Tongue-in-cheek- It's a jungle out there

Drug reps. What will the pharma industry be without them? Indeed, with the strict regulations and restrictions imposed on the promotion of ethical products, personal selling remains the most fundamental of the promotional mix. This industry is awash with drug reps, all tasked with the very important responsibility of conveying marketing messages to the customers (mainly doctors) while marketers pray that they stay as close to the original intentions as possible.

Pharma reps are often one of the highest cost on the corporate balance sheet, and this may explain why management would want to look into maximising their output by means of SFE (see previous post) however, pharmas are still very reliant on this form of selling approach as it is perceived to be the best form of CRM (although i beg to differ- that will be a different story altogether). Well, if anything, i think drug reps do bring alot of personality and identities to the companies who employs them.

And while they are often supposed to be out ploughing the field (that's what the market is called) i think it is more reminiscent of a jungle. And here are the various types of animals that you will associate with. (although most reps would often possess a combination of traits):

The werewolf: you will only get to see this rep during a full moon (ie closing day) the rest of the time, its a complete mystery where s/he would've been. This rep would completely vanish once the budget is achieved, otherwise, it would be lurking around the clinics searching for any scraps of sales that would sustain it till next month.

The grasshopper: This rep will be handing you a business card from so-and-so company this minute and another company the next. In this industry, it is hardly surprising to see reps playing merry-go-round-and-round-and-round...

The elephant: it is not difficult to spot this rep from afar. s/he will be clambering along with huge branded (of specific product of cos!) paper bags stuff full of product gimmicks and/or candy bars/chocolates/other goodies (often with a product sticker stuck over it- tsk tsk) towards the doctors' offices. There the rep will unload all the loot gained from the PM with great delight onto the poor doctor. you would know that an elephant had just been to the physicians' office when you see piles of rubbish (likened to spam) pouring out of the doctors' pigeon holes

The peacock: Usually a new-comer to the industry. tends to strut around with minimal trade tools (detailing aids, clinical papers, samples, etc) Armed with a BSc (hons), law degree (no kiddin') or a staff nurse registration (not jokin') they consider their superior intellect to be best when dealing with just a regular bunch of doctors. their conceitedness would more often than not (except for the SRNs) guarantee a short stint in pharma

The orang-utans (plural): note that this group of reps cannot exist in isolation. you will see them congregated for a time of social gathering throughout the day. their usual hangouts are Ikea (alexandra), great world city, paragon, lucky plaza. the close proximity to various hospitals really helps!

The cow: tends to be a senior or experienced rep who knows when to work the field and how to deflect the heat from management by always being able to deliver the goods. however, this hard/ smart worker will find him/herself being milked (with little chance of career advancement) till the day it is led to the abbatoir

The dolphin: aka the sweet young thing. perhaps the most nauseating of the lot. one particular company has the reputation of employing this genre of reps presuming perhaps that doctors are really a bunch of lecherous fools. the dolphin goes around acting cute and bimbotic all the time, flirting, powdering her nose while whining to the doctor about how slowly her drug is moving, thinking that her good looks will keep the scripts going. i think NOT!

The fly: as the name suggests. this rep simply will not go away. s/he will hassle the doctor or purchaser (especially on closing day) with all the tactics under the roof (buy kueh kueh, run errands, walk the dog, do data entry, and when all else fails, beg beg beg) just to meet the target. Its pathetic, but management don't really care as long as they bring in the sales.