The post graduate meeting and pharmaceutical sales

At the outset of working in pharmaceutical sales there was no one as keen as me to make a good impression.  There I was rushing from place to place in my brand new car trying to see as many people that might be potential customers as I physically could.  During my first week I recalled the session on post graduate meetings that I’d attended during my training course and this led me to pop into Brighton’s local post graduate centre to try and book a meeting.  I couldn’t believe my luck to discover that a rep had cancelled a meeting for the following day and of course grabbed the chance to take his place.   Fate was on my side.To give you a brief run down on what these meetings involve, GP’s in order to keep abreast of changes in their profession, attend seminars and obtain post graduate accreditation points for doing so.  There is a minimum number of credits that they must acquire annually.  The easiest way for them to do this is to attend accredited lunchtime talks, usually given by a the local consultant, at the hospital’s post graduate centre.Its standard practice for the event to be sponsored by a pharmaceutical sales rep (ie they pay for lunch) in return they are able to erect their stand offering branded goods such as pens and sticky pads that attendees can pick up on their way in or when they collect a ticket from you, like those in raffle ticket books, in order to claim their lunch.  It’s all very well planned. How did my first event go? Terribly!  While it seemed like I had the advantage I certainly didn’t.  I had their meal tickets but since most of them arrived after the talk had commenced they quickly grabbed their ticket and rushed straight in.  They may have been in a hurry but they still found time to scoop up goodies from my stand. In literally ten minutes my entire stock was depleted – and what had I gained? Just a few hellos and some vague nods of acknowledgement.  You may ask ‘is it worth it?’ and the answer would be yes, but only over a matter of time and once I’d employed some clever tricks.Don’t let them see their meal tickets.  This way they have to talk to you if they want to have a meal.  Obviously most of them realise you’re not spending good money for nothing.  It’s difficult for them not to discuss your products when they have to converse with you to get their lunch.Only show off one of your goodies alongside a sign that reads ‘for display only, please ask’ this is especially important if you have something like good quality pens.  Keep them in a box so they don’t get grabbed by a handful of junior doctors who are waiting around while you chat to a GP.  If they have to wait there’s obviously more chance they’ll talk to you.Exchange their ticket for a completed registration form it’s only fair!  The registration form should  have columns for them to enter details of their name and surgery and most importantly the best time for you to visit them.  This last one is the perfect ruse for creating opportunities to meet with doctors especially those that are ‘hard to see’.  Turn up at their surgery during the time slot they’ve written and signed against and their receptionist will be hard pushed to turn you away.Identify and target who you want to see and have something specific to display on each visit.  Maybe you can interest them in some new evidence or perhaps a clinical paper.  Targeting a few specific GPs can really help your appointments to be a greater success.To round up, these customers are well aware that you’re a pharmaceutical sales rep sponsoring their lunch and as such they know you must get value for your financial outlay – ie a few minutes of their time.  If you make it impossible for them to just fill their pockets with your free goodies as they grab their lunch ticket they will soon become used to this fact.  Then they wont try to grab and run when they next see you!