What Is a Pharmaceutical Salesman?

You may notice pharmaceutical representatives in the waiting rooms of your local doctor's office. They're usually polished and courteous; often bearing gifts of food and marketing materials for physicians and staff, as they work to promote their products.

The Role of a Pharmaceutical Sales Representative

Pharmaceutical salesmen are also known as drug representatives who try to promote an assigned product(s) to a physician or health care professional.

Drug companies like Pfizer and Merck, produce a vast array of drugs in various classes and rely heavily upon the sales force to "get the word out" about these products and their benefits.

The promotion of these products is usually achieved through face-to-face meetings with physicians, product symposiums and the provision of supporting clinical literature.

The drug companies encourage their representatives to drive business, so they offer such incentives as bonuses, contests, rewards and other perks to increase sales.

The Significance of Pharmaceutical Sales Representative

Drug representatives are the eyes and ears of their respective companies. For example, most manage a specific territory and travel from their home to nearby offices daily. Often they are required to meet with 10 to 12 physicians or health care providers each day..

Naturally, drug companies want salesmen in the field to maintain a presence in various communities. The intention is to leave no stone unturned as far as business opportunities are concerned. Every physician has the potential to prescribe a product, and every drug company wants that physician to think of their product whenever he or she is presented with an applicable patient.

Types of Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives

Most pharmaceutical companies have specific rankings, levels and responsibilities. For example, most entry-level drug positions only see primary-care physicians. The next level might require interaction between the representative and a specialist (specialists are thought to be highly revered and more knowledgeable about specific disease states than primary care doctors).

Pharmaceutical Sales Misconceptions

Money never exchanges hands between physicians and drug reps. All successes and failures are generally tracked within the communities in which the reps work. Most likely, pharmacies maintain this information.

Drug companies set the minimum dollar volume expected from a representative's assigned territory for any given sales quarter. Attaining these goals is accomplished by encouraging physicians to prescribe a product(s). As more and more physicians begin to increase their prescribing, the overall sales volume in the territory is expected to increase. Consequently, reps are always compared to the performance of other colleagues to determine sales ranking, bonus and overall success.

Expert Insight

Attaining a position as a drug representative can be challenging. It's hard to break into pharmaceutical sales due to the overwhelming benefits and rewards offered for a job well done.

For those interested in getting into pharmaceutical sales, create a paper trail that presents a background of your sales success and get to know your local representatives.