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` &H-ACC-NO: 53367226
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`DOC-REF-NO: IMK-2100-27
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`LENGTH: 948 words
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`HEADLINE: Smooth operators
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`HEADNOTE:
`Pharmaceutical sales reps succeed by offering the right incentives to physicians
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`ABSTRACT:
`If there is a prescription for success in selling pharmaceuticals, it is probably to offer doctors meaningful incentives
`that help forge friendly relationships with them. For years, physicians have been showered with all sorts of incentives
`by drug companies, but as the growth of the pharmaceutical industry escalates - and the competition among opposing
`sales representatives gets more intense - it is the one-to-one relationship between a sales rep and a physician that is
`becoming critical. A recent report by ABC News stated that pharmaceutical companies spent an average of $13,000 on
`every physician in the country last year, which adds up to more than $8 billion. Furthermore, drug companies now
`employ about 70,000 sales reps - or one for every 9 doctors. Yet many of these reps could stand to improve their sales
`techniques.
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`BODY:
`If there's a prescription for success in selling pharmaceuticals, it's probably to offer doctors meaningful incentives
`that help forge friendly relationships with them. For years physicians have been showered with all sorts of incentives by
`drug companies, but as the growth of the pharmaceutical industry escalates-and the competition among opposing sales
`representatives gets more intense-it's the one-to-one relationship between a sales rep and a physician that is becoming
`crucial.
`"The problem in pharmaceutical sales is the impression that because the time spent with a physician is short, the
`relationship is less necessary to emphasize," says Dr. Charles E. Parker, a Virginia Beach, Va.-based psychiatrist and
`president of PharmaceuticaIU.com, a virtual training Web site for pharmaceutical sales reps. "But the reality is just the
`opposite. The shorter the time, the more you have to emphasize the relationship. A lot of reps really don't know how to
`do it."
`If they don't, they'd better learn fast. The pharmaceutical industry has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent
`years. According to the Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based IMS Health, a healthcare information company, more than $125
`billion was spent on prescription medication last year in the United States (up from just $89 billion in 1997).
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`2 of 2 DOCUMENTS
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`Copyright 2000 Bell & Howell Information and Learning
`ABI/INFORM
`Copyright 2000 Bill Communications
`Incentive
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`May, 2000
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`SECTION: Vol. 174, No. 5; Pg. 104-105; ISSN: 10425195
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`IMMUNOGEN 2286, pg. 1
`Phigenix v. Immunogen
`IPR2014-00676
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`Incentive May, 2000
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`Page 2
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`The importance of establishing direct relationships with physicians-who, of course, are the ones actually writing the
`prescriptions-is certainly not lost on the drug companies. A recent report by ABC News stated that pharmaceutical
`companies spent an average of $13,000 on every physician in the country last year, which adds up to more than $8
`billion. Furthermore, drug companies now employ about 70,000 sales repsor one for every nine doctors. Yet many of
`these reps could stand to improve their sales techniques.
`Personalization is key
`"The biggest thing with incentives is the personalization and customization of the item offered," says Parker. "I've
`seen reps give the standard fruit basket. Now I can't speak for physicians across the board, but when I receive a fruit
`basket it feels like I'm being depersonalizedand being bought."
`What works a lot better in Parker's case is a genuine appeal to his interests. And one of his biggest interests happens
`to be fly-fishing. "Anybody that's spent a minimum amount of time with me knows that," he says. "I have a flyrod on
`my wall."
`So while a fruit basket will likely end up in his wastebasket, a more thoughtful fly-fishing-related item could
`become a treasure. "A $2 fly will go a long way with me," he says. "I don't think it's a money thing, I think it's a
`personalization and customization thing. The more personalized it is, the more effective it is. If they've hit me right in
`my heart, it's an emotional connection."
`Trying to establish that emotional connection can occasionally cost some money, although the American Medical
`Association's (AMA) guidelines limit the suggested value of an incentive to less than $100. If reps exceed that limit, the
`AMA's guidelines state that the incentive should serve a genuine "educational function."
`Katie Clark, a former pharmaceutical sales rep and now a senior account executive at DVC ActiveCare, a
`Morristown, N.J.-based marketing company that specializes in the healthcare industry, says that a drug company's
`profits are directly linked to the rep-physician relationship. "If a physician sees product A and product B as more or less
`effective, and if he sees no difference between them, then it will come down to which rep he uses more often . . . which
`one he likes better personally," she says.
`Clark, who specialized in medications used for treating HIV and cystic fibrosis when she was a rep, says she often
`supplied lunch for the physicians she was trying to get to know better. "It was helpful if you brought in lunch, but not
`mandatory," she says of her meetings with cystic fibrosis physicians. But the same was not true for the HIV specialists.
`"In HIV, you have to bring in lunch if you expect to talk to the physician," she says. Because HIV doctors must contend
`with a whole slew of maladies affecting all areas of a patient's body, they are continually being approached by a variety
`of sales reps. Each physician's time is subsequently.that much more precious, so the incentives offered by a rep must be
`extra special. Bringing in lunch is the bare minimum. "The competition is very stiff," says Clark.
`In the end, though, no matter how wonderful an incentive may be, it's the scientific research behind a medication
`that's the bottom line. "That's what really sways the physician," says Parker.
`Clark concurs. "The incentives will help you along, but the scientific backing of the drug is what's really going to
`help the physician decide," she says.
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`LOAD-DATE: May 22, 2000
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`IMMUNOGEN 2286, pg. 2
`Phigenix v. Immunogen
`IPR2014-00676
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