Skills Needed For Pharmaceutical Sales Representative

Pharmaceutical representative are the basic link between pharmaceutical companies and the health care professionals.

Medical sales representatives work to increase the awareness and use of a company’s products in general practices and hospitals. The representatives perform their duties in a specific geographical location. These representatives ensure the health care specialists are aware of, buy and refer their company's products. To gain their target they may make presentations for health care professionals. When looking to hire a trainee initial training on product and competitor knowledge is given to the representative. The success and development creates a difference between an average sales representative and excellent representatives.

If you have ever come across the advertisement for pharmaceutical representative you must have felt that there is a common criteria for all representatives. A pharmaceutical representative usually has a blend of soft and technical skills. Personal management relationship building and selling techniques are most demanding skills for the representatives. These are the basic qualities the pharmaceutical companies search to fill the vacant position.

Lets us briefly look at each skill in turn.

Personal Management

Every sales representative has his own territory and is considered his area manager. Such area management concept is successful and gives good return. This idea requires less cost to implement and give much better and higher return.

For example, rather than assigning a sales representative from out side area, company can access the representative on the phone or using an internet and sales rep can discuss anything or access slides.

Selling Skills

Once a person is recruited by a pharmaceutical company he will be provided by training to learn the most ideal selling skills. Every company trains the representative according to its own module. Even if a person is trained enough and is a professional sales rep, it does not mean that he would not get training in his or her new company. In fact, such a way the representative will feel much difficulty because he or she has to change his way and techniques into the new environment according to the new company. Everything they have learned in the past can be thoroughly irrelevant.

Relationship Building

Pharmaceutical industry has long relations in industry. Time does not matter for sales reps. many of the sales representatives come to visit healthcare professionals, in private or government hospitals, to promote the products of their companies. These product ranges from drugs to diagnostic and medical equipments.

These visits of the representatives make relationship skills which is the key to success in the field. The representatives work on the strategy of knowing much about a customer worth more than knowing less about the product.

If we examine closely none of these skills are taught as courses in any college or university. These are the specific professional skills trained after joining the field and many people may find their educational career regardless. Regarding these skills it is worth to mention that these skills can be trained. No one has such types of God gifted techniques even if some has a little; he or she still needs training to sharpen them.