Sales reps are a vital part of a life science supplier's success because they provide a direct link to scientists. By improving your sales reps' credibility and effectiveness, lasting relationships with customers will be formed. These relationships will boost satisfaction, loyalty and ultimately, long-term profitability. Sales reps are an expensive resource, and companies often do not realize the maximum return on their investment. Merely focusing on the quantitative aspects, such as increasing the size of the sales force, will not necessarily increase revenue. Instead, a combination of qualitative and quantitative factors needs to be addressed in order to maximize sales force performance. Based on a 34-question survey of over 1,800 scientists, the second edition of Improving Sales Rep Performance: A Global Analysis is designed to offer insights on how sales executives can align their sales force recruitment and training, organization and support in a way that reflects the needs and expectations of scientific customers. For example, to provide guidance in recruiting, the report identifies the personal and professional qualities that scientific customers appreciate most. Additionally, it describes how scientists evaluate the performance of sales reps so that this information can be incorporated into sales training programs that develop more credible and effective reps. The report also highlights the relative value of the various functions typically performed by sales reps, including where scientists need purchasing assistance and technical support. Building upon our findings in 2003, the analysis in this year's report heavily focuses on the differences in the needs and expectations of scientists in North America versus those in Europe and the rest of the world to help companies more effectively tailor their sales force. Another feature unique to this year's study is that several survey questions were answered with regards to specific sales forces. While the report depicts the responses to these questions in aggregate, more than 40 company-specific profiles are available to supplement your understanding of your customers or those of your competitors (see Page 3 for details). Overall, this report can serve as a guide to better understand scientists so that your sales reps can increase your company's competitive advantage by delivering value, building brand equity and fostering a positive image. Improving Sales Rep Performance contains over 70 charts and/or tables and more than 60 cross-tabulations for the 34 survey questions. Below is a glimpse of the key findings derived from just a few of the survey questions: • Above all other qualities, scientists (60%) believe it is extremely important (a score of 7 on a seven-point scale where 1=not at all important and 7=extremely important) that sales reps understand product applications. (Question 5)
• When scientists encounter a technical problem, 33% immediately consult a printed manual/protocol for assistance rather than turn to a colleague or co-worker (27%). (Question 11)
• More than 60% of respondents want detailed product information, and as a result, expect sales reps to know their products inside and out. (Question 17)
• Scientists interact most with sales reps from Invitrogen, Bio-Rad and Fisher Scientific. (Question 24)
• While most of the scientists surveyed (91%) find that their sales reps are reliable, 12% also described their sales reps as unresponsive. (Question 27)
• Over 35% of respondents believe that sales rep assistance is most useful when using a new technique or application. (Question 30) (electronic copy also includes 1 print copy)
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