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Saturday June I Outlook op Lifesty Sales tactics change with time By Peter Got M Di Drug companies always have relied heavily on person toperson contact to encourage physicians to prescribe certain medicines especially new ones Pharmaceutical represents lives pay regular visits to doctors of ices hop to nail he doc for a mlnute spiel about the company most recent development thereby en lightening the physician and ensuring that he or she will prescribe one brand in placeof competing varieties These reps are called detail men for rea sons that are unclear to me perhaps this ageold title came about because these unsolicited salesmen Insisted on giving solicitous details about drugs I have had no particular aversion to detail men They have always been aggress enthusiastic and genial ly obsequious as they go about their cardboard talks but they are an in convenience They tend to material Ite unannounced freshly scrubbed smelling of Old Spice dressed In shimmering polyester suits and Wind knots the moist palm extended at just the time that I am trying to finish some task They Inexplicably arrive at the moment I usually have some thing else to do something that Is denly very Important Almost as a re flex I tell my secretary No I can t see the man today Ask him to leave some samples This the major value of detail men to thousands of busy physicians the free samples By careful Ion that sometimes includes letting de tail men actually enter my consulting room and dribble words down their wash and wear shirts I usually can wheedle a satisfactory supply of free drugs for my personal self indul tranquilizers pain pills cough medicine all useful to the practicing doctor You see the average M D t give a tinker dam for all the chit chat the hyperbole p the promises or the scientific data cooked up by the detail men All that bus Is simply r stlc fore play In order to obtain samples As more and more healers got smart and refused to sec detail men demand samples the drug com pa must have smartened up too They re not send out detail men anymore they send out detail women This is changing the rules and I Ihink it unfair A few days ago my secretary suck her head in my door and with a sly smile announced that the Merck rep- resentalivewaswaltlngtoseemc ter some grumbling I grudgingly complied I I t because I wasn prepared for this represents tlve She was very tall very blond very confident and very pretty Hon hair cascaded down high cheekbones and framed her wideset limpid blue eyes Her earth tone makeup was impeccably applied to velvety skin As far as I could see her teeth were perfect as were her pink blouse and her trim gabardine suit and all contained therein She slid Into the chair and opened her brief case that was cradled on knees which DEAR MEG tips off hubbys affair By Meg DEAR MEG 1 have reason to I eve my husband has been seeing a who lives in Brooklyn We live in the Bronx and have er vis led anyone in Brooklyn But when wc went to a wedding there last month I said I wonder what the apartments arc like in this part of the world Fred said Great When I How do you know he and stammered and said some one had told him so Then he dropped the subject like a hot potato In addition to that incident a friend told me she saw my husband at a club said As I accepted the printed bror I forgot to ask for free pies Then she was gone leaving pro motional material and the provocative scent of de some- thin Now all I left with are memories and studies of an ACE inhibitor She said she be back In a month Drug detailing t what It used to be Hiring beauty queens to sell cine to unsuspecting egocentric in that area a few months ago Then there was a book of matches from a steakhouse n Brooklyn When they fell out of Fred s pocket he account for them 1 been him the benefit of the doubl but he has been attend more and more business dinners and meet both evenings and weekends and my doubts are grow What do you think WONDER WIFE DEAR WONDERING I think if there a matchbook from Brooklyn there could be a I re in Flatbush The Is usually the last to know about an r even when other s gns such as after hour dinners and meetings point the way Stud suggest that as many as half of all married men and somewhat fewer married women have had affairs Yet a 1986 report by the American Psy Assoc quotes survey data showing hat only percent of respondents suspected their mates of being unfaithful DEAR MEG For four years I have brought and anni versa g fta to my daughter and son in law house They Just say thank you and never ask mo to sit down and talk My son in laws birthday was last burnedout old docs is unsportsman like What will the pharmaceutical In think up next How am I going to have time to see patients What about my free samples How can I get through the next month with Just the brunette from and the redhead from ParkeDavis When can I meet the twins As you can observe the modem practice of medicine Is fraught with many for questions month so I went over with a present They came out in the yard took the ft and went back in the house me standing there I was so ap palled hat I drove down the block and waited to sec what was up Sure enough they got in their car and drove over to his parents house When Ann came to sec me the lowing week I told her the gifts were period She flew into a rage eked up the umbrella stand and threw through my picture window Am I right never to speak to ther of them again FUMING IN CHICAGO FUMING There more go on here than meets the eye I sense a tremendous amount of re pressed anger between you and your daughter and her outburst ind catcs that its been simmering under the surface for a long time Rather than cutting them off you would be wise to examine the real motives behind her behavior Write to Meg in care of this news paper Meg can only answer letters that contain a sell addressed stamped envelope Questions of gen interest will be discussed in fu ture columns