Third Quarter
2006

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G & S Research is a primary market research firm focused on healthcare. Specializing in custom quantitative strategy and longitudinal assessment programs, the company provides advanced analysis, detailed project management, and on-time actionable deliverables.

The company is built on a foundation of personal service and custom solutions. We seek to better understand your world—not only as it applies to your product but also to your needs as a marketing professional.

G & S Research Gives Back and Sponsors Several Recent Charity Events
 

• Rally for a Cure®:  This grassroots golf program is dedicated to spreading awareness in the fight to eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease. The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation received more than $5 million from the Rally programs in 2005. G & S Research was one of the sponsors of the Indianapolis June 2006 event.

• Walk for Food Allergy: Moving Toward a Cure: This walk is dedicated to creating awareness of this allergic disorder which affects one in every 25 Americans. G & S Research was one of the sponsors for the San Diego September 2006 event.

• Woodland Christmas Club for Needy Children: The Ladies’ and Men’s Big Apple golf tournaments support the Woodland Christmas Club, which “adopts” families during the holidays. The organization provides food, new clothing and shoes, and wish list gifts for each child. Other household needs such as beds, dishes, pots and pans, silverware, computers, and reconditioned bicycles are also supplied when needed. G & S Research was a sponsor for the summer 2006 tournaments.

George Grubb, Principal

Gary Schwebach, Principal

Melinda Spaulding, VP

Mike Bandick , VP

Melinda Kizer , VP

Julie Ulloa, VP

Tim Thurston, VP

Rejuvenate Your Mature Brand by Refocusing Your Sales Force

Losing market share?
Nothing new to talk about?
No more indications?
Patent expiration on the horizon?

We’ve been there, both on your side of the fence and on the market research supplier side. It’s a whole new set of challenges for your brand. It thoroughly enjoyed its rock star status for years. But now, the cover bands are everywhere, the groupies are gone, and, frankly, you’re just not as attractive as you used to be.

There are ways to rejuvenate your mature brand’s attractiveness to prescribers. And, it starts with your sales force.

Go to the source. It’s that simple
Your sales force is the face of the company, usually acting as the only point of contact between you and the physician. Because of this, a physician’s experience with an outstanding or a sub-par rep could affect their brand loyalty and decision to prescribe. In particular, this “quality” assessment is most important for brands no longer in launch mode. During launch, the focus is on building the brand’s position via traditional message points and providing samples. Once your brand is established, the rep must build a relationship with the physician to retain and expand mind share.

Trust = Time = Share
A well known hypothesis is that the more time you get with your physician targets, the more share your product tends to hold. In the G & S Research 2005 RepReview study, reps were asked to rate how their most recently detailed physician viewed them. The choices were: trusted colleague, new information supplier, sample supplier, or other.

Those rated as a trusted colleague had significantly more time with that physician than the other reps. Similarly, those classified as a trusted colleague ranked significantly higher when indicating that their brand was the market share leader with the physician.

Quality versus Quantity
While detail, reach, frequency, and duration of calls are metrics of sales force effectiveness that will not go away, a metric for quality is prudent. Quality measurements help you determine where your reps rank against the competition. It identifies those attributes and activities that are most important in framing physician perceptions of reps and how these perceptions impact market share. More over, this provides feedback and guidance in the context of sales training techniques.

Don’t forget where you came from
You’ve obviously done a lot of “right” things to have such a great run in the industry. So make sure that your sales force assessment design and execution addresses your existing programs. Rarely will an off-the-shelf package adequately account for your unique situation (e.g., sales force structure, protocols for brand management, customer base, internal philosophies, etc.). A custom approach measuring your reps’ effectiveness will ensure that you get it right. Not only will you retain fans from years past, you just might get the interest of a new generation.

To learn more about G & S Research’s approach to assessing sales force effectiveness, click here.

Getting the Most from the Web's

Most-Used Search Engine

(ARA) - To google or not to google? Increasingly, that is the question for people searching the Internet for shopping information, travel options or background for a term paper. Choose to google and you're in good company. Google is the most-used search engine on the Web.

But how much do you really know about Google and what it can do? Did you know Google can also help you manage your finances or check your child's algebra homework? "Almost everyone I know uses Google, but few use it to its full potential," says Michael Miller, author of "Googlepedia: The Ultimate Google Resource."

"Most people are just skimming the surface of what Google can do," says Miller. Google searches are highly customizable. You can use the search engine to ferret out address and phone numbers of long-lost acquaintances; search scholarly information; find word definitions; perform complex mathematical calculations; create detailed maps; e-mail, chat, and blog; search and download video, images and music; and track headlines.

Google, says Miller, is a tool like any other. If you know all its capabilities, limitations and the proper way to use it, you'll get the best results.

For tips on how to make the most of your Google searches, click here.

Mike Bandick explains how market research can help your sales force get more from your mature brand.

Read More.

Below is a list of resources related to sales force effectiveness:

Publications/Articles*:

RepReview 2005 Study Synopsis, May 2006

Perspectives: Assessing Sales Force Effectiveness, March, 2006

Pharma Marketing Blog: Pharma Sales Force Bloat and the Mythical Man-Month, February 2005

Reputation Institute Presentation: Selling the Seller, May 2006

Reputation Institute Presentation: Selling the Seller, May 2006

MedAd News, November 2006: Upcoming article has the Med Ad News editors examining the sales force effectiveness strategies needed by specialty pharmaceutical companies to market their products.

A Matter of Trust, MedAdNews, August 2006, pp 1, 34-39.

Conferences*:

PharmaForce 2006, September 19-21, 2006, Princeton, NJ

Pharma Sales Force Effectiveness, October 10-11, 2006, Nice

Pharmaceutical Sales Training Summit, October 19-20, 2006, West Conshohocken, PA

Sales Force Effectiveness USA 2006, November 13-14, 2006, Philadelphia, PA

Pharma Sales World 2006, December 4-6, 2006, Brussels

*While we do not endorse these articles and venues, we have found them to be potentially valuable and informative to our readers on the topic of sales force effectiveness.