Can the public speaking training at Toastmasters help prepare individuals for sales careers? As a former national sales manager in the pharmaceutical industry and having been exposed to the Toastmasters program as a member (Singled Out Toastmasters), my opinion would be yes.
Many individuals who want to pursue pharmaceutical sales or other sales careers have no prior experience in selling. This lack of experience often results in applicants not reaching even the interview stage with companies as many sales managers and recruiters do not bother with people who haven’t been in sales before. However, this isn’t always the case.
Many successful pharmaceutical sales representatives had zero sales experience before getting their first jobs in this field. I know representatives who came from past non-sales careers such as journalism, lab work and nursing. Some even came right out of college or university. What they all had in common were excellent communications skills which made up for the lack of actual sales backgrounds.
If someone has above average communications skills and the right aptitude for a sales career, he or she can be successfully trained in selling techniques by companies. Most companies with sales forces will have sales training departments internally or access to good professional training programs externally no matter what industry they are in.
In order to successfully compete with others who already have some sales experience, one must beef up his or her communications skills, especially with oral presentations in front of people. After all, sales jobs involve this type of activity whether to one customer at a time or to an entire group. This is where Toastmasters can step in to help.
Read the rest of this article at Toastmasters for Pharmaceutical Sales.
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