Pharmaceutical Reps Using the Social Media to Sell
Posted by Joan Curtis on Tue, Feb 15, 2011 @ 08:30 AM
Pharmaceutical reps are getting it, are you? In a recent blog post, Pozen, a small pharmaceutical company is equipping its sales reps with smart phones instead of plane tickets.
“(Doctors,) frankly, don’t have time and they particularly don’t have time during the day, which is exactly when reps are showing up,” says Liz Cermak, who was a Johnson & Johnson executive before joining Pozen.
How many of you have seen the drug reps hanging around the doctors offices hoping to get a quick word with the doctor? We've all seen them with their brief cases full of samples and their worn tired expressions. What an ancient way to do business? One would think that these smart, progressive drug companies would have recognized this sooner. Better late than never, right?
Pozen is not Johnson & Johnson, but it is paving the way to the new kind of selling. The company expects that pharmaceutical selling as we've known it will be a relic of the past.
This is something we discussed in The New Handshake when we looked at the history of selling. Believe it or not, how people sell their wares has not changed in over one hundred years. No wonder it's hard to get people to change!
The power of the social media for selling to doctors goes without saying. Doctors have little time to spend with drug reps but they need to keep up with the advances in medication. They want to know, but they don't have time. Sending them what they need through the social networks gives them an opportunity to learn within the boundaries of their schedules.
According to studies that track the way doctors use the social media, they found that doctors do not use Facebook and Twitter, but they do participate in physican only social sites like Sermo. Again, find out where your target audience is and go after them with what they need. That's the way to sell today!
Read the full article about Pozen and learn how the selling landscape is becoming more socially savvy!
You can do it, too. Check out our guide 10 Tips to Boost Your Sales using Social Media. 
Or, sign up for our free e-book and the first chapter of The New Handshake.