So Merck has released 4Q results and sales overall are down, 781 m compared to over 900 m Q4 last year. Pharmaceutical sales are flat despite the army of reps that Merck employs. A pharmaceutical sales representative is massively expensive to train and maintain ( salary,car,health insurance, retirement, computer, meetings, marketing materials and samples) and a huge liability( policy and labeling violations, car insurance, potential for HIPPA violations and whistle blowing, sample diversion, on and on). The actual ROI on this huge company investment is almost impossible to measure. What is the actual impact of having representatives on sales? Difficult to asses. If you are a rep the reality is you are ineffective, inefficient and easily, cheaply ( cso's one example) replaceable, if you even want to continue with the " fuller brush man" sales model which is, of course, obsolete. I would submit that the average rep doesn't even make as many real sales calls as the old fuller brush man.
So what we have on this thread and others is the reaction of 3 reps . And those that cheer them on: The "FU Merck" guy who directs all his career ineptitude towards Merck. He chooses to curse the darkness. A venting exercise that just goes on an on but doesn't seem to produce any real result. Then there's the "15 guy" who basically sticks his head in the sand, has too punted any affecting any personal or corporate outcome and is just waiting for the shoe to drop.
Then there's the PCQ who works a side job selling what is, at best, a novelty item and, by her own admission has a husband with a six figure income so her safety net is in place regardless. They all claim to have a pile of money ( " let's compare tax returns" and such) but there is no empirical evidence that any one of them is in any way prepared for the inevitable.
So the question stands, outside of their own frustration and anger, not what it is that are doing, which seems to have phantom outcomes, but what will YOU do?
