Speaker programs

Discussion in 'Pfizer' started by anonymous, Feb 12, 2016 at 11:31 PM.

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  1. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    When will the madness stop with these speaker programs. They are worthless. Most physicians don't want to come to a program and listen to a package insert being read by a knowledgeable physician who is being dumb down with these slides that are nothing but a commercial. Hell sales representatives can do that. If a physician comes, it is just for the food, and that is not even enough most of the time. Most of these programs are not compliant. If a program is being done at lunchtime, I can guarantee 99% of the time it is not compliant. There is no way 3 physicians will stay and listen to the talk for 30 straight minutes. If it is a dinner program, I can guarantee that most representatives are RSVPing for physicians just so they can get to the required minimum. Then if they don't show and you have mostly M.A.s at the program, it will be compliant. Sales Representatives will look the other way when a physician brings someone to the program that is not supposed to be in attendance. They merely add M.A.s to make the program look compliant. How many sales representatives do you really think stand up and correct the speaker, please. This madness has to stop. As a stockholder, please stop spending and wasting money needlessly. Upper management puts sales representatives in uncompromising positions by having to do these wasteful non compliant programs just so they can show that there budget is being spent. Having provided Straight Talk here, I will admit that speaker programs are useful at times when launching a new product. However, if the company is still spending money on speaker programs in the third or fourth year of a product it is a waste.
    Ian Read, if you are still looking to cut costs, cut out speaker programs after the product has been out for a couple of years.
     

  2. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Agree with you 100%! Former Forest rep here. Speaker programs are just part of the "checking the box" metrics. The best times were when we could just take out our HCPs for one-on-one dinners. Now, at speaker events, I am so anxious over the alcohol consumption, if the speaker will say something off-label or even if someone from the Compliance Dept will show up. I would rather not do them so as not to run the risk of being fired over a non-compliant program. They are a waste of time and money. One year post launch should be allotted for promotion and then maybe another six months should there be an added indication, but these things should be shot and put out to pasture.
     
  3. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    I agree about the expiration point. New products for 1 year max unless you want a lot of MA's who just want a free meal.
     
  4. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    They just don't make good business sense 18 months post launch of product or indication. Year after year we are told the ONE thing that HQ worries about more than anything else are speaker programs. Yet, we continue to push them. It's like lighting a cigarette when you are filling your tank with gas. You could do it, but is it worth it?

    Dare to try! Go back to one on one dinners with HCPs.
    Cheaper with no minimums, alcohol, etc.
    More likely to listen and have a conversation.
    No worries of who shows up.
    No worries about what a speaker may or may not say.
     
  5. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Attention Numb Nuts.

    We don't do speaker programs to drive business with attendees. We do speaker programs to drive business with speakers.

    We just don't talk about it.

    The alternative is that we don't have jobs.

    We only have a couple years left in this industry so why don't you shut your pie hole and enjoy.
     
  6. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Speaker programs haven't worked since compliance committees neutered slick decks to the PI only.

    The only people who believe they work are marketing and sales leaders who were last in sales in 1990 or never at all. Look around at who is making the decisions. They haven't been in the field in 20+ years.

    Speaker programs do three things:

    1-place enormous risk on the rep
    2-place enormous risk on Pfizer
    3-make marketing spend seem needed, thus more marketing layers
     
  7. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    +1
     
  8. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    If you can suggest a better way to legally put money into a top docs pocket, I'm all ears. As of now, this is the best strategy to legally pay off the highest Rxing docs in our territories. You knew that, right? In the old days, we and maybe GSK were known for having armies of paid speakers that either never spoke, or "spoke" to their friends over a dinner at Mortons or Ruths Chris with a few reps in attendance. Those days are over, so now we have to go through these dog & pony shows.
     
  9. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    I'm not in support of these programs at all. I believe they should cease after a year post launch and can be extended for six months with a new indication. I used to get more business when we could take doctors out for one-on-one dinners. In my territory with two speakers only, giving money to them does not help my business. I would support ending all speaker programs thereby allowing for the free market to determine if the drug is worthy of sales. If the product is good, then it will sell. If it's not, then the company will have to go back to the drawing board. I launched Forest's Combunox eight years ago and it was pulled from promotion because it wasn't selling. The company heard loud and clear that physicians didn't want anything to do with a controlled substance. Take the money away from speakers and give us back the power to have one-on-one dinners. Get rid of the dog and pony show.
     
  10. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    The company knows very well how the programs 'work'... They really could care less how many seats are filled, pls check the compliance boxes there, tell the speaker here's the approved slides and notes....I've had yahoo docs as speakers, why? they were top Rx'ers... not some brilliant medical mind...Paid them to be 'speaker'...their ears perked up when $$ discussed...set up 'program' , didn't mind at all to have a few of his doc buddies (god knows what their specialty was) show up along with their wives,,er maybe it was girlfriends (sans wives) either way they looked like staff or 3 level medical practitioners to me and the company...Big league 'consulting' money goes to those university-thought leader docs..sure the company will send them the jet, fly them to the conference in Orlando or Vegas for the day...that check has extra zeros and its basically the same slide show.
     
  11. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    True, this! Those university thought-leaders don't get paid DIDDLY from their employers, so they depend on grants and other $$$ from our industry. Our pseudo speaker programs fill a need for them.
     
  12. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Speaker programs are productive if you do them right.. Stop your crying!
     
  13. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    This site is great eye opener ..the gov't sunshine act...be prepared to be surprised at the amounts and who is getting it...not always who you think...plus next time your DM asks why isn't ol'doc Big Rx'er not helping you..maybe you can finally solve that mystery: its the $10K the competition gave him last year.

    https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/
     
  14. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Speaker programs re great!!! MY Manager has acknowledged me at the last meeting!! I am a star rep!! I am up for promotion! I am a true professional!
     
  15. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Yeah we all hate that raw-raw shit! The only reason I stuck around an extra couple of weeks at my last gig was because of a speaker program. And only because I genuinely liked the guy and wanted to help him make another $5700.00 Honorarium before I left the company - and he appreciated my efforts. Kind of my way of saying "thanks" to a great guy. He is a big ivory tower Rxer, but one of the nicest, down-to-earth, and coolest people you could meet. And, I agree that the speaker programs are pushed because of the Honorariums paid to high volume Rxers, not because they will actually help your sales numbers if your drug is further along in its life cycle.
     
  16. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Theyre nothing more than pharma whores. Lets be real, even the so-called KOL's are whores.
    Money talks in this business, like any other. The attendees are the same, The "dinner crowd" hacks going out for a free meal......got nothing better to do...or home life sucks.
     
  17. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    100%!!! They are all pigs...the speakers and the attendees. Get rid of these lame programs!
     
  18. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    I miss the good old days when we would invite 2,000 physicians to Hollywood for a drug launch speaker training weekend. Wine and Dine them and a guest and send them home to Rx big time. Mostly top decile doctors. Funny thing, a report would come out a year later showing only 300-500 doctors actually spoke. All a scam!
     
  19. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    I had a speaker, a far bit drunk, talk about using Pfizer's Preparation H suppositories by mouth. Great help.
     
  20. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Do you know any doctors on a personal level? If you did, they'd tell you that using a pharma dinner for a cheap night out with friends or colleagues isn't such a bad way to blow off steam, eat at a nice restaurant and not pay a penny. They tune our "lecture" part right out….
    Sadly, our so called leadership came up through the ranks in a time when this was how business was done. Fishing trips, dinners with S.O.s, buying books and equipment for top prescribers, taking them to ball games, boating, golfing, or skiing…all of that has gone away. This is the last remnant of how we used to beat out Novartis, GSK, and Merck. It aint going nowhere, dad gummit! Besides samples, how else can we measure activity?