Sales Job Description: Pharmaceutical Sales

PHARMACEUTICAL SALES JOB DESCRIPTION

Pharmaceutical sales representatives promote and educate health care providers such as physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, nurses, medical assistants, staff members and educators on the pharmaceutical company’s products, package inserts, approved marketing messaging and formulary coverage.

This job does not involve taking direct sales orders from customers, but serve as a marketing tool to create awareness and influence prescriptions to be executed from health care providers with prescribing capabilities.

A majority of the sales activities involve educating health care providers on the drug’s features and benefits, advantages over other therapy options, and addressing objections on possible adverse affects and backing up claims with approved studies. Some sales reps specialize in a specific therapy class such as cardiovascular, diabetes, depression, etc. and some will sell or carry in their bag, multiple therapy lines of drugs to promote.

The work environment is usually in field sales and ranges from managing a set customer base within a district, region, state or multiple states.

One of the most used marketing tools to help create awareness is by use of drug samples for the health care providers as well as speaking engagements, in-services and a call routing schedule to keep products top of mind.

SALARY/BENEFITS

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Average Pharmaceutical Sales Salaries

The average salary for pharmaceutical sales jobs is $68,000. Average pharmaceutical sales salaries can vary greatly due to company, location, industry, experience and benefits. Average total compensation with commission/bonus is about $77,000.

This salary was calculated using the average salary for all jobs with the term “pharmaceutical sales” anywhere in the job listing on Simplyhired.com. For an updated average pharmaceutical sales salary: CLICK HERE!

BENEFITS

Along with a salary, pharmaceutical sales representatives can also compensated with the following additional benefits (depending on company):

Commission/Bonus
Car Allowance/Company Vehicle
Health Insurance, Vision, Dental, Disability
Matching 401(K)
Tuition Reimbursement
Laptop
Cell Phone
Paid Vacation
Holidays
Sales award trips to exotic locations
Sales contests
Pension
Stock Options

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE/TRAINING REQUIREMENTS

The education requirements to be a pharmaceutical sales representative usually requires a two to four year college degree, followed by on-the-job training. The most attractive college degree is in science but many sales representatives have many different majors and a science degree is not required.

EXPERIENCE

Most entry-level pharmaceutical job opportunities require some outside sales experience and completion of the company’s formal training program. Most pharmaceutical sales opportunities require at least 2 years of sales and preferably pharmaceutical or medical sales experience. The type of sales experience valued is outside sales experience.