Detailers
Posted by Bob on March 18, 2002
In Reply to: Detailers posted by ESC on March 14, 2002
: : : DETAIL MEN - Pharmaceutical salesmen. Wall St. Journal headline, March 14, 2002: "More Than Ads, Drug Makers Rely on Sales Reps: Known as 'Detail Men,' They now Hawk Harder, Earlier; Allergy Drugs in January?"
: : : I've seen this phrase twice in the last couple of days (the other use was in the Ann Rule true-crime/Perils of Pauline book, "Every Breath You Take: A True Story of Obsession, Revenge, and Murder") so I was compelled to post it. I'd never heard this before. I thought detail men had something to do with cars.
: : Detailers give cars a thorough cleaning--take a toothbrush to the chrome, vacuum the upholstery, and so on. They may sometimes be called detail men--I wouldn't know. I barely know what detailers are.
: Dirt is what holds our cars together.
Pharmaceutical salespersons are, indeed, called detailers, and
the job is called detailing. And yes, complete get-the-junker-ready-for-sale
car cleaning goes by the same nomenclature.
Detailers (the drug pushers who meet with doctors) were once called
detail men, but the field is now more than 50% female.