Top 15 pharma companies by 2016 revenue

Source: FiercePharma

Still, it does feel as if something's happening here. The building tensions over pricing, and a review of the top 15 companies by 2016 revenues, suggests the relentless march forward of drug prices and profits may have slowed. Sales for the top 15 companies were up about 4% for the year combined, certainly not a figure that shows great strides. Four companies in the top 15 saw their revenues fall for the year, while others reported results that would be classified as flat.

The companies prominent in the diabetes field have been under payer pressure for several years now, and sales at Sanofi and Novo Nordisk illustrate that, even if Eli Lilly managed to see some significant gains in diabetes meds in the fourth quarter.

5 Types of Training Every Pharmaceutical Sales Representative Needs

It is well-known that selling is a dynamic profession, and you need to upgrade your knowledge about your products and services constantly to be a successful salesman. But, the task of salesmen in the pharmaceutical sector is tougher when compared to their counterparts in other industries. Here, the prospect (I mean the doctor) has more knowledge about medicines and diseases than the salesman. How does the pharmaceutical representative make an impact on the doctor and how does he help introduce his company’s medicines? The answer – he needs to be as knowledgeable as the doctor himself. When sales representatives join pharmaceutical companies, they undergo intensive one-month pharmaceutical sales classroom training sessions, where they are trained aggressively by doctors and medical sales managers. This is usually a full time certification course. Once this sales training is complete, they go out to the market and work in the field.

The future of pharma's salesforce

PharmaTimes magazine | Katrina Megget*

The future of pharma's salesforce has been a hotly debated topic for years. Now we wave goodbye to one-size-fits-all and embrace a field force fusion

It has been a turbulent few years for pharma's salesforce as the industry has tried to find its feet amid a shifting healthcare landscape. For all intents and purposes, the sales rep should be dead, yet the role remains, and largely intact – albeit head count has reduced and other roles and job titles have sprung up. Indeed, the salesforce of the future is beginning to take shape. And there's even a place for the sales rep, experts say. That's because the new salesforce will be a blend of roles and capabilities.

"The salesforce is changing," says Alan Kidd, business development manager at CHASE. "It's becoming increasingly a mix – an educational and promotional mix, which includes digital and e-detailing, other roles and even health outcomes consultants."

This is echoed by Ryan Wooller, business development director at Star. He says the salesforce of the future will be made up of different role types, deployed in different geographies with messages tailored to reflect the requirements of the local health economies. "The days of the one-size-fits-all national sales team are numbered," he states.