The New York Times has a great article on the whole "Cheerleader to Drug Rep" thing.
Anyone who has seen the parade of drug reps through a doctor's waiting room has probably noticed that they are frequently female and invariably good looking. Less recognized is the fact that a good many are recruited from the cheerleading ranks.
Why would that be, Insider asks?
Could feminine allure be the reason? It's an old, but true, adage that "Sex sells".
One informal survey, conducted by a urologist in Pittsburgh, Dr. James J. McCague, found that 12 of 13 medical saleswomen said they had been sexually harassed by physicians. Dr. McCague published his findings in the trade magazine Medical Economics under the title "Why Was That Doctor Naked in His Office?"
And there have been accusations that a pharmaceutical company encouraged using sex to make drug sales. In a federal lawsuit against Novartis, one saleswoman said she had been encouraged to exploit a personal relationship with a doctor to increase sales in her Montgomery, Ala., territory. In court papers responding to the lawsuit, Novartis denied the accusation.
Let's see what happens to these shiny happy people, now that a downturn in Big Pharma salesforces is predicted.
Read it here:
8 comments:
Oh the stories I could tell you. I worked in sales for Pfizer for years and the article could not be more dead on....interestingly...if an attractive rep did not perform whe was not held to the same standard as a low performing average looking rep...
Feel free to tell me the stories.
Just set up a hotmail account to keep your anonymity and email me at pharmagossip@hotmail.co.uk
You know you want to!
Confession is good for the soul.
Insider
I know of two midwest Pfizer reps who slept with doctors and others in order to boost sales and keep thier jobs. They kept their jobs even though everyone and I mean everyone knew what they were doing... Those free samples of Viagra come in handy I guess.
When I mentioned this tactic to a HR Director her response was and I quote "They are just really close friends.".
Really close friends? With how many people?
When I first started in the industry (longer ago than I care to admit), I had a doctor tell me he would use my product on every patient if I would go to bed with him. I told him that if I wanted to earn my money that way, I was worth a whole hell of alot more money than Bristol paid me, left the office and never went back.
So 4.20PM. It sounds like it was just a matter of price renegotiation!
Pharma companies continue to shoot themselves in the foot and this is just another example of that syndrome. Perhaps they can't avoid it. Sex sells and that is the name of the game. But, when Michael Moore comes out with his new documentary exposing this and other sales rep practices, the shit will really hit the fan.
Why wait unti Mr. Moore's movie comes out.
http://www.sideeffectsthemovie.com
Side Effects is already here and doing a good job of "exposing marketing techniques".
Post a Comment