One thing I will say about Forest is that they are consistent. This is the first time I have made a comment here on this site but felt compelled. I have read so many of the posts that talk about the inept Managers, the no-value specialty reps who think that they are "Managers but without the pay", the RDs that brush aside the real issues of their reps and stick with the "One Extra Call Per Day" message as being their salavation.
I have been with 2 previous pharma companies during my career and while they were not perfect(what big corporation is?) I found their cultures to be one of growth and opportunity. A culture that strived to get the best from their employees by working along side of them, to help them develop as reps and as persons. What I have found at Forest is that the Managers I have dealt with, push from the rear instead of leading from the front and from all the posts on this site, that seems a pretty common theme. They like to throw around the phrase "in sales, you are your number, right?" If that is indeed the case, and my ranking as a rep is better than their ranking as a Manager, who should be leading who??
With all of the pharma companies cutting their sales forces, I was amazed to hear that Forest was contracting with inVentiv for 300 reps. In my territory, we are all but tripping over each other and that seems to be the general consensus I got from our recent POA and the posts here on this site. I know Forest prides itself on "never having laid off" but they have also never contended with losing as big a revenue stream as Lexapro and if anyone thinks that Viibryd, Daliresp, Teflaro are going to replace those monies, they are fooling themselves. Forest now has one of the larger sales forces in pharma and does not have the sales to support it. So I think that 2012 will be a year of firsts for Forest. First year without Lexapro, first year with a contract sales force and first year they downsize their sales force. I could be wrong, maybe they will just continue to force people out. I know that I personally saw success with one of my products moving up 37 spots in my segment for Q3-12 only to have my segment change for Q4 resulting in 18 spot drop in my ranking. So nothing changed, just my segment. No new managed care wins, no big spike in the population just some "magical math". Same thing with my lead product.. changed segment dropping me 13 spots in my ranking. The net result of this?? Less bonus money for me unless I can bust my ass and get back what they, literally, stole from me!
Anyway.. for those of you having success here at Forest, congrats. Take advantage of it while you can. For those of you like me, good luck to you in your future endevours!
I have been with 2 previous pharma companies during my career and while they were not perfect(what big corporation is?) I found their cultures to be one of growth and opportunity. A culture that strived to get the best from their employees by working along side of them, to help them develop as reps and as persons. What I have found at Forest is that the Managers I have dealt with, push from the rear instead of leading from the front and from all the posts on this site, that seems a pretty common theme. They like to throw around the phrase "in sales, you are your number, right?" If that is indeed the case, and my ranking as a rep is better than their ranking as a Manager, who should be leading who??
With all of the pharma companies cutting their sales forces, I was amazed to hear that Forest was contracting with inVentiv for 300 reps. In my territory, we are all but tripping over each other and that seems to be the general consensus I got from our recent POA and the posts here on this site. I know Forest prides itself on "never having laid off" but they have also never contended with losing as big a revenue stream as Lexapro and if anyone thinks that Viibryd, Daliresp, Teflaro are going to replace those monies, they are fooling themselves. Forest now has one of the larger sales forces in pharma and does not have the sales to support it. So I think that 2012 will be a year of firsts for Forest. First year without Lexapro, first year with a contract sales force and first year they downsize their sales force. I could be wrong, maybe they will just continue to force people out. I know that I personally saw success with one of my products moving up 37 spots in my segment for Q3-12 only to have my segment change for Q4 resulting in 18 spot drop in my ranking. So nothing changed, just my segment. No new managed care wins, no big spike in the population just some "magical math". Same thing with my lead product.. changed segment dropping me 13 spots in my ranking. The net result of this?? Less bonus money for me unless I can bust my ass and get back what they, literally, stole from me!
Anyway.. for those of you having success here at Forest, congrats. Take advantage of it while you can. For those of you like me, good luck to you in your future endevours!