Here are some steps to take, to avoid being pigeon-holed as expendable, as Big Pharma
field forces continue to shrink
Faces/Places: Meet Aamir Hussain Syed ....................14A top performer at dermatology specialty company LEO Pharma, here’s one pharma
representative who graduated from two wheels to four
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.-- Walt Disney
The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he isnot distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the abilitythat he has. -- Confucius
37695 drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd:drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd 07/12/09 3:46 PM Page 3
4 Preview Edition
in the doctor’s office, and that this would
enable them to get a deeper understanding
of the clinical challenges these doctors
were facing with patients in their practice.
In addition, attending this medical confer-
ence gave them a chance to network with
sales professionals from other pharma
companies, and to see how they were pro-
moting their products.
Based on our consulting experience,
many pharmaceutical sales reps are not
effective in medical conference selling.
Product discussions in this unique selling
situation often involve interacting with
more than one doctor at the same time. As
a result, you can not simply promote your
products as you would in the doctor’s
office. Instead, you need to act more like an
orchestra conductor, encouraging and facil-
itating a group discussion with several doc-
tors at once.
At first thought, this might
seem to be a negative; but, in
reality, it provides an excellent forum for
physicians to share their individual clinical
experience on how they manage specific
problem patients, or their thoughts on an
educational presentation relating to your
therapeutic area that they just attended at
the medical conference.
Important Do’s and Don’tsAs experts in pharmaceutical sales and
marketing excellence, we have gained a
number of insights into best selling prac-
tices, and what top performing sales pro-
fessionals do that makes them more suc-
cessful than other sales reps.
In short, top sales performers have a
much better understanding of how to
interact with different doctors in different
selling situations. In addition, they avoid
many of the common mistakes often made
by other sales reps.
Here’s a simple check-list to keep in
mind.
n As doctors approach your exhibit, do
welcome them with a smile and a
by Danny Dean, director of Ansera, a specialized pharmaceutical con-
sulting firm that helps its clients to achieve breakthrough sales results.
www.ansera.com.
It’s not just R&D. Operating costs for vir-
tually all areas of our industry are increasing sig-
nificantly: $63 billion will be lost to patent
expiry by 2014. The economic reality of today’s
Pharma is that we all must do more with less—
and the demands for salesforce productivity
have never been greater.
Customers: We communicate with differ-
ent customers today than we did just a few years
ago. Nurse-practitioners and physician-aides are
two examples. The overall physician population
has increased slower than our country’s rate of
population growth. Together with physician emi-
gration, death, and retirement, the result is more
difficult access to specialists and greater demands
on GP/FPs. Four million Canadians do not have
a family doctor, with the result of the nature of
the walk-in clinic having changed considerably.
Today’s generation of physicians is more sceptical
of industry, and has higher expectations for
knowledge and service from their
pharmaceutical representatives. In
short, we have more customers
today than we ever had, and they
have higher expectations with
respect to knowledge and service
— while having less
time to give.
Lastly, the
recipe for suc-cess in Pharma
representation has always had three key ingredi-
ents; knowledge, skills and relationships. For many
reasons, relationship-building is more difficult
today and requires more time. The increased
challenge in relationship-building, together with
changing customer expectations and demanding
time pressures are shifting the balance of these
key-success ingredients. There are greater
demands today on representatives’ knowledge,
targeting, planning, and communication skills.
In short, the bar continues to be set high-
er for today’s pharmaceutical representatives, as
expectations are higher and tolerance of weak
performance is lower.
This radically new environment is the
rationale for Drug Rep Chronicle. The publica-
tion’s mandate is to foster Professional ism,
Performance, and the Pursuit of Selling
Excellence for Canada’s 7,000 professional
pharma representatives. We’d love to get your
feedback on this new venture, or on any other
topic relevant to the subject of what it’s like to
be selling pharma today. Write to us at feed-
[email protected]. We want to hear from you.
1 The National Pharmaceutical Congress is amajor event that takes place in March of everyyear that brings together key stakeholders ofthe pharmaceutical industry; see www.phrma-congress.info
Drivers of change— continued from page 1
— continued from page 1
by Lorne MarkowitzManagement consultantand contributing editor toDrug Rep Chronicle
Conferences:You go to enough of them. Are you getting enough outout of them?
37695 drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd:drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd 07/12/09 3:46 PM Page 4
warm greeting. Or, are you sitting
down, half hidden within your exhibit
with your arms crossed? And, do you
attempt to make eye contact and
introduce yourself to establish per-
sonal rapport, or do you simply focus
on trying to read the name printed on
their conference badge?
n Do you encourage the doctor to feel at
ease, so that you can initiate a conver-
sation that will allow you to identify
potential selling opportunities for
your products? Many sales reps quick-
ly box themselves into a corner by
asking, “May I help you?” … only to
hear, “No, I’m just looking”.
n Are you able to quickly identify what
information the doctor wants, or
what they specifically want to discuss?
Too often, sales reps assume they will
only have a few seconds with each
doctor, and simply give a short detail
on their product’s key selling features.
In many cases, the doctor already
knows about your product and is pre-
scribing it, so this information is of
no interest at all.
n Finally, at the end, do you ask if you
have fully addressed all of the doc-
tor’s questions, and explore how you
[or one of your colleagues] might fol-
low up subsequently with them at
their medical office to build further
upon your discussion?
An Integrated ApproachFrom a strategic selling perspective, it’s
important for you and your company to
think about ways to leverage your presence
at a medical conference, prior to the actual
event, itself.
For example, if you are sponsoring a
speaker or educational seminar at the con-
ference, think about how you might pro-
mote your session to all physicians on your
sales territory who might be interested. If
they are able to attend, extend a personal
invitation to them to drop by your compa-
ny’s exhibit booth, rather than just leaving it
to chance.
And, following the conference, make
sure that you or someone else in your com-
pany follows up with each doctor who
dropped by your exhibit to thank them for
their interest in your products. This will not
only help to strengthen your company’s
existing relationship with them as an
important customer; it will also give you an
opportunity to explore how you and your
company might be of even greater value to
them.
In summary, medical conferences pro-
vide a golden opportunity for you to learn
more about your customers, and to help
them better understand how they might use
your products to help their patients. The
secret lies in understanding how you might
best take advantage of this selling opportu-
nity, and how you might most effectively
interact with physicians before, during, and
after the event.
Drug Rep Chronicle 5
Newsn NOCS OF NOTE: Microbix Bio -
systems of Mississauga, Ont. says its
clot-buster injectable urokinase
(Kinlytic) has been approved in Canada
for marketing and export... n Health
Canada approved alitretinoin (Toctino,
Basilea Pharmaceutica), OD oral Tx
for adults with severe chronic hand
eczema unresponsive to topical corti-
costeroids... n nuvo research of
Toronto says the uS FDA approved the
NDA of topical analgesic diclofenac
(Pennsaid), to be distributed stateside
by Covidien...
n GOOD TO GO: Health Canada’s
Medical Devices Bureau okayed the
Zenith Branch Endovascular Graft-Iliac
Bifurcation from Cook Medical, used
to allow endovascular Tx of both aor-
toiliac and iliac artery aneurysms occur-
ring in patients with abdominal aortic
aneurysms... n The FDA okayed arip-
iprazole (Abilify, BMS) as Tx of irri-
tability associated with autistic disorder
in pediatric patients aged six to 17
years, including symptoms of aggres-
sion toward others...
n PLACES, PEOPLE, PLAUDITS: B.C.
kinesiologist and heart disease
researcher Dr. Scott Lear is the first
recipient of the pfizer/Heart and
Stroke Foundation Chair in
Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
Research at St. Paul’s Hospital,
Vancouver... n The Royal College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
calls on Ottawa to make invest-
ments in human capital, research
and electronic health records to
support Canada’s recovery from
recession... n “This is an exciting
time for our company as we
advance our position as a strong,
global health care leader that will
make a substantial difference to
patients around the world.” —
Carlos Dourado, new president of
Merck Canada, following Merck’s
merger with Schering-Plough...
Get breaking drugbiz news and advisoriesfrom Drug Rep Chronicle on your mobile
phone: follow
http://www.twitter.com/DrugRepChron
Conferences:You go to enough of them. Are you getting enough outout of them?
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37695 drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd:drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd 07/12/09 3:46 PM Page 5
included in statistical reviews. They are
particularly useful where unanimity of
opinion does not exist, and when there is
insufficient information or when the
existing information is contradictory or
equivocal.
The output of systematic reviews and
expert panels are then used to inform and
influence physicians’ clinical behavior
and medical decision-making in general.
One popular application stemming from
systematic reviews is the development of
various clinical practice guidelines.
Understandably, pharmaceutical
com panies are quite interested in the con-
tent of these reviews and guidelines, and
in their development and dissemination.
A favorable conclusion in a review or a
strong recommendation in a guideline can
positively impact the sales of a drug or an
entire therapeutic class.
Like any other discipline, evidence-
based medicine has its own detractors.
Not unexpectedly, the criticism surround-
ing evidence-based medicine reflects in
part the same concerns voiced over the
design, conduct, and results of clinical tri-
als, and includes the following arguments
and points of views:
n Lack of evidence does not mean nec-
essarily lack of benefit;
n The design, methodology and quality
of studies performed can and do
vary considerably, making it difficult
to aggregate the results in a mean-
ingful way;
n Evidence-based medicine applies to
populations, but not necessarily to
individuals. As such, it tends to pro-
mote a cookbook approach to medi-
cine, and discounts the value of clin-
ical experience;
n The number of systematic reviews
published annually keeps increasing
at a disquieting rate. It is not unusu-
al now to find more than one sys-
tematic review addressing the same
therapeutic question, sometimes
published within one month of each
other.
Clinical PracticeGuidelinesClinical practice guidelines
(CPGs) are sets of recommenda-
tions and suggested courses of
action usually made by a
group of medical experts.
Their purpose is to help
practitioners deal with a spe-
cific clinical question by
informing them about opti-
mal strategies for diagnosis
and treatment. Guidelines are
portrayed by their proponents
as a strategy for linking evi-
dence to practice, reducing prac-
tice variation and controlling
healthcare costs.
The rapid prolifera-
tion of
guidelines in recent years suggests a
widespread optimism about their power to
effect change. Academics often use
guidelines as an educational tool. Third-
party payers use them as a means of influ-
encing physicians’ practices.
Pharmaceutical companies are equally
active in the design and dissemination of
guidelines, and incorporate them into
their promotional mix when they happen
to favor a particular drug or therapeutic
class.
The persuasive
pow ers of guidelines
are mixed, howev-
er; and physi-
cians’ adher-
ence to them
can vary wide-
ly. A study that
a s s e s s e d
C a n a d i a n
p h y s i c i a n s ’
attitudes about
CPGs found
that physicians
use them less fre-
quently than other
t r a d i t i o n a l
sources of in -
format -
6 Preview Edition
Dr. Sawaya, a physician in Kanata,Ont., is the author of five books on the
subject of industry-physician interactions.This article is anextracted and con-densed version ofmaterial appearing inhis newest release,Super Reps III: ThePersuasion Report. To
order a copy online, visithttp://www.super-reps.com
Persuading MDs With Evidence— continued from page 1
A favorable guideline recommendationcan be a rep’s best friend, but don’t count onthe persuasiveness of any one single review
© Ta
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37695 drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd:drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd 07/12/09 3:46 PM Page 6
ion, and that only 32 per cent of those sur-
veyed reported making one or more
changes to their practice in a year as a
result of a guideline recommendation.
Physicians often choose to ignore
guidelines because of non-clinical factors,
such as the fear of malpractice litigation
or for financial considerations. Physicians
also value ambiguity and flexibility in
their work and as such are more willing
than other professionals to overrule guide-
lines. Rather than follow protocols, physi-
cians prefer to alter their approach and
their decisions based on the task on hand.
The pros and cons of Clinical Practice GuidelinesProponents of guidelines see several ben-
efits to them, and like to point out that:
n High-quality guidelines provide an
unbiased synthesis of expert opinion.
Their development is usually moti-
vated by a desire to improve quality
of care;
n Good guidelines can serve as a valu-
able educational tool and a conven-
ient source of advice. Guidelines can
inform practitioners about what is
known with reasonable certainty and
what is not. By doing so, they can
assist physicians to cope with uncer-
tainty, and help physicians and their
patients sort through difficult deci-
sions and perhaps avoid unnecessary
and potentially harmful interven-
tions;
n Well-written guidelines can also inform
physicians about the state of the art
and current thinking in a particular
clinical field. They can promote
greater consensus among physicians
and reduce variability in care. They
may also serve a ‘quasi-regulatory’
function by discouraging physicians
from ‘unreflective engagement’ in
treatment patterns that deviate dra-
matically from the guidelines.
On the opposite side, critics like to tally
the numerous shortcomings of guidelines:
n Guidelines diminish physicians’ pro-
fessional autonomy, promote an over-
simplified or ‘cookbook’ medicine,
and are too rigid to apply to individ-
ual patients;
n Some guidelines are not written for
practicing physicians, but focus
instead on the current state of scien-
tific knowledge. Physicians can have
difficulty applying such guidelines
to specific patients;
n The proliferation of guidelines (now
in the thousands) is confusing to say
the least. Many have been developed
in a poor fashion. In fact, there are
now guidelines on how to design
guidelines;
n More than one guideline might
address the same clinical topic. This
can lead to information overload or
conflicting guidance;
n Many guideline developers do not fol-
low the tenets of evidence-based
medicine. For example, a compari-
son of nine guidelines on migraine
found that the proposed selection of
drugs was opinion-based rather than
evidence-based;
n Many consensus and guideline devel-
opment panels are supported by
pharmaceutical companies with
vested interests, and many panelists
receive research grants and personal
compensation for lectures and
advice from those companies. A
report on more than 200 guidelines
(from various countries) deposited
in 2004 with the US National
Guideline Clearinghouse found that
“more than one third of the authors
declared financial links to relevant
drug companies, with around 70 per
cent of panels being affected.”
However, almost half of the guide-
lines reviewed provided no infor-
mation about those conflicts of
interest.
Persuading MDs With Evidence— continued from page 1
A favorable guideline recommendationcan be a rep’s best friend, but don’t count onthe persuasiveness of any one single review
© Ta
taya
na
mirra
| Ag
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cy: D
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37695 drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd:drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd 07/12/09 3:46 PM Page 7
SamplingA
s pharmaceutical representa-
tives, sampling is still an inte-
gral part of our daily routine,
and for good reason. It’s one
of our most important selling tools;
whether it is a complement to detailing
a clinical study or in conjunction with
other promotional strategies, and it is
often used as leverage to gain access to
a physician that may be difficult to see. For more than 90 years, physicians
have relied on sampling to try patients
on our products. For representatives,
there is a responsibility to manage these
samples, whether it is through proper
temperature storage (especially for tem-
perature sensitive products), or check-
ing expiration dates or returns for
proper destruction.
When I was promoting a con-
trolled substance the company could
not provide the salesforce with physical
samples. This made it more challenging
to get physicians to use it in their prac-
tices in order to see how the patient
would tolerate it before the patient had
to incur a financial investment since
there was limited coverage.
The company decided to sample
this controlled substance through STI,
using new SmartSample technology; in
turn the physicians were provided with
branded SmartSamples for patients.
Since SmartSamples are legal sample pre-
scriptions they are given to patients and
redeemed at that patient’s pharmacy of
choice. The sample quantity is taken from
actual pharmacy trade stock which deals
with all issues of storage, expiration, etc.,
and provides patients with added pharma-
cist counselling and drug checks. At the
time this non-traditional way of sampling
was foreign to everyone involved.
As with any change there was resist-
ance at first when I was introduced to
SmartSamples and I wondered if it would
take away from the short time frame that
we have with the physician in a call. I was
worried I would end up spending more
time explaining the program which could
possibly take away from selling my product.
I quickly learned that it took literally sec-
onds to explain at the end of a call as it
mimics all current physician behaviors.
The SmartSample is a small card that
fits in your hand (making it very discrete),
the newest version is folded in two, the
front of it is branded with your product,
once opened, the left-hand side has the
sample prescription and the right-hand side
has a repeat script. The physician is
required to fill in the patient’s name, any
prescribing information, and sign, date it
and provide their medical ID number.
They can also fill out repeats for chronic
therapies which are logged at pharmacy,
saving time for the physician and the
patient if they tolerate the sample. Patients
benefit from a pharmacist checking for any
drug interactions and medication/disease
state counselling which in turn saves the
physician time in their office with
patients. However, the most important
benefit for reps comes with the fact that
the sample is redeemed at a retail phar-
macy in your territory. This has an
immediate impact on your sales and pro-
vides information on where, when, how,
and what was prescribed by physicians
when linked to CRM distribution tools.
Reps try and monitor the movement of
traditional samples in an office, as more
samples are used more patients are try-
ing it (we hope.) But what really happens
to those physical samples once they are
put in the sample cupboard?
This is where SmartSampling made
the biggest difference in my territory.
I’ve been fortunate now to work on
three brands using SmartSample tech-
nology and I’ve seen benefits for normal
Schedule F drugs also, not just con-
trolled medications looking for alterna-
tive sampling. The sales information
which is key can be sent in real time as
all pharmacies report the utilization daily
and it comes in different forms such as
pie graphs that include age and gender
of patients. This information can be a
very useful tool to help with more quickly
identifying key physicians that are prescrib-
ing, as well as knowing the age/gender of a
patient, which helps paint the patient pro-
file to the physician on the type of patients
that are using the product. The information
can also be useful in helping to manage
your territory by obtaining reach and fre-
quency on your targeted physicians. The
sales data also helps by providing an instant
gratification by seeing which physicians are
using your products and how often they are
being redeemed at a specific pharmacy.
As the industry changes we reps need
to adapt and I believe the introduction of
SmartSampling allows for better business
analysis of our territories while still provid-
ing an important access tool to physicians
and patients.
8 Preview Edition
by Stacey Nauss Professional PharmaceuticalRepresentative, Nova Scotia
Stacey Nauss is currently a ProfessionalSales Representative for Women’s Healthwith Schering-Plough Canada Inc. Theviews in this article are personal opinionsbased on Stacey’s career in consumer andpharmaceutical sales and in no way repre-sent the views of Schering-Plough CanadaInc. or any of its affiliates.
A 90-year-old pharma tradition finally gets a facelift
37695 drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd:drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd 07/12/09 3:46 PM Page 8
HEALTHCARE SPECIALISTS
SINCE 1989
Marketing
Advertising
Sales
C.H.E.
Managed Care
Business Intelligence
Clinical/Regulatory/Medical
Government Relations
Corporate Communications
FOR A COPY OF OUR
CORPORATE BROCHURE
E-mail: [email protected]
TORONTO
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Grapevine Executive Recruiters Inc.
Telephone: (416) 581-1445 x 225
e-mail: [email protected]
MONTREAL
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Grapevine Executive Recruiters Inc.
Telephone: (514) 499-1445 x 30
e-mail: [email protected]
CONTACT:
37695 drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd:drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd 07/12/09 3:46 PM Page 9
10 Preview Edition
HHooww wwee ddoo iitt... at Purdue Pharma
With increasing physician expectations, pharmaceutical selling has never been more chal-
lenging than it is today. However, in several cases, specialty pharma marketers are suc-
ceeding to a greater extent than competitors with a broad focus. One such example of a
specialty company achieving its aims while others struggle is Purdue Pharma. Drug Rep Chronicle
recently spoke with Chris Kostka, sales vice-president at the Pickering, Ont. maker of pain and
CNS Txs.
So, tell us: Just how does Purdue do it?Pharmaceutical companies need to take a scientific approach to salesforce effectiveness, if they
want to be successful.
It all starts with hiring the best people that you can—individuals with high emotional intelli-
gence and a strong customer orientation. To do this, we use a
very sophisticated approach to identify the right people for
our organization who also have those sales competencies that
we believe make a difference in the marketplace.
Pharma companies have always emphasized product and
disease knowledge as an important part of the overall training of
their sales representatives. We take this a step further, by
demanding that each of our sales representatives achieves a per-
fect score on all knowledge tests. As a result, when our cus-
tomers ask a question, we know that our sales representatives
will always provide the right answer … 100 per cent of the time.
In addition, we have high standards in place to ensure
excellent communication skills. By regularly assessing our
sales representatives in a variety of simulated selling situa-
tions, using a validated scoring system, we are able to evalu-
ate the ability of our sales representatives to sell our prod-
ucts effectively and provide them with feedback on how
they can improve.
Sounds like you put a lot of emphasis on salesforce metrics.Yes, we’ve also done a lot of work with our sales managers. using a formalized coaching model, we
regularly measure their coaching skills and the value they provide to our sales representatives, and
we use this data to help them be more effective.
Most important, we interview our customers to get their perceptions, and to ensure that we deliv-
er value every time we are in front of them. This gives us another measure of how effective our sales
representatives are at selling, and what we need to do differently in terms of continuous improvement.
Finally, we work closely with our marketing group to ensure all selling tools that we provide to
our salesforce are aligned with our selling approach, and useful in supporting their product discus-
sions with our customers.
What does this mean, going forward?More than ever, physicians today are increasingly questioning the value that sales representatives
bring to them and their patients.
By using a systematic approach to gather data on how we do things, we are able to identify
performance gaps, and determine what we need to work on to continuously raise the bar, and stay
ahead of our competition.
n Each issue, this feature profiles unique selling approaches and highlights best practices at specific
organizations. We invite your comments and feedback. Write to: [email protected]
Chris Kostka
Tel: 514-674-1851Fax: [email protected]
Needs / attitudes assessment
Learning experience design
Learning facilitation
Learning and change evaluation
Learning transfer
Coaching to the application
Trainers guidance and training
Training practices sounding board
Icons courtesy of CSTD
Marc Lalande, M.Sc., CTDP
Sign up to receive thefree digital edition
of Drug Rep Chronicle, in your e-mail inbox at
www.drugrep.tk
37695 drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd:drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd 07/12/09 3:46 PM Page 10
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12 Preview Edition
Your old grandpa might have con-
ducted a successful sales career
based on the familiar principles of
“ABC”: Always Be Closing, if you want to
win the steakknives.
Your daddy was a much more sophis-
ticated specimen, relying on the scientific
approach to sales-as-solutions-providing,
that was inculcated at a Dale Carnegie
trainer’s knee, or the Xerox Sales Course, or
somewhere else with good air-conditioning
and plenty of fluorescent lighting.
You, on the other hand: you, my friend,
are an altogether different slice of sacher-
torte. You are a 21st Century professional
pharmaceutical representative, and, as such,
must make your way confidently through a
constantly-evolving landscape, where there
are few signposts, and where many of the
dependable superhighways seem to have
been washed out in the last big flood.
We’re talking about change.
Probably your department has been
reorganized a few times over the past cou-
ple of years; possibly your team objectives
have been revised along the way. That, by
any reasonable standard, doesn’t count as
change. The tablet-computer you’re carry-
ing, and the smart-phone on your belt-
loop? Consider those simply fashion accou-
terments, or a taste of what’s in store.
All the changes we’ve seen
up to this point have simply
been preparation for what’s
next, which will be the com-
ing tsunami of: (a) billions of
dollars worth of
b l o c k b u s t e r s
going off-patent,
with nothing to
take their place;
(b) reduced ability of worldwide popula-
tions to pay for new therapies; (c) repudia-
tion of previous health industry operating
tactics, and resulting greater transparency
through all facets of the care process, and,
with that, (d) a more complex—and expen-
sive—regulatory environment.
But you already know all that, and wis-
dom doesn’t pay the mortgage. The ques-
tion is not whether your skills and profes-
sionalism are up to snuff. The question is:
How do you position yourself for this com-
ing change, in order to avoid being referred
to behind your back in the company cafete-
ria as “Poor Ole Gil?” It’s expected that Big
Pharma field-forces in the new decade will
comprise perhaps only two-thirds to one-
half of the 1990s headcount, as the term
“grounded in the traditional sales app -
roach” becomes synonymous with “We
don’t need you.”
That should prompt you to take some
careful inventory of your current skills and
competencies.
I’m not volunteering to become your
career coach—try asking Malcolm Glad -
well; maybe he’s got some spare time—but
here is your takeaway: four questions that
could assist you in auditing, navigating, and
mastering, all the anticipated changes in
both your avocation and your economic
sector.
Are you sustainable? The Olde Pharma
business was all about chemicals, and if
your previous company-sponsored
salesmobile, the Pontiac Gran Prix,
hap pened to burn up a lot of fossil
fuels—well, you had to carry big boxes
of samples, and drive some wide-bot-
tomed cardiologists, and their nib-
licks, to the golf course, didn’t you?
Today, it’s about Life Sciences, which
indicates it’s now a matter of engaging
the environmentally sensitive physi-
cian. So, unless your territory includes
Dawson City, you want to put in an
early request to your manager to trade
the 4x4 SuV for a gas-miserly, tree-
hugging hybrid, or Smart car. Don’t
neglect to point out how much it will
save the company in petroleum ex -
penses. Oh: and always make a point
of flamboyantly turning off the light-
ing as soon as the boardroom meeting
adjourns.
Are you fluent in the New Literacy?used to be that if you could sort-of
peck out a periodic call report, and
talk half-knowledgeably about last
year’s John Grisham novel, you had
all the literacy skills required to get
by in your organization. That won’t
suffice anymore, as pharma enters
the age of “non-personal promo-
tion” to multiple channels. Invest at
least 20 minutes learning a couple of
things about the new tools of your
trade. Start by learning the term
“cloud computing.” Next, discover
by Nino AvantiAgent of change, motiva-tional speaker, futurist. His blog: www.tocome.tk
Stop waiting and start becoming
drug rep 2.0According to the industry’s current wisdom, field forces willcontinue to shrink, as drug marketers embrace ‘non-traditional’ channels and tactics. Here are some stepsto take, to avoid being pigeon-holed as expendable
37695 drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd:drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd 07/12/09 3:46 PM Page 12
obscure little career-enhancers, such
as Microsoft Movie Maker. And,
while you’re at it, set yourself up
with a Twitter account, and sign up
for a social networking site—or
three. Learn some of the essential
skills that professional communica-
tors use each day to sell ideas in this
still-new century.
Are you responsive, in real-time? (10second pause.) Quickly, now. Areyou? Your customers, your contacts,
and your managers don’t want your
voicemail, bright boy, they want you.
Like, five minutes ago. You can avert
your eyes and murmur defensively dur-
ing your next performance review
about how “emotionally intelligent”
you are, but no one ever promised that
the world was a reasonable place that
always rewards the slow and kindly.
Make sure your IM and Twitter acc -
ount information is prominent on
your business card, and appended to
your e-mail messages.
Do you provide value for your pay-cheque? Finally, consider the ques-
tion no one ever wants asked, but is an
unavoidable part of your career equa-
tion. As part of the knowledge base
tomorrow’s drug reps will require,
you’ll need a working understanding of
basic pharmacoeconomics, as well as
your organization’s ROI expectations,
and the ability to honestly assess your
axis within that plane. Having add -
ressed this potentially uncomfortable
matter, you should emerge confident
that you can articulate your personal
value proposition to your customers,
your community, and your bosses. And
if you can’t? At the very least, you’ll be
taking heed of Socrates’ 2,500-year-
old management tip, nosce te ipsum.
Know yourself, drug-rep dude.
A�MESSAGE�FROM�STI,FOUNDING�SPONSOR�of�DRUG�REP�CHRONICLE
Paul�Tobin, Managing Partner on behalf ofSTI, is proud that Sampling�Technologies’corporate support for Drug Rep Chronicle is
helping to launch the first pharmaceutical salespublication in Canada, that will most certainly
aid pharmaceutical salesforces to excel in theireveryday selling of pharmaceuticals and med-
ical devices.
Stop waiting and start becoming
drug rep 2.0According to the industry’s current wisdom, field forces willcontinue to shrink, as drug marketers embrace ‘non-traditional’ channels and tactics. Here are some stepsto take, to avoid being pigeon-holed as expendable
Drug Rep Chronicle 13
37695 drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd:drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd 07/12/09 3:47 PM Page 13
14 Preview Edition
Meet Aamir Hussain Syed, a representative
with LEO Pharma, the dermatology specialty company based in Markham,
Ont. Aamir has been with the company for more than 10 years. He has complet-
ed seven CCPE courses, as well as the Toastmasters International Communication
and Leadership program. He earned LEO’s “Representative of the Year” award in
2003, and is always among the top performers in the company. He previously
worked in the company’s training and marketing departments.
He is currently detailing the fast-growing area northwest of Toronto, which includes the
bedroom communities of Georgetown, Brampton, and Orangeville.
Before joining LEO, Aamir worked as a medical representative for Novartis in Karachi, Pakistan. Karachi, a not-so-small city
of 15 million people, is very much unlike Georgetown, Ont. It is the largest city in Pakistan, the 20th largest city in the world, and is
Pakistan’s financial capitol.
In his Pakistani territory, Aamir called on dermatologists: along with GPs, internists, cardiologists, OB-GYNs, pediatricians,
EM doctors—and, oh, yes, pharmacists. He averaged 13 calls per day.
His Novartis-supplied vehicle was a motor-scooter. He worked his territory six days each week, and his manager joined him for
at least one day weekly. He had to submit a route plan every week with potential meeting points, and his manager could be waiting
for him at any one of them (the process is known as chappa).
The work day in Karachi usually started with hospital calls at 9:00 a.m., followed by community-based office visits. At 1:00
p.m., Aamir went to the office for a weekly meeting, and on the other five days he went home to do clerical tasks, and study. At
5:00 p.m. he would go out into the territory again, calling on doctors in their private offices. This usually wrapped up at 9:30 p.m.,
but would occasionally continute until 11:00 p.m.
Aamir notes that pharmacy regulations in Pakistan are far less restricted than in North America. Pharmacists can dispense pre-
scription medication even without a physician script, or substitute an MD’s order.
“You can’t catch a caterpillar with a butterfl y net.”
PERSUASION Rx: How to Infl uence Ethically
(1st edition)
Since 1969, The Council for Continuing Pharmaceutical Education has been accrediting pharmaceutical professionals.
Our course curriculum is accessible without prerequisite to anyone.
From Knowledge to Application
For information about this and other SOFEDUC credit courses (some only ½ day),
please see our website:
www.ccpe-cfpc.com
CCPE, together with Excellerate developed a much
needed program. This new and exciting program teaches
pharmaceutical associates FROM ALL DEPARTMENTS
how to apply the art and science of infl uence and
persuasion; the two pillars of behaviour change.
Ad-Persuasion-2009.indd 1 05/11/2009 2:46:02 PM
I’m not a fan of facts. You see, the facts can change, but my opinion will never change, no matter whatthe facts are.--Stephen Colbert
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsiveto change. --Charles Darwin
Faces/Places
37695 drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd:drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd 07/12/09 3:47 PM Page 14
“You can’t catch a caterpillar with a butterfl y net.”
PERSUASION Rx: How to Infl uence Ethically
(1st edition)
Since 1969, The Council for Continuing Pharmaceutical Education has been accrediting pharmaceutical professionals.
Our course curriculum is accessible without prerequisite to anyone.
C.E.U.4
From Knowledge to Application
For information about this and other SOFEDUC credit courses (some only ½ day),
please see our website:
www.ccpe-cfpc.com
CCPE, together with Excellerate developed a much
needed program. This new and exciting program teaches
pharmaceutical associates FROM ALL DEPARTMENTS
how to apply the art and science of infl uence and
persuasion; the two pillars of behaviour change.
Ad-Persuasion-2009.indd 1 05/11/2009 2:46:02 PM
37695 drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd:drug rep chron_Nov 09.qxd 07/12/09 3:47 PM Page 15
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