Since many of us will be looking outside pharma for our next job, what's the best/worst experience you've had in the industry?
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What's your best/worst memory as a drug rep?
- Thread starter Anonymous
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I've been in this business for over 30 years, recently retired from Abbvie(bbott) to take another job. So...my worst experiences were asshole /dms who think they know it all..even if they've done this a third of the time I have. I don't pretend to know all of the answers, hell I dont even know all of the questions.
And my best memory is retiring knowing there was another company that wanted my skills and experience bad, and was willing to pay for it.
So, there is a light out there!
And my best memory is retiring knowing there was another company that wanted my skills and experience bad, and was willing to pay for it.
So, there is a light out there!
Best experience: I was selling an oncology drug at another company, and one day, while sitting in an office waiting room, an elderly gentleman came over. He said he'd seen my name tag with the company's logo, and with tears in his eyes, informed me that our drug had saved his wife's life.
Worst experience: Probably the January 2011 layoff. It was one of those find-out-the-day-before cutbacks where you sit by the phone and wait like a condemned prisoner. Every couple of hours, I'd hear through the grapevine who the latest victims were. All-Stars or also-rans, didn't matter. We lost a lot of good people, and the callous way people were summoned to a meeting at some local hotel just to be informed they'd been canned makes the Cardio Care release seem like a walk in the sunshine.
Best: Back in the day when we had information that docotrs wanted, I was called by a physician that wanted to use a blood clot dissolving drug Abbott had on a patient that was about to lose his leg form a clot. I walked him trough the protocol, the physician did the procedure, and according to the physicain, the patient walked out of the hospital on two legs not one.
Worst: Being told my position was re-classified and I did not have the proper degree to keep the job I had for over a year. I was about to be fired for nothing I did or did not do. I was able to find a jpb several levels below the position I had.
Worst: Being told my position was re-classified and I did not have the proper degree to keep the job I had for over a year. I was about to be fired for nothing I did or did not do. I was able to find a jpb several levels below the position I had.
did you tell him you were just a glorified UPS driver?
Let me guess.....You're a little testy because no pharma company would hire you, not even Forest?
I bet UPS wouldn't hire you either.
Did you schedule you're lunches for the week cater boy?
I believe you mean "your lunches" professor.
from the groove yard of forgotten favorites:
Big Donny C's CC where he failed to mute out the sales force. "I am gonna find out who you are!"
Still funny after all these years.
Worst? Watching my fellow representatives being summoned to a random Panera to meet a random Abbott manager and be told we are done with you. That was a horrible layoff. Glad to see that mistake was not repeated.
Big Donny C's CC where he failed to mute out the sales force. "I am gonna find out who you are!"
Still funny after all these years.
Worst? Watching my fellow representatives being summoned to a random Panera to meet a random Abbott manager and be told we are done with you. That was a horrible layoff. Glad to see that mistake was not repeated.
Getting laid by two different women in the same night at a National Meeting. Their rooms, so I did not have to worry about the different colored hair.
Getting a BJ by the MILF National Sales Director at my old company.
The threesome at the Dallas Meeting with an African-American, and Hispanic female reps.
So what you are really saying is that you failed.... you wanted to do the F, but came up short, no? Couldn't measure up, so to speak... and that is your BEST memory?
Pathetic. You are a true Limp Wimp.
Worst memory: Being told I was being retained by Abbott, instead of getting the severance package from Kos.
Best memory: Getting out of Abbott last year!
Best memory: Getting out of Abbott last year!
Hey Frat Boy: Your escapade is all in your dreams. By stating the imaginary races of the women you are exhibiting your racist views! No wonder you are being FIRED because you have zero morals! I suggest you try to grow up now and be a true Man. Enough of the immature "boys" that are in pharma sales!!!! Maybe your next job will be at a strip club so you can clean the toilets!
BEST:
Selling Omnicef. If you couldn't sell that product, you don't need to be in sales. Easy access and pretty much every office wanted it.
WORST(3):
1. Going to a meeting that was being called a "Boot Camp". It was during one of those periods when your region's numbers were down, so the RM & DM's have to put on a pony show. As usual, the only thing our mgmt knows to do is pretend to crack whips, threaten everyone with a "performance plan" and implement junior high school behavior initiatives. Everyone knows the nature of our competitive structuring creates a natural ebb-&-flow of good and not so good performance. There are simply too many factors we can't control sometimes--like when the formulary team in your area doesn't get the job done and you have to bite the bullet for it.
2. Going to a regional meeting a couple years ago and witnessing a very blatant attempt to get rid of some of the senior reps. For weeks prior to the meeting, we were given materials to prepare for a Trilipix roleplay, to be conducted with DM's you didn't know. When we arrived, they pretty much diverted from everything they told us to prepare for, and took the roleplays in a completely different direction. When all was said and done, most of the "failures" were older, seasoned reps. They pretty much embarrassed them by making them re-study and redo the roleplay. Clearly were hoping some of those guys would take it as a sign to retire!
3. Just before the Omnicef LOE, our state lost medicaid formulary. Crushed several teams who were competitive for the big spiff being offered, as Omnicef numbers plummeted. In the end, we were given a 1/2 percent quota adjustment after watching 100%+ quota accomplishments drop to 60-70% in just a matter of weeks, and subsequently all star rankings plummeted. Would have just brushed that off as a "those are the breaks", but just a year or two later, a very significant state for Synthroid had a similiar formulary experience. Unlike our 1/2% quota adjustment, when this state lost coverage, the mgmt team pretty much relieved that state of it's negative formulary burden and pushed it out to the other states in that area--thus, many of those reps held on to high performance while the states who inherited the quota were hurt.
Selling Omnicef. If you couldn't sell that product, you don't need to be in sales. Easy access and pretty much every office wanted it.
WORST(3):
1. Going to a meeting that was being called a "Boot Camp". It was during one of those periods when your region's numbers were down, so the RM & DM's have to put on a pony show. As usual, the only thing our mgmt knows to do is pretend to crack whips, threaten everyone with a "performance plan" and implement junior high school behavior initiatives. Everyone knows the nature of our competitive structuring creates a natural ebb-&-flow of good and not so good performance. There are simply too many factors we can't control sometimes--like when the formulary team in your area doesn't get the job done and you have to bite the bullet for it.
2. Going to a regional meeting a couple years ago and witnessing a very blatant attempt to get rid of some of the senior reps. For weeks prior to the meeting, we were given materials to prepare for a Trilipix roleplay, to be conducted with DM's you didn't know. When we arrived, they pretty much diverted from everything they told us to prepare for, and took the roleplays in a completely different direction. When all was said and done, most of the "failures" were older, seasoned reps. They pretty much embarrassed them by making them re-study and redo the roleplay. Clearly were hoping some of those guys would take it as a sign to retire!
3. Just before the Omnicef LOE, our state lost medicaid formulary. Crushed several teams who were competitive for the big spiff being offered, as Omnicef numbers plummeted. In the end, we were given a 1/2 percent quota adjustment after watching 100%+ quota accomplishments drop to 60-70% in just a matter of weeks, and subsequently all star rankings plummeted. Would have just brushed that off as a "those are the breaks", but just a year or two later, a very significant state for Synthroid had a similiar formulary experience. Unlike our 1/2% quota adjustment, when this state lost coverage, the mgmt team pretty much relieved that state of it's negative formulary burden and pushed it out to the other states in that area--thus, many of those reps held on to high performance while the states who inherited the quota were hurt.
In my 14 years with this joke of a company,
by FAR the worst experience was working for Ric Pollard.
by FAR the worst experience was working for Ric Pollard.
First month on the job, ten years ago. Pulled into my number one target, I was the fourth rep in line. I waited, because damnit, I was going to change habits and close hard.
Walked up to the receptionist, she said, " you can check samples and get a signature; but absolutely no detailing. The PA signs, Doc does not."
That's been my best call in ten years!
Walked up to the receptionist, she said, " you can check samples and get a signature; but absolutely no detailing. The PA signs, Doc does not."
That's been my best call in ten years!
