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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.

Only products that are categorized as samples (that is, products of category type Samples Dropped or Promotional Items Dropped), which have been allocated to and are present in the sales representative's inventory can be dropped.

Before you begin. To drop samples 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.

   3. Click Save in the case of the Call Edit page.
4. On the Call Detail page in the Samples Dropped section, click New.
5. On the Sample Dropped Edit page, click the Lookup icon in the Product field and select a product.

   NOTE: Only products of type Samples Dropped (or Promotional Items Dropped if dropping promotional items), which have been allocated to and are present in the sales representative's inventory and are active on the current call date, are available to select.

6. Click the Lookup icon in the Lot number (#) field, and select the appropriate lot number for the product selected.

   NOTE: Only sample lots that are being tracked by lot number in the inventory (that is, sample lots that have the Inventory by Lot check box selected) are available for selection. You can skip this step if you are not using lot numbers to track samples.

7. Enter the quantity of the sample that you want to drop in the Quantity field. Then click Save.

   Provided that all of the following conditions are true when you click Save, then Oracle CRM On Demand generates a Disbursement transaction with a line item for each dropped sample for the call, and submits the disbursement transaction to update the sample inventory. If the disbursement transaction is successful, Oracle CRM On Demand changes the status of the call to Submitted.

   • All samples exist in the sample inventory for the period indicated by the date and time for the call.
   • The period in which the samples are recorded is an unreconciled period. An error message appears if it is a reconciled period.
   • A valid lot number is specified for dropped samples that are tracked by lot numbers.
   • The quantity value that you enter is not greater than the maximum quantity allowed to drop for a call.
   • The maximum quantity allowed to drop during the allocation period is not exceeded when you enter the quantity value.

NOTE: You drop promotional items in a similar way by clicking New in the Promotional Items section of the Call Detail page. You handle products detailed line items in a similar way by clicking New in the Products Detailed section of the Call Detail page.

Related Topics

See the following topics for related information about sample drops:

• Allocations
• Managing Allocations
• Allocation Fields
• Tracking Visits (Sales Calls) to Customers