How to Become a Pharmaceutical Drug Representative ~ My Soul

A career as a pharmaceutical sales rep can a highly lucrative and rewarding one, with average salaries ranging between $60,000-$80,000 per year. Most pharmaceutical sales reps are employed by leading drug companies around the country, and are responsible for informing the public, doctors, and hospitals about the latest products available. Sales representatives set up appointments with doctors and hospitals in an effort to persuade them to purchase a particular product or new drug on the market.

Getting a job as a pharmaceutical sales rep doesn't require a college degree, although most employer's prefer a strong education and at least a bachelor's degree in science. Associate degrees in business or a medical field can also be enough to obtain a job in this field; the key traits most drug companies are looking for is a business mind-set, confidence, the ability to learn and grow with the company, and keeping up to date on medical trends and research. College students can start to look for placement with major drug companies, and interviews are often conducted on college campuses throughout the country.

Successful pharmaceutical reps can start by working with a supervising sales representative to learn the basic process, and will gain the most advantage by increasing their product knowledge and learning how to speak to the medical audience. They need to be persuasive, charismatic, and learn how to speak clearly under pressure. During the interview, the hiring manager will most likely ask questions such as:

What do you think is the most challenging aspect of a pharmaceutical representative?
Why is a sales mindset important for the pharmaceutical sales rep?
How would you convince a physician to switch to a preferred brand?

Pharmaceutical sales are a competitive industry, and the rep needs to learn how to handle rejection! It is also prestigious in nature; most drug companies offer attractive salaries, benefits, and use of a company car. Getting a job in the field may require some proactive searching and ongoing interviews with multiple employers. You have to be a self-starter, ambitious, confident, ethical, and positive. Still your efforts and hard work can be very rewarding.

Are you seriously looking for a pharmaceutical drug rep job, the one that can provide you job satisfaction as well as lucrative career? Let's have a precise overview what pharmaceutical sales rep do and what are the future prospects if you really want to rule the roost in this sector!

Job Profile

A pharmaceutical drug rep would fix up an appointment with doctors who are specialists in the respective medical fields, and represent some drug or group of drugs. For instance, a drug representative liable to manage an area for a drug treating kidney diseases would likely to call on urologists.

The drug rep may also be instructed to visit the local or regional office. Nevertheless, generally he will spend his time in his allotted territory, or in the office of physicians. Therefore, an aspiring representative should be comfortable driving a car for most of the day, moving anywhere from five to eight physicians' offices regularly.

Besides the regular physician meetings, reps may be instructed to be a part of sales meetings, conferences, or trainings organized by the management.

Academic Requirements

Most of the pharmaceutical companies look for graduates having a bachelor's degree, and a number of big organizations may prefer the top ranged bachelors and meritorious graduates.

Required Skills

Besides holding a degree; professionalism, polished manners, resilient demeanor and interactive aptitude are the pre-requisites of pharmaceutical sales reps. They should be aptly organized to handle their territory and have strong knack of time management. Apart from this, reps ought to have the capability to memorize good volume of medical nomenclature and comprehensive details about the drugs they represent, efficiency to astutely delineate the informations to medical practitioner. This profile is susceptible to lot of stress hence they should have a penchant to tackle the stress of achieving productivity targets and deadlines.

Career Prospects for Pharmaceutical Drug Reps

Pharmaceutical sales rep who aspire to embark into management positions have a diverse array of choices. A sales representative can be a Regional Manager, Director (Sales) and can also rise to the level of Vice President. Once you make your way to the upper ladder, you are bound to contemplate the options to relocation to other territories or the headquarters; hence you must get prepared to move.

Considering the able analytical illustration of a pharmaceutical drug rep's qualifications, skills and scope, I am sure there are host of graduates ready to take a plunge into this sector.