Posts Tagged ‘networking’

Networking With Pharmaceutical Sales Reps

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

#pharmaceutical #drugs #jobs #sales

One of my readers of my book and audio program “How To Get A Dream Job In Pharmaceutical Sales – Direct Inside Advice and Guidance From a Sales Manager” reported that she connected with four local pharmaceutical sales reps recently of which one is a member of her Toastmasters club.  Since my book goes into some detail into networking with these industry people, she took action and is progressing as a result.

In the case of the rep who is a fellow member of her Toastmasters club, this rep introduced her to one of his company colleagues, another drug rep.  The reader promptly contacted this other rep and an information interview meeting was agreed upon.

This is good progress because the reader can now get some excellent career information directly from these local pharmaceutical sales reps and she did it by following the steps I outlined in my book and audio program.

The relationships build from there and meetings with these reps’ district managers are withing reach.  This is a very effective way to bypass the lone lines at the company human resources departments as a straight route to the hiring sales managers is formed.

When the local pharmaceutical sales reps get to know the reader, they will likely recommend her to their district sales managers which will put her in a very good position when a vacant sales territory comes up.  This is a win-win situation for all as the reader will be first in line for possible pharmaceutical sales jobs while the company won’t have to bother with formal recruiting efforts which costs money and takes up time for the managers.

I go into a lot more than just networking in my book and audio program but a good first step for aspiring pharmaceutical sales reps out there is to take in my free webinar on this field.

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Start Your Summer Networking For Medical Sales Careers

Monday, June 28th, 2010

#medical #jobs #sales  – Although some medical sales representatives do go on vacation during summers mainly because it’s a slightly slower season due to customers like physicians going away during this period as well, it is a good time to network with any who might be around for your own future medical sales careers.

I recall that quite often, there was definitely less hectic work day schedules with doctor appointments spread out a bit more so there was more time in between official appointments.  This mean less rushing from appointment to appointment.  Medical sales reps would try to fill in these time gaps by calling on pharmacies and other clinics on a drop in basis.

Since there could be more time available in between appointments with doctors, it might be easier to network with medical sales representatives out there.  They will have more time to sit down with you if you buy them coffee or even lunch.

Just don’t do this if you see them working with their district sales managers since the reps are expected to make customer calls all day.  You may approach such teams just to say hello and perhaps get their business cards but don’t request anything in front of the sales managers since such requests are really for taking time away from sales calls for the reps which the managers might not like.

Contact the representatives later when they are alone.  Then they will likely be more receptive especially when the slower summer season comes around.  So just have some tact about this when you do your networking with medical sales people as you don’t want to get the reps in trouble.  Believe me, getting them in trouble would not be good for your own future medical sales careers.

For much more information on networking in this field, see my medical sales careers webinar.

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Networking For Pharmaceutical Sales Jobs

Monday, April 12th, 2010

#networking #pharmaceuticalsales #pharmaceutical — I was asked a question about networking for those who are interested in pharmaceutical sales.  Although there are many networking groups out there in many cities, these are likely not targeted enough for pharma sales jobs.  Ideally, you want to target those in the pharmaceutical sales field and those with connections to the field.  Your average networking group out there probably won’t have many such candidates.

My book, ‘How To Get A Dream Job In Pharmaceutical Sales – Direct Inside Advice and Guidance From a Sales Manager‘ goes into a LOT of detail on the topic of networking for a pharmaceutical sales job.

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Pharmaceutical Sales On Social Media

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Since networking is highly recommended as a job search activity in any field including pharmaceutical sales, it’s interesting to see that this can now also be applied to the social media scene.  Social media is really about networking and making contacts.  I’ve noticed (and joined) various groups with a pharmaceutical sales theme on both Facebook and LinkedIn.  I too, have a dedicated pharmaceutical sales page on Facebook.

One word of caution though.  Just like in a live networking situation, you should have any hard selling in online social media.  Don’t go in there and immediately push your resume to a group or new contact and ask for a pharmaceutical sales job.  It’s about building connections and relationships first as the same type of informal rules applies to both live face to face networking and online social media like Facebook or LinkedIn.  By the way, online social media should be just one of the tools to use for networking with pharmaceutical sales people.  It should not replace live face to face networking, which is still the most effective form of building business relationships.

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Celebrate And Plan For Medical Sales Job Hunting In December

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

I know it’s December and most people just feel like celebrating the holiday season with friends in family rather than work on medical sales job hunting right now.  That’s okay as you should go ahead and celebrate with some relaxing with good people around you.

However, I would also strongly suggest spending a bit of time to learn about the medical or pharmaceutical industry and do some initial planning for your sales representative job hunting for January.  The medical and drug representatives are about to go on holiday as the industry pretty well shuts down for the last two weeks of December.  You won’t be able to contact many for networking purposes at this time.  When I was in the industry, I often took most of December off due to saved vacation days.

After New Year in January, the medical and pharmaceutical  sales reps as well as their managers will be coming back on territory again in full force.  Although they will be going on their first sales meetings of the year, they will be pumped and ready to go in the field.  So ideally, you want to be ready to restart your own medical sales job hunting which should include active networking with them in the New Year.

Rather than doing your job hunting activities blindly, you do want to do some initial planning in December so that you are prepared next month when things get rolling again.

If you haven’t already, you should definitely view my free 30 minute webinar on pharmaceutical sales this month as part of your preparation for your medical sales job hunting activities.

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Networking Very Important For Medical Sales Jobs

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

These days, networking can be very important if you want to get into all types of medical sales jobs.  Connections will make professional introductions that much easier so that you can get to the right people who have to power to hire you.  For example, just today, one of my ski students turned out to be employed by one of the country’s largest medical supply distributors.  You can bet that this company will have a large medical sales force.  Of course, I’m not looking for a medical sales position but if I was, this chance meeting would have been great.  This shows just how effective any type of networking can be, whether in an official networking event or on the ski slopes.

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Pharmaceutical Sales Jobs Now Require Diversity Skills

Friday, October 16th, 2009

I was presenting to an executive networking group yesterday and I discussed how diverse the health care sector including pharmaceuticals has become. I suggested that for anybody going after pharmaceutical sales jobs or any other field for that matter, you will need diversity skills. People should be proactive in letting potential employers know that one can work well with many different types of people and success stories in diversity should be mentioned in job interviews. See the article about diversity in interviews for pharmaceutical sales jobs.

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Networking For Pharmaceutical Sales Jobs

Friday, June 5th, 2009

Networking for pharmaceutical sales jobs is a full time activity.  If you haven’t connected with every sales manager and drug rep in your area, then you haven’t networked enough.  Every person in your area in pharmaceutical sales should know who you are and better yet, should have met with you.

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Networking With Pharmaceutical Drug Representatives

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

Yesterday, I had coffee with an old colleague of mine who is still working as a pharmaceutical drug representative.   He was telling me that he and some other drug reps from other companies were trading drug samples for personal use.  This is done more often than one would think.

However, this illustrates something else important.  It proves that pharmaceutical drug representatives do interact on a regular basis.
What does this mean for you if you are someone hoping to enter the pharmaceutical sales field?  Well, it proves that networking with the pharmaceutical drug reps in your area is indeed very important.  Drug reps do talk to each other and since they get incentives to introduce good potential people to their companies, it is certainly worthwhile to get yourself known to them.
If they like you, they will likely tell other drug reps about you, especially if you ask for referrals.  This will help get your name out there among company insiders.
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