Are you ready to jump into the role of a sales representative for a pharmaceutical or medical device company? This article shares four important facts you need to know before you make that leap.
Whether you’re new to sales or you’ve been at it for a few years now, there’s one industry that many individuals are attracted to and that’s the pharmaceutical and/or medical device industries some individuals are attracted by the money the flexibility the thrill of succeeding in a very competitive environment and of course. The majority are driven by a sincere desire to make a difference in the lives of people.
If you’ve decided that you want to give the sales in the healthcare industry a shot, perhaps working for one of the large pharmaceutical or medical device companies or even a midsize to smaller company then there are four important facts about sales jobs in this industry that you need to know before you make the decision to pursue a career as a Pharma or medical sales rep and this article aims to share four of those facts with you today.
Fact number one you better be prepared to work long hours whatever you’re told during the interview process about how much the company that you’re interviewing with values work-life balance for its employees, take everything with a big grain of salt because in many cases you’re going to find your work-life balance flying right out the window once you become a pharmaceutical or medical device rep. A large percentage of the reps that I’ve personally worked with are putting in 10 to 12 hours per day and many of them complain about the long hours now it may be possible that you won’t find yourself in this type of situation but be aware that there is a high possibility of long hours. If you’re single and have no one else to worry about but yourself then that’s probably not going to be a big problem for you, but if you’re married and also have children you may end up feeling unhappy about the long hours so be aware.
Fact number two you better be able to effectively deal with stress there are a number of things that can cause the wrong type of person to become extremely stressed in the medical sales industry. One of them is the constant pressure to make sales quotas another is the stress related to the many changes that are going on in the healthcare system. There’s also stress related to the challenge of gaining vendor clearances for drugs and medical devices. There’s also a lack of job security that results from the mergers and acquisitions that are taking place in this industry. Infact it can be very challenging to find a sales rep in the pharma industry and the medical device industry who’s been with one company for more than ten years. Even having to deal with doctors and nurses who in many cases are not happy with the situation in their environment can be very stressful. If you’re a type of person that handles stress very well and may even thrive in a stressful environment then go for it.
Fact number three there’s limited room for territory growth many reps complain about this because there’s so much focus now on the bottom line it seems that medical devices and especially pharmaceutical sale becoming more and more commoditized especially when patents expire and biosimilars begin to flood the market. So, this can make it challenging for sales reps to be able to expand their territory and many sales reps complain that hospitals aren’t concerned with the quality of a product but instead whether or not their company has a contract with the hospital’s group organization or GPO because these issues can and do affect the reps ability to grow his or her territory it can also have an impact on income bonuses etc. So be aware of this fact number three.
Finally, fact number four is the old standard of company politics now I’ve never met anyone who enjoys company politics and sales reps aren’t any different than anyone else and believe me company of politics exists in pharmaceutical companies just like they exist in any other organization in any other sector some reps have actually complained that senior leaders are hired and have no clue about our business. Other reps complain that there’s no company loyalty senior management is only concerned about themselves and shall literally little regard for their teams now to be sure this is not the case in every sales organization.
So those are the four facts you need to be aware of if you’re seriously considering getting into the medical sales industry.
Thoughts Inspired By : Mr. Mike Allison
Hope you enjoyed reading it.
Thank you, Please don’t forget to follow PHARMABOX.in on social media for regular updates.
