Business Results from Maximizing Sales Call Productivity
Call Value Targeting

Companies have been expanding their sales forces in a manner reminiscent of the nuclear arms race. Usually, the outcome has been profitable. However, since call averages are tumbling and representatives carry an annual price tag of about $130,000, it is time for companies to think in terms of getting the most from each and every sales call.

For most companies the potential gains from improving the productivity of the calls currently being made exceeds the potential gains from paying for more calls.

There are three keys to maximizing sales call productivity:

1.) Place each sales call where the expected incremental sales are greatest.

2.) Detail the right brands in the right sequence so as to maximize the sales resulting from each call.

3.) Sample each doctor only enough so that filled scripts are being generated faster than they were being
given away.

PBE wanted to know how much a typical company stood to gain by doing each of these things perfectly.

To explore this issue, PBE used data from 14 different brands marketed by four different companies to build detailing/sampling simulators brand-by-brand for each individual doctor in the U.S. With some minor adjustments, the 14 brands totaled $5 Billion in annual sales for the hypothetical company that was simulated. This Simulator quantified, in fine detail, the dynamics of the relationships between levels of detailing/sampling and resulting Rx’s for the hypothetical company.

The Simulator was asked two critical questions:

What would the sales have been if the brands had not been detailed or sampled at all?

What would the sales have been if the amounts of details and samples originally put against the 14 brands had been optimally allocated so as to maximize the incremental sales resulting from each sales call?

The answers were eye-opening!

HYPOTHETICAL COMPANY

Scenario Simulations
($000,000)

Key Findings:

The 2,500 reps had more than covered their cost of $325 Million by generating $660 Million in incremental sales.

However, by optimally allocating their calls, the representatives could have potentially generated an additional $667 Million for the same cost. In other words, their productivity could have been doubled!

Tilt the Playing Field in Your Favor