Only 10-20% of my calls are real calls

[Anonymous]

If you live two hours from your territory someone made a mistake by hiring you. I live in my territory and my doctors are within 30 minutes of each other. There are 90. If I saw 8 a day every two weeks I would hit almost every one. Every two weeks I would see 80. In order to comply my doctors would have to see me over 20 times a year for a full challenging detail as well as go to numerous dinner programs. They aren't complying with AZ's model as dictated by people who never get in front of a customer or understand the absurd position this puts me in.

Am I complaining or telling the Emperor he isn't wearing clothes because I am honest and want the best for AZ? Hell no, I want to keep my cushy job. Does my DSM say anything? Hell no, he wants to keep his babysitting job.

So, since my AZ job only takes half a day before I run out of meaningful things to do, I have a second job. I took a weeks vacation to train for another company and now sell to different specialists in the early and mid morning. Then I switch hats and work my AZ job. It pays very well and keeps me from losing my marbles doing the same thing week after week, year after year.

This is the situation of 99% of the reps at AZ! We are falling over each other in the field, and AZ just keeps on hiring. I have about 2 weeks worth of work every month, at the most. In order to spread things out, I lie constantly about calls. We have to. If that person lives 2 hours from their territory then the hiring DM should be fired, as most should be anyway.

No, lying about calls in totally acceptable at AZ. Managers lie about field rides, and we lie about everything. We have no choice anymore.

 

[Anonymous]

In most cases it is impossible to meet the metrics.

If you don't meet the metrics you will be fired.

If you don't lie to meet the metrics you will be fired.

If you get caught lying about meeting the metrics you will be fired.

It is a vicious cycle.

 

[Anonymous]

This is the situation of 99% of the reps at AZ! We are falling over each other in the field, and AZ just keeps on hiring. I have about 2 weeks worth of work every month, at the most. In order to spread things out, I lie constantly about calls. We have to. If that person lives 2 hours from their territory then the hiring DM should be fired, as most should be anyway.

No, lying about calls in totally acceptable at AZ. Managers lie about field rides, and we lie about everything. We have no choice anymore.

Those that lie the most and the best are promoted here and then they punish people for doing the same behavior that got them promoted. This place is one sick puppy.

 

[Anonymous]

If you had good reps, you could get rid of 80% of the reps.

 

[Anonymous]

Bullsh@t. Replacing reps doesn't fix the problem because reps aren't the problem.

 

[Anonymous]

This is the situation of 99% of the reps at AZ! We are falling over each other in the field, and AZ just keeps on hiring. I have about 2 weeks worth of work every month, at the most. In order to spread things out, I lie constantly about calls. We have to. If that person lives 2 hours from their territory then the hiring DM should be fired, as most should be anyway.

No, lying about calls in totally acceptable at AZ. Managers lie about field rides, and we lie about everything. We have no choice anymore.

This is so true. PSSs lie about calls and work 3-4 hrs per day on average. DSMs lie about field days and falsify performance reports. RSDs never work in the field or visit customers and have zero impact on sales. Managed Markets has become a place to put people whose careers are over but are not old enough to retire. The rest spend most of their time on conference calls or in worthless meetings to feel like they are contributing. It is all one big waste of time and has become a joke.

 

[Anonymous]

This is so true. PSSs lie about calls and work 3-4 hrs per day on average. DSMs lie about field days and falsify performance reports. RSDs never work in the field or visit customers and have zero impact on sales. Managed Markets has become a place to put people whose careers are over but are not old enough to retire. The rest spend most of their time on conference calls or in worthless meetings to feel like they are contributing. It is all one big waste of time and has become a joke.

Wow....2014 pharma industry as a whole is perfectly described here....well said!

 

[Anonymous]

Done for the day. Average Monday here...ready for Tuesday..of course I go dark electronically till after 6pm.

 

[Anonymous]

This identical post is on multiple companies boards. It's a BS post by someone with an agenda. Answer him if you must but I thought you should know.

Yes, I noticed that too. I don't know why people are bothering to respond to this troll with an agenda that probably does not work for any of the companies where this was posted... Probably doesn't work at all.

 

[Anonymous]

Agree. Troll does not work and is responding to his own posts.

 

[Anonymous]

This is so true. PSSs lie about calls and work 3-4 hrs per day on average. DSMs lie about field days and falsify performance reports. RSDs never work in the field or visit customers and have zero impact on sales. Managed Markets has become a place to put people whose careers are over but are not old enough to retire. The rest spend most of their time on conference calls or in worthless meetings to feel like they are contributing. It is all one big waste of time and has become a joke.

Yes- one spends about 3-4 hours in the field. Then another 3-4 hour on pointless administrative tasks. Finally, you spend 1-2 hours recapping nonsense with all your various Pod partners.
In the end you do spend LOTS of time doing nothing productive because the company does NOT ALLOW you too.

 

[Anonymous]

If you had good reps, you could get rid of 80% of the reps.

What a stupid post . . . what is a "good" rep? If a DSM likes their rep, than they are a "good" rep.

 

[Anonymous]

This is so true. PSSs lie about calls and work 3-4 hrs per day on average. DSMs lie about field days and falsify performance reports. RSDs never work in the field or visit customers and have zero impact on sales. Managed Markets has become a place to put people whose careers are over but are not old enough to retire. The rest spend most of their time on conference calls or in worthless meetings to feel like they are contributing. It is all one big waste of time and has become a joke.

This is what the RSDs focus on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ2nVL1-XFk

 

[Anonymous]

Access is getting worse and worse. In the last month, 2 key offices in my territory have closed their doors to reps! I pulled in the parking lot of one of them yesterday, sat there for 30 minutes or so, and entered in 2 fake calls. Did the same thing for the other office later on in the day. Went to Barnes & Noble for about hour, read a magazine and had a cup of coffee, and lied about another call. All in all, I made 1 actual call and lied about 5. The diabetes team has it worse than us!

That's reality in the world of pharma. It's not my choice of doing things, but we have no choice in the matter. It's all just one big illusion. The question is, when will it catch up with us at AZ?

 

[Anonymous]

Managers and company crap cause shut downs!!!! When we are coached and told we have to state the 3 main points of the detail in the opening, and then tell them they should write this X product first with confidence, .......what the bloody H do you think is going to happen???? Why can managers not give up a tiny bit of their arrogance and have a normal, real conversation with nurses, drs, mid levels about their patients and the challenges they face. When managers someday pull their heads out of their tails and stop telling us to say this or that, it will make a difference. As long as multiple reps are repeatedly spewing the same concocted message, we'll be locked out more and more. When will managers figure it out? Probably never.

 

[Anonymous]

Access is getting worse and worse. In the last month, 2 key offices in my territory have closed their doors to reps! I pulled in the parking lot of one of them yesterday, sat there for 30 minutes or so, and entered in 2 fake calls. Did the same thing for the other office later on in the day. Went to Barnes & Noble for about hour, read a magazine and had a cup of coffee, and lied about another call. All in all, I made 1 actual call and lied about 5. The diabetes team has it worse than us!

That's reality in the world of pharma. It's not my choice of doing things, but we have no choice in the matter. It's all just one big illusion. The question is, when will it catch up with us at AZ?

Einsteins definition of insanity; doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Pharma is the door to door, or aluminum salesman. Hammering away at the customer who has tired of the antics and shut the door, yet continuing to believe that this is the best method of selling - and further, making a bad situation worse.

 

[Anonymous]

Yep, like the no call list...how many of us still get the telephone 'sales' calls around dinner time with a great offer of magazine subscription, sat. tv or insurance?

Doesn't happen much anymore does it?....First it p.o.'d customers, then gov't regulated it, you could opt out to block these calls and finally technology made this sales model obsolete...sounds like the road pharma sales is on..

 

[Anonymous]

You people are hilarious. You lay 100% of the blame at the feet of management. I was a rep for over 20 years before getting out a few years ago, and yes, that management is culpable in creating the current state of affairs goes without saying. In my observation though, at least 75% of the reps hired after the merger were incompetent, unethical or both, so it wasn't just the sheer number of reps that pissed the docs off, it was also the fact that most of you come across as complete morons to your customers. Don't tell me I'm wrong, and that the reps themselves did not have a hand bringing about this environment. I saw it first hand.

 

[Anonymous]

You people are hilarious. You lay 100% of the blame at the feet of management. I was a rep for over 20 years before getting out a few years ago, and yes, that management is culpable in creating the current state of affairs goes without saying. In my observation though, at least 75% of the reps hired after the merger were incompetent, unethical or both, so it wasn't just the sheer number of reps that pissed the docs off, it was also the fact that most of you come across as complete morons to your customers. Don't tell me I'm wrong, and that the reps themselves did not have a hand bringing about this environment. I saw it first hand.

However blame does go to the reps. Most "short day" all the time. Complaining is rampent.
Backstabbing goes on and on daily. Little commitment is shown by many. How many times have you seen "Barbie" in an office filled with patients showing pictures of her latest vacation or her 2 year old brat. This is acting professional? Come on. What about on Halloween when reps wear costumes? Professional? You think docs welcome this nonsense?

Ok I know it's fun to slam managers on CF. Lord knows they deserve much of it. However reps are not perfect and are a major part of the problem facing our industry today.

 

[Anonymous]

However blame does go to the reps. Most "short day" all the time. Complaining is rampent.
Backstabbing goes on and on daily. Little commitment is shown by many. How many times have you seen "Barbie" in an office filled with patients showing pictures of her latest vacation or her 2 year old brat. This is acting professional? Come on. What about on Halloween when reps wear costumes? Professional? You think docs welcome this nonsense?

Ok I know it's fun to slam managers on CF. Lord knows they deserve much of it. However reps are not perfect and are a major part of the problem facing our industry today.

I haven't seen a rep wear a Halloween costume in years. Maybe a seasonal tie for Christmas or a golf tie. So far as someone showing a doc a photo of their kid, I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Men do it too or talk about sports. It demonstrates a rep who has gotten closer to the customer and forged a bond. I'm not saying you only do this, but do it if you have extra time. There are ice breakers to get a call flowing. Anybody ever had a sales training class outside of Pharma?

Docs want to talk to a human, not some s...t eating marketing robot. This is a repeat call business for chrissake, are people that stupid? Who do you think the Doc wants to see, someone they know and trust or the anal robot?

I realize this goes counter to AZ's idiotic selling philosophy, but if you're smart you will make friends and you will listen a lot more than you will talk.