Over the past year, the Latin America Division of MERCK Pharmaceutical has been utilizing the PD approach to enhance sales. In addition to improved sales results, the approach has had a profound impact on the lives and work of its sales force and their managers.
“Grey Warner, head of the Latin American division of Merck, the pharmaceutical giant, started experimenting with PD in Mexico a couple of years ago after talking to Sternin. Sales of an osteoporosis drug were flat but Warner made inquiries as to how a few salespeople were performing well. He discovered that they were ‘working hard to have a relationship with doctors” rather than chasing as many sales as possible. They spent time explaining the science of the drug and which patients would most benefit from it.”
“The successful salesmen were encouraged to explain their methods to their peers. “The reps now engage with one another. It’s a more bottom-up kind of approach,” he says. This was a “subtle but profound difference. My experience is that if you actively engage the people that are doing the work in defining how they do it- they have ownership of it- you get better results. In the case of the performance of this product, we saw improvement.”
Source: “When deviants save the day”. By Damian Whitworth. The Times of London, July 26th 2006.
Read more in the full report, from the Mexico PD Team at Merck, documenting and describing the process and its impact on the participants.