What now?

The herd of competitive reps is overburdening the personal-selling pasture, and it's negatively affecting reps' ability to build relationships with physicians and promote their brands. Doctors seem to be fed up with the number of pharma sales reps who come calling. So what can the stakeholders of the industry do to improve the situation for themselves and others?

Consider the following three ways of approaching this question:

Within the current system, what can be done to improve reps' ability to effectively sell to physicians? For example, should companies set lower caps for the size of their sales forces? Should reps visit MDs only when they truly have new information? Would this rebuild trust among physicians that pharmaceutical sales representatives will use their time well? Are there other ways that reps can potentially build relationships with physicians within the context of the personal-selling model?

Outside of the typical solutions, what are some fresh, creative ways to provide targeted, relevant and compelling information to physicians? Is there a high-impact way for sales reps to make efficient use of physicians' time? What do prescribers value that reps could provide in the context of a product or message? How could reps better leverage DTC advertising with sales calls or better incorporate strategic promotion objectives with sample delivery?

Way outside ... in the cold, imagining a scenario in which personal selling in the pharma and biotech industry had never evolved or was somehow eliminated; what are the alternatives? How would physicians get the new and reliable information they need to make informed therapeutic decisions?

We're interested in your opinions and experiences. Please send an e-mail with your ideas and thoughts on this story to the editors at Pharmaceutical Representative magazine at pr@advanstar.com
and please post your co ments to http://www.repreview2007.com/.