SK&A Blog

Mary Waldron

Medical Sales Reps: Get an Appointment or Get Lost in the Shuffle

by Mary Waldron
March 10, 2010

Do you remember the last time you saw a doctor?  Chances are you only spent a few minutes with him or her before they scurried away to another exam room.  The nature of physicians’ daily interactions are typically short and sweet.  Depending on office sizes, this is necessary because daily patient volumes can reach the hundreds.   

Now, throw in 20 medical sales reps visiting these physicians in their offices, and you have a jam-packed work week.  SK&A’s newest edition of the Physician Access report reveals that 98 percent of physician offices in the U.S. are visited by up to 20 medical sales reps per week—regardless of office size and physician count.    

According to Health Strategies Group’s 2008 “State of the Selling Environment,” this average was even higher two years ago.  The study showed that physicians reported that they interact with an average of 29 medical sales representatives per week, with specialists averaging 13 per week.  Of these 29 physician interactions with reps, 10 include signing for samples with no product discussion and 11 include signing for samples with brief product discussion.

SK&A’s survey also found that 50 percent of physicians prefer reps to make appointments, a 10-percent jump in appointment preference since 2009.  With up to 20 visits from reps weekly—both scheduled and unannounced—it’s important for pharmaceutical and medical device reps to strive to respect physicians’ wishes for appointment-setting.  Interactions can last anywhere from one minute to 24 minutes, according to the 2008 “State of the Selling Environment” report, so unscheduled interactions with physicians can not only disrupt patients’ appointment times but also the personal schedules of the physicians and their staff.