Nevertheless, for the serious job candidate in pharmaceutical sales, this is the book to read.
A practical guide to succeeding in pharmaceutical sales explains why the U.S. is awash in drugs: the sales guys just don't quit.
Melfa, who has rejected sales candidates for not pursuing him aggresively enough in hotel lobbies, clearly outlines what it takes to make it in the cut-throat world of pharmaceutical sales. Much of what he covers here is standard sales tactics–getting past the gatekeeper, persisting, closing the deal. In a business wherein a sales manager receives 500 resumes per week and hiring mistakes are costly, Melfa's advice, though brutal, is right on point. He underscores the fact that many job candidates (as well as job-holders) lack the drive and industriousness to survive, and he offers simple tips that anyone can–but seldom do–follow: Read everything about a product, smile, be neat and well-organized, prepare for sales meetings, and never give up. He advocates the 80/20 rule (80% of sales will be generated by 20% of physicians) to ensure that reps not waste time on low prescribers, and he offers useful techniques for suggesting drugs to doctors: compare product features, symptoms, and patient types. According to Melfa, doctors should prescribe based on the credibility of the rep's presentation of the data–information often augmented by a sound-bite from the latest drug study: "Doctor, drug X has the longest half-life of all the drugs in its class, which means that, unlike all the other drugs in its class, which are BID dosing, your patient only has to take it once per day." Lay people may be surprised by the assertive sales mindset that seems to govern pharmaceutical sales today–though considering the pressure, assertiveness appears to be a required trait. He also advocates aggressive tactics like leaving extra samples behind for doctors and co-opting as much shelf space as possible in medical offices.
Nevertheless, for the serious job candidate in pharmaceutical sales, this is the book to read.Pub Date: April 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-96416409-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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