An Open Letter to Merck Leadership:
I am a Sales Representative in the Southeast Commercial Operations Group and am writing to you on behalf of many of my colleagues in the Southeast. In a recent video address, Mr. Ken Frazier said, “our size and complex operating model have created inefficiencies and redundancies in the way we do business.” In Focus Forward in the U.S. Market, Mr. Bob McMahon requested direct and transparent feedback in areas we succeed and areas in which we need to improve.
In that spirit, I wish to present, in a challenges/solutions format, an area of inefficiency and redundancy my fellow representatives and I are experiencing in our region, neighboring regions and perhaps all regions. The inefficiencies, discussed below, negatively affect not only our bottom line but how my fellow representatives and I make business decisions on a daily basis.
In my region we have eight Customer Team Leaders (CTLs), Sixty-ish representatives, two Medical Account Managers and, of course, one Director of Commercial Operations (DCO). The Region ratio of CTLs to Representatives is 1 to 7.75 with some CTLs managing six or less representatives. Incidentally, our neighboring region has virtually an identical ratio. An individual sales territory, within a district, consists of two CTLs and four representatives. The bottom line is CTLs are required to spend four days per week in the field with representatives. We simply have far too many managers and these managers do not have enough work to keep themselves occupied. The result is managers spending a minimum of two days and on many occasions three days per month with representatives.
Does this situation have a negative impact on our business and the way we make business decisions? Consider the following. In our district we have been asked to focus on and hyper-target our top HCPs. Spending time with those who can have the biggest impact on our business is a strategy we as representatives completely support. Unfortunately, we cannot implement this directive. In order to have an adequate pool of HCPs to accommodate the excess field visits it is necessary for us to develop relationships with everyone so we don’t subject the same high prescribing physicians to constant field visits. So, whether a physician prescribes one product X per year or one product X per hour these HCPs effectively have the same weight or value because we have to cultivate relationships with everyone. This situation is further exacerbated when you throw in the occasional field ride with a Director of Commercial Operations and/or a Medical Account Manager.
During any given month, CTLs are in every sales territory two of the four weeks. Our customers are getting weary of seeing managers as often as they do and are expressing their dissatisfaction. In the late 1990s our company, and industry, made a terrible decision by over-hiring. The result was representative fatigue by HCPs and lack of perceived value by our customers which led to reduced access and lock-outs in some cases. Despite the introduction of the Medical Account Manager, our region has not made any headway in reversing policies of restricted access. We are, once again, going down a similar path of overwhelming customers. This time it is with managers rather than representatives. One of my colleagues referred to this system as a pyramid scheme. How productive is our system when leadership feels they must baby sit representatives and representatives feel their job is to entertain leadership? As an organization we must do a better job at evaluating the laws of unintended consequences before implementing strategies affecting how we interact with our customers.
According to Customer Team leaders, the primary role of a CTL is that of a coach. If the average cost of a CTL (salary, benefits and expenses) is $180,000 per year, our region spends almost 1.5 million dollars per year on coaching – an outlandish sum by any reasonable standard. Additionally, how does our company justify paying a CTL to manage five or six representatives? Yester-year regions were filled with representatives in their twenties, many fresh out of college. Frequent managerial interaction was necessary to bring these inexperienced representatives along the sales continuum faster. Today, we do not have one representative in our region under the age of thirty. The vast majority of representatives are a bit gray with a few wrinkles and reading glasses close at hand. This demographic shift has resulted in a sales force with tremendous amounts of experience in this industry. While everyone can improve their craft, representatives do not need the excessive amount of managerial interaction we are forced to endure. Historically speaking, the Merck management team was once a highly skilled, wise group of leaders who knew when to help a representative and more importantly, knew when to get out of the way. Due to the situation described above, region leadership has become a laughing-stock in the eyes of too many representatives.
My solution is as follows: Regions should be combined, immediately. Early in my career, a Regional Business Director (today’s DCO) had two, three even four times as many representatives under their direction as compared to today. CTLs should have a bare minimum of twelve to twenty representatives to manage. Most of the administrative duties of CTLs could easily be handled by a region administrative assistant (approving expense reports, etc.) freeing CTLs up for coaching activities. Another idea is to put a detail bag in the hands of CTLs. Mandate that one day per week (in addition to their office day) CTLs call on customers who have lock-out or sign only in policies place. Perhaps the weight of a CTL title will prove beneficial reopening access to some of our most important customers.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
