Things You Need To Know About Pharmaceutical Sales Career Lifestyle

In the previous post, we've made a slight turn from pharma selling to take a quick look into diagnostic sales. You've discovered, through my experience, things to consider before you make the change to selling diagnostic. You probably can relate to what has been discussed over there. You can use that as a basis for your decision.

In this article, we're going to look at one of the most popular questions asked by readers of this blog.

If you remember, we've talked about what it is like to be a pharmaceutical rep ...

Therein, we've looked at different phases reps gone through once they got connected into the pharma sales system. You also knew that having this knowledge helps you to prepare for what to come. In this article, we're going to go into a bit detail about this subject.

We're going to dig into the lifestyle inside pharmaceutical sales career:

What can you expect from a pharmaceutical sales career lifestyle? Does it resemble the lifestyle of the rich and famous? The answer to this could be as varies as the numbers of stars in the whole galaxy, but at the end of the day, it boils down to only one general answers: you!

YES! You determine your own lifestyle as a pharmaceutical sales rep, and because ‘you’ are a different person at different place and time, your lifestyle could vary greatly.

But there is a pattern, a very noticeable one I might add.

Pattern Of A Pharmaceutical Sales Rep Lifestyle

A sales rep is human. Human will always do what human does, and that means more than making a mistake!

At one time, Covey in his infamous ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ suggests that truly efficient people identify themselves through their role, for example, brother, sister, son, daughter, salespersons, manager, sportsman, and others.

With roles come routines, and identifying methods for each purpose is imperative. It sets the stage for maintaining and improving effectiveness.

The same can be said to the pharma sales rep. Right now, can you identify some roles that you are playing?

Now, not to bog you down with specific, perhaps the issue here is not so much of your personal role. That probably is the scope for another discussion, but for now, the attention is on the professional part; the part that pays for your foods and clothes.

Here’s how it might look like, typically:

6.00 AM: The perfect time to wake up, provided you have got enough closed-eye time, and for sales reps that are based in headquarters to avoid the traffic jam.

8.30 AM: Arrive at the office. Depending on where you are based, you might want to adjust arrival time according to your office requirement and job scope needs. I know that some sales managers arrive earlier to tighten up the day’s plan and polish yesterday’s. Of course, outstation colleagues always start at a later time, but regardless, if they can establish a routine, it is better for them.

9.30 AM: This is one of the best times to run some training exercises. Usually, this time slot will be filled with a role-play session and presentation. A selected team member will lead the session and delegate responsibilities among the team.

It will be a jam pack session, filled with giving feedbacks and communications. Once this is over, it is usually the time for reporting and other admin tasks.

10.30 AM: Salespersons should find their ways to customers’ site already. None of them should be in the office unless required too.

1.00 PM: It should be ample time to fulfill part of the daily call requirement. It will be filled with seeing healthcare practitioners, like doctors, pharmacists, and others. When seeing them, pharmaceutical sales reps will promote products using supplied marketing materials, for instance, a brochure, and mentioning products’ key messages.

And they probably had to carry out other activities also, which aim to strengthen the relationship with customers. Now, there is a thin line between ‘bonding’ and ‘influencing’ decision makers, so sales reps are advised to exercise caution. This comes naturally with the jobs, but until recently, updates had been made to make individual companies not abusing the opportunities specifically for commercial purpose.

For example, taking the HOD; Head of Department to lunch falls under this category. If not done tactfully, such action can be easily misinterpreted.

2.30 PM: Post lunch call. Energy level could be shallow at this moment, so it is good to involve in interactive activities, something that requires a lot of movement and involvement from reps and customers.

I think of chit-chat…

5.00 PM: You can call it a day, but if needs be, like traveling, then you can finish your day later. An excellent habit of exercising is writing the record for today’s activities, either on paper or electronically, and after that, your role as an average person must take over.

You can start with sports activity…

So, what do you think of the pharmaceutical sales career lifestyle? It’s what you make out of it that counts. Sorry to disappoint you; no hot babes and fast wheels to boot in this story because that is just the way it is.