Saturday, April 7, 2007

Astra Zeneca Sales Manager Fired

Attached is a link to an interesting article from the Philadelphia Inquirer about a sales manager at Astra Zeneca who was fired after comments he made in an internal publication were posted on the blog of Dr Peter Rost (formerly, of Pfizer/Pharmacia).

The basics of the article are that someone leaked an internal sales newsletter in which the manager was asked his sales goals for 2007. His sales goal number 3 is,

"Call Execution - Not making the calls you are supposed to make does not drive your business. I see it like this: there is a big bucket of money sitting in every office. Every time you go in, you reach your hand in the bucket and grab a handful. The more times you are in, the more money goes in your pocket. Every time you make a call, you are looking to make more money."

In a statement, Astra Zeneca said,

"AstraZeneca strongly repudiates the negative comments made in this newsletter. Additionally, "This newsletter was produced outside of AstraZeneca's required approval and review processes."


To be quite honest, nothing in the newsletter was overly surprising. These things are published
and sent to sales representatives, usually on a quarterly basis. I find the company's response to be a little disingenuous. This particular newsletter was the winter edition. Seeing that we are now officially in spring, it was probably published some time ago. Claiming that no one ever saw/heard/noticed this interview before the publication on Peter Rost's blog is not particularly believable.

Salespeople are partially compensated on sales achievement. This should not be news to anyone. This compensation method holds true for people selling air conditioners, nuclear submarines, or pharmaceuticals. People claiming to be "shocked" over the statements are either naive or dishonest. I don't claim to know Peter Rost, or anything about him; despite this, his prior experiences tell a lot. He was a Vice-President at Pfizer, and before that a General Manager in northern Europe. One does not get promoted into these positions without understanding sales goals and sales achievement. I know Mr Rost is considered a whistleblower today, but in a previous life he was responsible for increasing the sales of products in specific therapeutic areas.

Link Via The Philadelphia Inquirer

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