Do You Want to Earn $100,000 in the First Year?
Pharmaceutical sales representatives can easily earn $100,000 or
more per year, ranking them in the top ten percent of earners in the
U.S. Successful sales representatives—the ones who work hard
every day, become product experts and have great attitudes—can
earn considerably more than $100,000 per year. With an average
starting base salary of $55,000 per year, commissions, stock
options, cars, and career advancement, it’s no wonder that
thousands of people apply for these jobs every day.
Pharmaceutical companies pay well because being a
pharmaceutical sales rep is a lot of hard work. After a full day of
calling on at least ten doctors, most reps are required by their
companies to attend evening educational programs that could run
well past 10:00 p.m. When they get home, they need to complete
paperwork, check e-mails, respond to voicemails, and complete
many other assignments.
Then again, there are other perks: In addition to the salary,
commission, car, and stock options, you get to organize educational
dinners with thought leaders in the Industry at great restaurants. You
just need to keep the costs under $100 per head for most companies.
First You Need to Get the Interview!
You can do several things to get an interview:
1. Go to pharmawebsites and apply online.
2. Contact recruiters
3. (Best Option) Go to a doctor's office, ask the receptionist for
pharmaceutical sales reps' business cards and give them a call. Ask
to meet with them. Obtain the phone numbers and email addresses
of their District Managers to set up interviews.
4. Check out websites and newspapers for Job Fairs.
5. Post your resume on monster and look for open jobs.
6. Checkout Careerbuilder.com
For every open sales position, we receive about five hundred
résumés per week through recruiters, our company website,
Monster, and other sources. We disregard about ninety percent of
those résumés and very few candidates make it past the first round
of interviews. At job fairs, if we interview one hundred people, fewer
than ten percent get asked back for a second interview and of that
ten percent, we might hire one person.
Why do so many people never make it past the first cut? It’s probably
the same reason why many pharmaceutical reps don’t succeed,
because they just wing it! Candidates’ résumés are not
pharmaceutically focused and candidates don’t prepare for
interviews, just like the average and below-average pharmaceutical
sales reps who don’t prepare for sales calls.
Common Mistakes
· Most candidates do not prepare for the interview and rely entirely
on the Internet for their research. Although the Internet is a good
starting point, the focus of the research should be on interviewing
doctors, pharmacists, and pharmaceutical sales representatives.
Candidates need to do things that the job itself entails, so that, when
a hiring manager asks them what they did to prepare for the
interview, they will have plenty to say. Even with Internet access,
many candidates know nothing about the company or its products
and still expect to get asked back for a second interview.
· Many candidates know nothing about the responsibilities
entailed in the job. It’s amazing how many people want these jobs, yet
have no idea of what a pharmaceutical salesperson actually does
every day. Many tell me that they have friends in the industry, but
most haven’t shown the foresight to spend a day in the field with that
friend to learn about products and job responsibilities.
· Candidates need to demonstrate that they can sell. If they have
prior sales experience, then they need to show what they sold and
how they sold it. I explain this process in the section titled “Show and
Sell,” in Chapter One.
· Regardless of sales experience, candidates who do not ask for
the job or a second interview won’t get it. This is a sales job and
salespeople succeed by asking for things.
Success for the Few!
10% Success
In my company, only 10% of the sales representatives receive the top
sales awards during our annual awards meeting. Some of those
awards include trips to Puerto Rico, a $3,000 check, a car upgrade,
huge blocks of stock options, the highest salary increases, and other
perks. Others either produce average results or lose their jobs within
a year. Some find that they cannot do the job, don’t want to do the job,
or, in some cases, have bad managers. Regardless, Pharmaceutical
Landing can help launch you into that top 10% if you are willing to
learn and willing to work for it.
Read Books & Be Prepared!
Read sales books. You can start with mine. If you are looking for a
book to show you the “nice” way to prepare for an interview and
succeed in pharmaceutical sales, then search for another book,
because Pharmaceutical Landing shows you the no-nonsense
approach! That is, learning to go the extra mile, the way that may be
painful, the way that will help you land a pharmaceutical sales job
and succeed in it!
I have little patience with people who do not come prepared to
interviews and reps who don’t perform. When you hear me say, “Do
you have any questions for me?” within the first ten minutes of the
interview, then you know it’s over. Now it’s up to you. Get started now
by reading my book!
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New!
The 2nd
Edition of
Pharmaceutical
Landing!
Updated with
2 New
Chapters!
Click here to
learn more.
Derek From Baton
Rouge, LA
"Frank,"
"Read your book.
Went to the
interview.
Received job offer
in pharmaceuticals
today! Great
Book!! Is body
building this easy?
Will have to read
soon."
Thanks,
Derek Moore
Ashlie
"Yes, I landed a
pharmaceutical job
with a major
company and I had
NO pharma
background."
read entire review and
other successes as a result
of reading Frank's book