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INTRODUCTION
When the Going Gets Tough,
the Tough Get Incentives
Sibyl Shalo, SENIOR EDITOR
Investment in pharma sales force productivity pays for itself.
Ken Lenoci had a tough job. In 1994, as a sales rep
for A.H. Robins, one of Wyeth-Ayerst’s late-1980s
acquisitions, he worked hard just getting his foot
in doctors’ doors, not to mention jumping office staff
hurdles. I spent a day pounding the pavement with him
when the PR agency I then worked for launched
Wyeth’s newly approved antidepressant Effexor (venlafaxine).
Starting with only a handful of data and a
couple of medical journal articles made all of our jobs
more challenging, but it was Lenoci and his colleagues
in the field who had it the worst. Although his territory
included some of the “early adopters,” psychiatrists
who had begun prescribing Effexor after reading about
its clinical trial successes in Europe, there were many
more doctors who weren’t willing to try something new.
As the day wore on, the grind wore on me—in and out
of the cramped company car, in and out of stuffy waiting
rooms, in and out of offices in which the only conversation
Lenoci had was with a receptionist shaking
her head behind a pane of glass. My heart went out to
him every time his efforts to educate were thwarted, but
Lenoci had a thick skin and shrugged it off, eager and
ready for his next customer. I returned home with a new
appreciation for pharma sales people, relieved that I
wouldn’t have to repeat the experience and motivated
to help our client support its reps as they toiled in the
field.
Nearly a decade later, I imagine that, in some ways,
Lenoci’s job is easier: He’s had nine years to strengthen
the relationships he worked so hard to cultivate back
then. But it’s much more likely that his job has become
even more difficult. He now competes with more than
double the number of pharma sales reps than he did in
8 May 2003 Pharmaceutical Executive Supplement Successful Sales Management www.PharmExec.com

INTRODUCTION
the mid-1990s. That’s just one of the challenges that
make today’s pharma selling environment so hostile.
Reps have also lost some of the tools they once had
to gain physicians’ attention.
The PhRMA Code for Interaction with Healthcare
Professionals eliminated reps’ ability to compensate
doctors for their time. Ironically, the pharma industry
sought to repair its damaged relationship with the
medical community by adopting the code, but as
Charlene Prounis describes in “What Doctors Want,”
many doctors don’t see it that way. According to her
research, they don’t appreciate the code and believe
that it will drive an even deeper wedge between them
and reps.
On top of that is reps’ concern that the growing
use and popularity of e-detailing may soon put them
out of their jobs. And although pharma companies
and their suppliers dismiss that concern, saying that
e-detailing augments rather than replaces faceto-face
meetings, the question on everyone’s mind is:
Can the industry sustain the growth of a sales force
that already has more than 80,000–90,000, reps on
the street?
Authors of articles in PE’s first sales management
supplement answer with a qualified “yes,” arguing
that companies must
■ improve the way they recruit and hire
salespeople
■ better understand all prescribers, not just
physicians
■ learn from other industries ways to motivate
sales reps
■ energize sales training meetings and programs
■ equip sales reps with tools that help them make
the most of every minute.
Divided by subject into three sections—relationships,
incentives, and training and tools—the pages
ahead reveal emerging trends in the doctor–sales rep
relationship, showcase companies’ real-world sales
experiences, and recommend ways to help sales forces
overcome obstacles to achieve the highest levels of
success.
This month’s cover story, “Reason to Achieve,”
represents PE’s foray into some uncharted territory—
the intersection of pharma and incentive marketing.
Although the relationship between the two isn’t new,
Erika Rasmusson’s report shows that pharma companies
are making increased use of merchandise, travel, and
gift certificate rewards to galvanize reps into action
and keep them motivated. That trend surprised some
incentive program providers who misunderstood the
restrictions stipulated by PhRMA’s code; they thought
it applied not only to incentives for doctors but incentives
for pharma company employees as well. Other
incentive marketing companies know, from the growth
of their pharma sector business, that industry is
rewarding reps for their achievements in a crowded
and harsh marketplace.
Thus, pharma sales managers’ challenge is as
difficult as reps’—to find new ways to support their
field force in the face of tumultuous mergers, mounting
financial pressures, and burgeoning competition in most
therapeutic categories. But there’s hope that pharma
can still attract and keep good sales people. In his
article “Every Rep a Star,” Garry O’Grady explains that
optimizing sales force productivity is more about quality
than quantity. And in “Detail Diagnosis,” Michael
Kessler, MD, and his colleagues illustrate a technique
that uses real doctor–rep interactions to evaluate reps’
performance.
Carrying the bag in 2003 also requires 21st century
equipment and training. In “Tomorrow’s CRM,” Len
Weinstein and Kim Ramko paint a picture of tomorrow’s
customer relationship management applications and
capabilities. In “Training for Peak Performance,”
Christine Creter and Dow Summey recommend strategies
for making training meetings both memorable and
fun. In “Bring in the Reinforcements,” Lyn O’Connor Vos
suggests that contract sales organizations have become
more valuable as their involvement in companies’
marketing plans expand. Finally, in his column
“Neglected Prescribers,” Steven Tarnoff asserts that for
pharma marketing plans to succeed, sales forces must
find ways to sample high-prescribing nurse practitioners
and physician assistants.
The good news for Ken Lenoci, wherever he is now,
and for his comrades and competitors in the field, is that
ramping up spending to prepare, train, motivate, and
reward reps for their perseverance is good business.
If sales managers do those things well, the investment
will pay for itself. ■
9 May 2003 Pharmaceutical Executive Supplement Successful Sales Management www.PharmExec.com