Are Pharmacy Buyers required to please all the vendor reps that call on them? If you have this mind set, you are likely not doing as effective of a job as you should be doing as a purchasing agent. I myself have struggled with this and realize that sometimes you need to stand up and tell it like it is. We cannot please everyone, and if we try to, we are not doing our jobs as diligently as we could. Every buyer has an opinion and is able to state it here. If you want to be anonymous, you can be, but if a vendor criticizes you for having an opinion, and you are afraid to state it, you might seek a job in public relations where you try to please all people you deal with. Even then, no matter how careful you are, you will still upset some people.
Sure you can be politically sensitive and still state your case and be proud that you have contributed your opinions about the subject being discussed. And if somebody doesn't like it, that's their issue to deal with, not yours.
Name of Facility: Editor-In-Chief, Pharmacy Purchasing Outlook
I kind of have to agree with Dale (and not because I work for him....)
In a service-oriented country, it is the Pharmacy Buyer who is the customer of the Pharmaceutical Sales Rep, not the opposite. Number 7 of the article "How to Lose a Customer in Ten Ways" states that "Telling the Buyer What to Do" is a sure-fire image-killer. Sometimes reps forget that they need us, and instead of retaliating against negative posts made by Buyers, they should look on these as subtle hints, areas to improve their Sales Etiquette. A Buyer could just as easily make up excuses not to see a rep, or switch products; with very few exceptions, most generics have multiple contract awards.
Short of spewing obcenities and citing a sales rep by name, any Buyer should have the right to voice an opinion on this Forum without fear of reprisal.
