Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Re: How to allocate sales reps

>In many ways, big pharma has their hierarchy of reps backwards. The most experienced reps sell to specialty. These guys usually have enough knowledge that they can have a high-level discussion with a customer about their therapeutic area. But they're generally preaching to the choir. On the other hand, most mass market reps (who sell to PCPs) are inexperienced. A mass market representative with the level of knowledge of a specialty representative might be able to bring real value to PCPs, who see patients with a broad spectrum of conditions and who generally don't have time to keep up with every advance in every therapeutic area.<

That’s an interesting argument. However, I have a rebuttal.

The skill levels of pharma sales reps, as is true of the skill levels of individuals in most endeavors, are apt to fall along a bell curve where most of the reps are close to average and only a small fraction are really good. Since there are many more medical GP’s than there are specialists, your plan of allocating the brightest reps to serving GP’s would seem to be mathematically untenable.

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