Pharmaceutical Sales Rep

J77

What's the deal with being a pharmaceutical sales rep?

Can you get a job in it straight out of college (with a degree in Business & Law, as would be my case) for example in a graduate program?? Or do you have to take another route?

What's the money like? I presume company car would be standard enough?

What would the work consist of? Traveling around your assigned area making sales pitches and managing accounts I presume along with recurrent training in new drugs?

I have an interest in biochem/pharmacy but wouldn't stick a lab for a week so maybe this would be a way of working in the industry that I would like.

RATM

I wouldn't be an authority on this but my sister goes up and down the country selling false legs and arms (hardly difficult selling legs to amputees!). She gets 110k pa + a new Volvo every 2 years.

Anyway she is a former nurse and when she got the job 8 years back the majority of recruits were either nurses or had at least some medical background. That is only one company though, maybe others take all sorts and then train them how to talk to surgeons, doctors, etc and all the medical jargon that goes with it.

J77

Thanks for the reply RATM. That's not a bad salary at all! My Volvo was an ex-company car for a pharmaceutical rep. I had a choice of 5 because the company traded in the reps cars for 5 Audi A4s (Good decision in my opinion).

I've read up on it a little and it seems that recruitment agencies are now increasingly looking for business graduates when recruiting reps. It might seem easier to them to teach business grads pharmaceuticals than to teach pharmacy/medicine/health science graduates business.

Really I'm just trying to find out if I can do this job straight out of college and if it's a good job!

J77

J77 wrote: »

. It might seem easier to them to teach business grads pharmaceuticals than to teach pharmacy/medicine/health science graduates business.

Really I'm just trying to find out if I can do this job straight out of college and if it's a good job!

As a former sales engineer I can tell you that what they will look for is folks who can sell, they won't be training anyone on business as it's not needed, whatever you are selling is priced, you have a margin and a bottom line which you cannot go below, your commission may well be based on your margin rather than turnover or if you have recurring business commission may be based on how much you increase your turnover, ie growth with a separate commission for one off / non recurring sales.

Also pharmaceutical sales jobs are highly sought after due to the excellent pay. Many companies will prefer ex nurses etc as you will be in a hospital environment, also if you are selling orthopaedic implants or the likes of stents & catheters etc you may well find yourself in the operating room observing how the products are used and then giving feedback to the manufacturer.

I can't see a raw business graduate with no sales experience being of much interest to companies, at a minimum you will need a year or two of experience in actual sales which will show you can manage existing customer accounts and develop your territory (they don't teach you any of that in college despite what you may think). Pharma and med device companies won't hire a raw graduate as folks are queuing up to sell their stuff.

No matter what the salary sales is a tough job, many pharma sales reps have to report daily either in advance or retrospectively on their days. Basically how may sales call you have etc. Fairly regimental. Also it can be a lonely ole job. I covered Munster for a year, leaving home at 7.30 to make a call at 9 somewhere, then on to somewhere else. Maybe a night or two in a hotel every so often, getting delayed and leaving somewhere at gone 5 to head back home. It's not easy at times. Pr1cking about in the evening writing quotes up for jobs that you often know you won't get (lots of places insist on 3 quotes for stuff but will stay with their existing supplier more often than not). It's a numbers game, bag 1 in 3, 1 in 5, 1 in 2 or whatever but work goes into each pitch.

Also bottom line is this, make your target and you get an increased one, don't make it and you get your balls broken.

100K salaries are also few and far between for the non medically qualified folk, some stuff requires the medical background and bullsh1tters simply can't do it. No matter what you are selling there are alternatives so there is always competition. I worked in a biopharma plant that made this tac which once you were using it you'd use it for life really, there was huge demand for it. But other companies also sold similar sh1t, if folks are queuing up to buy the stuff you sell you will be paid accordingly, that's not really sales, it's simply account management. The best sales folk relish cold calling and that sort of stuff, which can be quite sole destroying. If I was you I'd use the current economic issues to your advantage and when you finish college get a sale role on the road for anything you can get, if you like it fair enough. If you don't like selling and being on the road selling kit kats you won't like selling As a former sales engineer I can tell you Viagra or hips either I would think.

Head into sales with caution, it's quite hard to get out of it once you get into it and it can be a dead end career for many folk. Being a rep was one of my fancies since I was a teenager, did it, wasn't for me so I got out of it

Bren_C

A lot of what Rover said above has covered it. But if your looking for a pure pharma role, i.e. selling prescription drugs your looking at a saturated market. A lot of companies have made GP reps redundant so there is fierce competition for these jobs which used to be the entry level for graduates in pharma.

On the whole it's a great job and while the industry is getting tighter, companies are still rewarding their perfoming staff

A general guide for salaries and cars are

GP rep - OTE 55 + Volvo S40/mondeo etc
Hospital Rep - OTE 70 + BMW 3 Series/A4 etc
Product Specialist - OTE 100 + 5 Series/A6 etc

J77

Thanks for the replies guys.


Think I'll keep looking into it and see if I can arrange to shadow a rep for a day.

Are there any other jobs that would be similar? i.e. Nice salary, company car, driving around the country on a day to day basis dealing with professionals. Wouldn't mind if it's tough work or high number of hours.

J77

J77 wrote: »

driving around the country on a day to day basis dealing with professionals.

The novelty wears off very quickly, I would be quite slow to go back on the road to be honest. Company car is a tasty perk though admittedly.

J77

RoverJames wrote: »

The novelty wears off very quickly, I would be quite slow to go back on the road to be honest. Company car is a tasty perk though admittedly.

I don't like spending my day at a desk though. I quite like driving around on a day to day basis. Have only done it twice with work but I liked it then. I don't see it as a job I'd stay in for long but it's where I'd like to start my career.

And a company car is most certainly a tasty perk, especially if they give you something nice or let you choose.

mystery1

J77 wrote: »

What's the deal with being a pharmaceutical sales rep?

Can you get a job in it straight out of college (with a degree in Business & Law, as would be my case) for example in a graduate program?? Or do you have to take another route?

What's the money like? I presume company car would be standard enough?

What would the work consist of? Traveling around your assigned area making sales pitches and managing accounts I presume along with recurrent training in new drugs?

I have an interest in biochem/pharmacy but wouldn't stick a lab for a week so maybe this would be a way of working in the industry that I would like.

Hi J77, I worked in Pharma Sales for 2 years, both GP and Hospital, and in the last 2+ yrs I've worked in the medical dept. of a pharma company as a medical scientific liaison.

Depending on the pharma company you go for you will either 1) do direct sales with pharmacists (i.e. you'll have an order book) & talk to GPs on price, this approach is usually the 'generics' market. or 2) you'll talk to GPs & Hospital doctors on the benefits of your drug versus competitors and indirectly then you get the sales by that doctor prescribing more of your product. In this instance, I would make sure that whatever job you go for is to represent a decent drug where half the work is done for you before you even start. What I mean by that is that if you have a drug that is not a usual drug of choice, is over-priced and is not in European treatment guidelines then you are going to be flogging a dead horse and it will be difficult to reach your target. But, if you are a sales rep for a great drug with great efficacy and safety data and its in all the guidelines, then happy days.

You can get into it straight form college, thats what I did. Some people tend to start out with 3rd party contract companies which contract you to big Pharma (if you want the names of some of these companies PM me, I can think of 3 of them). You'll get paid slightly less than if you were working for big pharma but you'll get great experience and exposure to numerous companies.

My money starting as a GP rep with no experience in 2006 was €33K per annum (working for a contract company). Working then as a hospital rep with a top pharma company a year later I started on €46K. Hospital reps tend to earn more than GP reps. I would say as a GP rep starting in big pharma you could expect to start on €36-38K or so. Thats basic and not including a yearly bonus of 10 to 15% if you hit target, and this is usually paid quarterly.

Company cars though are subject to BIK tax, which will take a substantial chunk of your earnings. BIK is calculated using your business kilometers per year and the value of the car when it was bought new. My company car now is worth €27,000 and I do approx 8,000 business Km a year (I'm in the office a good bit), overall this costs me €330 a month in BIK.

Another thing to consider is the size of your territory. Avoid at all costs covering 26 counties unless you like living out of a suitcase 24/7. I used to cover south Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford and Kilkenny and that was a nice sized territory.

I hope this is useful best of luck!

J77

Thanks for the reply mystery1! Really appreciate it. In the last few months I've weighed up alot of career options and at the moment I'm gunning for the legal route. However this is certainly subject to change!

Oasis678

hi mystery would you mind sending me the names of the companies that you mentioned in post im looking at this area. any info appreciated. thanks a lot!

Delancey

My brother is a senior sales manager with a very big Pharma company . He says that repping is very hard to get into and whereas in the past a nursing background was a major asset he believes that is no longer the case.
His preference is for applicants with a' Life Sciences ' background as opposed to say Commerce or Business Studies alone.
Well-paid work with company cars like 3 series BMW's but there is huge pressure , the degree of oversight on Reps is onerous with constant reports being called for.

Margins are under pressure and this feeds through into pressure on reps - the HSE is cutting back big time on more expensive drugs but try telling that to head office - they just tell him to '' grow the business '' regardless.

Just the view of one person in the business.

P.S. The cars may be nice but as mentioned above the BIK can be absolutely savage.

gav4321

Hi

I know this thread is a couple of years old but would anyone have any advice on where to begin a career in the aforementioned field nowadays?