Pretend I am your financial adviser. We meet and I tell you that if you continue to do things the same way you are now you will retire with 1,000,000 in your account. Not too shabby huh?
Here is another option though. I can manipulate a few things in a way that is really outside of the law but when you retire you will have 10,000,000 in your account.
Now, there is a slim chance we could get caught and if we do you might have to pay back a million or two but you will still make at least 8 million more than playing it safe and you will not go to jail.
What do you do?
This is the same decision Pharma companies make all the time but instead of Millions there are Billions of dollars at stake. Promote on label and play it safe or push the reps to do whatever it takes to gain market share and hope that you don’t get caught?
Companies that have been under 1, 2 or even 3 CIA agreements continue to pick the second option because it just doesn’t make sense not too. So what if they get there hand slapped and fined even a Billion dollars. Sales on that single product might have been 5 Billion a year for the last ten years so they are still Billions ahead of where they would have been playing it safe and no one ever goes to jail. Sure the CEO might get booted with a 25 Million dollar golden parachute but believe me, he is laughing all the way to the bank.
The system is set up in a way that these companies would be crazy not to promote off label. Think about how the sales team is structured. Everyone from the people on the sales leadership team all the way down to the sales rep knows that they will be fired if their sales are not on target so they do exactly what the company wanted them to do in the first place. Pull out all the stops and drive market share in any way possible.
Don’t let their denials fool you. These companies know what is going on and expect to have to pay back some of the money. The only thing that really surprises them is if they don’t get caught. Looks like Christmas came early boys! Time to buy a new private jet!
Here is another option though. I can manipulate a few things in a way that is really outside of the law but when you retire you will have 10,000,000 in your account.
Now, there is a slim chance we could get caught and if we do you might have to pay back a million or two but you will still make at least 8 million more than playing it safe and you will not go to jail.
What do you do?
This is the same decision Pharma companies make all the time but instead of Millions there are Billions of dollars at stake. Promote on label and play it safe or push the reps to do whatever it takes to gain market share and hope that you don’t get caught?
Companies that have been under 1, 2 or even 3 CIA agreements continue to pick the second option because it just doesn’t make sense not too. So what if they get there hand slapped and fined even a Billion dollars. Sales on that single product might have been 5 Billion a year for the last ten years so they are still Billions ahead of where they would have been playing it safe and no one ever goes to jail. Sure the CEO might get booted with a 25 Million dollar golden parachute but believe me, he is laughing all the way to the bank.
The system is set up in a way that these companies would be crazy not to promote off label. Think about how the sales team is structured. Everyone from the people on the sales leadership team all the way down to the sales rep knows that they will be fired if their sales are not on target so they do exactly what the company wanted them to do in the first place. Pull out all the stops and drive market share in any way possible.
Don’t let their denials fool you. These companies know what is going on and expect to have to pay back some of the money. The only thing that really surprises them is if they don’t get caught. Looks like Christmas came early boys! Time to buy a new private jet!