Targeting
With the hopes of optimizing prescription growth within each rep’s territory, companies have not only struggled to determine what the most relevant metrics are to consider in segmenting physicians, but also to find out the magic number of visits needed to best influence their physicians’ prescribing behavior.
Interviews reveal that frequency of visits may be declining in the largest of pharmaceutical companies and increasing in smaller companies. Companies are trying to discover the magic number of visits to each tier of prescribers without reaching so high that reps annoy doctors or so low that competitors’ products win out.

As the sampling of pharmaceutical companies shows in Figure 3.5 and Figure 3.6 [figures appear in full report], the number of times reps visit their targets varies by their relative value. Those doctors considered to be high prescribers receive more visits on average from primary care reps and specialty reps than do mid- or low-level targets. On average, primary care reps visit their top targets 1.6 times per month, while visiting mid-level physicians an average of 0.8 times per month and low-level targets 0.5 times per month.

Specialty/Hospital reps visit their top targets an average of 1.7 times per month, their mid-level targets 1.0 times per month and low-level targets 0.6 times per month.

To read more, see Chapter3 of “Canadian Pharmaceutical Sales Management.”