Do You Want to Earn $100,000 in the First Year?
Pharmaceutical sales representatives can easily earn
$100,000 or more per year, ranking them in the top ten
percent of earners in the U.S. Successful sales
representatives—the ones who work hard every day, become
product experts and have great attitudes—can earn
considerably more than $100,000 per year. With an average
starting base salary of $55,000 per year, commissions, stock
options, cars, and career advancement, it’s no wonder that
thousands of people apply for these jobs every day.
Pharmaceutical companies pay well because being a
pharmaceutical sales rep is a lot of hard work. After a full day
of calling on at least ten doctors, most reps are required by
their companies to attend evening educational programs that
could run well past 10:00 p.m. When they get home, they
need to complete paperwork, check e-mails, respond to
voicemails, and complete many other assignments.
In addition to the salary, commission, car, and stock
options, you get to organize educational programs with
thought leaders in the Industry and your doctors. You just
need to follow the rules and never compromise your integrity!
First You Need to Get the Interview!
You can do several things to get an interview:
1. Go to pharmawebsites and apply online.
2. Contact recruiters
3. (Best Option) Go to a doctor's office, ask the receptionist for
pharmaceutical sales reps' business cards and give them a
call. Ask to meet with them. Obtain the phone numbers and
email addresses of their District Managers to set up interviews.
4. Check out websites and newspapers for Job Fairs.
5. Post your resume on monster and look for open jobs.
6. Checkout Careerbuilder.com
For every open sales position, we receive about five
hundred résumés per week through recruiters, our company
website, Monster, and other sources. We disregard about
ninety percent of those résumés and very few candidates
make it past the first round of interviews. At job fairs, if we
interview one hundred people, fewer than ten percent get
asked back for a second interview and of that ten percent, we
might hire one person.
Why do so many people never make it past the first cut? It’
s probably the same reason why many pharmaceutical reps
don’t succeed, because they just wing it! Candidates’
résumés are not pharmaceutically focused and candidates
don’t prepare for interviews, just like the average and below-
average pharmaceutical sales reps who don’t prepare for
sales calls.
Common Mistakes
- Most candidates do not prepare for the interview and
rely entirely on the Internet for their research. Although
the Internet is a good starting point, the focus of the
research should be on interviewing doctors,
pharmacists, and pharmaceutical sales representatives.
Candidates need to do things that the job itself entails,
so that, when a hiring manager asks them what they did
to prepare for the interview, they will have plenty to say.
Even with Internet access, many candidates know
nothing about the company or its products and still
expect to get asked back for a second interview.
- Many candidates know nothing about the
responsibilities entailed in the job. It’s amazing how
many people want these jobs, yet have no idea of what
a pharmaceutical salesperson actually does every day.
Many tell me that they have friends in the industry, but
most haven’t shown the foresight to spend a day in the
field with that friend to learn about products and job
responsibilities.
- Candidates need to demonstrate that they can sell. If
they have prior sales experience, then they need to
show what they sold and how they sold it. I explain this
in Chapter Seven of my book titled, “Show and Sell."
- Regardless of sales experience, candidates who do not
ask for the job or a second interview won’t get it. This is
a sales job and salespeople succeed by asking for
things.
Success for the Few!
10% Success
In most pharmaceutical companies, only 10% of the sales
representatives receive the top sales awards. Some of those
awards include a trip, a car upgrade, additional money, stock
options, the highest salary increases, and recognition. Other
reps either produce average results or lose their jobs within a
year. Some find that they cannot do the job, don’t want to do
the job, or, in some cases, have bad managers. Regardless,
Pharmaceutical Landing can help launch you into that top
10% if you are willing to learn and willing to work for it.
Read Books & Be Prepared!
Read sales books. You can start with mine. If you are
looking for a book to show you the “nice” way to prepare for
an interview and succeed in pharmaceutical sales, then
search for another book, because Pharmaceutical Landing
shows you the no-nonsense approach! That is, learning to go
the extra mile, the way that may be painful, the way that will
help you land a pharmaceutical sales job and succeed in it!
I have little patience with people who do not come
prepared to interviews and reps who don’t perform. When you
hear me say, “Do you have any questions for me?” within the
first ten minutes of the interview, then you know it’s over. Now
it’s up to you. Get started now by reading my book!
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New!
The 2nd
Edition of
Pharmaceutical
Landing!
Updated with
2 New
Chapters!
Click here to
learn more.
Derek From Baton
Rouge, LA
"Frank,"
"Read your book.
Went to the
interview.
Received job offer
in pharmaceuticals
today! Great
Book!! Is body
building this easy?
Will have to read
soon."
Thanks,
Derek Moore
Ashlie
"Yes, I landed a
pharmaceutical job
with a major
company and I had
NO pharma
background."
read entire review and
other successes as a result
of reading Frank's book