Posts Tagged ‘drug representatives’

Long Term Business Relationships Key To Pharmaceutical Sales Success

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

#sales #jobs #pharmaceutical  – I just read in a sales newsletter from business and motivational guru Brian Tracy that the top ten percent of successful sales people in any industry and for any products or services rely on the skill of building and maintain long term business relationships.  This of course is also true in pharmaceutical sales.

Pharmaceutical sales is not a quick selling activity.  Quite often, it will take numerous calls to the same doctors before they will even really listen to you and try out your products.  So anything that will help a drug representative build that business relationship over time with doctors, nurses and pharmacists, will help greatly.

Sometimes, just calling on doctors at their offices will not be enough especially if they are key physicians in a sales territory.  Other sales activities including sponsorships, medical conferences and even general activities for smoozing will be required to build successful business relationships.

If one does not enjoy smoozing or has a problem socializing with a particular group of people, there can be problems.  The very people that some might avoid socially might turn out to be very important customers.  Therefore, one would have to get to learn to smooze with these customers.

Otherwise, pharmaceutical sales would not be the right career choice for people who do not like smoozing with a particular group of people.  Successful drug representatives are true people persons who have no hangups with dealing with any group of customers over the long term day in and day out.

Again, pharmaceutical sales is a long term, people business that requires building of long term business relationships.  Those who don’t have the patience for long term activities or are not truly open minded people persons, should consider another career other than sales.   History has shown that those who are not people persons, will fail in pharmaceutical sales as well as any other selling environment which long term business relationships are key.

Friendship
Creative Commons License photo credit: Sahaja Meditation

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Pharmaceutical Sales Recruiters Want Proven Selling Abilities

Friday, July 30th, 2010

#sales #jobs  – I often get asked about pharmaceutical sales recruiters whether they can help you get drug representative positions, especially by people who have had zero sales experience.  The fact is that recruiters make their money by successfully placing candidates in companies and to maximize the chances of doing this, they want people with proven selling abilities.

If you have had very little previous sales experience, chances of pharmaceutical sales recruiters taking you very seriously are next to nothing.  Now having said that, if a recruiter is willing to interview you, you might as well go along with it to get the interviewing experience but just don’t get your hopes up too high in that recruiter actually landing you a job as a drug representative.

If your sales background is pretty well non-existent, you should go through other channels via networking to get to the hiring companies instead of going through recruiters.

One thing that people from clinical backgrounds and other fields where there wasn’t much selling involved should be aware of is that pharmaceutical sales does involve selling.  You have to be able to sell in this type of career.

Pharmaceutical sales is very competitive with different companies promoting their products to physicians and other healthcare professionals.  As a drug representative, you have to bring in the sales numbers for your company.  It’s part of the job (actually, it’s the main part of the job).

Pharmaceutical sales is not just about dropping off drug samples to different clinics and doctors offices all day.  You have to sell your product in terms of getting doctors to use your products on their patients.  This doesn’t happen just automatically because again, there is a lot of market competition out there.

This type of market competition is not really seen in the public eye and newcomers in the industry are often very surprised on just how competitive the industry can be.  So if you don’t have proven selling abilities, don’t count on pharmaceutical sales recruiters to get you that job.  Instead, take the time to learn other routes to get you to that career you want in this field.  One excellent way to start is through my free webinar on pharmaceutical sales.

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The Best Pharmaceutical Recruiter For You

Friday, June 18th, 2010

#pharmaceuticalsales #pharmaceutical #jobs

For those of you who are hoping to get into the pharmaceutical sales field, I happen to know the type of person who will be the best pharmaceutical recruiter.   This type of person has the attention of sales managers, ie., the people who do the actual hiring of drug representatives, better than all other types of recruiting professionals.

This type of person is also the most knowledgeable about the actual job of being a drug rep day in and day out.  This person will also know about openings in the company long before most other recruiters will since they have the inside scoop on things happening out in sales territories of companies.

And finally, this type of person doesn’t depend on placing candidates successfully in order to get paid because he or she is already making good money doing something else.  This is somebody that you will definitely want to get to know and make contacts with if you are serious about getting a position as a drug representative.

Do you know who this best pharmaceutical recruiter is?

No, it isn’t somebody who works for a recruiting agency or headhunter even if it’s one that specializes in healthcare industries.  It’s not the one who advertises in job placement sites and ads.

Instead, the best pharmaceutical recruiter happens to be the existing drug reps who are already working with companies.  The reps have the ears of their sales managers and they know their company’s products the best.  They are doing the job of a drug rep day in and day out.

If you can make contact with such drug reps and if they like you, you would be in the best possible position to get a job with their sales force.  Sales managers listen to their reps a lot more than any recruiter with an agency.  In fact, managers actually prefer to hire through the recommendations of internal people such as their own drug reps because this way, they don’t have to pay commissions to a recruiting agency for placements.

You can bypass the recruiters, the HR departments and get a straight line right to the hiring sales managers if you can get drug reps to refer you to their managers.  I know this because I’ve hired this way before as so have my other sales management colleagues.  Not only do we often get the best possible candidates this way, but the company also saves time and money by not having to advertise publicly to do an official hiring campaign.

So if you want to get the best pharmaceutical recruiter helping you get your first job in pharmaceutical sales, make sure that you get on the good sides of the local drug representatives in your area. To help you do just that, start with my free webinar and then check out my careers programs for this field.

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Entertaining Inspirational Quotes For Nurses

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

#nurses #nursing #inspirationalquote  -  I was alerted to a post from a nursing blog on a collection of interesting, entertaining inspirational quotes for nurses.  This was the first time that I has seen such a collection for a specific healthcare professional group such as nursing.

The only thing that is missing from this rather big collection is an inspirational quote of some kind about nurses and pharmaceutical sales representatives. I think there was already some mention about doctors and patients but no drug reps.  Many nurses at clinics do interact with pharmaceutical sales people who call on the hospitals and clinics.

The other relationship between these two fields is that some nurses will end up switching careers to become drug representatives for pharmaceutical companies.  They have the right clinical background already and hospital nurses in particular will probably already know the ins and outs of the hospital system.

Knowing such hospital systems will certainly help in knowing who is who in a hospital as well as the general process of getting a company’s products listed on the hospital’s formulary status.

The only thing that interested nurses will have to prove to potential hiring companies is that they have superior communications skills and selling potential.  After all, pharmaceutical sales jobs are still sales careers rather than healthcare clinical positions.  Many business type of skills will have to be learned and nurses will have to prove that they can be trained on such new skills.

The transition from nursing to pharmaceuticals although related fields, is still an industry change and therefore all nurses who are interested in becoming drug reps should take my free 30 minute Pharmaceutical Sales Jobs Webinar which is perfect for nurses.  It will give them a good insight into what is required for this interesting career choice that offers many perks that is not available in clinical positions.

In the meantime, do enjoy the inspirational quotes for nurses that was brough to my attention.

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Evaluating Another Pharmaceutical Sales Resume

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

#pharmaceutical #sales #resume #jobs

I’m evaluating another pharmaceutical sales resume today sent in by one of my readers of my book ‘How To Get A Dream Job In Pharmaceutical Sales – Direct Inside Advice and Guidance From A Sales Manager’ since a custom evaluation by me is one of the free bonuses available when folks get the book directly from my pharma careers website.

This bonus is worth a lot more than the price of the actual book since aspiring hopefuls in this industry are getting a real evaluation of their resumes by a former executive who actually hired, trained and managed drug representatives.  So if you are considering a career in this field, you really should check out my resources starting with the free webinar first.

By the way, since my website (including this blog) has moved over to Bluehost which is our new hosting service, I’m in the process of setting up a new secure shopping cart for my printed books.  A secure shopping cart is used to encrypt credit card info online when people order my books directly with my websites.  I had to give up the past shopping cart when I left the previous hosting service since their cart was part of the package.

Just give me a few days to get a new secure shopping cart online if you want to order the printed book.  However, this will NOT affect those who want to order the digital ebook version or downloadable audio program since these are ordered through Clickbank.  You can go ahead and order these downloadable versions without any worry since Clickbank has their own secure shopping system.

This will also not affect those who wish to buy the printed book from a retailer such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble either.  Keep in mind that when buying via a retailer like Amazon or even at your local bookstore, the free bonuses like the pharmaceutical sales resume evaluation do not apply.

For those who want to order my printed book through my website in order to secure the free bonuses including the pharmaceutical sales resume evaluation, I put up a message indicating that people can call a toll free orders line for now and order the book via telephone during this period as we transition into a new online system.

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Pharmaceutical Sales Training Videos Coming

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

#pharmaceuticalsales #pharmaceutical  —-  This week’s video on pharmaceutical sales strategy for drug representatives was just the first of several that were shot this week.  The others are being edited and will be put up here on this blog over the next few weeks.  These videos would be great as pharmaceutical sales training information especially for those who are hoping to enter the industry.

They give you a realistic appreciation of some of the actual issues that can happen out there in a sales territory when calling on doctors.  These cases can also give you something to talk about during your job interviews since it will show potential employers that you are not completely ignorant of what really happens in the day to day working life of a drug representative.

Although these videos and blog posts will never replace real pharmaceutical sales training from a trainer in a pharma company, they are still helpful to expose you to the industry.

I will release about 1-2 new videos per week in the next little while so stay tuned.  I hope you will find these pharmaceutical sales training clips informative and entertaining as well as I pulled them from my real life cases during my career.

By the way, for those of you who like being on Facebook, our dedicated page about pharmaceutical sales at that platform is getting popular with Facebook users as it’s a place to interact with other people interested in the industry while remaining on Facebook.

If you are on Facebook and would like to check out this page and interact with others as well as me since I do post there quite regularly, just go to Facebook Pharmaceuticla Sales.  Please hit the Like button too while you are there and let other Facebook users who are also thinking about pharma sales know about the page.

All the pharmaceutical sales training videos being produced will end up on that Facebook page as well so you could watch them while in that program too.

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Video On Pharmaceutical Sales Strategy For Drug Representatives

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

#pharmaceutical #pharma #biotech #drugs #sales #pharmaceuticalsales –

I hope you enjoyed the last two weeks of blog posts where I shared various real life cases from my years in the pharmaceutical industry.  Now, I’m going to start posting video versions of these cases which might give you another perspective.  The first one is a video on pharmaceutical marketing and sales strategy for drug representatives.

This video will show the common scenario when drug representatives promote newer versions of medications that have already been on the market for many years.  Physicians are usually very familiar with these drugs but because of cost sensitivities, especially those who see a lot of patients in low income brackets, resist using the newer versions because they cost more.

This is a common objection in the world of pharmaceutical sales and all drug representatives must be trained to deal with it.  In fact, cost will often come up during calls on doctors a few times each day.  Pharmaceutical marketing and training departments usually have good ways for the drug reps to deal with the cost objection.

One of the keys is to help the physicians identify the problem patients who are not being successfully treated with the older versions of drug because of inconvenient dosing regimens and other possible factors.  Once doctors agree with the existence of such patients, the drug reps can position their newer products to help address these problem patients.

The video mentions two of my websites. If you are interested in pursuing a career in this field, check out my webinar on pharmaceutical sales careers.  If you are already working in the industry and would like to explore the possibility of having me come as a guest speaker at one of your meetings, see my speaking programs and seminars website.

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Case Study During Jobs In Pharmaceutical Sales

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

#pharmaceutical #pharmaceuticals —  Here is the first case study from my years during jobs in pharmaceutical sales that I will present.  It is about selling newer SR/LA drugs against older versions.   This is a common pharmaceutical sales scenario where drug representatives will try to convince doctors to use newer long acting drugs known as sustained release (SR) or long acting (LA) versions of older short acting medications.

Short acting drugs do not last long in the bloodstream so they must be dosed three to four times per day while the new SR/LA forms require to be taken only once per day. Long acting drugs are slowly released in the bloodstream resulting in constant levels throughout the day even with single doses.

For the added convenience of single dosing, there is usually a significant premium in cost with the SR/LA drugs compared to the older originals. This is especially true in the case of many drugs including antihypertensive agents and antibiotics that have already been genericized (duplicated as brand ‘X’).

Many drug representatives promoting the SR/LA products will often get resistance from doctors who want to stay with the older drugs as they would say, “The new drugs are too expensive so I’ll stick with the old ones.”

So that is a major objection and a pretty common one during jobs in pharmaceutical sales.  Doctors just want to keep using the least expensive drugs that have been around for years.  This is especially true for geographical areas that have many patients that do now have high income levels and lack of adequate insurance coverage for medications.  Both doctors and patients can be extremely price sensitive for drugs.

As for the solution on what drug representatives should do, I will present what actually happened in my own case while out in the field since I did promote a few drugs that fit into this scenario.  But I won’t do it now since I would like to invite your thoughts and comments on this problem first.

I will present a feasible solution on my next blog post.  Then you can see the overall case and get an appreciation of the interesting strategies used in jobs in pharmaceutical sales.

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Coming Out With Pharmaceutical Sales Success Stories

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

I will be posting some of my most memorable pharmaceutical sales success stories from all my previous years out in the field calling on doctors, clinics and hospitals.  These are actual real life cases which describe challenges and how they were conquered from a pharmaceutical sales point of view.

This will give you a glimpse of what the industry is like and perhaps a better appreciation of just how much marketing and sales planning are required for successful business in this industry.

Pharmaceutical sales levels of pretty well any prescription and over the counter product can be tracked quite accurately even by pharmacy and postal zip code these days.  This capture system allows sales forces to really zero in on which areas are performing well and which ones need attention.

It’s certainly not like the old days when all drug representatives had to do was simply drop off free drug samples at various clinics.  Drug reps really must sell to the doctors and other medical staff.

The success stories that will be outlined here clearly illustrate some of the strategies that sales and marketing departments of pharmaceutical companies must use in order to be successful.

These stories are quite entertaining and will be posted here on this blog individually over the next few weeks.  They can actually be talked about during job interviews for pharmaceutical sales positions because interviewers always love to hear and discuss sales stories from the field.  You don’t have to have been part of any of these particular successes but even to mention that you read them online will show the interviewer that you’ve been doing your research in this industry.

So stay tuned as the first pharmaceutical sales success story will be posted soon.

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Doctors Getting Harder To See For Drug Representatives

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

#pharmaceuticalsales #pharmaceutical – I had lunch with two of my former colleagues from the pharmaceutical industry yesterday and they both told me that doctors in general are getting harder to see for drug representatives.  One calls on only specialist doctors and said that many specialists are limiting drug representatives to only two appointments per year.

However, even with these limitations to access, the pharmaceutical companies are still mandating that their sales forces to see key physicians a certain number of times per year on the minimum and these are always much more than two.

So drug representatives must be more creative in order to meet these doctor sales calls quotas.  What this means for those who wish to become drug representatives is that they need to be creative individuals in addition to having great communications skills.  It would be best to demonstrate past examples of creativity in job interviews.  Aspiring drug representatives should get as much knowledge as possible before such job interviews and one resource would be “How To Get A Dream Job In Pharmaceutical Sales – Direct Inside Advice and Guidance From a Sales Manager“.

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