The job of pharmaceutical sales representatives is to inform and educate doctors about a company’s medical and pharmaceutical products. They serve as the link between a company and healthcare professionals to hit sales targets.
They have varied responsibilities, including assessing clients’ needs and presenting suitable products, delivering product samples, and working sales teams to develop and implement brand strategies. This role’s qualifications include relevant work experience, excellent communication, sales, negotiation skills, and a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.
Here are examples of responsibilities from real pharmaceutical sales representative resumes representing typical tasks they are likely to perform in their roles.
Accomplish daily sales activities and goals while working in a pod setting.
-Collaborate with management, marketing, and training departments to achieve the common goals of Merck.
-Develop customer relationships and achieve sales objectives for product portfolio consisting of CNS products.
-Manage and establish relationships within specialty urology and neurology markets to drive new and existing therapies.
-Manage tough relationships with key reimbursement decision-makers in hospitals, renal and oncology clinics throughout territory.
-Manage and effect sales of patent medicines to cardiologists, endocrinologists, neurologists, and nephrologists.
-Retail sales division promoting drugs in gastroenterology, endocrinology, pain management and infectious disease.
-Conduct clinically brand-specific presentations for 1st-in-class diabetes medication and novel oral anti-coagulant to internal medicine and family practice physicians.
-Complete daily territory administrative duties and maintain sample inventory for company records and FDA reporting.
-Interact and work as a team with pod navigators.
Pharmaceutical Sales Representative Overview
Between the years 2018 and 2028, pharmaceutical sales representative jobs are expected to undergo a growth rate described as “slower than average” at 2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So if the thought “should I become a pharmaceutical sales representative?” Has crossed your mind, maybe you should take the growth rate into account. In addition, the number of pharmaceutical sales representative opportunities that are projected to become available by 2028 is 35,400.
A pharmaceutical sales representative annual salary averages $88,447, which breaks down to $42.52 an hour. However, pharmaceutical sales representatives can earn anywhere from upwards of $67,000 to $116,000 a year. This means that the top-earning pharmaceutical sales representatives make $49,000 more than the lowest-earning ones.
Once you’ve become a pharmaceutical sales representative, you may be curious about what other opportunities are out there. Careers aren’t one size fits all. For that reason, we discovered some other jobs that you may find appealing. Some jobs you might find interesting include a representative, territory representative, sales development representative, and field technical representative.
Pharmaceutical Sales Representative Jobs You Might Like
Pharmaceutical Sales Representative Resume Examples
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Pharmaceutical Sales Representative Skills and Personality Traits
We calculated that 20% of Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives are proficient in Sales Goals, Pharmaceutical Products, and Territory. They’re also known for soft skills such as Customer-service skills, Interpersonal skills, and Physical stamina.
We break down the percentage of Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives that have these skills listed on their resume here:
Sales Goals, 20%
Developed strong business relationships with targeted cardiovascular and primary care physicians and achieved quarterly and annual sales goals for the territory.
Pharmaceutical Products, 10%
Manage territory leading pharmaceutical products to cardiologists, endocrinologists and primary care physicians for the metro, north and central territory.
Territory, 9%
Utilized dynamic sales skills and business acumen to successfully develop and manage a high-volume territory selling depression and pain products.
Health Care, 7%
Utilize effective selling skills and product knowledge to influence targeted health care professionals in Dermatology to prescribe company pharmaceutical promoted products.
FDA, 6%
Completed daily territory administrative duties and maintained sample inventory for company records and FDA reporting.
Business Development, 5%
Ensured optimum territory sales strategy execution by leveraging annual territory business plan, regional business plan, and call activity reports.
Most pharmaceutical sales representatives list “sales goals,” “pharmaceutical products,” and “territory” as skills on their resumes. We go into more details on the most important pharmaceutical sales representative responsibilities here:
The most important skills for a pharmaceutical sales representative to have in this position are customer-service skills. In this excerpt that we gathered from a pharmaceutical sales representative resume, you’ll understand why: “wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be able to listen to the customer’s needs and concerns before and after the sale.” According to resumes we found, customer-service skills can be used by a pharmaceutical sales representative in order to “promoted lovenox in 5 hospital/retail $2 million territory for 500+ customers, selling 6 different fda indications. “
Another commonly found skill for being able to perform pharmaceutical sales representative duties is the following: interpersonal skills. According to a pharmaceutical sales representative resume, “wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be able to work well with many types of people.” Check out this example of how pharmaceutical sales representatives use interpersonal skills: “gain commitment from physicians to prescribe geodon products utilizing product knowledge, interpersonal skills, and team work with counterparts. “
Physical stamina is also an important skill for pharmaceutical sales representatives to have. This example of how pharmaceutical sales representatives use this skill comes from a pharmaceutical sales representative resume, “wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives are often on their feet for a long time and may carry heavy sample products.” Read this excerpt from a resume to understand how vital it is to their everyday roles and responsibilities, “completed both virtual and physical preceptorship in pain management”
A pharmaceutical sales representative responsibilities sometimes require “self-confidence.” The responsibilities that rely on this skills are shown by this resume excerpt: “wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be confident and persuasive when making sales presentations” This resume example shows how this skill is used by pharmaceutical sales representatives: “leveraged health care professionals’ confidence in xopenex to bridge to newer sepracor products. “
We’ve found that 84.7% of pharmaceutical sales representatives have earned a bachelor’s degree. Furthermore, 8.1% earned their master’s degrees before becoming a pharmaceutical sales representative. While it’s true that most pharmaceutical sales representatives have a college degree, it’s generally impossible to become one with only a high school degree. In fact, one out of every nine pharmaceutical sales representatives did not spend the extra money to attend college.
The pharmaceutical sales representatives who went onto college to earn a more in-depth education generally studied business and marketing, while a small population of pharmaceutical sales representatives studied communication and biology.
When you’re ready to become a pharmaceutical sales representative, you might wonder which companies hire pharmaceutical sales representatives. According to our research through pharmaceutical sales representative resumes, pharmaceutical sales representatives are mostly hired by Quintiles Transnational, Patterson Companies, and Culver Careers. Now is a good time to apply as Quintiles Transnational has 39 pharmaceutical sales representatives job openings, and there are 8 at Patterson Companies and 5 at Culver Careers.
Since salary is important to some pharmaceutical sales representatives, it’s good to note that they are figured to earn the highest salaries at Shire US, Fresenius Medical Care North America Holdings Limited Partnership, and Indivior. If you were to take a closer look at Shire US, you’d find that the average pharmaceutical sales representative salary is $91,004. Then at Fresenius Medical Care North America Holdings Limited Partnership, pharmaceutical sales representatives receive an average salary of $90,897, while the salary at Indivior is $88,438.
Some other companies you might be interested in as a pharmaceutical sales representative include AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, and Merck & Co. These three companies were found to hire the most pharmaceutical sales representatives from the top 100 U.S. educational institutions.
The industries that pharmaceutical sales representatives fulfill the most roles in are the pharmaceutical and health care industries. But the highest pharmaceutical sales representative annual salary is in the non profits industry, averaging $88,561. In the pharmaceutical industry they make $87,961 and average about $85,645 in the health care industry. In conclusion, pharmaceutical sales representatives who work in the non profits industry earn a 4.3% higher salary than pharmaceutical sales representatives in the manufacturing industry.
The three companies that hire the most prestigious pharmaceutical sales representatives are:
Q
Quintiles Transnational
Entry Level Jobs For Becoming A Pharmaceutical Sales Representative
What Representatives Do
Representatives are lawmakers who represent the people in a specific district. They run for office to represent their districts in their hometown or their current place of living. Representatives are usually charismatic and good communicators. These characteristics are especially important during campaign and election periods. Representatives should be able to capture the hearts of the voters through their planned projects and advocacies. They are then elected by their constituents. Upon election, representatives author bills that will eventually be passed into law should it be approved by the majority of the congress. They also vote on the passage of bills authored by other representatives. They also participate in discussions and debates regarding different bills, issues, and laws. Representatives are expected to vote according to their conscience and in consideration of the voice of their constituents.
In this section, we take a look at the annual salaries of other professions. Take representative for example. On average, the representatives annual salary is $61,426 lower than what pharmaceutical sales representatives make on average every year.
While the salaries between these two careers can be different, they do share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both pharmaceutical sales representatives and representatives positions are skilled in sales goals, health care, and product knowledge.
As far as similarities go, this is where it ends because a pharmaceutical sales representative responsibility requires skills such as “pharmaceutical products,” “territory,” “fda,” and “business development.” Whereas a representative is skilled in “customer service,” “communication,” “email,” and “data entry.” So if you’re looking for what truly separates the two careers, you’ve found it.
Representatives tend to make the most money in the manufacturing industry by averaging a salary of $32,623. In contrast, pharmaceutical sales representatives make the biggest average salary of $88,561 in the non profits industry.
Representatives tend to reach lower levels of education than pharmaceutical sales representatives. In fact, representatives are 9.6% less likely to graduate with a Master’s Degree and 0.4% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.
What Are The Duties Of a Territory Representative?
A territory representative is responsible for selling the company’s goods and services within a designated area, negotiating offers with potential clients, and identifying business opportunities according to market trends and customer demands. Territory representatives analyze the sales performance and strategize techniques to reach sales targets by coordinating with the whole sales team. They must be highly knowledgeable of the products offered by the company to demonstrate features and functionalities and respond to the inquiries and concerns the customers may have.
Next up, we have the territory representative profession to look over. This career brings along a lower average salary when compared to a pharmaceutical sales representative annual salary. In fact, territory representatives salary difference is $28,311 lower than the salary of pharmaceutical sales representatives per year.
While the salary may be different for these job positions, there is one similarity and that’s a few of the skills needed to perform certain duties. We used info from lots of resumes to find that both pharmaceutical sales representatives and territory representatives are known to have skills such as “sales goals,” “pharmaceutical products,” and “territory. “
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren’t so similar. For example, several resumes showed us that pharmaceutical sales representative responsibilities requires skills like “fda,” “curiosity,” “disease states,” and “diabetes.” But a territory representative might use skills, such as, “customer service,” “crm,” “customer relationships,” and “food safety.”
In general, territory representatives study at lower levels of education than pharmaceutical sales representatives. They’re 5.7% less likely to obtain a Master’s Degree while being 0.4% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.
How a Sales Development Representative Compares
A sales development representative qualifies leads at the sales funnel’s initial stages. Sales development representatives need to conduct research for prospective clients and qualify the leads before handing them to the sales team. They develop sales strategies to attract buyers or solicit potential customers. They need to build relationships with their customers to determine their needs and qualify the viability of interests to drive sales. Also, they collaborate with the sales executives making certain that corporate targets and goals are met.
The sales development representative profession generally makes a lower amount of money when compared to the average salary of pharmaceutical sales representatives. The difference in salaries is sales development representatives making $50,065 lower than pharmaceutical sales representatives.
While looking through the resumes of several pharmaceutical sales representatives and sales development representatives we discovered that both professions have similar skills. These similarities include skills such as “sales goals,” “territory,” and “business development,” but they differ when it comes to other required skills.
There are many key differences between these two careers as shown by resumes from each profession. Some of those differences include the skills required to complete responsibilities within each role. As an example of this, a pharmaceutical sales representative is likely to be skilled in “pharmaceutical products,” “health care,” “fda,” and “market share growth,” while a typical sales development representative is skilled in “communication,” “sdr,” “customer service,” and “outbound calls.”
Additionally, sales development representatives earn a higher salary in the manufacturing industry compared to other industries. In this industry, they receive an average salary of $64,400. Additionally, pharmaceutical sales representatives earn an average salary of $88,561 in the non profits industry.
When it comes to education, sales development representatives tend to earn lower education levels than pharmaceutical sales representatives. In fact, they’re 10.2% less likely to earn a Master’s Degree, and 1.7% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.
Description Of a Field Technical Representative
Owning wide knowledge about an application, a field technical representative ensures that the customer knows how to use any application by providing technical support and solving issues if one arises. They also give advice on what application is best to use for a certain concern. They can also evaluate and give an honest review to further improve the application. They help companies install the application and apply every bit of enhancements incorporated in it to the best of their advantage.
Now, we’ll look at field technical representatives, who generally average a lower pay when compared to pharmaceutical sales representatives annual salary. In fact, the difference is about $36,220 per year.
Each job requires different skills like “sales goals,” “pharmaceutical products,” “territory,” and “health care,” which might show up on a pharmaceutical sales representative resume. Whereas field technical representative might include skills like “customer service,” “technical support,” “r,” and “internet.”
Now, let’s take a closer look at the financials in each career. The manufacturing industry tends to pay more for field technical representatives with an average of $71,332. While the highest pharmaceutical sales representative annual salary comes from the non profits industry.
Field technical representatives reach lower levels of education when compared to pharmaceutical sales representatives. The difference is that they’re 9.1% more likely to earn a Master’s Degree less, and 1.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.
