Confessions of a Medical Representative
Topping the charts
Sales figures came in this morning and it looks like it will be touch and go. I’ve spent most of the year thinking that it’s all been a bit of luck, but as month after month’s figures have arrived, there has been no sign of things slowing down. If anything, the sales are accelerating. There are only a couple of months left to the end of the year and I might just do it. I might just make it in to the top fifteen in the sales league table for 2008.
The top fifteen would be unbelievable. The top five is impossible, but the top fifteen has been a goal of mine since joining this company. Gary’s been around for years, so he will always be in the first few, as will Malcolm and Mandy. Then there are Seema and John, that’s your top five more or less sorted for every year until they leave. The next five will be people who have had slightly easier targets this year so have managed to get into the top ten for one year only. Eleventh to fifteenth place will be reps who have had a bit of luck this year, like a PCT adding Sofalex to the formulary, or at least not restricting it like mine has.
After fifteenth it is a bun-fight all the way down to 64. To break into the top fifteen would be great for me. I told my colleague Nick about this. He told me that I didn’t seem to have much respect for most of the other reps in the top fifteen. I was a little hurt, but after thinking about it for a while I realised he is right. If I say that the others have been lucky to get into the top fifteen, what does that say about me? Were my targets easy this year? Do I deserve to be there?
Selling is a bit like sport, and I guess it’s true that the league table doesn’t lie. But, unlike football, you do get something for being top at Christmas in pharma sales. There are still two months left and lots to play for. I deserve to be where I am because of my hard work and I will be letting everyone down if I don’t keep pushing hard until January, and beyond. Who knows, I might make it into the top ten, and I will be able to say congratulations to anyone who finishes ahead of me and commiserations to those behind. Secretly I will know that I was better than them this year, but they will get commiserations none the less.
Spent this evening working out what I would need to do to break into the top ten, and dreaming of making it into the top five next year. Surely Gary will retire soon.