The Charm of Medical Sales Profession – Medical Representative
Medical sales and marketing is one of the best ways to enter into the Pharma industry, always an exciting and career demanding path. Medical representatives, (in short usually known as MR’s or Medical Reps) act as a key contact between medical and pharmaceutical companies and healthcare professionals.
Medical sales jobs will always be in great demand. Though current industry is running towards online sales and advanced technologies, medical sales require a major extent of face-to-face market in the industry.
Is Medical Representative Profession good?
If you are eagerly looking for a job that will constantly require doing something new always and moving out with passion, then medical sales representative may be the one which ultimately suits for you. This piece of article tries to advise interested candidates to enter the industry?
A Career in Pharmaceutical Sales and Marketing!
Pharma sales career would be quite interesting and challenging to succeed. The main job of Medical representatives is to educate health care community professionals on the drugs and medical devices they need to prescribe for the best medical care to the patients. Medical sales include a variety of Pharma products like: Pharmaceutical drugs, Medical devices (includes artificial joints, biomedical implants, heart pacer, dental implants), Medical equipment and Biotechnology products, etc.
This Job demands various skills (communication and presentation skills, online marketing skills, etc.) Medical representative field like other streams also has growth and sustainability.
How to Begin: Medical Representative Career
Here comes the ways to become a successful medical representative. The foremost step is to attain proper degree with the specialization (Life Sciences, Health care, medical devices and equipment, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology).
Education Requirement: A graduate Degree in Life Sciences, Pharmacy, Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry or related medical field. Sales & Management (medical hospitality or hospital management, medical sales) and Master’s in Business Administration would be an added advantage. Medical representatives are usually those with B pharmacy graduation. Paramedical and any life science courses can also be sufficient to become medical sales professional.
Required skills for Medical Sales Jobs:
Subject Knowledge, Strong interpersonal and communication Skills, Excellent Presentation skills, Sales Knowledge, Business skills, Analytical Skills, Organization and Planning Skills, Marketing Skills, Patience, Self-Motivation, Confidence levels, Commercial awareness, Customer relationship and negotiating skills, etc.
Technical Requirements for Medical Representatives:
- Familiarity with computers and Microsoft Office and technical writing.
- Should be proficient in the use of modern technology, especially electronic gadgets like smart phones and computers.
- Stay updated with the emerging trends in technology central to medical sales
- Social media and online network experience is required.
Other Requirements for Medical Representatives:
- Proper dressing sense and well-mannered behavior is required.
- Driving is also must requirement with a valid driving license for this Job (This Job requires travelling for sales and promotion).
Job Training:
Job training is kind of skill enhancement program dealing with pharmaceutical science, marketing, sales etc. If you are enough interested to choose pharmaceutical sales career, i.e., to start with becoming Medical Representative, Training courses will be helpful. These courses would be offered by various institutes and Pharmaceutical training providers that include Pharma Knowledge Centre.
Enroll in a training program from reputed Organization either online or offline (i.e., in-person training). Training provides the best knowledge in various aspects and makes the individual industry ready to pick up the Job easily. The topics for training include: Pharma industry introduction, Pharmaceutical industry working nature, industry standards, industry acronyms, medical terminology, human physiology, human anatomy, human diseases-pathology, disease management, treatment methods, medication, pharmacology, drugs formulas, compositions, drug storage, transportation methods, sales, industry guidelines and standards etc. To start up good and end up with good job, training will be a best option for medical sales jobs.
Certification: Get licensed or certified from recognized organizations. Certifications aid with career advancement and improve your sales knowledge. Certification is not mandatory but can serve as an added advantage with improved industry updates and selling techniques. The National Association of Pharmaceutical Sales Reps (NAPSR) offers a certification program and awards “Certified National Pharmaceutical Representative” (CNPR).
Work/Field Experience:
Working knowledge of sales or Field experience would definitely fetch you with plenty of job opportunities. After earning degrees, certifications and training, it would be the next level to gain experience. Experience can be attained by various modes like taking up an Internship with Pharma sales companies, taking an entry-level job or approaching any startups, Job shadowing is an effective form of job training for medical sales representatives, Volunteering at a hospital or doctor’s clinic for gaining experience. Work Experience is a big plus that can add weight to the curriculum vitae which would attract hiring managers to contact you.
Job Profile of a Medical Representative:
Medical Representative Job profile is solely responsible for the product promotion and its sales through meeting highly qualified customers. Products include all Medicines, Prescription drugs, medical devices, medical equipment’s and surgical kits.
Major Responsibilities of Medical Representative include:
- Advertising and selling Pharma products to relevant medical units.
- Organizing appointments and product meetings with healthcare professionals and medical staff.
- Planning for visiting hospitals.
- Identifying new business strategies and implementing
- Servicing current clients and establishing new sales accounts, resolving issues or complaints in a timely manner.
- Negotiating contracts when needed.
- Demonstrating or presenting products to healthcare staff (doctors, nurses and pharmacists, etc.)
- Undertaking relevant research on Products and sales, keeping up-to-date on current market trends.
- Maintaining detailed records and proper documents.
- Attending and organising trade exhibitions, conferences and scientific meetings
- Managing budgets and Reviewing sales performance
- Focusing sales efforts by studying client requirements and increasing sales.
- Cold calling potential clients.
Potential Clients or Customers include: Doctors, Nurses, Physicians, General Practitioners (GPs), Medical/Health care Professionals from healthcare institutes/clinics, Medical Staff, Pharmacists, Drug Manufacturing Companies, Stockists and Retailers.
Major Employers: Many national and multinational companies (Pharma, Medical Equipment, Medical Devices, & Biotechnology companies) are employing medical sales professional in various profiles.
Pharmaceutical Companies:
Major Healthcare/medical and pharmaceutical companies employ medical sales or Pharma representatives that includes a big list of Multinational companies and Indian Pharma companies such as Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie Inc, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Sanofi, Bayer AG, Eli Lilly and Co, Merck & Co Inc, F Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Pfizer Inc, Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), Merck & Co., Roche, Abbott Laboratories, Amgen, Gilead Sciences, AstraZeneca, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Takeda, Astellas Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Lupin Limited, Cipla Limited, Cadila Healthcare Limited, Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited, Piramal Enterprises Limited, Glenmark Pharma Limited, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, Biocon Limited, ManKind Pharma Limited, Boehringer Ingelheim, Wockhardt Limited, Divis Laboratories Limited, Zydus Cadila Healthcare, Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited, Wyeth LLC, etc.
Biotechnology Companies:
AstraZeneca Pharma India, Accurex Biomedical, Advanced Enzyme Technologies, Anthem Biosciences, Ankur Seeds, Biocon, Biological E, Bharat Biotech International, Bhat Bio-Tech India, Concord Biotech, Ecron Acunova, GSK India, Jubilant Life Sciences, Mahyco, Metahelix Life Sciences, Nuziveedu Seeds, Panacea Biotec, Serum Institute of India, Syngene International, Troikaa Pharmaceuticals, Zytex, etc.
How to succeed in Pharma Sales field:
Pharmaceutical sales and marketing is large scale revenue yielding and high turnover business filed. To move on into successful career one requires lot of effort and determination. Every Medical representative need to carry special qualities like positive approach, communication skills, convincing nature, presentation skills, business and product knowledge, market value, proper research on sales. One must set to follow certain agenda in their working to be successful.
- Proper Aim.
- Approaching clients positively.
- Building trusty relationship.
- Business reviews.
- Choosing right people.
- Conducting call reviews.
- Understanding current market value of products.
Selling Style of medical Representatives to the Doctors/ Physician:
Regarding the product explanation, certain points need to be followed necessarily for successful business.
- Building trusty and amicable relationship with doctors and other health care or medical staff.
- Need to be very clear and precise about the product for sale.
- Product demonstrations need to be in pictorial (images/drawings/graphs) mostly in power point presentation for better understanding and catchy.
- Genuine product information (drug uses/advantages and disadvantages) needs to be shared properly without hiding any such information.
- Justifying the drug benefits with the supportive documents or clinical case studies.
- Proper communication and convincing skills are needed always.
Pay Scale and Compensation:
Pay scale would range according to the experience in the field. The starting salary would be minimal, however it would lucrative for those with good experience and better positions. There is no such limit to earn with good determination and target oriented mentality. There is wide scope and opportunity for higher income and advancement in this field. Medical representatives earn additional perks and incentives on every product sale made as a commission pay.
If you are looking for a job training or placement in the pharmaceutical industry then do visit website of Pharma Knowledge Centre for more updated knowledge and information.
Benefits in Choosing Medical Sales Profile:
- Good earning capability.
- Perks and incentives based on product sales.
- Medical Benefits and other benefits (mobile phone and travel allowances).
- Good job profile for those who are interested in travelling as per the Job requirement.
- Work time flexibility.
- Contacting and interacting with new people on daily basis.
- Service to the people or society.
What are the major challenges faced by Medical Representatives:
The true challenge for a Pharma sales person would be:
- To convince a doctor or physician to switch from any drug that he or she is currently prescribing to their patients to the new drug as suggested by you.
- Selling to the right people is also an art of sales.
- To meet doctors/physician’s from his/her busy schedule of attending patients, which may take long waiting period.
Online Medical Pharmacy: Online Pharmacy will not affect Medical sales field having its own importance. Though technology is advanced, offline sales marketing has its importance.
What is online pharmacy? An online pharmacy, also known as internet pharmacy is a pharmacy that usually operates over the internet and sends the orders to customers through mail or shipping companies. E-Pharmacies include a list like 1mg, PharmEasy, Netmed, Medlife, etc. Medical representatives directly reach the customer for fast paced sales and business to occur. Most of the people do not depend on online pharmacies hence the demand for medical reps is growing.
How to Apply for Jobs:
Resume or CV: Your CV reflects everything about you, so prepare best CV including genuine and correct information. Experts can sort out the preparation of CV for you from Training institutes, etc. Nowadays, you need not wander around to search for Jobs. Just search jobs from various online resources like Naukri.com, Indeed.com, Timesjobs, Monster.com, and Glassdoor.com, etc. Also often visit the websites (career pages) of various pharmaceutical, medical and biotechnical companies for job openings.
As per the global market research reports, Indian pharmaceuticals market is expected to be worth USD 33.18 billion and reach about 9th position in the global pharma market by the upcoming year 2023.
With the continuous growth and experience in the field of Pharma sales, one can move into the further roles like sales training, managerial levels, regional sales head, other higher positions, etc. Many pharmaceutical companies are multinational (MNCs) and hence many offers may also hit you to go abroad.
Having self-determination and motivation, one can achieve greater heights in career. There is limit for the growth in any career choice from Medical field. No one has any inborn qualities of best sales person or simply a born salesperson. One needs to gain experience from education, training and learning the required skills with keen interest and constant updation with the latest techniques and advancements.
Pharma Knowledge Centre can serve as an expert to guide your decisions in choosing bright career. The most important piece of advice or guidance this blog tries to give you is to keep learning every day from today onwards, set your goals high and aim to achieve with proper planning, education, training and experience. It all makes a better future in Pharma sales and marketing with fruitful career path laid to you – making you a great medical representative.
For more updates, information and proper career guidance, feel free to call on +91 8318127735 or email us at info@pharmaknowledgecentre.com. You can also find more info and latest updates on social media platforms. Keep following us on major networks like Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Wishing you a better career ahead, as your career guide search ends up with PKC giving you best results.
References
- https://www.davidbagga.com/how-much-can-you-make-as-a-medical-sales-rep/
- https://www.napsronline.org/cnpr-pharmaceutical-sales-program/break-into-a-pharmaceutical-sales-career/
- https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/9/e016408
- https://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/pdf/s8109e/s8109e.pdf
- https://www.abpi.org.uk/
- https://www.allaboutcareers.com/careers/job-profile/medical-sales-representative
- https://vibcare.co.in/role-of-medical-representative/
- https://neuvoo.ca/neuvooPedia/en/sales-rep/
- https://www.topmastersinhealthcare.com/job-profiles/pharmaceutical-sales-representative/
- https://pharmaboardroom.com/articles/the-changing-role-of-the-medical-rep/
- https://www.abpi.org.uk/medicine-discovery/academic-collaboration-education-skills/the-abpi-medical-representatives-exam/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29313642
- https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/medical-sales-representative
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_pharmacy
- https://www.bls.gov/ooh/sales/wholesale-and-manufacturing-sales-representatives.htm
- https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/features/top-pharmaceutical-companies/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_industry_in_India
- https://www.ibef.org/industry/pharmaceutical-india/showcase
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_marketing
- https://www.marketresearchreports.com/navadhi/india-pharmaceuticals-industry-analysis-and-trends-2023
- https://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Jh2989e/2.html
- https://www.naukri.com/medical-representative-jobs
- https://quacktrack.org/e-pharmacies-in-india-regulations-benefits-and-risks/
Pharma Knowledge Centre – “My Learning Life” (PKC) engaged Young Indian Youths to prepare this presentation/Blog and the same has been prepared by one of the associated youngsters in consultation with PKC.
All rights reserved. All copyright in this presentation and related works is solely and exclusively owned by PKC. The same may not be reproduced, wholly or in part in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this presentation), modified or in any manner communicated to any third party except with the written approval of PKC.
This presentation is for information purposes only. While due care has been taken during the compilation of this presentation to ensure that the information is accurate to the best of associate and PKC’s knowledge and belief, the content is not to be construed in any manner whatsoever as a substitute for professional advice.
Associate and PKC neither recommend nor endorse any specific products or services that may have been mentioned in this presentation and nor do they assume any liability or responsibility for the outcome of decisions taken as a result of any reliance placed on this presentation.
Neither any associate nor PKC shall be liable for any direct or indirect damages that may arise due to any act or omission on the part of the user due to any reliance placed or guidance is taken from any portion of this presentation.