As a former professional sales representative, it would be my opinion that
you definately should not be helping promote this dinner within your unit,
to your nurses.
Even though the product featured will not be AIM, the dinner will be paid
for by a formula company, and the host will be the formula company
salespeople. You, and the nurses, recognize the formula company name and
recognize the person as "the formula company rep" so the positive feeling,
and indebtedness that goes along with it, with accrue to the formula company
and its representative.
I suppose an arguement could be made that it is not against BFI to attend
this dinner, if the product (which in itself is not covered by the CODE)
was being sold and promoted to you by a company other than a formula
company.
I think the new product itself is being used as a front to provide a
legitimate, non-CODE-violating way to have contact with health
professionals, and consumers.
In the sales world, personal, one-on-one contact with an potential
influencer or decision maker, is the "ultimate" in effectiveness. The
formula company would be THRILLED to have a dinner with your nurses, even if
NO product was talked about at all during the dinner. It is still building
familiarity, trust and good feeling between the rep and the nurse, and she
will be more likely to give him time for the product presentation the next
time he calls.
In my previous industry, the company I represented had a very broad product
range, which was great. You could always find a reason and a product to
discuss with a client. Even if a sale isn't made with one of the smaller,
less profitable products, the meeting would build the relationship for
making the sale of the larger, more profitable product later.
In fact, the more I think about it, the new DHA supplements exactly fit this
profile - they may be the "loss leader" to allow sales reps to call on their
target market for formula (nurses, doctors, moms) without violating the CODE
or BFI. With more hospitals striving for BFI, they need to find a way
around it.
Janice Reynolds, B. Comm
(8 years experience as professional sales rep in 2 different industries).
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