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"How I got Into Pharmaceutical Sales"
Case History #1- Network, Network, Network.
Case History #2 - Newspaper Ads and Brain Picking.
Case History #3 - Recent College Graduate hits Pay Dirt.
Case History #4 - 42 Year-Old Man With Persistence [ Monster.com]
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Newspaper Ads and Brain Picking
Although Janice Johnson* took a circuitous route from nursing to pharmaceutical sales 15 years ago, every step of her professional journey made her more qualified to work in the pharmaceutical industry.
Johnson, a veteran sales representative at one of the country's top ten pharmaceutical companies, says that her healthcare background alone wasn't enough to give her an edge over the competition, but her clinical experience combined with her sales and marketing knowledge won her the job.
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Johnson, who has a bachelor's of science in nursing, started her career as an ob/gyn nurse working in hospitals and county clinics. After five years in patient care, Johnson switched gears and went to work as the manager of a nursing personnel agency.
Johnson's favorite aspect of the agency job was marketing, prompting her to change her professional direction. Soon thereafter, Johnson leveraged her clinical experience and went to work for a company that sold ob/gyn equipment to doctors. One year later, she "decided to take the big leap to pharmaceutical sales."
Johnson responded to newspaper ads and garnered several pharmaceutical sales interviews. To prepare for the interviews, she picked the brains of pharmaceutical sales representatives she knew from her hospital and clinic days, inquiring about the industry and what kinds of interview questions she should expect.
Johnson spent hours at the library researching the product lines, management structures, and leadership styles of her target companies, and she even reviewed the companies' annual reports and their stock market performances.
Johnson focused her search on the top 20 largest pharmaceutical companies, and recommends that other nurses do the same. "The biggest companies tend to be the most stable and lucrative, and seem to have the most room for growth," she says.
"They are also more professional and tend to treat their employees much better." Pharmaceutical companies only hire candidates who have at least a bachelor's degree for sales rep positions, and generally don't make exceptions for experienced RNs with associate degrees, Johnson says.
Johnson's job hunt was successful because of her combination of healthcare experience and sales savvy, she says. "I think I got the job because of my familiarity with the region and with some of the physicians I would be calling on," says Johnson, who has worked for the same company her entire pharmaceutical career.
"I had also kept my credentials current, which gave me credibility," she says. Additionally, Johnson had independently completed the Dale Carnegie sales course, which showed her commitment to mastering sales techniques, she says.
Johnson surmises that pharmaceutical companies' hiring processes may be even more rigorous now than 15 years ago. However, the basic characteristics Johnson tried to display during her interviews - ambition, enthusiasm, assertiveness, professionalism, and the desire to make a profit for the company - will still impress potential employers, she says. "Nurses who are interviewing with pharmaceutical companies have to realize that this is a business.
You're stepping away from the bedside and selling products. If the products don't sell and you don't increase profitability, you won't succeed. You have to show you recognize this aspect of the job," Johnson says.
Nurses aren't shoo-ins for pharmaceutical sales positions, Johnson reiterates, but they certainly have what it takes to succeed if given the opportunity.
"Our knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and chemistry definitely help in the job," she says. "And I also think doctors take us more seriously because of our backgrounds."
*not her real name
See Also>Case History #1- Network, Network, Network.
See Also>Case History #3 - Recent College Graduate hits Pay Dirt.
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