Glaxo Cutting Salespeople

Pharma is having troubles anyway. Patents expiring on the Billion dollar drugs like Viagra. A trickle in the pipeline of new drugs. So today's announcement that GlaxoSmithKline plans to reduce its U.S. sales force by about 12% is a big WOW. Even though it is eliminating 1800 sales positions, it will have about 7500 left in the US!!! Pharma sales isn't really sales; it's marketing. It's touching the procurement officers - physicians, HMO's, hospital admins, pharmacists - to get the drug on the formularies (in to the inventory).

Here's hoping you are actually in Sales and not just marketing. It's great to do the networking, the touching base with current customers, but don't forget to prospect, qualify, follow up, follow up, follow up, and close with some new customers. It's just a reminder, since it is far easier to do the marketing stuff.

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November 5, 2008 2:24 PM |