Bridging the Gap How the Internet is impacting the role of the Boston Scientific sales representative. Ellie Martinez December 15, 2005

Background Boston Scientific is a worldwide developer, manufacturer, and marketer of medical devices. Boston Scientific has a direct sales force BostonScientific.com is the corporate web site SalesSource is an internal sales-only resource site

Situation BostonScientific.com is promoted directly to physicians SalesSource is promoted to the sales representatives

The Gap In 2004, Boston Scientific customer feedback indicated that sales representatives did not promote the corporate web site

Research Question Is Boston Scientific’s corporate web site a sales tool for its sales representatives?

Method survey sent to 822 US-based Boston Scientific sales representatives Survey consisted of 25 questions Incentive offered: drawing for portable DVD players

Response 43% response rate Total Responses349 Sales Representatives 208 Sales Management 142

Online Use Approximately how many hours do you spend on the Internet per week? 1-4 hours30% 5-9 hours39% hours22% 15 plus hours9%  70% spend more than half their time online for work

Web Sites Visited For what purposes do you spend your time on the Internet? 90% 73% 50% 45% 33% 28% 15%

Use of Corporate Site Have you referenced BostonScientific.com (or its specific content) to your customers? 77% have referenced BostonScientific.com to customers 57% have referenced it themselves prior to a sales call

Valuable Sites 90% 95% 78% 51% On a 1-7 scale, respondent values >4

Significant Findings Sales Representatives are spending more than half their time on the Internet for work related purposes BostonScientific.com is the second most visited site for work purposes BostonScientific.com is referenced by sales representatives prior to and during sales calls BostonScientific.com is the second most valuable site for sales representatives

Conclusion Is Boston Scientific’s corporate web site a sales tool for its sales representatives? Yes

Recommendations To increase use of BostonScientific.com: Promote BostonScientific.com to the sales representatives Communicate the value proposition of using BostonScientific.com

Future Research Measure use and satisfaction of BostonScientific.com after recommendations have been completed Further identify the effectiveness of BostonScientific.com to the sales process Participate in any study of direct sales channels interacting with online sales channels

Thank You Questions?