2 days/month mgr ride alongs

It's excessive and embarrassing.

 

Agreed 100%. Managers in the field that often provide diminishing returns. We have 20-30 year vets with the boss every month. What exactly is the point? It's an exercise in futility and costs the company a fortune. Managers provide little to no value.

 

Quit bitching about having a DM in the car every month! When are you idiots going to realize just how good we have it here?? WHEN? My God, I fake every damn call on most Fridays, and fake 50% or more, every day! Be thankful that AZ looks the other way and allows us such freedom!

 

We all agree that most calls are of the Charles Charles variety. Then again we need to increase the span of control so each DSM has 12-15 reps - most are vets and no one needs to learn how to be a rep anymore. Newbie days are over.

 

80% of reps couldn't sell water to a millionaire dying of thirst. We could get rid of 50% of the sales force, 80% of the managers and account directors, and never miss an RX.

 

No one is complaining about having a manager in the car every month; it's about them tagging along on calls for 2 days every 20 business days or so, as I speak to 16 HCP's. It's just way too much. Not to mention that the doctors certainly don't appreciate it.

My general manager mindset says that this is unnecessary and embarrassing.

 

the main problem is that the calls with the managers are unrealistic. Either the reps set them up or the docs go along so as not to get the rep in trouble. If the rep is new that's different and probably necessary but could be handled with a regional trainer. With that model a manager could handle twice as many reps as the position becomes an admin position. Face it, at AZ the manager, the CBD and probably the EBD are cake jobs.

 

The field ride frequency is definitely way too often.

What about having the AZ DMs also ride with the DS4 and Summit reps?

 

I half disagree. The DM job is one of the most difficult in the company which is why many reps don't want the job. Imagine riding four days watching what we do which is mostly deliver samples and collect signatures. Imagine how boring their job is. The good ones act as buffers to keep the stupid repetitive shit off of the reps backs and have to deal with the egos of highly entitled, over paid, under worked bosses. If you think our job is boring, then imagine 4 full days of this shit almost every week.

 

The validity of the DM position isn't the point here. Just the insanity of the amount of days per month they are spending riding with us. I get it that the DMs are fulfilling the required days they must spend in the field. It wouldnt be so bad if they had more than 8 to 10 reps to work with. Spending two days together every month making calls is entirely too much.

 

8 direct reports with a significantly decreased geography size is a double negative. Docs wonder why they are around so often and a few key offices in the district closed off manager contact. Cut back on the frequency before we lose even more access, please!

 

It's definitely detrimental to the business. The offices where you can actually bring in a manager without pissing off the doctor are limited. Not to mention that there's two oral reps and an injectable rep per territory, leaving the same doctors repeatedly seeing the same manager.

As a previous poster asked, what's the point?

 

The point is that the entire pharma sales model is extremely outdated. Nothing has changed since the beginning of time while everything has changed in how, where and who delivers health care. Think about it. This model of rep and district manager was created when most docs owned and operated their own private practice. In many cases their wives were the receptionist and office administrator. There were over 50 independent drug companies with 1 rep that covered entire cities and sold every drug in the bag. There was no managed care and no drug formularies that dictated what the doc could or could not prescribe. Almost every rural town had its own independent Hospital. So the entire industry has been turned upside down and Pharma continues to treat it the same way it did in the 50s and 60s. The only change they made was to add more reps and managers. So if one rep is ineffective then let's send in 4 or 5 more. Insane right?

 

I would love to see that happen

 

Problem is they'd realize they are just as good and much cheaper. Any boob can do this job.

 

Not to mention, he's with me 2 days out of 20, and my 2 other counter parts each for 2 of those 20 days… Our doctors see him more on average than they do each of us!!

 

Wait until Pfizer Glaxo and Merck change (they will soon) and AZ will within 6 months pretend totake the lead and follow suit.

 

New DM to AZ. I was surprised on the amount of days required in the field for DM's and the number of reps per district. As a manager in other companies I had anywhere from 8-15 reps on my team. AZ could cut the DM's in half and give them 10-12 representatives each. It is unrealistic and not valuable. The last organization I worked for allowed the manager autonomy to when to work in the field and when as long as it was fair. Reps loved it, we worked lunches and appointments and really collaborated to grow the business. I will work the way I used to with my team and show AZ that you can have a high performance team without 12-15 days in the field a month. As a former rep, DM's did not provide value in the calls with experienced rep. Remember reps the managers have to have 110-120 days in the field.

 

Are you sure about that? Only 110-120 days??! Why is my manager in the field with us Monday thru Thursday every week of the month, except for the infrequent times when there is a DM meeting? He has 8 reps and works with each of us 2 days per month. It's so counterproductive.