Module 1

JOB DESCRIPTION

Pharma sales representative is the most visible person in pharmaceutical marketing and is the bottom most position in the hierarchy.

The most significant responsibility of a medical representative is to increase the prescription base of the pharmaceutical brands of the company that he or she is working for.

Every task that a M.R. does revolves around this responsibility. There is a plethora of functions that signify job of a Medical Representative such as:

• Calling on Doctors with pre-determined frequency to promote, discuss, remind, and sample pharmaceutical brands of the company in the assigned territory
• Meeting specified number of doctors (usually 10 per day) by working in a pre-planned territory that is decided with help of a Monthly Tour Plan
• Meeting retail chemists to make sure that the brands are easily available
• Meeting the company appointed authorized Wholesalers to ensure that sufficient stock is kept for distribution to retail chemists in his or her assigned territory
• Submission of Daily Reports giving details of day’s work consisting of names of doctors, retailers, and so forth
• Occasional joint working with managers, product executives for greater effectiveness of the calls
• Achieving assigned targets for every brand of the company
• Attending weekly, monthly or quarterly Sales Review Meetings to discuss target versus achievement, product promotion strategies, new launches, and future sales planning
• Giving feedback to marketing department about competitor activities
• Attending regular training programs for updating medical as well as pharmaceutical knowledge

Medical Representative’s daily life involves continuous field work, travelling, waiting for doctor visits, administrative work, sales pressure, and more.

Job of medical representative a highly rewarding yet physically as well as mentally challenging.

You need to be physically fit, mentally alert, presentable, punctual, committed, responsive, skilled communicator, and an extrovert person to be able to succeed in the amazing field of Pharmaceutical Marketing.

Source: Quora

PREREQUISITE TO GET IN THE PROFESSION

The most preferred education which will give you preference over other candidates in jump starting your career as medical sales representative is Bachelor’s in Pharmacy.

People from other educational background like B.Sc. are also getting selected but the preference is more for candidate with a technical background.

Earlier medical sales representative were mostly science graduates. But now as the number of pharmacy collages has increased tremendously, this has led to high numbers of pharma graduates coming into work force every year. Hence, the preference has shifted from a simple graduate to technically skilled professional who can understand and produce the technical words used while promoting the product to a customer.

For the experienced professional it’s the experience and learnings which matters rather than the education background unless filtered due to education criteria. But having said this, it’s of equal importance for the experienced professional to upgrade and be open to learning. People who don’t adapt with time become absolute.  

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