Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16601

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Report

Evaluating evolving sales models & advanced technology for a customer centric approach
Pharmaceutical Sales Force Effectiveness Strategies 2009 Aug
http://www.reportlinker.com/p0148147/Pharmaceutical-Sales-Force-Effectiveness-Strategies-Evaluating-evolving-sales-models--advanced-technology-for-a-customer-centric-approach.html

Abstract:

The social, demographic and economic context in which the pharmaceutical industry operates is changing dramatically, with huge implications for the industry as a whole. All these challenges have major ramifications for the way in which pharmaceutical companies market and sell the medicines they develop. With these challenges comes pressure to gain efficiencies in all facets of the business, but perhaps no aspect of pharma operations is under as much scrutiny as the sales and marketing function. The discrepancy between the growth in sales force size and the decline in prescribing makes sales force effectiveness the top challenge for pharmaceutical sales managers.

The industry has traditionally relied on aggressive marketing to promote its products. One recent study (NEJM, August 2007) estimates that, between 1996 and 2005, total real spending on pharmaceutical promotions rose from $11.4bn to $29.9bn in the United States. Another study (PLoS Med, January 2008) suggests that the true figure is closer to $57.5bn in real terms. Much of this increase in spending has gone on the expansion of the sales force. For years now there has been an unshakable belief that the bigger the sales force, the greater the market share. However, many of the industry’s biggest markets are now saturated with sales representatives, and its selling techniques are becoming increasingly ineffective. The industry has begun to embrace the reality that this model no longer guarantees growth or future profitability. The opportunity lies in moving beyond sales force growth and mass promotion into a new era of sales force effectiveness.