With the ever increasing pressure to ensure maximum return on investment, sales force effectiveness (SFE) is becoming a high priority area in the global pharmaceutical industry. Sales force represents the largest spend in sales and marketing and yet study after study shows that the returns gained from this spend is not particularly strong and one recent IMS report found that pharma sales force effectiveness declined by 23% in the recent period of 2004 to 2005. Better metrics must be used to measure both the effectiveness and financial impact of SFE for this very significant budget.

The startling discovery that this comprehensive report uncovers is that the very metrics currently being used to assess sales force effectiveness are in fact themselves aiding its decline. Traditional pharmaceutical organizations are rigorously tracking and managing sales activity, but still falling short. Data emerging from the research concludes that current metrics are more focused on efficiencies than effectiveness - and do so to their own detriment. This report dissects current SFE metrics and their limitation for the pharmaceutical industry in the United States, Europe and Japan.

The report then discusses appropriate metrics to solve these problems and goes on to demonstrate implementation methods and issues. Sales force effectiveness is a difficult concept to measure, but doing so can push pharmaceutical companies past today's hurdles and into increased productivity and sales.

Section 1: Background - The Scale of the Sales Force Effectiveness Problem
Section 2: Assessment - Current Metrics Used and their Contribution to the Problem
- Sales Force Size and Share Of Voice
- Sales Calls per Day
- What's Missing
- Future Measures
Section 3: The Problem with Sales Tools
Section 4: Changing the Focus
- Customer Focus
- Targeting
- United States
- Ii. Relationships
- Iii. Call Quality
- Message Focus
- Continuous Monitoring
Section 5: Problems Specific to Europe with Sales Force Effectiveness
- Western Europe
- Central and Eastern Europe
Section 6: The Japanese Market: Sales Force Effectiveness Issues
Section 7: The Right Metrics to Solve the Problems
- Efficiency versus Effectiveness
- Targeting
- Effectiveness Measurement: Moving Beyond 'recall' And 'intent To Prescribe'
- Sales Forces Optimisation
Section 8: Implementation Issues
- Productivity
- Action Plan
- Emotional Buy In
- Where Does 'e' Fit In: The Role of e-detailing
- CRM and other Technologies
Section 9: Results Analysis
Case Studies
Section 10: Ongoing Monitoring
Section 11: The Future?

Pharmaceutical Market Research

Pharmaceutical Sales Force Effectiveness Metrics

Pharmaceutical Sales Force Effectiveness Metrics

Contents

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