Sizing story: Workload built up approach to decide sales force size

After spending four years in pharma consulting, mainly focusing on IC, I suddenly had to work on sales force sizing in a new company and new client in 2019. Initially, I was apprehensive about handling rep sizing project with no prior experience and to top it of with just a new associate team member. However, examining the data and columns reassured me, as the data was familiar (NPI ID, HCP Name, Address, Specialty, Call plan, Number of patients, Sales units, Sales $). 

A quick online search for sales force sizing and I came across workload built up approach. It is simple yet entirely data driven. 

• The approach begins with the number of planned calls annually (24,18,12,6,0 across each HCP). 

• Next, determine the total number of calls across the target HCP universe (e.g. 25,000 calls to 4,000 HCPs in the call plan target universe) 

• Then, get the calls per day per rep based on therapy type and leadership decision (eg. 5 calls per day), resulting in 5 * 250 working days = 1,250 calls annually

• Finally, divide the total calls required by the number of calls one full-time equivalent (FTE) rep can make: 25,000 / 1,250 = 20 reps

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