Marketing training strategies that pharmaceutical sales managers use to reduce unethical behavior

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Some pharmaceutical company sales representatives are using bribes to encourage increasing medication prescriptions. In 2012, GlaxoSmithKline paid $3 billion on a felony charge related to bribing doctors to prescribe the company's medications. Using Hunt and Vitell's general theory of marketing ethics, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies some sales managers in the pharmaceutical industry used to improve marketing training to reduce unethical sales representative behavior. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data were collected from company reports and documents provided by sales managers and semistructured interviews with five sales managers of different pharmaceutical companies in the northeast region of the United States. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and Yin's 5-step process of compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding thematic data analysis. RESULTS: Three themes emerged from data analysis: developing ethical standards, developing organizational policy, and implementing training and development programs. A key recommendation is that pharmaceutical sales managers identify ethical standards to inculcate in their business practices to achieve ethical marketing training that can result in sales representatives’ ethical behavior. The implications for positive social change include the potential for sales managers to develop strategies to reduce unethical behavior in the pharmaceutical industry. CONCLUSION: Reducing unethical behavior may lead to more trust between patients and physicians, improving patient satisfaction and promoting prosperity for the community through enhancing the quality of health care.

Innovation, advertising, personal selling, and sustainability in the industries massively benefited from major public health emergencies: paradoxical evidence from China

“…Especially in China, affected by the social and cultural factors represented by “GUANXI” (also called Personal Connections), if sales personnel could maintain good relationships with important customers such as local governments, hospitals, pharmacies, and health management companies, it will also have a positive role in promoting product sales ( 90–92 ). In fact, the sale skills of sales professionals in the healthcare industry and the management of GUANXI with customers are common in countries around the world, except some differences in ethical or legal norms ( 93 , 94 ). Much of the literature in recent years also proves that the personal characteristics and abilities of pharmaceutical sales representatives have a significant impact on market share and sales performance ( 36 , 37 ).…”