Pharmaceutical sales reps are spending more than 13 hours weekly on internal communications, causing sales executives to take notice and search for more efficient methods.
On average, pharmaceutical sales reps spend 13.7 hours managing e-mail, checking voicemail and talking on a cell phone, according to the research and consulting firm Best Practices, LLC.
About 32 percent (or 4.4 hours) is unnecessary communication, the survey states.
If properly used, e-mail and voicemail can quickly disseminate educational, tactical, and motivational information, according to Best Practices. However, when district managers and sales reps find their e-mail and voicemail boxes filled with poorly prioritized or unnecessary communication, personal productivity, and work-life balance suffer.
The research findings from this study highlight the significant costs of poor 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.
Key topics of the survey explored:
- Total time spent on internal communication
- Percentage of time spent that is “unnecessary”
- Costs of unnecessary communication
- Most effective communication methods
- Best practices for managing regional and headquarters-to-field communications
- Best practices for reps and district managers
