Finally someone giving an accurate picture of how the AZ culture imploded.
The Fall and Decline of the Pharma Rep
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Finally someone giving an accurate picture of how the AZ culture imploded.
Until the nineties,this was an honorable profession and the docs respected us.Then,pharma hired these lawyers and bean counters to run their companies.These were people who NEVER had sales experience or the people skills to go along with it.They were easy targets for these consulting companies to come in and sell the "share of voice"concept where there would be 6 reps falling all over each other working the same areas in the same week.They hired reps to fill spots,who were totally unqualified,like ex-cheerleaders,etc.!Pissed the docs off royally,and this once proud and respected profession has never recovered!These "sharp????"CEO clowns also made rep presentations long,tedious,and disrespectful to the time the doc had.
The heyday of pharma was when the people at the top worked their way up the ladder,starting with carrying a bag.Theory is fine,but practicality in the real world brings success!Hell,AZ switches their key people around every two years!Ask them about the importance of relationships and rapport,and they will scatch their head!They are educated CLOWNS,and we have them to thank for the mess we are in now!
The reality is that in the old days one veteran rep was able to build great office rapport and had access when many newbie's from other companies were shut out. A veteran rep with great rapport was worth their weight in gold. And then the arms race started with multiple reps with the same drugs flooding these same offices until even the veterans were shut out. Now it is a complete joke with 80%+ of sales calls being fake.
This is a great description of this joke of an industry. So much much middle management raking in huge salaries and doing absolutely NOTHING!!
One of the reasons veterans had good rapport is that we were educated, most often in the sciences. At my first Pharma company, my training class of around 20 had a bunch of science majors from good schools that included UVA, Notre Dame, Michigan, UNC, Cornell, and Penn State. We also had junior military officers, a high school science teacher, and a couple of nurses. When I came here for training, there were several ex-cheerleaders, some state school jocks, and handsome/beautiful airheads. But since we "HAD" to keep up with Pfizer and Merck and Novartis, the more, the merrier!
There was another change afoot: GSK and Pfizer had been caught hiring ghost-writers to pen research papers for KOLs. GSK got busted for suppressing negative data, Pfizer and GSK and Novartis got busted for all of those under the table payments to KOLs, the dine-and-dash programs, the honoraria for "speaking", major gifts to doctors, etc. Once that news got out, AMA and others pushed the industry to adopt major changes, and then we all had to go through the compliance training.
Back in the day, I used to be able to find articles in medical journals and review them with my doctors (including residents and teaching fellows!!). Now? We get 20 seconds to "review" (HAH!!) a canned presentation, a canned presentation that they've heard many times before.
The job has GOT to be the easiest one in the world where you can make 6 figures, drive a new car for almost nothing, and only see your boss face-to-face for a total of <20 days a year. I recommend to my peeps that we all bust our asses to find a career, because this one is a dinosaur. They will soon figure out that small teams of experienced contract reps making 2/3rds of what we make can give canned shpeils just as well as we can.
In the mean times, we're still here, employed, so focusing on the positives should make it easier to deal with the constant BS and boredom!
I am 2 years into this job and am bored out of my fucking mind. It is Sunday evening and I already have that sick feeling of dread knowing that tomorrow I have to try to make it thru another day of faking and watching the clock until it is safe to go home.
Take my advice...( Been there 20 years... Dreading Monday's and faking a job like you). Get out now while you're young!.. There are slot of jobs outside pharma that pay well are are fun and exciting!
Name 1 career (that pays within 33% of what we make) where someone with 12 years of tenure here can get in?
Conversely, I know people here and Glaxo with 20 years of experience that have tried to get out for the past 10 years, to no avail. It seems like no one is looking for people that fake it all day, and expect to be treated like royalty. Has anyone out there talked to someone that makes $140,000 a year in another industry? My wife makes a bit north of $150,000. She and everyone else in that office absolutely hates the pressure and the real stress of having to bring in 8-10X your salary in revenue each and every year. If they don't perform, they're out without much notice. From what I see there are numerous divorces and lots of real mental health issues because of the strain placed on them. Senior level managers fly in with no warning, chewing people out in public, peeking onto desktop.
What the hell do we do here that stressful? Nothing. Our bosses can whip u sto make more calls all they want, but we all know that they're posing. They know damned well that we lie about 80% of our calls, and they have to tell the higher-ups that they're whipping us into shape.
Let's be clear about all those veteran reps with great access. Yes you might have a good education in science but the reality was that back in the 80s and 90s we had storage facilities full of goodies that included golf balls, umbrellas, flashlights, clipboards, swiss army knives and many others including pens - yes pens from Cross and Waterman and Mont Blanc in addition to the 5000 office staff pens.
We had roundtables where we paid the speakers a lot and and the attendees a little less and rotated the chair each month. We had grants and sponsorships and supported fairs and luncheons and year end parties and golf outings and you name it we had a check for it. You took the doc and his family and friends to the best restaurants and once in while you got a box at the hometown stadium. We paid for tailgates and Cmas parties and anything you could think of. So get over yourself grandpa because you and my dad's generation screwed this all up for us and yes my dad was part of that and I was lucky enough to follow but won't reach the golden 60s. You fucked us all
We had roundtables where we paid the speakers a lot and and the attendees a little less and rotated the chair each month. We had grants and sponsorships and supported fairs and luncheons and year end parties and golf outings and you name it we had a check for it. You took the doc and his family and friends to the best restaurants and once in while you got a box at the hometown stadium. We paid for tailgates and Cmas parties and anything you could think of. So get over yourself grandpa because you and my dad's generation screwed this all up for us and yes my dad was part of that and I was lucky enough to follow but won't reach the golden 60s. You fucked us all
It wasn't them that F'd anyone. The org's would ding you if you didn't do this stuff. Remember the old dine-n-dash? I know reps that would spend like a drunken sailor while also lining their pockets w/ gift cards for themselves. Pharma created a perception of unlimited goodies. When that dried up, we saw what they really thought of us.
We did Gas n go too. Remember the spa details with AMI? Go the spa, listen to my shitty Prilosec detail then off to your facial and full body massage. Yes we were great salespeople back then right? Remember renting boats? Taking docs shooting? Golfing? Skiing? Hunting? Fishing? Concerts? Ball games?
Obviously you're a spoiled brat... And your Dad made the bucks to spoil your ass... Now go out a get a REAL job... That challenges you. Obviously your too smart to fake shit... Which veteran reps didn't have to fake... They actually had TALENT. Go home to Papa... I'm sure he'll keep supporting your ass. Obviously you CAN NOT
Obviously you're a spoiled brat... And your Dad made the bucks to spoil your ass... Now go out a get a REAL job... That challenges you. Obviously your too smart to fake shit... Which veteran reps didn't have to fake... They actually had TALENT. Go home to Papa... I'm sure he'll keep supporting your ass. Obviously you CAN NOT
I started a small business... Not hard if you have the brains and can actually sell something other than Panera bread and soup
I represent all that is wrong with pharma. I am that guy that lasted here 30+ and just got packaged out - thank God because many of my peers in CV Spec would have jumped at the chance but could not. I was there in the good old days and then the arms race and then the fall of the Roman empire. I made a fortune and did many things I was proud of and many that embarrass me to this day. I feel bad for those who are left and wish you all the best. Remember one thing - no one can help you when your ticket gets punched and it will get punched here before 2018. There is nothing left here.
just hit my 20 year anniv as a pharma rep, between 6 companies many restructurings and layoffs, in that whole two decades i probably was out of work around 3 weeks, between one gig ending and another one starting- those of us that are still around know this-we are all working on borrowed time......
That is the way to do this. Keep jumping to a hot product because no one cares about relationships anymore. you are not allowed to have them nor do doctors want or are allowed to even talk to us at half our accounts and offices. And Oncology is worse. They cannot get in and have to rely on institutions adding to protocols - it is ALL protocol and algorithms in ONC. No selling needed or allowed. ONCs hate reps worse than most. Good luck Medi and for those who were not "selected" - meaning all AZ reps not deemed worthy - you have been spared - for now.
Any company that promotes EZ Cater on their intranet is doomed. That is how little we think of what we do. Lunch and co pay card shams. I can't fake this much longer
Surprised you made it 30+ years particularly if you were legacy Zeneca and got a pension. Those in this group will all be gone by 2018. Write that one down and then watch what happens with this next round of cuts. They want these pensions off of the books.