Personality traits, Skills, Qualification & Challenges of a Great Pharma Sales Rep:
Pharmaceutical sales representatives (pharma sales reps) are the sales people working for pharmaceutical companies, their primary job is to provide doctors information about latest changes in medical science. They also serve as the best tool to persuade doctors and prescribers to prescribe their medicines to patients. There are so many people who want to get into pharmaceutical sales field because of its prestigious job nature. “A pharmaceutical sales representative sells a technologically advanced product to highly intelligent physicians in a very professional environment,” says Pat Riley, a pharmaceutical sales recruiter. And it’s popular because of stability, excellent benefits, better income, the potential for growth and the fact that pharmaceutical sales field is a recession-proof career.
Personality traits:
•Confident and persistent
•Self motivated and goal oriented
Professional image:
Organized and polished
Ambitious and persuasive
Smart, ethical and positive
Self-starter, energetic and problem-solver
Skills
Excellent communication skills
Good listener
Presentation skills
Analytical and planning skills
Teamwork and networking skills
Market and business awareness
Negotiation skills
Good physical and mental stamina
Qualification:
Although pharmaceutical sales career is open to all graduates but following subjects improve your scope in the field:
Pharmacy or pharmaceuticals
Medicine
Nursing
Life sciences
Dentistry
Other health sciences
Marketing or business administration
It’s rare to find a job in pharmaceutical sales without a college degree except for those having successful sales record. Work experience in sales is very important because there are only a few companies that are willing to hire inexperienced graduates, most of the pharmaceutical companies seek experienced sales person with successful business to business sales record.
Challenges for pharmaceutical sales representative:
Competition in the field has never been greater, there are too many sales reps in the field. The challenge is, how to stand out in the crowd? Because if one cannot distinguish him from others, the doctor is not going to remember him and his product.
The pharmaceutical industry is always dynamic and there’re a lot of changes taking place in the field, a sales rep might feel insecure and doubted.
Less time with doctors is also an important and major challenge. Most of the sales representatives don’t get more than 2 minutes from doctors.
Time management is another major challenge because most of the time is wasted in going office to office and waiting for the doctor.
Creating a solid selling message and reaching out to a doctor is a major challenge for new sales reps in the field.
Pharma sales rep face the biggest challenge of communication while co-promoting a product. While working with the team you need to understand what goals others are given by the managers.
These are the most common challenges that every pharmaceutical sales representative faces in the field. The only way to overcome these challenges and be successful in the field is to be confident, persuasive, know more about almost everything and get into intelligent discussions with the doctor.
