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The Pharma Career Ladder · The medical rep · Step 1: Planning your territory · Lesson 4

The cost of a missed cycle

What happens when your frequency slips

By Ahmed El Menshawy · 20 years in pharma, from medical rep to country manager in the UAE. Founder of RepPharma. LinkedIn
Published

A missed cycle does not pause your progress with a doctor. It reverses it.

Research on memory, going back to the 1880s, found that we forget new information fastest soon after learning it, and that each repetition slows the forgetting. A doctor is not a memory experiment, but the pattern is familiar to anyone who has worked a territory.

  • Miss one cycle and the message slips further than you think.
  • Your competitor's rep did not miss his cycle.
  • Repeat your one message, not a new set of slides.
  • Protect frequency on your top doctors first.

When time is short, reps usually cut the difficult calls and keep the easy ones. That is the wrong way round. The high-potential doctor is exactly the one you cannot afford to let forget you.

“A missed cycle is not a pause. It is a step backwards.”
The cost of a missed cycle: What happens when your frequency slips

Lesson 4 of 12 in Step 1: Planning your territory, with the full guide and a checklist for this week. Discuss this lesson on LinkedIn.

More lessons in step 1: Planning your territory

Lesson 1Targeting is not a listHow to choose the twenty doctors that matterLesson 2Segmenting by potential, not politenessThe doctor who is nice is not always the doctor who writesLesson 3Coverage, frequency, qualityThree numbers that explain a flat monthLesson 5A-list disciplineProtecting frequency on the accounts that carry your territoryLesson 6Building a real route planGeography, clinic hours and trafficLesson 7The weekly plan that survives MondayWeekly planning that copes with realityLesson 8Hospital vs retail mindsetTwo different games carried in one bagLesson 9Pharmacy is part of your territoryStock, substitution and the last mile of every prescriptionLesson 10Key account basicsMapping people, not just placesLesson 11Territory intelligenceWhat to notice that never makes it into the CRMLesson 12Working a new territoryWhat to do in your first thirty days

Planning your territory, in RepPharma

Grade doctors by potential

Doctor potential is graded from three inputs: patients per day, packs the doctor could prescribe and packs the doctor prescribes now.

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Sell-out next to stock

Distributor stock and pharmacy sell-out are shown side by side, with short-expiry lots flagged up to 90 days ahead.

Start a new territory with real customers

A pre-loaded UAE directory of doctors, clinics and pharmacies, so a new rep starts with real customers instead of an empty list.

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