Boosting Pharma Sales Force Effectiveness through Streamlined Internal Comm...( CHAPEL HILL N.C. Dec. 12 /- The s...),Health

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Dec. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The success of a pharmaceutical sales force is built on effective communication. Yet ineffective internal communication between sales reps and regional corporate sources are eating into reps' time on the job, according to a new study by benchmarking leader Best Practices, LLC.

Pharma sales reps spend an average of 13.7 hours a week managing internal communication and, of that, 4.4 hours (or 32 percent) are perceived as unnecessary, according to the study. Most of those 4.4 hours is made up of email and cell phone communications and a vast majority of the communications comes from regional and local sources, according to the study. Sales reps estimate they receive more than 150 email and voicemail communications a week from regional sources.

Pharmaceutical companies could increase sales staff productivity by more than 10 percent by eliminating unnecessary internal communications to the field, according to the study. To learn more about this report, Pharma Sales Force Effectiveness: Increasing Productivity Through Streamlined Internal Communication, please download a complimentary report excerpt and study overview at http://www3.best-in-class.com/rr890.htm

The research is based on interviews and benchmarking surveys from 10 leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Johnson & Johnson and Merck. Executives and managers who oversee sales operations can use this study to improve the productivity of their field sales force.

The research findings from this study highlight significant costs of unnecessary communication across a direct sales force as well as the best practices that sales communications functions, district managers, sales reps and IT managers can use to help prevent unnecessary internal communication.

Some of the key topics covered in the report include: