Friday, October 23, 2009

Drug Rep Training FAIL!

Yesterday we had lunch from a drug rep marketing an antidepressant. He was new to the office, and the lunch had been set up by his predecessor.

To my astonishment, about halfway through the sales spiel he suddenly asked, "Hey, what kind of doctor are you, anyway?"

"Uh, I'm a neurologist."

"Really? What does a neurologist do? I didn't even know I was calling on one."
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19 comments:

  1. jadedjOctober 23, 2009 at 8:14 AM

    Ouch! Perhaps he should considered the used car industry as an occupation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 23, 2009 at 8:41 AM

    This rep must be nibbling too much of the drug he is selling/pushing.
    I dislike drug reps.

    ReplyDelete
  3. HeatherLynnOctober 23, 2009 at 8:50 AM

    whoa! Yeahhhhh...probably best to know where you are going AND who you are meeting with before opening your mouth in this fashion! yikes!

    reminds me of the movie "Duets"....ever see it?

    ~hl~
    {www.hoscorners.blogspot.com}

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Good CookOctober 23, 2009 at 9:30 AM

    Nice. And I'm unemployed... go figure....

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  5. Kate@spannersound.comOctober 23, 2009 at 9:44 AM

    We had one in the other day that could not pronounce "lethargy." And then he butchered "dyspnea" and several other words that were WRITTEN on his power point presentation...I mean, you need to make the effort to learn how to pronounce the words you KNOW you will be saying.

    He used to work at a rental car place. He told us this along with the fact that he was let go from his previous job.

    ReplyDelete
  6. student dr. blazeOctober 23, 2009 at 9:53 AM

    you should save your empty diet coke cans for such moments. then you can start an impromptu version of dodge-ball, coke can style, where the other "team" is the drug rep, of course. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Asazoo ManOctober 23, 2009 at 10:25 AM

    "And another thing. When I took this job I thought I was going to get to take a lot of drugs, but all they've given me so far are a bunch of pamphlets and some plastic models of the nervous system. I've tried swallowing them, smoking them, snorting them, and injecting them, but so far I'm not feeling a thing. I should have known that Craigslist job posting was too good to be true."

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  8. MollyOctober 23, 2009 at 10:36 AM

    Drug reps, and the gigantic delicious feasts they nearly always bring us, are the light of my sad, sterile little world.

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  9. SusanOctober 23, 2009 at 12:36 PM

    Did you enlighten him, Dr. G?

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  10. Grumpy, M.D.October 23, 2009 at 12:37 PM

    I tried.

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  11. DorisOctober 23, 2009 at 12:41 PM

    Let's see...new anti-depressant which likely works in THE BRAIN.

    Rep is visiting neurologist whose specialty is THE BRAIN.

    Hmmmmmm....

    Perhaps this person needs to be selling hats...same general territory, but probably easier to understand.

    >:)

    Doris

    ReplyDelete
  12. jamiegirlOctober 23, 2009 at 1:14 PM

    My first reaction, "Oh wow," how embarassing for everyone in the room. Of course the rep was probably too uninformed to be embarassed. From what I recall, to even get an interview for a position as a drup rep a four year degree was a must...wonder where this person graduated from???
    Just, "Oh wow."
    You certainly do have the nuttball maganet somewhere in your practice Dr. G!

    ReplyDelete
  13. CarmellaOctober 23, 2009 at 2:40 PM

    The more I read your blog, the more ashamed I am to be a salesperson. There are good ones of us out there - that never went thru a drug rep training program either. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  14. ausduckOctober 24, 2009 at 6:42 AM

    I'm laughing too much, can't think of anything witty here!

    Bless him, the poor thing... I hope the food was good, Dr G :)

    (Free food and free pens and the odd free teddybear... I don't pay much attention to the reps otherwise)

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  15. Grumpy, M.D.October 24, 2009 at 9:18 AM

    Ausduck- Actually, the food is the only thing allowed. Starting on 1-1-09 all pens, teddybears, post-it notes, etc. were banned.

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  16. CandiceOctober 24, 2009 at 1:33 PM

    Was his name Corky by any chance?

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  17. Dr. CindyOctober 24, 2009 at 8:39 PM

    Last week, a brand-new rep aggressively interrupted my conversation with a patient to introduce himself.
    He explained that he is an MBA who actually wants to join the marketing team of Big Drug Company, but they require him to do 6 months of sales first.

    With all the cutbacks in the pharma sales force over the past couple of years, it's hard to believe that these bozos are the ones who still have jobs.

    ReplyDelete
  18. ausduckOctober 25, 2009 at 6:26 AM

    What, no pens, post-its or teddybears? The horreur!

    The food better be top nosh, then!

    (ps Dr G, we still have the odd pen, post-it note and teddybear turning up over here in Aus... not contraband...yet lol)

    ReplyDelete
  19. DragonflyOctober 25, 2009 at 8:12 AM

    I got into a conversation with one last year who was trying to peddle krill oil (as opposed to regular old fish oil). Might have helped if she had known anything about Omega 3 apart from "krill oil is full of it". Full of it. Hmm.

    ReplyDelete

So wadda you think?