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Life Sciences > Sample Transactions > Managing Sample Transactions > Dropping Samples During a Sales Call

Dropping Samples During a Sales Call

During a sales call, sales representatives take samples from their inventory and drop them to physicians, pharmacists, clinics, hospitals, and other appropriate contacts. The sales representative must do the following:

• Count each sample that was dropped.
• Verify that the sample is appropriate for the physician and his or her specialty.
• Capture authorized signatures to complete the transaction.

Product Requirements for Linking Products to a Call Record. Only products of the category type Samples Dropped, Promotional Item Dropped, Products Detailed, or Sample Request Item that meet the following conditions can be linked to a call record:

• The products are not blocked for the primary contact for the sales call. During a sales call, the sales representative cannot provide any products that are blocked for the primary contact on the call, including any blocked product information, sample, or promotional item products. A product might be blocked for a contact for corporate, regulatory, or legal reasons. For example, a pharmaceutical company might want to prevent the disclosure of the details of a test drug. For information about blocking products for contacts, see Blocked Products.

  NOTE: If a product is blocked for the primary contact on a sales call, then the sales representative cannot link the product to the call record, even if the sales representative has an allocation for that product. Products that are blocked for the primary contact on a call are not available for selection in the list of products that can be added to the call. If no primary contact exists for the call, then no products are blocked.

• The products have been allocated to the sales representative.
• The products are present in the sales representative's inventory in the case of samples and promotional items.
• The products are active on the current call date.

Guidelines for Setting Up Sales Call. Consider the following guidelines when setting up sales calls for dropping samples or promotional items, or detailing products:

• Make sure that all attendee or contact calls have an associated primary contact.
• Make sure that all attendee, contact, or account calls have an associated address.
• Do not alter the primary contact information after the call record is created and has an associated sample drop, promotional item, product detail, or sample request defined.

Before you begin. To drop off samples, request samples, and distribute promotional items during a sales call, your user role must include the Enable Basic Samples Operations privilege.

To drop samples during a sales call

1. On the Contacts Homepage, open the contact to whom you want to drop samples.
2. On the Contact Detail page in the Calls section, click New Call or Auto Call to add a new line item.
   • Clicking New Call brings you to the Call Edit page where you must enter most information manually for the new call record.

     Make sure that you specify Call in the Type field. Otherwise, the following related items will not be available to you: Samples Dropped, Promotional Items, Products Detailed.

   • Clicking Auto Call brings you to the Call Detail page where the following field data is filled automatically in for the new call record.
     • The Status field has a value of Planned.
     • The End Date field has a value equal to the Start Date plus 30 minutes.
     • The Type field has a value of Call.
3. On the Call Edit or Call Detail page, do the following:
   1. To populate the new call record with information from an existing smart call template, click the Lookup icon next to the Smart Call field, and select the smart call.
   2. Enter or update the information.

      For more information about the fields on the Call Edit and Call Detail page, see Tracking Visits (Sales Calls) to Customers.

4. Save the record by doing one of the following:
   • On the Call Edit page, click Save.
   • On the Call Detail page, click either Save as a Private Smart Call or Save as a Public Smart Call.

     For more information, see Saving Call Detail Information as a Template.

5. Next, do one of the following on the Call Detail page as required:
   • Add products detailed, samples dropped, sample request, or promotional item line items to the parent call record.

     NOTE: Only products that are not blocked for the primary contact for the call can be added to the parent call record. Products that are blocked for the primary contact are not available for selection on the product list.

   • Add an attendee line item to the parent call record, then add products detailed, samples dropped, sample request, or promotional item line items to the attendee record.

     For more information about these tasks, see the following topics:

   • Adding Attendees to Calls
   • Adding Multiple Contacts to Account Calls
   • Linking Product Detailed Information to Calls
   • Linking Samples Dropped Information to Calls
   • Linking Promotional Item Information to Calls
   • Linking Sample Request Information to Calls
6. When ready, click Submit to submit the call detail information for processing.

   For information, see Submitting Call Detail Information for Inventory Tracking.

Related Topics

See the following topics for related information about sample drops:

• Managing Allocations
• Tracking Visits (Sales Calls) to Customers
• Setting the Maximum Number of Times Contacts Can be Sampled
• Authorizing Contacts to Receive Samples