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A common first role in medical sales is that of medical representative, which mostly involves promoting prescription products to GPs and hospital doctors, pharmacists and nurses. You can expect to undergo an initial training course, which will teach you all about the products, therapy area, and how to promote them in a very competitive environment. The PMCPA Code of Practice requires medical representatives to take and pass an examination covering their knowledge of the human body, pathology and pharmacology, body systems and three specialist topics selected from a list of 15. These include disease areas, immunology and pharmacology. The exam must be passed within two years of taking up a position as a medical rep in the UK.

Medical sales reps are usually assigned a specific territory to work on; the most successful reps will have honed analytical and planning skills, utilised to make sure they capitalise on the potential of their territory. Employers also look for individuals who can successfully work as part of a team, as it is more than likely that you will share your territory with perhaps two or three other sales reps from the same company, sharing the same results.

To move onwards and upwards in your career, you’ll need to demonstrate that you’re able to deliver on your sales and activity results. Successful medical sales representatives do have multiple career options available to them; many go on to excel in sales training, area management and product management/marketing based roles.

As well as a good starting wage, many reps benefit from very competitive perks and bonus opportunities; because reps often work from home and/or spend a lot of time in the car covering their territory, they often benefit from a company car or car allowance, and a laptop.

Companies often look for graduates or trainees, or individuals with nursing, marketing or ethical sales experience, it is not essential that you have a degree. Candidates with a science degree are well placed to embark on a career in medical sales, but candidates with an academic background, who can demonstrate the ability to assimilate information, are also well suited to this type of role. For example, approximately 50% of the 9,000 medical representatives in the UK have a science degree; the other 50% are mainly graduates from other academic disciplines.

Day in the life of a GP / Hospital Representative

The following account has been written by a GP/Hospital Medical Representative with about 12 months experience.

The average content of a day for a representative revolves around the following:

1. Selling to customers, either one to one or via meetings.
2. Administration - Business planning, journey planning, setting pre-call and next call objectives, computer work.
3. Driving between customers.

The rules to remember about being a medical representative are:

• Two days are never the same
• The cliché, ‘the more you put in the more you get out’ has never been truer

What follows is the average or typical day for a GP/hospital representative.

It is usually a fair goal to see between 3-5 GPs per day, 3 pharmacists and 3 Hospital Doctors. However, this can vary depending on the products that you sell and the therapy area that you are working in.

For instance, some products require contact with a variety of Nurses (District Nurses, Practice Nurses and Hospital Nurses).

In general there is always a stronger bias towards prescribers i.e. Doctors.

GPs are traditionally seen in the morning, whilst hospitals are visited in the afternoon. With most doctors disinclined to see representatives during their surgeries, the optimal time for representatives to see GPs is before and after surgery.

Q. What time does your local surgery open?
A. If you want to see the doctor before surgery then you will need to be there about half an hour before this time.

Q. What time do you have to leave the house if this surgery is 30 miles away?
A. So the average day for a medical representative starts early, from 7am onwards. This is why it helps if you live on territory within easy reach of your customers.

From 7:30am - 9:30am your sole aim will be to get to as many surgeries as possible to either try and see customers then and there or arrange to try and come back later.

Between 9:30am - 10:30am most surgeries are in full swing and representatives are not always welcome, not a bad time to see pharmacy or buy sandwiches for your lunch meeting. In addition this time can be well spent reporting the details of the calls you made on your lap top computer.

Madness from 10:30am - 12:30pm. Surgeries are closing, Doctors are preparing for home visits and it is prime time for representatives to be seen. In these two hours you will probably see between 3-5 doctors.

You will use your extensive skills and product knowledge acquired on your initial residential training programme to inform and influence. The dialogue, though is two- way: representatives also play a Marketing role, detecting changes in demand patterns and spotting new product needs.

12:30 - 1:00pm after seeing 3 GPs it is time to prepare for a lunch presentation meeting you arranged last week. The meeting will entail standing on your feet, giving a slide presentation for the GPs in the surgery and answering any questions they might have. Besides settling your nerves the real skill here is being able to sell your product over the competition.

For advice on presenting, click here.

2:00pm - 5:00pm Meeting over, time for the hospital. You have 3 appointments you arranged 12 months ago with the 3 different cardiology consultants. The consultants do not use your product; they do not like it and are telling all the GPs in the area not to use it. It is your job to persuade them to change this. Are you confident enough to challenge leaders in their field or will you wimp out and agree with them?

5:00pm has arrived - time for home and a rest - not quite. As a new representative you probably have another hour doing administration work. This will include reporting all calls made, responding to e-mails and requests, speaking to the boss, but most importantly planning tomorrow and the rest of the week. Maybe once or twice a week you will have an evening meeting where you play host to between 6-30 customers. This will often involve a meal and a promotional presentation.

To summarise, in order to become a successful medical rep, you will need to;

• Stay focused
• Stay positive
• Work hard
• Plan well and always know where your sales are in relation to your targets
• Work as a team
• Always be prepared to learn and adopt new skills
• Believe in yourself, your company, your products and that you are making a difference to the patients who ultimately benefit from using your products.

Shadowing

How to organise shadowing

Every day at STAR we receive countless requests for us to organise field visits. Whilst it would be easy for us to do so, if you’re asking us this question, you are probably missing the point. 80% of the time, shadowing is considered to be a vital step in the recruitment process and you would be well advised not to miss it.

To be brutal, how can we take you seriously if you have not experienced, first-hand, elements of your chosen career? In view of the overwhelming competition to secure jobs within the pharmaceutical industry, the answer is... probably not!

One also has to consider that the role of a Medical Sales Professional is not a soft option. You will need levels of business acumen, resilience, flexibility and drive that are well above those required in other sales professions. Many would-be candidates, having spent a few days on the road, decide that a career in medical sales is not the glamorous role that they had imagined and is not suited to them!

Taking the time to shadow an existing Medical Representative demonstrates that you are serious and perhaps, more importantly, offers you the chance to be sure that you have made a well-informed decision.

As with your future sales role, it is highly likely that you will face a number of challenges in attempting to secure some time on the road with a Medical Representative. For example, many pharmaceutical companies do not allow their representatives to take non-employees on the road! Your ability to overcome these minor hurdles will further serve as evidence that you have the necessary tenacity to excel in the medical sales arena.

Unless you have the luxury of personally knowing an accommodating Medical Representative, without doubt, you will face some obstacles.

Below, you will find a number of ways to gain contact with a helpful Medical Representative:

Via your local Doctors Surgery

You may wish to approach your own GP or talk with the Practice Manager at your local surgery. Explain that you are planning a career in the Pharmaceutical Industry and that you need to shadow a Medical Representative. Ask them for some personal introductions or for some contact details of the representatives that they know.

Another approach would be to ask the Practice Manager for work experience. Offer your services, free of charge, for a few days. In doing so, it is likely that you will have several opportunities to meet with Medical Representatives as well as the opportunity to talk with your future NHS customers. Look for the opportunity to converse with everyone and to learn about their views on the Pharmaceutical Industry and its sales representatives. Create opportunities to witness the interaction that takes place between Medical Representatives and Practice Staff. By doing so you can begin to form your own opinions, as well as establishing knowledge of the skills required to ‘open doors’. This level of ‘go the extra mile’ research will pay dividends and to a certain extent will allow you to stand out from the crowd when you interview.

Via your local Retail Pharmacy

All Pharmacists know Medical Representatives. Why not adopt a similar approach as discussed above? Ask for personal introductions and consider a day’s work experience.

Via your local Post Graduate Education Centre

Most hospitals have educational facilities for their resident NHS staff. These are usually termed 'Post Graduate Educational Centres’ and are always frequented by Medical representatives.

You may wish to seek a meeting with the Manager of your nearest ‘Post Grad Centre’, explaining your goals and gaining his/her permission to attend the centre at the appropriate times.

If nothing else, this will allow you the opportunity to meet with a number of Medical Representatives and to witness one aspect of their sales / educational role.

In our experience, the above methods work and it is likely that you will learn a whole lot more than you would from a shadowing experience alone.

We guarantee that if you heed this advice, the recruitment process will be a smoother journey for you, with less setbacks and a higher probability of a successful outcome.

How to get the most out of your field visit?

OK, so you have a field visit arranged.
How will you make best use of the time?
How can you go the extra mile and obtain optimum benefit?

As follows are some guidelines:

• Spend the whole day on the road. Part of a Medical Representatives day involves ‘setting the day up’. This may involve an early start and ‘dropping cards’. Make sure you experience this, as the skills involved with this element of the role are vital.
• Make copious notes throughout your field visit. Things are always forgotten. Ask questions.
• Look for opportunities to discuss Pre Call Objectives
• Post Sales Call - ask your escort to de brief you on the call and to discuss ‘Moving the call forward’ or Next Call Objectives
• How was the day planned?
• How is business targeted?
• What works best - Sales Targets or Activity Targets?
• Is a business plan important?
• How is success measured?
• How do you become a top performer/top bonus earner?
• Look to discuss ‘Gate Keepers’
• Ask about effective Time planning & Geographical planning
• How do you develop the toughness to handle rejection?

As well as the above questions, it would be wise to examine the structure of the Sales Calls that you witness.

The following is a guide:

• Did you witness evidence of Pre Call Planning / SMART objectives?
• How was the right climate created in the Sales Call?
• Did you witness the use of Open Questions?
• How were they used & what type of information did they elicit?
• Did you witness the use of Closed Questions?
• How were they used & what type of information did they elicit?
• How were the customers needs uncovered?
• Having uncovered the customers’ needs - were benefits sold to the customer? (sell benefits, not features)
• Did you witness Listening Skills on the part of the Sales Professional? (selling isn’t about telling - it’s about asking questions)
• How did the Sales Professional respond to the customer’s behavior and ‘buying signals’?
• How were customer concerns / questions / objections - dealt with?
• How was commitment gained?
• In your opinion will the customer take action on the basis of this call?
• Were SMART objectives reviewed & how were Next Call Objectives set?
• What went well?
• What did you learn?

The above is merely a guide. Remember that you are not there to interrogate or judge the effectiveness of the Medical Representative who has been kind enough to take you out. Remember that it can be quite unnerving being watched. Above all, make the most of your time on the road and ensure that it is a positive learning experience. Take the time to reflect on what you have learned and perhaps be prepared to document your findings. By doing so, you will give yourself increased confidence and a clear ‘winning edge’ at interview. Average candidates do not embark on this level of research. Average candidates don't excel at interview.

Wishing you good luck and every success with the process.

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