Is Medical Sales A Good Career? Here is all Truth About the Position Of Medical Sales everyone ought to know.
The position of medical representative has long been in high demand among applicants with medical or pharmaceutical education.
However, applicants have a partly wrong idea about the work of medical sales: there is both an excessive idealization of the profession and, on the contrary, an unjustifiably negative perception of it.
We would like to dispel the most common myths about this profession and explain how things really are as well as to tell you more about all the advantages and disadvantages of this job.
Why is it so interesting, what are its main advantages, how it suits you and whether it will be comfortable for you to work – you will learn all this in this article.
Who are Medical Sales?
A medical sale is a link between a pharmaceutical manufacturer and a distributor. Its main task is to promote medicines, familiarize them with their benefits, and provide advice on their use.
With the knowledge of a doctor and the skills of a sales manager, a representative of this profession becomes indispensable in the pharmaceutical market.
Medical sales specialize in promoting the manufacturer’s drugs and advising on their medicinal properties.
Its target audiences are medical doctors and pharmacy staff. Since direct advertising of some medicines is legally restricted, MPs promote their sales through health professionals and pharmacies.
The professional area includes different areas (for instance, a medical representative for working with pharmacies, with medical institutions, a hospital medical representative, a key account manager).
Working Duties of Medical Sales
The functions of medical sales depend on the specifics of the product being sold, and on the audience with which he cooperates. The major duties of a medical representative include:
- Working with doctors (conducting visits to doctors in order to consult about drugs’ hallmarks);
- Working with pharmacies (maintaining inventory and monitoring the availability of the company’s products in pharmacies);
- Holding mini-conferences and conferences to increase sales;
- Timely reporting;
- Independent work planning;
- Fulfilling the sales plan of the organization;
- Holding presentations for probable clients;
- Monitoring and analysis of the market of competitors;
Top 5 Pros of Being a Pharmaceutical Representative
Above we have already discussed who is medical sales and the major functions of this job. Let’s dive into the top 5 advantages of working as a medical representative:
- Work contributes to personal growth.
The activity of a medical sales allows you to work on yourself, increases knowledge in the field of sales, medical problems, diseases, diagnosis and treatment, forms the skills of persuasion, making a deal, working with conflict clients. A kind of worker brings the skill of persuasion to automatism, becomes a kind of psychologist, and knows what to say, when and why. The profession also tempers, the specialist becomes more self-possessed and tolerant.
- Every day is different.
Working with a large number of clients with a traveling nature of work, every day of a pharmaceutical worker is unique and unique in its own way. This is a good job for people who like to be in the spotlight, love communication, and easily find an approach to a new person.
- Constantly on the move.
It will be interesting for those who do not like to sit in one place in front of the computer, in a boring office or office. Activity is very mobile – today you are at one end of the city, tomorrow you are in the region, maybe in another state. Always entertaining!
- Professional growth.
Companies are always interested in raising the level of knowledge of their employees, so they conduct at least one or two times a year training in drug sales to develop key skills and much more. Yes, you can learn and improve your level completely for free!
- Opportunity to influence your income.
Almost all companies have a motivational system – quarterly bonuses for the implementation and over fulfillment of the sales plan. In addition to the salary for the quarter, you can get from 30 to 150% (sometimes even more) of the salary.
Are you still in need to know if a career in medical sales is worthwhile? kindly note this; On a general note, medical sales is a good career likewise other careers in the health industry, because people have made fortune in this path.
However, one’s level of satisfaction is one of the factors that fulfill the impact of ones’ career choice.
6 Myths About Medical Sales
So, it’s high time to dive deeper into all perks of this profession, therefore, let’s speak about major myths related to this job. At the end, you would have the perfect answer to Is medical sales a good career.
- Myth 1: “A medical sales has a very high salary”
Of course, large pharmaceutical companies for the most part provide employees with competitive wages and a good social package.
However, there are also companies on the market that are ready to offer medical representatives remuneration that is much more modest and less attractive working conditions.
So, in some of them, the medical representative is not provided with a corporate car: the employee has either to use a personal car for work or use public transport.
Unfortunately, there are also employers who use gray pay schemes, companies that do not provide bonuses and where medical representatives sometimes have to invest their own money in marketing activities.
Thus, before accepting a job offer, it is necessary to carefully study the employment contract and discuss such details with future employers.
- Myth 2: “Doctors prescribe drugs for money or gifts”
Often when asked how a candidate could influence the increase in sales of the company’s drugs, we hear about the material motivation of doctors.
In some cases, this may become one of the tools of medical sales. However, many companies strictly monitor the observance of ethical business practices, the policy of such companies forbids medical representatives not only to stimulate the increase in sales through gifts to doctors but also to pay opinion leaders to travel to international conferences or give lectures.
The work on drug promotion is based, first of all, on the professional interest of the doctor in the treatment of his patients, and the task of the medical representative is to clearly and convincingly inform the specialist that the company’s drugs are really successfully coping with this task.
- Myth 3: “I want to work as a medical representative because I like communicating with people”
This is one of the typical answers of applicants to the question “Why would you like to work as a medical sales?”
The work of a representative is not just to communicate with people. The main goal is to convince the doctor to use the company’s products in his practice and, as a result, increase sales.
Mere communication – in the broadest sense of the word – will not achieve this goal. Communication with the doctor should be held at a high professional level, using various sales techniques. A high degree of involvement in the process is required from the medical representative.
In a word, if a candidate in the work of a medical sales is attracted solely by the opportunity to “communicate with people”, this may indicate that he is poorly aware of the specifics of this profession.
- Myth 4: “You can become a medical representative only if you have a higher medical or pharmaceutical education”
In fact, higher specialized education is no longer a mandatory requirement for applicants in many pharmaceutical companies, including those included in the “big pharma”.
Trends in the labor market are such that, first of all, employers pay attention to the availability of relevant competencies and experience in sales. Thus, today it is quite possible to build a career in a pharmaceutical company without a specialized education.
- Myth 5: “A medical sales has a free work schedule”
The work schedule of most medical sales is standard: an 8-hour working day and a five-day working week with two days off.
It is also worth considering that this profession is characterized by numerous overtime – a medical representative can conduct marketing activities on weekends, fill out reports after work, meet opinion leaders and escort them to the airport at any time of the day or night.
The huge number of business trips should also be taken into account. In addition, each medical sales has a schedule of visits (the number of visits can vary from 8 for a key account manager to 13-15 for a simple medical representative).
Many companies track the location of their employees, so there are very few chances to “skip” work, and there is no need to talk about a free work schedule.
- Myth 6: “They will teach me everything”
Many applicants applying for the position of a medical sales really believe that they should not have any special knowledge and skills, believing that they will be taught everything as part of corporate training.
This is not true. Companies do provide training for employees, but you should not take them as a training program from scratch – in fact, they are aimed at honing existing skills and gaining additional (not basic!) knowledge.
Conclusion on is medical sales a good career
We can talk a lot about the pros and cons of the position of medical sales. This article describes only the main ones that you need to consider when choosing a profession.
Your motivation when choosing a position is very important, what do you want to get from this work, what advantages do you see for yourself, and how much they are higher or lower than the existing disadvantages?
Are there development prospects? After reading this article, you saw the advantages of this profession, as well as its significant disadvantages. It is up to you!
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Chibueze Uchegbu is a certified medical physiologist with a great passion for healthy living.
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