Posted on 03/29/2005 11:29:01 AM PST by Abathar
NEW YORK -- Eli Lilly & Co. said it fired an employee who wrote a book about his tenure as a Pfizer Inc. sales representative which boasted about how little he worked and how much money he earned.
A spokesman for Indianapolis-based Lilly, Philip Belt, said on Monday that Jamie Reidy, author of the recently released "Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman", was terminated because the book advocated actions that were in violation of Lilly's policies.
In the book, for example, Reidy admits he exaggerated how often he visited doctors. He also says in the book that he ordered extra food when he visited physicians' offices so he could take the leftovers home for dinner.
Reidy said he worked for Indianapolis-based Lilly for four and a half years, first as a salesman but most recently training other representatives. The book is based on the five years he worked at Pfizer, which makes Viagra.
Reidy said Lilly told him it couldn't allow him to set an example for its sales representatives.
He said he didn't regret his actions while at Pfizer or writing the book, however.
"I can see where people may say it was unethical but I was still making my numbers," Reidy said. "I didn't think I was hurting Pfizer."
Reidy said he had cleaned up his act while at Lilly, and that it was harder to manipulate the system.
The guy writes a book about how he screwed off and then finds it strange he was fired from a job training other salesman. Go figure -
What a dumb*ss.
Doesn't sound like this guy would have enough energy to detect that pharmacist not dispensing the chemo drugs. It was a sales rep who discovered that the numbers didn't jive.
Well, this ought to help his book sales!
It's great when you have a product that sells itself isn't it? He said his numbers were where they should be, think about how much better they would have been if the guy actually tried. What a moron.
How could a book like that even get published, assuming it did? Just where is the market for a book like that?
I cannot imagine wanting to take cold pizza, and stale subs home from a client. If he were smart he would have scheduled dinner meetings with doctors, and eat much better.
A Salesman who lied on his call reports? Horrors!
With that attitude he must have been under the illusion that he "worked" in academia.
I rarely saw them busting their ass. They'd order a catered lunch for the entire office staff, schmooze with the office manager and the docs, write up a few orders and leave. This is working hard?
Oh, and they make big bucks, too.
"he ordered extra food when he visited physicians' offices"
Physicians' offices sell food?
LOL! I'm a lifelong salesman. We don't really lie. We just don't tell the truth....
Oh, and they make big bucks, too.
Sorry, kiddo, but 97% of the people out there can't do what a good sales rep does. Our function is to do one thing--
Close the deal. Period. It takes years to get to the point where it looks like we do nothing but goof off, but the good reps are worth every dollar they make. I'm just about to close a deal with a major pharmaceutical company. It's taken about a year and a half to get to get to this point. The people in accounting probably work harder than I do. The production people work harder than I do. The graphics people and the people in tech services work harder than me.
But none of them can sell. I can. Without people like me no $$$$ comes into my company.
I'm going in today and ask for a raise....
The way paper shufflers are overcompensated relative to actually productive people has grated on me since I earned my first chemistry degree, and it has only gotten worse since finishing graduate school.
On the other hand, you're correct - I expect the product to sell itself. I couldn't sell worth a dang.
"What do you expect from salesmen?"
Half the people on the freerepublic are sales people. LOL
Holtz
JeffersonRepublic.com
One would expect sales to rise and fall with some predictability when it comes to Viagara salesmen. One would also expect a certain amount of cockiness to manifest itself. Case in point here.
I hire folks like you to work for me. Because I can manage a lot of scientists that know and can do a lot more than I can. However, if the folks I hire don't get it done, then I don't get it done and I my family goes hungry. Then they hire someone else to manage you. You will always have job security. I trade the security for risk and wealth. High Risk High Reward.,.,....
I am a Project Manager
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