[Hey follow this conversation on twitter via #BPSLS] You gotta admit, the girl paid attention during her training class. Or at least, the “unwritten codes” in training, which would include playing up your sexiness and putting that pressure on the docs for writing your prescriptions.
Why? Because this girl’s “pharma confessions” book has entered the competitive “me too” books about being a pharma sales rep. And there are enough of the same “pharma confessions” books to make this – how did we used to say it during training for an anti-infective – “a dog fight”!
That’s why you have to differentiate. You gotta inject “sexy” and “secrets” with “big pharma”.
No, don’t pull out the bath tub, this ain’t a Cialis commercial (or was it a Levitra commercial? Oh I can never keep up with those Viagra wannabe DTC ads)! This is the newest Amazon-approved tell all book on pharma sales. And it’s already being used right and left off-label – in the form of sweeping generalizations about ALL drug reps who work in the pharma industry.
Hey, I once carried a bag – maybe I should write a tell all book! Except I wasn’t a cheerleader, didn’t get hired out of college, never worked for Enterprise Rentacar, and knew enough science to have gotten into trouble, challenging a physician on his clinical premise during a sales call – mea culpa.
I did apologize to the doc afterward, the senior rep who was training me made me say sorry. Now that I think about it… she didn’t look like a cheerleader either, but she did wear an animal print blouse once, and the kind of favors that she did for docs were more like “picking up their kids home from school” and “picking up the dry cleaning”. Totally not the hanky-panky kind! So I would have a really boring story that no one would want to read. Plus, this was back in the 1990s, maybe things weren’t so sexy back then. All this sexiness – I’m just going to blame it on social media – because pharma feels out of control with social media and this makes social media an easy scapegoat!
Predictably, you get the typical responses from (pharma) people. The ones who are insulted and indignant, and the ones who say that this book describes pharma exactly as it was/is. Now, if you’re smart enough to understand most of what I wax poetic about on this site, you don’t need me to tell you that the “truth” is somewhere in the middle. And let’s not pretend that these aren’t adults who are capable of choosing their own wardrobes, rather than being whipped into submission by some evil fashion mind controller who tells them they must dress like sex kittens. For one thing, you’re supposed to be able to lift at least 10 pounds, and doing that on stilettos can’t be ergonomic. I can’t even manage on 1.5 inch heels.
The truth is, you get reps who get into this business for the right reasons, and the reps who get in for the money and the belief that this is some glamor job that can get you rich in no time. You get reps who try their darndest to learn the science and – bless them – actually want to use it in the conversation. Then you get those who figure the right way is sexy way and there’s no other way.
Let’s not forget the doctors who take advantage of this, you know who you are, you’re the ones that all the new female reps are warned about, because you can’t keep your hands to yourselves and this is why the next pharma rep who wants to write a book should instead consider setting up a “pervert alert” website as a public service about the doctors who reps should never be alone in a room with.
Now *that* would be first-in-class, and we in pharma know, being first to market and first-in-class is what matters first.