Time’s up!
Pharmaceutical experts offer reps needed time management tools

By MedZilla Staff Writer

Marysville, WA - July 30, 2004--You have lots to do: pre-call plan the next day, see doctors, write reports, answer emails, eat lunch (at some point) order samples and more. Without a plan or time management skills, your days as a pharmaceutical representative become an unproductive blur.

“Time management is essential in any type of sales job, and it’s particularly crucial in pharmaceutical sales where relationships are key and pressure and competition are high,” says Frank Heasley, PhD, president and CEO of MedZilla.com, a leading Internet recruitment and professional community that serves biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and science.

Time management is a process, some turn to technology to streamline their processes. There’s more to time management than gadgets, says Seleste Lunsford, senior product manager for Tampa, Fla.-based AchieveGlobal’s sales portfolio. Time management is as much about process as it is about tools. Clearly you can use wireless technology to communicate with the office between sales calls and take advantage of downtime. You can use software systems for reminders, call scheduling and more. But even with all the tech gadgets, you can be a big time waster if you don't have the right processes, she says.

Lunsford says that these tips will help you to make the best use of your time in pharmaceutical sales:

-Manage your territory pro-actively. Act based on a clear view of your pipeline.

-Classify accounts and opportunities.

-Evaluate your progress towards goals and milestones and re-plan as needed.

-Use your goals to prioritize activities. Call on the accounts which will help you achieve your goal, not the ones that are easy to call on.

-Increase time spent on goal-directed activity.
Decrease the time spent on necessary activities not directly related to your goals, and eliminate the time wasters.

-Never skip pre-call planning to save time.
Recognize the impulse to procrastinate, figure out where it comes from, and then eliminate it.

Teresa Castro, a former sales representative and trainer for Merck & Co., and author of The Dark before the Dawn: 70 Secrets to Self-discovery, agrees that pre-call planning is an integral part of the successful rep’s day.

“Pre-call planning is the number one key advice to anyone who is in pharmaceutical sales when they are looking for time management advice,” she says. “Many representatives perceive that pre-call planning takes too much time because it involves effort. Yet this extra bit of effort in reality saves them a great deal of time.”

Castro says that there are several important pre-call planning elements:

Know the physician’s prescribing habits – Are there any trends? Does the physician prescribe many drugs in that therapeutic class? Does the physician prescribe a particular drug? Is the prescribing the same or does it fluctuate?

Know the best times to see each physician – Every physician has a “best” time to see them. Representatives need to ask the nurse and receptionist when the physician is the least stressed and the most likely to spend time with the representative. Many times, this “best time” information is documented in the profile of the physician that other representatives have collected in the past. Don’t just ignore this information – use it! Castro says.

Review notes from past calls – Every representative should look at the “call history.” This call history might have key information that comes from other representatives in their prior calls. Reading the histories can save you time and help you avoid annoying physicians by asking them what previous reps have asked.

Know the patient population – It is important to reflect on the patient population before walking into the physician’s office. A particular product might be used for children and adults, yet the doctor might not see children in their practice.

Logistically plan your day –For this plan to work, a representative should create a schedule that is based on the “best times” to see the physician and also take into account drive time. Representatives lose too much time driving around from place to place.

Mark Ellwood of Pace Productivity training and consulting, Toronto, Canada, conducted a time study last fall for a major pharmaceutical company. In it, reps reported working about 49 hours a week and spending 11 hours a week or 22% of that time traveling. They did 28 trips per week on average, with each trip taking an average of 23 minutes.

He recommends bunching visits in close proximity.

“There are some software programs that allow you to do route planning,” he says.

Waiting time is downtime for some frazzled reps; while it is productive work time for others. Castro suggests using the time you spend waiting to see clients as an opportunity to respond to email, study the latest medical articles and pre-call plan the next day.

Administration time—doing paperwork, ordering materials and getting sample, writing reports and more—can consume about 18% to 25% of your precious time, according to Ellwood. Automate and make reporting more efficient where possible and eliminate extra reporting when you can.

One of the most overwhelming trends for time-starved reps is reading and answering email. Get yourself off all the lists you can, Ellwood says. And make good use of filters.

“Time management skills are important whether the representative is out on the road marketing or looking for a job. We find that the successful job seekers in pharmaceutical sales are often those who also were successful in sales because they know how to keep a lot of balls in the air without dropping any. They have good planning skills,” says MedZilla’s Marketing Director .

About MedZilla.com
Established in mid 1994, MedZilla is the original web site to serve career and hiring needs for professionals and employers in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, science and healthcare. MedZilla databases contain about 10,000 open positions, 13,000 resumes from candidates actively seeking new positions and 71,000 archived resumes.

Medzilla® is a Registered Trademark owned by Medzilla Inc. Copyright ©2004, MedZilla, Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce and distribute this text in its entirety, and if electronically, with a link to the URL www.medzilla.com. For permission to quote from or reproduce any portion of this message, please contact MedZilla, Inc. Email: press@medzilla.com.