3 years after Merck....

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The digital age. With it came way too much data that created too many jobs for unnecessary and unproductive work, metrics, micromanagement, and on and on. The reps ability to go out and do the real essence of the job (ie face to face contact with the customer with meaningful interaction that resulted in SALES) without needing 24-7 contact from voice mails and emails was over. The digital age destroyed the job of pharma sales.
 






Good ol days are gone. Best thing is retirement, golf course, traveling or whatever. No more STRESS, headaches, deadlines. It is great and I am so thankful I made it without all of the present day NONESENSE.
 






Isn't it funny that when I ask reps how are things goin' at Merck, all say, "oooohhh,the usual shit, different day"...NOBODY says, "things are going great- I'm so happy"....happy with all the BS- meetings and STILL I HEAR there is "homework" to do before these meetings...Homework still after XX years selling a product?? This is another reason I'm glad that Merck let me go just like the OP...sure I miss the $$, but I don't miss the bullshit the reps tell me they still must do...all 2 of them that are left...spoke to one yesterday and he said, the ONLY reason he still works is for $$, and that he misses the good ol' days....when he told me he had homework to do for their meeting next week, I just laughed and said,"don't forget to raise your hand when you need to go to the bathroom"....TGIO..Thank God I'm Out!!
 






Anonymous said:
Good ol days are gone. Best thing is retirement, golf course, traveling or whatever. No more STRESS, headaches, deadlines. It is great and I am so thankful I made it without all of the present day NONESENSE.
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I was enjoying a nice lunch today when a rep came in to pick up lunch for an office. I overheard the name of the doctor he was going to. That SOB doc will demand expensive meals without ever giving you any business back. I felt bad for this "new" rep.
 






If you are still lucky to be locked into the golden handcuffs== ride it out and take each dime of money you can get. 15 successful years with Merck. Top of my game and on my way to another VP award and "bam" == got the severance call in 2011. No explanation except they needed to cut costs. Funny how it was all the Sr. Reps that got cut. Luckily I was in a great position via personal finances to ride this out but certainly did not want this to happen. Taking time off but have been looking. Not much out there for old timers like me. Most jobs are all contract positions. Forget networking== the human involvement has been totally replaced by the computer. Better off throwing your resume off the roof of your house and have a better chance of getting a response. If you are lucky to get a contract job, it is half of what your salary was and lots and lots of these contracts get discontinued or never lead into a permanent position with the company you are representing. Sure glad I saved my bonus checks. It truly sucks out here for those wanting to get back into the game. But I digress=== All you still employed directly by big pharma=== keep going, collect those big paychecks, put up with the bullshit and ride it out as long as you can. This ride will end sooner than you think and the next option is minimum wage and starting over. There is no loyalty by your company so do not have any for them. Some will post about how glorious and wonderful it is here at big pharma but we all know the way business is going those peeps are clueless. Wish I survived it. I miss that big fat paycheck but glad I saved well and can start a new career, even if it is cleaning latrines. Good luck all you who are still surviving.
 






surviving as many with many years. Taking the check but one of my wisest decisions was to save to the max while in my 20's as the compounding was truly amazing. I am redy for whatever happens and do no want to see mother hospital, clinic, or physician 's office. I will do something fun and tests and bs is not fun.
 












Anonymous said:
surviving as many with many years. Taking the check but one of my wisest decisions was to save to the max while in my 20's as the compounding was truly amazing. I am redy for whatever happens and do no want to see mother hospital, clinic, or physician 's office. I will do something fun and tests and bs is not fun.
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I started really saving when I was in my 30's. The good thing is my manager got all frustrated not able to threaten nor terrorize me. When he was getting too much...I retired. Years later I ran into him. He was still hustling with a new rep and I, sitting there enjoying a fine meal.
 






Yes, let me tell you, I had two male managers and they certainly could not handle the personality of a strong female personality. Their wives made no money and they were quite jealous of my financial ability (salary, real estate, vacations, etc.) . Ha, Ha, Ha.
 






Glad I got tossed. My brainpower was starting to atrophy. Plus took on a new manager...insecure about anyone with ability that made him look silly (wasn't hard to do.) Haven't looked back since. Find it amusing coming back here to check in with the soap opera. Nothing's changed. Job still looks like a dog and pony rope-a-dope.
 






Anonymous said:
Glad I got tossed. My brainpower was starting to atrophy. Plus took on a new manager...insecure about anyone with ability that made him look silly (wasn't hard to do.) Haven't looked back since. Find it amusing coming back here to check in with the soap opera. Nothing's changed. Job still looks like a dog and pony rope-a-dope.
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That's because it still is.

We may have had the same manager. Very insecure. Very dubious. Ruined the entire group.
 






Anonymous said:
...edited
A good rep knows his "stuff"..a great rep knows when not to use his "stuff" and discuss the football game yesterday, the doctor's vacation last week, and yes,what kind of dressing they like on their sandwiches. I started out full of clinical bullshit medical jargon, meant to impress. I found QUICKLY that very few wanted to be impressed with your medical rhetoric. Knowledge, YES. Information, YES. RESPECT-YES....Grilling them on your drug/why they don't write,etc...BIG NO!!!
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You have made a few major assumptions here. A good rep will assess and tailor the interaction accordingly. An office-based cardiologist may happen to be a closet academician and you better know your stuff. Another one may not care and only want to know what it is for, AEs, dosing and formulary status. If one only want to talk about football only and it is up to you to do that and steer the conversation back to your product skillfully.

Only a dumb rep will walk into an office and start spilling medical jargon, t-value and study design.

Lastly, only a dumb rep will grill a doctor on why he/she does not use your product. There are ways to ask the same question to find out without calling your customer ugly.
 






Three years later I ran into a few physician friends at a restaurant who just retired. We sat and talked about painting a wood deck, getting the right tools at Home Depot, etc.
 






Anonymous said:
You have made a few major assumptions here. A good rep will assess and tailor the interaction accordingly. An office-based cardiologist may happen to be a closet academician and you better know your stuff. Another one may not care and only want to know what it is for, AEs, dosing and formulary status. If one only want to talk about football only and it is up to you to do that and steer the conversation back to your product skillfully.

Only a dumb rep will walk into an office and start spilling medical jargon, t-value and study design.

Lastly, only a dumb rep will grill a doctor on why he/she does not use your product. There are ways to ask the same question to find out without calling your customer ugly.
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True, but when you get out of SALES TRAINING, you don't know this yet..I went out with guns blazin' thinking docs would listen to my crap...after one week, I realized all that shit we learned in ST was wasted- the average Cardiologist gave me 30 seconds, less if I was doing the ST thing, asking questions, comparing products, etc...OBG's were sometimes rushed, sometimes cool..one OBG very early in my career said as I tried to get a detail in, "look- I got 5 women in exam rooms, all with their feet up in stirrups waiting for me, plus another 10 outside in the waiting room, and I got a woman in labor at the hospital..progestational / androgenic ratios is NOT exactly what I want to discuss, now, OK??" I backed off, found out he was from Philly, and a big sports fan, brought in a lunch, and talked about Philly sports teams the first 15 minutes of the lunch...then I eased into my products, he became a top prescriber for EVERYTHING I ever brought him..I was the ONLY rep invited to his 50th birthday party,when 15 other docs saw me there, it opened up an opportunity to meet them in a social, non- Pharma setting....what a difference when I went in the following weeks to call on them...agree with the OP...this job is about schmoozing, not medical BS, and it is a shame how much this business has changed...I, too, was released by Merck after the 2010 takeover of SP...miss the $$, but not the bullshit, and endless, mindless tasks they ask you to do..
 






It is really quite unbelivable that these organizations continue to (mis) manage thier field sales forces the way that they do. The "share of voice" model is still alive and well and managements (mis) actions continue to demonstrate that these people are (long ago) out of ideas. It's all about job justification and "metrics" now and that's about it. Pharma is the only industry that promotes its products in this totally ineffecient and ineffective manner but were it to become realistic and results driven it would require some major restructure resulting in major job losses and merck certainly has no one in senior management that is willing to build a more effective organization so it continues to plod along with typewriters in an ipad world.
Personally it's OK with me. I've long ago paid my dues and am just along for the ride for a couple of more years, more or less and no longer care what happens one way or another. It was a lot more fun, productive and had a greater sense of purpose say 15-20 years ago. Now not so much. A nickels worth of free advice: If you are 40 or younger and have a real talent for sales or business or management (not this fiction) you should have already gotten out long ago. This is no longer any kinda job for anyone that truly has a career in mind.
Happy labor day.
 






Anonymous said:
True, but when you get out of SALES TRAINING, you don't know this yet..I went out with guns blazin' thinking docs would listen to my crap...after one week, I realized all that shit we learned in ST was wasted...edited..
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It was not wasted. Merck gave you the foundational knowledge so you can deal with a group of highly educated and at times, difficult clientele. Now hopefully your colleagues would help you along with how each customer is like...unless they are clueless and cannot help you. Part of the process is time. It can be frustrating but eventually, with street smart, you will learn a lot about your customers. Of course we gather more information from the nurses or the pharmacist down the street. Some docs will never click with you. We are in sales. Rejection is a daily thing. You don't want to be like my dumb partner who, after spending most of her time talking about the food, could not answer a simple question like what was the t-value of the study you were talking about and was it a double-blinded, cross-over or not?
 






Anonymous said:
It was not wasted. Merck gave you the foundational knowledge so you can deal with a group of highly educated and at times, difficult clientele. Now hopefully your colleagues would help you along with how each customer is like...unless they are clueless and cannot help you. Part of the process is time. It can be frustrating but eventually, with street smart, you will learn a lot about your customers. Of course we gather more information from the nurses or the pharmacist down the street. Some docs will never click with you. We are in sales. Rejection is a daily thing. You don't want to be like my dumb partner who, after spending most of her time talking about the food, could not answer a simple question like what was the t-value of the study you were talking about and was it a double-blinded, cross-over or not?
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Wow, you sure drank the Kool-Aid. Merck has given you nothing but a chance to waste your time in a fake career. We haven't hired an actual Merck rep in years and the company is doing everything it can to get rid of us before we hit that magical 15-year mark, when the pension starts to grow. If you're under 50, you haven't a prayer of reaching a meaningful retirement, in case you haven't noticed the trend lately.

I regret joining this company, personally. Any smart person would. I would have done much better elsewhere.
 






Anonymous said:
Wow, you sure drank the Kool-Aid. Merck has given you nothing but a chance to waste your time in a fake career. We haven't hired an actual Merck rep in years and the company is doing everything it can to get rid of us before we hit that magical 15-year mark, when the pension starts to grow. If you're under 50, you haven't a prayer of reaching a meaningful retirement, in case you haven't noticed the trend lately.

I regret joining this company, personally. Any smart person would. I would have done much better elsewhere.
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Any reasonable person would regret joining Merck...A road to nowhere, and a waste of your work life...

I rue the day I ever joined this toxic law firm...er...ah...I mean drug manufacturer

FU MERCK!
 






Anonymous said:
Wow, you sure drank the Kool-Aid. Merck has given you nothing but a chance to waste your time in a fake career. We haven't hired an actual Merck rep in years and the company is doing everything it can to get rid of us before we hit that magical 15-year mark, when the pension starts to grow. If you're under 50, you haven't a prayer of reaching a meaningful retirement, in case you haven't noticed the trend lately.

I regret joining this company, personally. Any smart person would. I would have done much better elsewhere.
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I was trying to be an encourager. We do the same with our children when they have doubts.

I am one of the lucky ones that walked away (retired) with a decent lump sum and my own 401K after 30 years.
 






Those of us that joined Merck in the 80's knew how great Merck was and how bad it is now.

Those of you that joined Merck in the last 10-15 years should have known the company was badly managed by bunch of asylum inmates. You should stop complaining about Merck cheated you. No one want to hear your complains when you married an obvious alcoholics. Don't play the victim role. Don't say you have been misled.
 






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