I just finished reading an article in Business Week discussing changes in the pharmaceutical industry that includes cutting back on sales reps. I have some acquaintances and some friends who have been or are currently pharmaceutical reps so I figure this will impact them sooner than later. Most of the reps have at least one thing in common: extreme physical beauty. That’s not to say they don’t have some brains in addition to their physical gifts, but it shouldn’t be considered controversial to suggest that the primary reason they were hired was due to their looks. This is common practice for this industry, and many sales professionals are hired as much for their eye candy quotient as anything. It’s much like news reporters or anchors–as soon as the look begins to fade or gain a little bit too much “seasoning,” someone younger is brought in.
It seems as though family practitioners have grown tired of the drug peddling because the reps only get through to visit face-to-face 25% of the time. They are also sick of the freebies and giveaways according to the article. Hmm. You mean to tell me that doctors don’t like the idea of being bribed to prescribe? None of this really shocks me, but I’m surprised it has taken this long, and many of the more successful reps have been able to dial it in for years once they’ve established a nice territory and built some rapport. It appears those days are over, and I’m betting the larger savvier drug manufacturers will hire the best of the best to produce videos to entice doctors online instead of relying on the hard sell. Doctors are smart people who know how to do basic research so this is actually good news for someone like me who provides search engine optimization services. They’ll begin to reallocate some of those dollars (the average rep costs their company $200k) toward search optimization. I don’t think I’ll be flooded with SEO requests immediately, but it wouldn’t surprise me to get an opportunity or two arise from the shift. I freely admit that I don’t look as good as many of the eye candy on display, but search services have a higher return on investment because people who perform searches are looking to be marketed to from the outset. Doctors aren’t able to maximize productivity when pharmaceutical reps come calling in spite of the nice break from the routine to look at a beautiful face and nice figure.
Times are a changin’ in the pharmaceutical industry, and those of us who have been on the outside looking in believe it’s about time. Maybe we can get a piece of that cut up for once.