(FORTUNE Magazine) – Every business has its secrets. And if you ask anyone in Big Pharma, the most closely guarded information isn't found among the lab's beakers and Bunsen burners but in the backrooms of doctors' offices, where sales reps sweet-talk doctors. That's what makes Hard Sell: Confessions of a Viagra Salesman by Jamie Reidy such a compelling read.

Reidy, who arrived at Pfizer in 1995 with a bachelor's degree and a stint in the military under his belt, worked for the company till 1999 and gleefully reveals all the unseemly tactics he employed while convincing doctors to write prescriptions for Pfizer's wares. (He's a better writer than pitchman: When Viagra was introduced in 1998, Reidy ranked third-to-last among Pfizer's Viagra salespeople.) Reidy shamelessly flirts with receptionists to gain access to doctors, pays MDs $50 and dons a lab coat to watch as they treat patients (a practice that's now illegal), and is constantly fudging expense accounts. As his expenses mounted, his managers had nothing but praise, saying, "Gotta spend it to make it, Jamie." Oh, and of course he also describes catching the "V-train" himself on occasion.

Hard Sell arrives on bookshelves at an inopportune moment for Pfizer: In April the company embarked on a $4 billion cost-cutting effort, partly aimed at rooting out wastefulness in the company's 12,000-person U.S. salesforce. Reidy's subsequent employer, Eli Lilly, is apparently catching cost-cutting religion too: It fired Reidy after reading galleys of his 210-page tell-all. -- John Simons