Pharmaceutical Medical Sales reps sell a company’s products, whether for pharmaceutical companies or healthcare equipment manufacturers, serving as the liaison between the customers and the manufacturer.
The Pharmaceutical Medical Sales also promotes the features and benefits of the company’s products, answers questions, provides consultation on the use of the product, and introduces new products as they launch.
Key Responsibilities Of Medical Sales Positions
Identify and qualify prospects and decision makers. Who’s on the buying committee? Are you communicating with, and convincing, everyone who has veto power? You could be talking to administrators, doctors, nurses, and therapists.
They’ll all have different questions and concerns.
Product knowledge is key. You will have to demonstrate your product formally and informally. Know your product, read the studies, and be able to provide any additional research prospects may request.
Presentation skills are needed for meetings, conferences and trade shows. Provide valuable information in every setting and demonstrate you understand their challenges and needs.
Negotiate the sales contract. This is the age of value-added care. How does your product, and your contract, provide value-added care to the buyer and their patients?
Know the HIPAA regs as they apply to business associates. You may come in contact with protected health information (PHI). Prove you’re a trustworthy professional who won’t expose your customers to potential HIPAA headaches.
Develop and maintain relationships with past, present, and future customers. Be a valuable resource. Providing useful information, like new studies or relevant news articles, is a great way to keep in touch.
Is the Pharmaceutical Medical Sales Rep an Endangered species?
As the multiple tiers of influence across healthcare networks continue to change and evolve, there can be little argument that the traditional pharma company sales force is losing effectiveness. However, it is also vital to note that there is still an important role to be played by the traditional pharma sales reps. The industry is currently rethinking the sales force model.
How can pharmaceutical companies revitalize their sales model and regain their consultative status and influential role in physician’s choice of medicines?
Personal selling with a well-trained sales rep will not be replaced, at least not within the next decade, but sales representatives will be required to bring value to the table, functioning not only to move their brand’s share, but also as partners in the healthcare cooperative. Dialogue is essential. This will require having the reps understand the big picture: the market, the competition, their product’s share of voice. In this scenario, the purpose of the sales call takes on increased enormity. The rep is there to help the physician make the best decisions and provide the best treatment for their patients. This is the rep as a problem solver, a resource who adds value to physicians.
launched new products with big-budget campaigns. These mass market strategies worked perfectly to drive diagnoses and prescriptions of
blockbusters especially in US, but the landscape has shifted.
Also, one of the principal tools pharmaceutical companies currently use to get access to doctors – the distribution of free samples – will be irrelevant in most cases. Specialist medicines often require refrigeration, must be administered by a healthcare professional and are much more expensive to produce than small molecules. These product characteristics make sampling impractical and economically unfeasible. The product-service offerings the industry develops must therefore be both clinically and economically compelling, to ensure that it can reach the physicians who typically prescribe such treatments.
