Singapore, June 24, 2009: Sales force teams are a major focus for the pharmaceutical industry as companies spend a lot of resources to improve their sales force effectiveness.

 

The RepOptimiser Study conducted by GfK HealthCare Asia among 351 physicians in Malaysia, shows evidence that these substantial investments are worth it. By measuring the representatives’ performance, GfK also reveals strategies to increase the positive impact on the doctors.

 

In GfK’s RepOptimiser study notes that the pharmaceutical sales representatives have a key role in informing and updating physicians about drugs and diseases. Seven in ten doctors indicated to use representatives as a key source of information to be up to date in their practice area. Therefore it is important for pharmaceutical companies to measure their sales team’s performance.

 

“Pharmaceutical companies should also ensure that their sales team continuously provides journals and CME invitations,” says Rudiger Papsch, Managing Director of GfK HealthCare Asia. These are the conventional and most popular sources of information for physicians.

 

The importance of pharmaceutical representatives varies according to the physician’s specialty. A high percentage of Psychiatrists (90%) view pharmaceutical sales reps as important sources of information. On the other hand, only 44% of the participating ENT Specialists mentioned so. General Practitioners performed around the average, with 69% of them relying on the sales representative’s information. This is a huge influencing potential for the pharmaceutical industry.

 

“The objectives of our study are to understand the importance and evaluate the performance of sales representatives in pharmaceutical industry via the measurement of the RepOptimiser Index to capture the doctors’ satisfaction level on the effectiveness of the pharmaceutical sales representative” says Loh Kah Huey, Director of Syndicated Services of GfK Healthcare Asia,

 

This effectiveness is scaled via GfK’s RepOptimiser Index on 22 performance attributes which are grouped into four key factors: service quality, value-added-services, product knowledge and professionalism. The calculated index is based in a 100 point scale. The higher it is the greater the physician’s satisfaction with the pharmaceutical representatives. “Almost all companies score well on the RepOptimiser, but no company manages to delight the doctors in an outstanding way,” says Mr. Papsch.

 

Hence, the study takes one more essential step forward and reveals possibilities to increase the sales force effectiveness. Too pushy and aggressive conversations, insufficient product samples and a lack of CME invites were the top problems physicians experienced. “Sales representatives should strictly avoid these mistakes, because they have a negative impact on their effectiveness,” reports Ms. Loh.

 

Instead, pharmaceutical companies should focus on shaping their sales force according to the key elements for delivering physician satisfaction. Key attributes that differentiated effectiveness of the sales rep emerged during the analysis of the data. It was found that the better a sales representative fulfils these attributes, the higher his effectiveness in delivering the services.

 

Thus the study proves that pharmaceutical organizations can benefit directly by empowering sales representatives with industry knowledge and soft skills. “In the long run delighted physicians are highly inclined to strengthen their business relationship with the sales representative,” says Mr. Papsch.

 

The 2009 GfK RepOptimiser study, conducted for the first time in Malaysia, examines the effectiveness of the pharmaceutical organizations in delivering a satisfying sales-experience to physicians. The study is based on responses from 351 physicians and 1,583 company mentions by physicians. It covers 16 different physician specialties, has 75% respondents from the private sector and was conducted from August to October, in 2008.