Out to Lunch?

It's twelve o'clock—do you know where your reps are? According to research from Health Strategies Group, lunches provide one of the few opportunities in today's short-call environment for sit-down discussions with doctors. The average length of a lunch is 13 minutes, with an average of three physicians per meeting.

That's an eternity compared with the typical drop-in sales call, which lasts slightly less than two-and-a-half minutes. Sales reps are nearly twice as likely to deliver an effective interaction during a lunch meeting than during the average drop-in call. In a typical 40-call week, only four of a rep's interactions with doctors take place at lunch. Physicians average seven lunches with reps per month, with about 92 percent of physicians agreeing to these kinds of meetings. On average, representatives have lunch every 53 days with primary care physicians, and every 25 days with specialists.

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