The Pharmaceutical Sales Representative Handbook: A Field Handbook for All Current and Future Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives
By Todd Bearden and Larry Martin
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About this ebook
This is not a handbook for getting into the industry or how to interview for your next pharmaceutical sales job, it is a boots on the ground field manual for success in this field, updated to include what the environment is like today and what it will be like in 5 years.
As a retired military officer, I wish I had this book when I entered the industry eight years ago. Now you have the opportunity to hit the ground running with this field book, providing detailed information from being a standout in training to driving your sales beyond the competition in your first year in the field.
Todd Bearden
Todd Bearden I was hired into Pharmaceutical Sales after retiring from a twenty one year career with the US Army. As a soldier, I served the majority of my career in Special Operations and Rapid Deployment Force Units such as, the 75th Ranger Regiment and the 82nd Airborne Division. Serving in numerous leadership positions and extensive military schooling provided me a smooth transition from the US Army to Corporate America. I started my career in Pharmaceutical Sales as a field rep with a large pharmaceutical company. During my career I have sold eight different medicines to a variety of therapeutic specialties in the industry. Additionally, I have been awarded the Presidents Cup for being the top rated sales representative three times, two of which were back to back awards and have received numerous district and region awards while maintaining my position as a top performer year over year. This is an amazing industry and I feel extremely fortunate to be part of it. We want you to share the same success. We wrote this handbook for you. Use it to learn, grow and challenge yourself to go as far as you can in this incredible industry. Larry Martin I have been in the industry for twenty eight years, all with the same company. When I started my career, there were only four hundred reps across the company. I have sold numerous medicines spanning several therapeutic classes across several specialties; Hospital, Oncology and Primary Care. Throughout my career, I have been trained on forty different drugs and have won national, regional and local awards. I have had the privilege of assisting in training reps over the course of my career and have been called upon to present information at district and regional meetings, to include a presentation before my state committee on Medicaid. The last twenty eight years have been an adventure! I consider myself very lucky to be a part of this wonderful industry, the industry that YOU are now or will soon be a part of. We put this field manual together for YOU! Use it to help you go as far as you can in this amazing industry.
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The Pharmaceutical Sales Representative Handbook - Todd Bearden
Copyright © 2008 by Todd Bearden and Larry Martin
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ISBN: 978-1-4401-0945-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-4401-0946-1 (ebk)
iUniverse rev. date: 11/10/2008
Introduction
We have all seen those sharp looking young men and women breeze into our doctor’s office with their little black wheel bags. They usually greet the receptionist with a smile and head straight back in to the doctors’ area. Who are they? What are they up to? And Why?
They are pharmaceutical sales representatives — the sales reps. They are out in front of a 200 billion dollar industry that, for all its trumpeted failings, has the focused goal of keeping well people well, or making sick people better. And this being America, the companies are doing business for profit and in the face of very stiff competition, the kind of regulated competition that in other industries gives us safer and better aircraft and safer and better food. This industry, the so-called Big Pharma, touches one way or another most Americans with cutting edge medicines that turn despair into hope, and add quality to the lives of countless millions. But like any huge American industry, it is under frequent attack in books, the media, and even the occasional movie. Some of the attacks against the industry have at their core reasonable justification, and changes have been effected as a result. Others may seem a little gratuitous, as if the very size of the industry and the command it has on all our lives is itself justification for the attacks. But regardless of the level of criticism of the industry, though constantly adapting, it is here to stay. And as long as America remains a market economy, there will be challenging jobs for sales reps in this industry.
There are at any given time about a hundred thousand sales reps in the field, all selected through a highly competitive process, and all well compensated by their companies. At the same time, however, pharmaceutical sales is a vigorously merit-based profession, and only the most productive young men and women will survive and thrive. If it seems that the ubiquitous sales rep is something new to the universe of health care, it’s because all of these new medicines are, indeed, something new. Pharmaceuticals has transformed from an industry that was pretty much limited to aspirin and a few sulfa drugs and patent medicines
in our grandfathers’ days, to an industry that is coping with Research & Development (R&D) and clinical successes to the point that it has had to create a new class, an altogether new type of employee for its sales force. Consider that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) estimate that there are currently 2000 new medicine compounds in the late stages of clinical development. These medicines will be available soon; and many of them will treat diseases and conditions currently considered untreatable.
It is for this reason that Big Pharma seeks out the best educated and motivated young men and women on university American campuses and U.S. military out-processing centers every year. They are looking for the best people to explain the new medicines to physicians who no longer have the luxury of time to do their own research on the increasingly complex world of pharmaceuticals. If you think otherwise, just ask any physician if he has time to keep up will all the journals, treat his patients, deal with insurance matters, and have a life.
The pharmaceutical industry will spend great time, energy and financial resources to train and prepare its sales force to represent its products. Sales rep training is not limited to developing an intimate knowledge of the products, but also devotes a significant amount of time on preparing its sales force to operate under the highest ethical standards, as governed by PhRMA, Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals. The hundred thousand or so sales reps in the field today are operating under the strictest professional and ethical guidelines associated with any industry in America. The products and the rules of conduct are constantly upgrading, as is the cutting edge of the industry, its sales force.
This handbook is designed for the current and future Pharmaceutical Sales Representative; it is a quick reference guide, a field manual that can be referred to for many of the situations that sales reps encounter in a given day. It was written by reps for reps. It is not intended to help you land your next job in pharmaceutical sales, it is, rather, designed to help you excel in your current job as a sales rep. It is a battle handbook that can be used on a daily basis in navigating the many situations reps will encounter. It discusses the ins and outs of the job with a real world
perspective. Its goal is simple; to give you a head start, and to keep you out in front in the world of pharmaceutical sales. It will create a uniform approach to many of the situations you will face everyday, from how to approach an office for the first time to handling your most challenging customers.