What’s a pharma rep have that a traditional salesperson doesn’t?
November 25th, 2007 by the medical sales recruiter
I have said before that people of all sales backgrounds can be successful at pharmaceutical sales, laboratory and clinical diagnostics sales, pathology sales, and medical device sales because selling processes can be transferred to many area. I do believe sales reps in the healthcare arena do have to step it up a notch or two in their work efforts. There’s an article on Pharmaceutical or Biopharmaceutical Sales on BioJobBlog that points out the additional difficulties:
1) You need to know your product “backward and forward”, keeping in mind that price is not as much of a consideration as safety and efficacy.
2) You’re going to need to be able to understand the science behind the product in order to sell it effectively. Training is (and should be) intensive.
3) In addition to the science, you’re going to have to “have a firm understanding of the regulatory practices that guide drug development, manufacturing and sales in the U.S.”
Even though you don’t have to have a scientific background to break into medical sales, you need to have an interest in it which will translate into a willingness to do the work it takes to be successful.
