Pharmaceutical Specialty Sales Reps Now Spend 48% of Their Time Detailing

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC--(Marketwire - Jul 13, 2011) - The amount of time that pharmaceutical specialty representatives spend detailing physicians and nurses in person amounts to 48 percent of their workload, according to new data from Cutting Edge Information.

The data comes from a new study, "Specialty and Hospital Sales Force Management," which found that pharmaceutical specialty sales representatives spend 36 percent of their time conducting face-to-face details with physicians and an additional 12 percent of their time detailing nurses. These percentages represent the largest portion of a specialty sales reps time.

"The fact that specialty sales reps are spending more than one-third of their time detailing physicians face-to-face is a sign of success for drug companies," said Jason Richardson, president of Cutting Edge Information. "It is the result of changing sales strategies and a focus on increasing the quality of face-to-face detail time."

The study found that pharmaceutical companies' efforts to reduce sales force mirroring, lower the span-of-control ratio of reps to district managers and seeking out reps with new skill sets, have led to specialized representatives earning more time detailing providers. The 48 percent of the day spent detailing doctors and nurses is an increase of 20 percent over results from 2007 research conducted by Cutting Edge Information.

Reduced mirroring has created one-to-one, or at most, two-to-one relationships between doctors and reps. This change has been significant in improving mindshare, as doctors can more easily keep companies and reps distinct instead of trying to remember the names of multiple reps from each organization. The arrangement also creates more accountability for reps, as the results in their territories are more directly attributable to their individual actions.

"Specialty and Hospital Sales Force Management" contains best practices for managing next-generation hospital sales force and pharmaceutical specialty sales forces. The study includes cost-per-rep and cost-per-detail metrics, as well as sales force compensation data. More information is available at http://www.cuttingedgeinfo.com/research/sales/specialty-hospital-sales/.

The study provides decision-makers with guideposts to:

• boost performance with sales call metrics, training benchmarks and breakdowns of sales reps' field activities,
• build or adjust specialty and hospital sales force headcounts, and
• attract talent with competitive compensation for all experience and performance levels.