I was looking for some business book to listen to and burn one of my credits for an audio book. I came across Jamie Reidy's book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman, glanced over its star rating (over four stars out of five according to other listeners) and promptly bought it. Read no reviews, did not actually check what the book was about. "Hey," I must have told myself "it's a business book, it's about selling techniques which I'm currently researching, it's about Pfizer (the Viagra manufacturer), this book must have some nice insights”.
The reader's voice should have tipped me off that this wasn't the case since he sounded very much like Bertie Wooster from the Jeeves series.
There's a funny thing with expectations. Especially when these do not turn out to be true. The book starts with the author, an ex-military man, who is contacted by a hiring agent who is looking for people with Reidy's profile for for a job at Pfizer as a sales representative or sales rep. A sales rep job is to contact the physicians in a given area and pitch the rep’s company drugs to them. Reidy, not entirely convinced what he's getting into, interviews for the position and through a couple of lucky factors clicking in, he's hired. He proceeds to describe us the grueling three-week training camp that new reps are subjected to in order to transform them into a selling machine with the unified message that their drugs are the best and set ready to take over the clinical world. No room for chance. At this point I was feeling my own inadequacy by comparing my commitment to that of these new reps. And then, from this lofty point the events quickly degenerate into a Dilbert cartoon. Once in the field, Reidy finds ways to slack off which he embraces with a gusto that I can only describe as appalling. If there was a Pfizer work ethics code, I guess he broke all the rules in it and then some. He only stops short of letting himself being seduced by a female doctor just because he figured it would hurt his long-term sales numbers. Unlike the denizens of the Dilbert strip, he's not oppressed by a clueless boss and organization; he slacks by choice, not by rebellion which is even worse. Now, he isn't cynical about all of this. He's witty and funny all throughout. So this book should be taken as a real-life humorous account, not a business book per se.
But things change once more. In the second half of the book he gets himself transferred and ends up in the then recently formed Viagra sales team. Now, here is what the whole book should have been about. He tells us about the Viagra working mechanism, the decisions that had to be made with the dosage, the overwhelming enthusiasm of both patients and doctors who left little actual sales talks, the reaction of reps of competing therapies and much more. This part still has many funny moments, but now with actual information. What's like to be a Viagra salesman? Here's how.
As mentioned, I got into this book with my mind as a blank slate; no prejudices, no information, nothing. In the great second epilogue to the audio book I was surprised to find out that this book was actually turned into a movie, co-staring Anne Hathaway nonetheless. Nice one Reidy! It came to me as a milder surprise to find out that the author was fired by his second drug employer, when they found out about the book. Sure, it says some embarrassing truths (if you believe Reidy's account, which I do), but does this book amounts to actual dismissal? My answer is no. This employer did exactly the opposite of what a mature, self criticizing person or company should have done. It should have taken the book as an excuse for actual reform and embraced Reidy as a figurehead employee; someone to be bragged about, rather than to be ashamed of.
Why does this surprise me less than the movie? It is because I have a small Pfizer story of my own. I found out that the local Pfizer headquarters had an inferior internal service, which I happened to offer. I wrote them a proposal and, as an added bonus, I offered to donate a percentage of my profits from them to an HIV support foundation with no surcharge to Pfizer. The purchasing agent managed to hide herself behind bureaucracy and voicemail and I never heard from her again. I guess, they are not that interested in helping people after all.
Overall, a nice entertaining book, but be forewarned it is not a business book.
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