How Much Do You Make In Pharmaceutical Sales As A Rep?

The short answer to the question of how much I make in pharma sales is "It depends..." In my case, I can bring you into the stages and phases of my sales career and share with you how much I did make.

Read more: Factors that influence your income as a Pharma Sales rep.

In the early days as a sales rep:

When I started out about a decade ago, my basic salary was, should I say, AVERAGE or maybe slightly better than average from what a new grad get. Bare in mind; I started out in 1998 when things were plunged into the drain, economically speaking :)

But I fare pretty well. I got good basic pay, some of my expenses were claimable, and I got incentives! Huh, plus-minus everything I did make a reasonable sum.

Then I changed the company after 5 years. When I jumped ship, I got a fast 500 bucks to increase in basic pay plus more claimable expenses, allowances, and more incentives! It was even better because I got monthly incentive payout :)

And good fortune was on my side on top of that due to the products which I promote. They were the blockbusters of the era! No kidding...

That means I make a lot, a lot more than my previous five years.

Then I got promoted.

Days as the Person who manages Pharma Sales rep:

My income leaps and bounds to oblivion - well, almost. I got immediate 2K increases in primary and other perks were terrific. Those were the years I changed my car and started my family.

I made a lot more compared to the previous 7 years combined.

After that, the economy went sour again. I threw in the towel and decided to start something, like a trade, on my own.

My total income plummet. So did my savings and some other intangible stuff (like my sleep - I never had enough of that; thanks to different time zone!)...

I earned lesser and lesser, and after 12 months, I decided to get my foot back into pharma workforce once again.

The days of the career Restart:

And started off with a diagnostic company. I consider this a test to see how versatile I was. In fact, I had a personal mission to prove to others that I was cut to make sales - with any product, in any field.

The Diagnostic company basic pay was not bad. I did not get as much as I did from the previous post in the last company, but it was more than what I've bargained for.

The claimable expenses were, um, average but the incentive, and here's the suspense part below average! Huh! Gotcha!

It was like what I got for slightly over 4 months with the previous pharma company :(

But I told myself, "This is a different company, and I am in a different industry," and I tried to live off that after that.

After 2 years, my contract expired, and the company was not interested in renewing it. But I could not care less since I got the talent and competencies.

So I moved on...

I then landed in a different product and different industry (again!). This time I was closer to the end user than I ever was before. In fact, I saw that this company is the biggest company compared to the ones I worked previously.

But the basic salary was at the level before I got promoted a long, long time ago; the incentive was no better, and the claim was average.

I felt like I carry a heavy burden, but I had to move forward. I last about a month with that Big Company...haha!

Now I'm with the fifth company. Is it any better? I can tell you that so far, the salary and incentive were at the middle level where I was once upon a time (my second company).

How long would I last? It depends but up to this point, I have told all as I promised earlier, the stages and phases of how much I've earned as a pharmaceutical sales rep - without being specific about the figures, of course ;)