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Using Efficient Communication to Boost Pharma Sales Force Productivity
December 10th, 2007
2007 DEC 10 -- A story published in The Wall Street Journal wrote about "colleague spam" -- the habit of co-workers indiscriminately hitting the "reply to all" button for trivial email messages. New research by benchmarking leader Best Practices, LLC uncovered a similar problem that could be called "corporate spam" -- the tendency of organizations to send redundant announcements to sales reps via different corporate channels. In the research, 40 percent of district sales managers noted that company announcements were over-communicated to their group. The average pharma sales rep spends 13.7 hours a week managing internal communications, with more than eight of those hours spent using email and talking on the cell phone, according to the study. Reps spent an average of 4.4 hours per week managing internal communications that were redundant, duplicative or misdirected, according to the research. "If your sales force is buried under poorly prioritized or redundant communications, they aren't selling to their potential," said Chris Bogan, chief executive officer of Best Practices, LLC. "We heard loud and clear from district sales managers that if internally sent information cannot directly affect the performance of their sales reps, it should not be sent." To learn more about the report, Pharma Sales Force Effectiveness: Increasing Productivity Through Streamlined Internal Communication, please download a complimentary report excerpt and study overview at http://www3.best-in-class.com/rr883.htm . The research is based on interviews and benchmarking surveys from 10 leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Johnson & Johnson and Merck. The research findings from this study highlight the significant costs of unnecessary communication across a direct sales force as well as the best practices that sales communications functions, district managers, sales reps and IT managers can use to help prevent unnecessary internal communication. Keywords: Best Practices, Llc, Pharmaceuticals. This article was prepared by Pharma Business Week editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2007, Pharma Business Week via NewsRx.com.
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