Why Should I Change From Pharma Sales to Diagnostic Sales?

In the previous post, we've discovered the story behind the pharmaceutical sales job that gets doctor's perks. The main point from there, if you recall, is that the perks are temporary. Doctors, after they serve for some times, are going to get a better payout and overall incentives.

So, there's no point to wage jealousy war there ...

And in this post, we're going to make a slight turn.

It might be clear by now that pharmaceutical selling can be generally divided into medicines sales and diagnostic sales/device sales. Change can happen between these two divisions.

If you're already selling medicines, and you always wonder another kind of selling in the pharma industry, you're going to discover that there are diagnostic sales, and you're going to see the reason why you want to consider it as your next job exchange.

Has it ever crossed your mind? Why you should change from pharma sales to diagnostic sales? The short answer, probably, is: ‘It depends’ and that is my answer if you were to ask me during my years in a pharmaceutical company, but after I give up my position and join diagnostics, I have a different explanation.

Right now, I also have some other explanations.

If you must know why I change from pharmaceutical to diagnostic last time, here is my list of answers:

• I could not go back to my previous company

Not after specific years had passed, but even after years had passed, I never imagine going back to the same company again, ever!

• I hate the people in pharma.

...Especially those who are sitting on the same rank as my ex-supervisor because I had generalized they are of the same feathers. How different can pharmaceutical companies’ office politics be? To me, they are all the same! And I hate it…

• I want to avoid seeing doctors.

My feeling is like I am going to the same restaurant and order the same meal every time. I mean, how many times can you go with the same course in a row? Four? Five? What if you have had it for the past 10 years? You get the idea.

• I want to do something new.

‘New’ as in ‘I never had any experience in this before, and later it will look impressive in my resume.’ Yes, I never had the intention to stay forever. This is the reality of working in the private sectors. Jumping from a place to another to learn is smart, and you are getting paid for taking the lesson. Not bad at alley?

Here is my assumption before joining diagnostics, apart from my wants and hate above:

1) I assume that selling for diagnostic is much more comfortable. I imagine it is my hand that’s going to do the selling instead of my mouth. It’s going to be easy.

2) I assume that the customers are highly focused and more comfortable to target. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen all.

3) I assume that the skills needed to sell are the same. How much different could it be?

4) I assume that I can really pull this off! It’s me alter ego talking…

I manage to dabble into the industry for almost 3 years before the company decided to pull off the plug. The experience I had was partially like what I have in mind, in other words, what I have assumed, but there are some parts which totally deviate from my pharmaceutical experience.

Do you want to listen to my discovery and probably recommendation that can make you doubt the decision you are about to make? Whether you answer YES or NO, why not just read on?

Here is my conclusion and/or recommendation:

1) If money is what you are looking for; do not change. The verdict is in, and money is still in pharmaceutical, be it for basic salary and incentives.

2) If you want an easy job making simple sales call, YES, diagnostics have better customers’ segmentation. They are easier to see and spend time with, but the downside of that is, when they start trusting you, they want you to handle everything and that is a lot because machines, unlike drugs, have downtime.

And customers could not wait for engineers to arrive next year to fix them. They want it immediately!

3) If you think pharmaceutical sales presentation is already challenging, think again. With pharma presentation, you rarely need to ‘demonstrate,’ unless you are selling respiratory drugs, but in diagnostic, demonstrating and users’ training are stapled food. If anything goes wrong with your machine while you are at it, there goes your reputation.

4) Response time is crucial for diagnostics at any given time. If your machine does not improve customers turn around time, you’re screwed! And that means responding to troubleshooting call during wee hours, like midnight!

So now, should you change from pharma sales to diagnostic sales? You go figure, but honestly, if you’re doing this for more money, then stay put or look for another pharmaceutical company. Other than that, feel free to jump.