Diabetes Creating Jobs?

This is hard to believe but true, as more people are affected by this disease, capital will follow to find a cure.  Global spending on diabetes will increase by 4-7% by 2015.  Type 2 diabetes currently affects 26 million Americans, and is projected to affect up to 1 in 3 by 2050.  This is a huge public health epidemic that will cripple the U.S. and world healthcare systems.  Diabetes is a progressive disease that usually takes more and more pharmacologic interventions to keep the patients blood sugar in check.  The average cost for a diabetic patient is roughly $13,00 a year vs. a non-diabetic of around $3,000.  Growing patient populations, particularly in pharmerging countries such as China, India and Brazil, along with changing lifestyle conditions globally, will increase the prevalence of Type II diabetes.  So what does this all mean for pharmaceutical companies?  A big opportunity and public need for medicines that correct or lowers a patients blood sugar safely and effectively.

Pharmaceutical companies are a business, they are in it for profit, and they must answer to shareholders.  However, I do believe they should be awarded patents for the high R&D costs and capital risk they take to develop a drug.  Because of these high costs, drug companies tend to invest capital into research where the biggest payoffs will be. As previously mentioned, diabetes is certainly trending to be the biggest treatable health issue of our generation.

My point being is that there is going to be an enormous market for blood sugar lowering agents, glucose monitoring devices, and insulin pumps.  So my recommendation is for anyone looking into or already in a medical sales career look at your companies product portfolio and pipeline and therapies for diabetes should be part of the equation.  If not, look to see when your current product portfolio that you sell will go off patent or your competitors.  All of this will play into the future health of the company and your career.

Of course all of this could be reversed if we all ate more whole grain, lean meats, and less calorie dense processed food.  Diet is a major reason the prevalence is skyrocketing but exercise or the lack there of is another problem in developed society as we move to more information employees vs. labor.

What do you think the next big products or sector will be in?  Where do you want to hold a sales job in 5-10 years?  Please share below.

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Digital Detail Reps

Many drug companies are looking into technology to market their products to doctors.  73% of providers own a smart phone and can look up medical and pharmaceutical information on the fly.  In the near future more and more providers will adopt and integrate these tools into their practice to create efficiencies and share vital patient information throughout their practice.  This digital revolution is a big opportunity to reach an audience that has been hard to crack without the use of expensive pharmaceutical sales reps.  In addition, with recent legislation in healthcare such as: HIPPA, Sunshine Act, and PDMA many hospitals and clinics are evaluating their relationship with sales reps.

IMS reports, one of every five doctors in the U.S. was what the industry calls a “no see,” meaning the doctor wouldn’t meet with reps.  Events like this and tighter regulation might change the return on investment of hiring an elite sales force.  You wouldn’t want to pay someone $100,000 a year in salary and benefits when they cannot increase their sales due to the fact, they cannot get in front of their customers.

The alternative is a digital-marketing package to target doctors, including organizing webcasts for leading physicians to speak to other physicians about the drug.

What might a digital marketing plan look like?

• Providers sign for samples online with a digital signature.  This would take away the need for a rep to stop by his/her practice.
• Make samples contingent on the provider watching a short flash video on the products safety and efficacy.
• Direct Mail product and disease resources to the providers office.
• Have online coupons for pharmacists and physicians to use on demand.
• Hold Web conferences at lunch or after hours to update physicians on label changes and updates to their products.

Is there a future for detail reps?

What are your thoughts?  Can an entire industry replace its reps with apps and online ads or will there sales suffer?

Only time will tell if the old school model of pharmaceutical sales will evolve, change, or be digital.

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Why Pharma Sales Reps are Reeling

Lets look at a few stats from IMS on the current state of the pharmaceutical industry in the U.S.

The U.S. will remain the single largest pharmaceutical market, with 3-5 percent growth expected next year. Pharmaceutical sales in the U.S. will reach $320- $330 billion, up from $310 billion forecast for this year.  So Americans are consuming more pills than ever before and drug companies are still making profits but why are  these companies laying off their best sales vehicle, their reps?

IMS  explains a major reason reps in the U.S. will be laid off.

Peak years of patent expiries shift major therapies to generic dominance.

In 2011, products with sales of more than $30 billion are expected to face the prospect of generic competition in the major developed markets. In the U.S. alone, Lipitor®, Plavix®, Zyprexa® and Levaquin® – which together accounted for more than 93 million prescriptions dispensed in the past 12 months and generated over $17 billion in total sales – likely will lose market exclusivity. The full impact of patients shifting to lower-cost generic alternatives for these products, as well as other brands in their therapy classes, mostly will be felt in 2012, due to the timing and expected competitive intensity among generic entrants.  To sum it up when your product goes generic and you no longer have a patent to protect your price and profits your profits will eventually shrink to $0.  This is because generic companies like Teva and Sandoz step in and manufacture/sell the product just above cost.  In economic terms you go from a monopoly to perfect competition where you sell your product just above its cost.

Compounding the problem

We’re in a recession so layoffs are expected, but pharma is supposed to be a steady job.  Back in the old days reps worked for one or two companies their entire career and retired with full benefit and pensions.  I used to compare it to a government job on the stability side but with better pay.  So why such a drastic change?  Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, drug companies spent lavishly to increase their U.S. sales forces, an escalation most companies came to regret as a burdensome arms race. Sales reps with company cars and trunks full of free samples became a ubiquitous, and expensive, industry symbol.  The future for many sales reps looks bleak until a bunch of new and innovative products hit the market.

What industries do you see the most opportunity for top-level talent that might be leaving a career in pharmaceuticals?  Please share your thoughts below.

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What’s Going on in the Pharmaceutical Sector?

Last week eight of my peers were laid off from their pharmaceutical sales positions.  These numbers were from Nevada alone and the layoffs were from two different companies  All of them were good standing employees and had been in the industry for over 10 years .  This type of layoff has been the norm for most pharmaceutical companies over the last four years.  The “Great Recession” in effect has impacted a typically recession proof industry.  People with illness and disease will always need their medications and the number of pills Americans consume has steadily increased.  So why are these companies and particularly this sector laying off?

Over my next few posts I am going to cover where the industry is going, what its challenges are, and what a rep should do if they are laid off or need to start building their resume for their next career.

For today let’s tackle the broad view of “what now” for my friends that have lost their jobs.

Reps in Las Vegas, If you are good there is a job for you.

Las Vegas is a town with a lot of “movement”.  Meaning, many people start a career in Vegas only to move somewhere else when they settle down to raise their family.  For many, Vegas isn’t a forever place, the turnover rates are higher than in other parts of the country.  So, if you love Las Vegas this is good news because there always seems to be open positions posted for those territories.

Pharmaceutical sales jobs in general are hard to get and have rigorous hiring procedures that many are not used to.  Pharma tends to hire people with a successful track record in B2B, previous experience in pharma, or medical background.  The swell of employees in the late 90′s mixed with the recent downsizing of companies sales forces has left a large pool of talented applicants.  Managers today are in the best position to hire talented reps than ever before.

So if you are a rep that has been laid off what are your options?

1. Leave the industry and start a new career
2. Find a new drug company to hire you.  Diabetic medicine is a growing market.
3. Contract Sales:  Not an employee of company but get paid a good salary to market a companies products for 1 or 2 years.  This isn’t a career move but a job to get you by.  Be careful though, you do not want to bounce between too many of these companies and water down your career.
4. Job Share:  Usually for women that want work life balance.  You do 60% of the work and receive all of the company benefits.  You will work in teams of two and work two days one week and three days the following week.  You will be responsible for 100% of the typical admin duties.
5. Home Office:  A lot of times a particular sales force is laid off because of the business landscape of the drug they were promoting.  If a company has other drugs on the market, interview for that job or transfer to the home office and grab a marketing job.

Were you recently laid off?  What’s your strategy to get back on your feet?

Pharma Stats

Winners and Losers, What’s Your Office Like?

Winners and losers are around us everyday.

Winners find a way to achieve their goals and losers find another excuse.

I can think of peers and people in my life that fall under both categories.  Fortunately, I have recognized that you can influence and help people that fall in the middle however,  you need to stay away from the LOSERS.  Furthermore, I know that I have been happiest in my career and life when I am surrounded by positive and motivated people.  My motivation for this blog is to identify winners so that you can get them on your team. If you have too many reps that are making excuses, this can be a cancer to a team and cause nonperformance.  You want to surround your people with the best and brightest and set the expectation with the entire team the type of behavior that is encouraged and rewarded.  Remember you goal is building a winning team.

Below are definitions from dictionary.com

Winner:

a. A person or thing that wins

b. A person or thing that seems sure to win or succeed

Loser:

a. person who has failed at a particular activity

b. Someone that is marked by consistently or thoroughly bad quality, performance, etc.

Here is a quote that I love to revisit when I’m thinking about people and their intentions, it is from an unknown source.

Winners Versus Losers

*The Winner is always part of the answer;

The Loser is always part of the problem.

*The Winner always has a solution;

The Loser always has an excuse.

*The Winner says, “Let me do it for you”;

The Loser says, “That is not my job.”

*The Winner sees an answer for every problem;

The Loser sees a problem for every answer.

*The Winner says, ” It may be difficult but it is possible”;

The Loser says, “It may be possible but i t is too difficult.”

* When a Winner makes a mistake, he says, “I was wrong”;

When a Loser makes a mistake, he says, “It wasn’t my fault.”

*A Winner makes commitments;

A Loser makes promises.

*Winners have dreams;

Losers have schemes.

*Winners say, “I must do something”;

Losers say, “Something must be done.”

* Winners are a part of the team;

Losers are apart from the team.

* Winners see the gain;

Losers see the pain.

* Winners see possibilities;

Losers see problems.

*Winners believe in win-win;

Losers believe for them to win someone has to lose.

*Winners see the potential;

Losers see the past.

*Winners are like a thermostat;

Losers are like thermometers.

*Winners choose what they say;

Losers say what they choose.

*Winners use hard arguments but soft words;

Losers use soft arguments but hard words.

*Winners stand firm on values but compromise on petty things;

Losers stand firm on petty things but compromise on values.

*Winners follow the philosophy of empathy: “Don’t do to others what you would not want them to do to you”;

Losers follow the philosophy, “Do it to others before they do it to you .”

*Winners make it happen;

Losers let it happen.

*Winners plan and prepare to win.

Please share your thoughts on winners vs. losers and how to find and retain a winning team.

Average to Awesome!!

Average is an attitude.  If you do not love what you do you probably show up to work on time, leave at 5:00pm, and do the minimum while your on the clock.  Your aspirations are to be average and collect your bi-weekly paycheck.  This not only spikes managers blood-pressure but is more common in sales than you think.  So how do some sales people do it?  How are they top performers in their industry and on their team?  Selling is not always the slick story or the beauty queen.

In my experience I keep coming back to a few key traits:

1. Work Ethic
2. Tenacity
3. Discipline
4. Passion
5. Teamwork

So how do you bridge the gap from Average to Awesome?

1. Work Ethic:  Sales is a numbers game.  The more you sell the more you make.  You have to work more, especially in the beginning to build your client base.  You need to show up to the office early and stay late.  Decision makers for the products you sell are typically early risers and its best to catch them at 7:30 am in the office before the receptionist shows up for work.  Furthermore, 9-4 are the “Golden Hours” of seeing your customers face to face.  If you are prospecting for more clients than your peers, you will create more business.  However, if you are in the office doing paperwork during those hours you are only taking care of a smaller potential number of clients and you will be average.
2. Tenacity:  Sales is a full contact sport and is not for the easily bruised ego.  You will hear NO more than you hear yes and that is o.k.  You will develop thick skin to rejection and move onto the next client.  Like I’ve said in previous posts its nothing personal, people do business with people they know, like, and trust and it just doesn’t happen to be you right now.
3. Discipline:  Do not model your efforts after a 4th of July firework show. Big and bright but fizzles out too quickly.  Your territory can get routine, your product is old news, and your pitch gets stale.  You need to focus on your customers needs and just because you’ve talked about something a 1,000 times doesn’t mean your customer has heard it or remembers it more than once.
4. Passion:  If you do not believe in your product your customer certainly won’t.  Stay motivated and know that every time you’re in front of your customer they are evaluating you and your product so put on a smile and make sure you leave them in a better mood than when you walked in the room.
5. Teamwork:  You need to be able to play well in the sandbox.  It’s great to perform, but what’s more impactful than that?  Being a leader on a team and helping others achieve your common goals.

Do you have any thoughts on going from Average to Awesome?  Please share them below.

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Building a Winning Team

Part of success is proper planning, and if you’re a manager you have your all-stars, average but still good, and then reps on the edge of non-performance.  Well if you could get everyone on the all-star level you certainly would be an all-star manager. We all want to be on winning teams. This is sales, winning teams get more recognition, more money, raises, bonuses, awards, etc.  In this post we’ll focus on how to take an average team to a winning team.  A lot of it depends on the managers attitude and motivating the reps to do their best work.

“Toxic Reps”  One HUGE issue that must be dealt with swiftly.  A rep that doesn’t value the team, the manager, or the organization can be very harmful and well “toxic” to everyone else around them.  These people need to go because negativity breeds more negativity.  You want to surround your organization or team with positive people who help others work with each other to achieve and exceed their goals.  A great example of this is a committee I work on in my sales organization. The team consists of one rep per team that is in charge of sharing positive behavior in the territories in our district.  We call it “Inspires and Motivates”.  We recognize reps that are going above and beyond in their jobs functions.  This recognition breeds more creativity, sharing, and fun in our workplace.

However, as a sales manager you will be faced with situations where a rep doesn’t want to  change.  To deal with the situation effectively you usually face one of the two options below.

1. Manage the rep out:  This can be time-consuming, harmful to trust on the team, and may not be necessary just yet.  Make sure its more than a conflict of personalities and seek to understand the employees point of view.  I have been witness to many good people leaving an organization, but then again there are three sides to every story; theirs, yours, and the truth.

2.  Coaching Plan:  This lets the rep know that they are valued but need to improve in key areas.  Being fired is not a surprise when someone is on a coaching plan.  It is a process, if a rep values their manager and organization they will stick to the plan and work harder than they ever have before to show their manager what they are capable of to help the organization reach its goals.  If the rep doesn’t have it in them or cannot meet the obligations of the plan then it will be no surprise to the team or to the rep that they are no longer part of the organization.

What are your thoughts on building a winning team?  Do you think everyone that isn’t performing their job functions deserves a second chance?

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