What is a Pharmaceutical or Medical Device Sales Representative?
Pharmaceutical or medical device sales representatives have a number of responsibilities, including calling on existing and potential clients to establish new accounts, obtaining orders, servicing existing accounts and implementing brand strategies intended to convey the company's marketing message. They must also adjust the content of sales presentations to be client-specific and reflect any changes in products, services, policies or competitive development.
Day to Day Tasks
- • Meet with a variety of professionals, including medical personnel such as physicians, pharmacists, nurses and technicians, medical office management, staff of medical facilities
- • Resolve customers' complaints and concerns by investigating any issues that arise, developing solutions and submitting applicable reports or recommendations to management
- • Maintain sales records and histories and report sales activity to management via daily, weekly or monthly reports and analyses
- • Stay up-to-date with industry changes, products, scientific updates and medical issues
- • Communicate information about products to a variety of clients, address clients' questions and concerns1
Entering the Pharmaceutical or Medical Device Sales Representative Field
A bachelor's degree in marketing or a related field, knowledge of basic medical terminology and an understanding of the regulations related to the pharmaceutical industry are generally required for this position. Prior sales experience may also be required by some employers.1 The position almost always involves travel to various medical facilities within a specific territory, so often employers are looking for clean driving records and ability to work flexible and non-traditional hours.
Career Outlook
A pharmaceutical or medical device sales representative earns an average salary of $68,415 per year. People in this job generally don't have more than 20 years experience. Skills that are associated with high pay for this job are Cardiology and Technical Sales. From the sales representative position, most career paths move to an Account Manager and then to a District, Regional or National Management level.1
CNN Money has previous named this job one of the “Best Jobs in America” and calculated the ten year job growth at 16.4% and also gave it an “A” grade for flexibility.6
Learn More
If you are interested in pursuing a career as a pharmaceutical or medical device sales representative, you should learn more about degrees in healthcare administration.
Resources
- What am I worth? (n.d.). Retrieved July 07, 2016, from http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Sales_Representative,_Pharmaceuticals/Salary
- Specialty Pharmaceutical Sales - ADHD/Pediatric. (n.d.). Retrieved July 07, 2016, from http://www.careerbuilder.com/job/J3K2LP662WYKGQXVG3D?ipath=JRG12
- Pharmaceutical Sales Representative. (n.d.). Retrieved July 07, 2016, from http://www.careerbuilder.com/job/JHR333624DLDFTSJWK6?ipath=JRG4
- Pharmaceutical Sales Rep - Espero. (n.d.). Retrieved July 07, 2016, from http://www.careerbuilder.com/job/J3L40Q6HVD85B0624NS?ipath=JRG3
- Pharmaceutical Sales Rep (#69). (n.d.). Retrieved July 07, 2016, from http://money.cnn.com/pf/best-jobs/2012/snapshots/69.html
