How Does a Pharmaceutical Sales Representative Spend a Workday?

General Overview

A pharmaceutical sales representative is a salesperson that works for a pharmaceutical company and specializes in the sale of pharmaceutical drugs. A pharmaceutical rep's main duties include distributing information about the pharmaceutical company's drugs to physicians. They provide doctors with information about different types of drugs and work to convince physicians to prescribe these drugs to patients. His main goal is to provide the doctor with convincing literature and information to convince her to switch to prescribing the rep's company's drugs and place an order for the rep's brands of drugs.

Typical Workday

A pharmaceutical sales representative spends a typical workday spreading literature about newly manufactured drugs to different doctors at hospitals and private offices. A pharmaceutical rep sometimes has as little as 10 minutes to convince a physician why the rep's company's drugs are worth buying due to the fact that most doctors are extremely busy and their time is highly valuable. The rep must describe his company's newest products, detailing what the new drug is designed to do, how it works and why it's better than older drugs. The pharmaceutical rep must be able to answer the physician's questions about his company's drugs calmly and accurately while under pressure during every meeting. A pharmaceutical rep is assigned certain zip codes within a city. He must research which doctors in the area are known to write the most prescriptions and plan his itinerary according to this information. Finally, a sales rep will spend much of his workday dealing with rejection because a large percentage of doctors are often too busy to hold meetings.

Qualifications

The minimum amount of qualification for a pharmaceutical sales representative is a high school diploma, but most employer's prefer someone with a college education and a bachelor's degree in science or a related field. Many drug companies provide on-the-job training to worthy candidates wherein they educate them in specific details regarding effective sales pitches, setting up meetings with physicians, dealing with rejection, and describing new drugs thoroughly and effectively. Supervised field work is a very important part of on-the-job training and includes supervised visits with physicians.