Basic Introduction You Need To Know To Job As A Pharma Sales Rep

Who is a pharma sales rep?

A pharma sales rep is anyone who works for a pharma company promoting pharmaceuticals products, i.e., medicines to the healthcare providers; doctors, pharmacists, etc. They are the ones you see in the clinic with bags and brochures and have this impatient looks on their faces.

What pharma sales rep do actually?

They see the decision makers in a healthcare institution and promote, promote, and promote to them the products…err solutions to health-related issues for the institutions. The answers could be as simple as changing a prescription drug (which translated to ‘kicking out’ the competitors from there) or as complicated as running a long term, double-blind, placebo control trial.

So far, my 10 years experience only exposed me to kicking out my competitors and just one prospective study, which I wasn’t around to know the outcome.

Why pharma sales rep are doing that?

I wrote an article back in October 2007, and it’s still relevant today:
“Why pharmaceutical sales rep is needed more than ever today.”

The bottom line is they are doing the middlemen job which is to bring forth the solution to the attention of the healthcare professionals. They don’t create the solution. They don’t invent any instrument. They just present it.

That explains the bags and brochures.

How pharma sales rep are doing it?

I don’t know how others did but I in those 10 years most of the time I spent face to face with customers. This thing is called ‘detailing.’ It’s usually done in the presence of the customers and with the bits of help of some detailing aids like brochures, clinical studies, or laptop (multimedia presentation).

And as time goes by, when the customers time becomes less and less and they are too busy attending patients than to spend even a few seconds with a pharma sales rep (at least that was the case during my time) the presentation, ironically, becomes more straightforward and simpler.

Usually, the sales rep had to make an impact without saying a lot.

But that, of course, will depend on the pharmaceutical sales cycle and its stages where the sales are. And that is for the pharmaceutical sales representative to know.

What do I think about the pharma sales rep job?

I graduated from University in 1998. If you remember, that year was just a year after the economic downturn in 1997. All industrial sectors got hit including the pharmaceutical industry.

But I was determined to find a job in sales. I want to get rich, and I want to do it through sales. At least that was what I thought initially.

After 10 years, after going through trials and tribulation, and after changing a few Giant Pharma companies like Pfizer and Roche, I’ve decided that marketing is the skills I needed to take me to where I want to be.

Not even the job in pharmaceutical management can take me to where I want to be. An appointment is still a job.

And I’m pursuing this particular competency diligently.

What others think about pharma sales rep job?

They think this job full of mystery. Not many Malay involve in it (even until today), and they are curious to know how one can work so flexible but still can earn quite ‘handsomely.’

And guess what? They just stop there. If they care to ask, maybe they can get something out and copy it themselves. They might end just like the people they ‘envy,’ maybe better.

So this is much I can tell you about pharma sales rep, as an introduction, and if you are interested, this blog is yours to explore.