Originally
Published MX March/April 2002

ADVERTISING, DISTRIBUTION,
& SALES

Is the Bag Too
Big?

Medtech companies
that add new products to the bag of an existing sales team may struggle to achieve
sufficient focus on both new and existing products because their sales reps
may be spread too thin across the products they cover. Following are some of
the problems that can occur when sales reps' bags are too big to handle.



Selective Selling. When reps' bags are loaded with too many products,
they can choose which products they want to sell. Smaller, less glamorous, or
harder-to-sell products may be completely ignored in favor of the easy or comfortable
sell. This can turn into a divisive issue between sales and marketing when product
sales goals are missed. While management can try to direct sales-force efforts
through the compensation plan, spiffs, or contests, the reps ultimately control
how their time is spent. Selective selling can therefore cause significant problems
when launching new products.



Insufficient Product Knowledge. What may seem like a training problem can