I was a Medical Representative. We meet doctors to generate prescriptions for our products. Every company has medicines in many disease areas. Hence when we meet the doctor, we discuss only medicines as per specialisation of the doctors we meet. Generally we limit our presentation to 4-5 products during each visit since we have limited time available.
In 1980s my company (Ciba-Geigy) introduced a pain killer drug called Voveran, an anti inflammatory. The product (called Voltaren in other countries) was a big seller world-wide. As per the company strategy the product was to be promoted only to Orthopedicians initially for some months (although the product has uses in most other therapeutic segments also) I visited a lady doctor (general practitioner with predominant maternity care practice) in Nidadavolu, a town in West Godavari District. I discussed with her a few of our products of interest to her. She was a great supporter of our products. However, Voveran was not introduced to her as per our company policy.
I then proceeded to call on other doctors in the town. While I was at another doctor's clinic, I met a medical representative. He informed me that the lady doctor I had met earlier wished to see me again. Anxious as I was with this message, I went back to her immediately. I was ushered into her consultation chamber without any wait. As she saw me, she enquired if we had a product called Voveran. As I nodded my head to confirm, she expressed her disappointment that I didn't discuss about that new product during my meeting with her earlier that day. She said that she learnt about Voveran from a patient who had showed a package insert (product information slip mandatorily kept inside of a sales pack) of the product. It seems that the patient's relative had dramatic relief from his joint pains with Voveran (prescribed by an orthopaedic surgeon in Eluru, headquarters town of West Godavari district) The patient wanted to know if she could also take the same for her chronic joint pains? The doctor wasn't familiar with Voveran, but she understood from the package insert that it was a Ciba-Geigy product. Hence she sent word for me.
Now she was angry with me that I failed to tell her about Voveran, a recent addition to our product range, although she was a big patron of our company. I was just following my company directive to the 'T' but here I was faulted by an important patron of our Company for failing her by 'HIDING' our new introduction from her and causing embarrassing moments with her patients. I had to deftly handle the situation remembering the skills imparted to me during my company training by Mr.Bhattacharjee, trainer par excellence. I immediately took out Voveran product literature and talked to her about the product and it's role in the treatment of Arthritis. I told her that since she was a busy practitioner and I didn't wish to bother her with products not so much connected with her usual needs, I skipped mentioning about Voveran. Not certainly any act of avoidance. She was satisfied. She continued to be our good patron.
Representative job is surely not a bed of roses....often it keeps you on a razor edge testing your skill to balance company policy with customer needs.
Comments
Post a Comment