Apathetic Attitude of the Drug Reps: A Hindrance to Sales Training in the Health Care Industry in Nigeria

Abstract

In the health care industry in Nigeria, the salesforce is the one group that directly generate the revenues for the firms. Thus the salesforce is directly involved in carrying out the company’s strategic marketing plans. How well these plans are implemented depends to a great extent on the choice and training of salespeople to do the implementing. There is no question that sales training is an important function. However, this study was undertaken to determine the attitudes of the drug reps when management are trying to introduce sales training programs. The study was examined in the light of Douglas McGregor theories (1960). Both secondary and primary sources were employed to gather information for the study. The target population of the study was 624 sales force size of the top ten health care companies in Nigeria. Taro Yamane formula was used to determine the sample size of 244 salespeople in the industry. Symmetric measures were used for hypothesis testing. The result shows a Pearson’s R of 0.104 and Spearman correlation of 0.108 values which are less than the critical R value of 0.124 indicating an apathetic attitudes of the drug reps when management are trying to introduce sales training programs. This reflects a feeling that the sales training programs are accomplishing little and are expendable. Hence, sales training programs have to be sold, just like any product or service. Well-designed programs are easier to sell to drug reps than those put together with little or no thought.

Keywords Apathetic Attitudes, Sales Training, Health Care Industry, Drug Reps, Training Evaluation, Training Assessment, Strategic Planning.