Former VP Award Winner: "I found out I totally suck at sales."

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Anonymous said:
A copier sales rep will kill for a sales job w/Merck
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What everyone seems to keep overlooking is the fact that its not about how good or bad of a salesman you are its that you're not selling to the actual customer anymore. Collectively, physicians today have all but been neutered when it comes to their actual ability to prescribe a branded drug. Managed care, pharmacies and patients' unwillingness to pay for a branded drug (which is often priced orders of magnitude higher than cheap generics), all override a doctors silly recommendation regarding what's best for their patients'. Sure, your typical copier salesman is probably a much better salesperson than your average pharma rep (that's pretty much a given isn't it?) but my guess is that they don't spend their time making a sales pitch to the building janitor when it comes to consummating a sale
 




HAHA! Many successful copier sales reps are able to obtain med device jobs, while pharma reps are not even considered for these lucrative positions. Med device certainly prefers copier experience vs. Merck experience! Merck is a joke!
 




Anonymous said:
What everyone seems to keep overlooking is the fact that its not about how good or bad of a salesman you are its that you're not selling to the actual customer anymore. Collectively, physicians today have all but been neutered when it comes to their actual ability to prescribe a branded drug. Managed care, pharmacies and patients' unwillingness to pay for a branded drug (which is often priced orders of magnitude higher than cheap generics), all override a doctors silly recommendation regarding what's best for their patients'. Sure, your typical copier salesman is probably a much better salesperson than your average pharma rep (that's pretty much a given isn't it?) but my guess is that they don't spend their time making a sales pitch to the building janitor when it comes to consummating a sale
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All very true, especially retired patients on fixed income won't pay for branded products. Some formularies require co-pays up to and even over $100. Seniors can't afford that, especially when they are usually on multiple drugs. Formularies are killers for reps....you can be the greatest sales person, but it all goes down the drain....you end up spinning your wheels for nothing.
 








Anonymous said:
Old timer here...Pushed out of Merck by the CTL Gestapo in my
50s...

Reinvented myself as a sales guy in a different (unrelated) industry.

After about a year of it, I had an epiphany!! Not only do I hate sales
at this point, I completely suck at it...

The point of my story?? Pharma detailing at Merck IS NOT SALES PEOPLE!!

MANY OF YOU WILL FIND THAT OUT soon enough...What you thought
was a sales job, was a ridiculously over-paid, powder-puff promotional
gig...

Real sales where you eat what you kill, will eat up most ex-Merck reps...

It ate me up for sure...And for all the haters that will bash on me for this
admission, wait until you get your first, real, actual sales job...boy are you
in for a shock!
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Grey beard, you mean you actually reinvented the art of burger flipping ? Sales ? Yeah, dropping off free samples is a real hard close ! Just get them fat RNs their lunch and keep dreaming
 




Anonymous said:
A copier sales rep will kill for a sales job w/Merck
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Now that is just fine.

Copier guy, well schooled in changing ink cartridges and putting crisp white paper into the pull out drawer enters into the world of disease state and PI exams. What a match! Forget about the former nurses, lab techs and grad degree schooled candidates.....copier guy wins the job!
 




Anonymous said:
Old timer here...Pushed out of Merck by the CTL Gestapo in my
50s...

Reinvented myself as a sales guy in a different (unrelated) industry.

After about a year of it, I had an epiphany!! Not only do I hate sales
at this point, I completely suck at it...

The point of my story?? Pharma detailing at Merck IS NOT SALES PEOPLE!!

MANY OF YOU WILL FIND THAT OUT soon enough...What you thought
was a sales job, was a ridiculously over-paid, powder-puff promotional
gig...

Real sales where you eat what you kill, will eat up most ex-Merck reps...

It ate me up for sure...And for all the haters that will bash on me for this
admission, wait until you get your first, real, actual sales job...boy are you
in for a shock!
Click to expand...

Let us be perfectly honest, the VP awards have and will always be a farce and a joke.How many times have you sat through the year end presentations and rolled your eyes at who received the award. Each and every year the same BS justifications for the award being presented. The award had nothing attached to it that one could be proud of or admire.
 




Its all about the "New Commercial Monstrosity"

Designed to leave those who have a strong bent for BS'ing in place.....while putting those with a history of performance and a style of their own, first in the crapper, then in the street...

Number crunching shows plenty of those NCM wonder children just can't get those "valuable skills" to turn sales tricks for them.....even, year after year.

But, hey, the boss says they're at the EE level with those dynamite skills...

They get the pardon.....again!!
 




Anonymous said:
Its all about the "New Commercial Monstrosity"

Designed to leave those who have a strong bent for BS'ing in place.....while putting those with a history of performance and a style of their own, first in the crapper, then in the street...

Number crunching shows plenty of those NCM wonder children just can't get those "valuable skills" to turn sales tricks for them.....even, year after year.

But, hey, the boss says they're at the EE level with those dynamite skills...

They get the pardon.....again!!
Click to expand...

Please don't smoke the free pot before you attempt to respond.
 




Those formers VPs brought results the old fashioned way. Presentation with valuable information to share. Now we have a model where managers dispense high marks for sharing results on last night's game. Being skilled at the the fine art of chatter without substance. All to acquire a customer rapport, or so they think. Science and sales results takes second and third place positions to the BS effect. It's probably why we're not going gangbusters and will continue to sink.
 




Anonymous said:
Its all about the "New Commercial Monstrosity"

Designed to leave those who have a strong bent for BS'ing in place.....while putting those with a history of performance and a style of their own, first in the crapper, then in the street...

Number crunching shows plenty of those NCM wonder children just can't get those "valuable skills" to turn sales tricks for them.....even, year after year.

But, hey, the boss says they're at the EE level with those dynamite skills...

They get the pardon.....again!!
Click to expand...

Well said and true. NCM destroyed some of the best reps,
 




Anonymous said:
Let us be perfectly honest, the VP awards have and will always be a farce and a joke.How many times have you sat through the year end presentations and rolled your eyes at who received the award. Each and every year the same BS justifications for the award being presented. The award had nothing attached to it that one could be proud of or admire.
Click to expand...

some of best examples are those who seem to have time to be off territory of special HQ assignment. I filled in for one a few years ago and at awards time they got the award and this sucker got a no mention. Guess my CTL forgot.
 




Anonymous said:
some of best examples are those who seem to have time to be off territory of special HQ assignment. I filled in for one a few years ago and at awards time they got the award and this sucker got a no mention. Guess my CTL forgot.
Click to expand...

Don't forget job shares, one of the more egregious. Hospital reps with nothing on formulary.
 




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