subject: Interested In A Career As A Pharmaceutical or Medical Equipment and Supply Sales Representative? [print this page] Interested In A Career As A Pharmaceutical or Medical Equipment and Supply Sales Representative?
Getting into medical sales can be extremely financially lucrative. It's not unusual for people in medical sales to generate six figures per year. There is normally a great deal of travel involved with this job.
In order to qualify for medical sales jobs one would require a qualification in chemistry, biology, life sciences, nursing, or even a medical degree. However, if one has a prove track record in sales or perhaps a strong background in medicine they'd also be good candidates for medical sales.
Anyone considering a career in this field should also have the ability to easily build rapport with other people. Being familiar with sales is about developing trust with potential clients and looking after good relations with existing clients. There's two main types of jobs in this industry, pharmaceutical sales and medical equipment and supplies sales.
In order to do pharmaceutical sales the representative must stay current with all the current drugs the company they work for has available. They should also stay current on all the drugs their company is now working on and ones being tested. Because new drugs are constantly being developed and tested while others taken off the market, being current is an absolute must. They must be completely proficient in the medications and also easily answer many of the questions the physicians might have.
Medical equipment and supplies could be considered the more difficult of the two. Particularly when dealing with the expensive equipment. There are many sub-fields within the medical equipment supply sales. A few of these include: Medical capital equipment, disposable medical supplies, theatre products and devices, orthopaedic products, cardiology products, wound care products, continence care, stoma care, respiratory equipment, and radiology equipment.
Some medical devices are extremely costly for a physician or hospital. Therefore, getting regular sales of such equipment can be a real challenge. However, due to the large cost, the representative doesn't have to make many sales to reap a sizable commission from the sale. Like the pharmaceutical sales representative a medical equipment representative must know everything about the supplies and equipment they're selling inside and out. They have to be able to answer all of the technical questions from the prospective clients.
As long as one meets the minimum requirements as outlined above or within the job ad, it's relatively simple to locate a job within this field. These jobs are posted on the individual websites of the pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies. They also often list any open positions on the bigger online job search sites. There are also companies that are dedicated to medical equipment and pharmaceutical sales recruitment which handle the work application for the companies.
