How to get started in the pharmaceutical sales industry?
Asked by sunshine
I am almost finished with a bachelors degree in business administration. I heard it was hard to get into pharmaceutical sales. That is why I choose business in to do pharmaceutical sales. Any advise on how to get going? Just mail my resume to the drug companies?

Best Answer:
Best to have an liberal arts, MBA, Chemistry, pre-med (or Pharmaceutical) degree or all of them. Also note that the better you choice of colleges the more they will pay you as an entry level employee. So if you are not yet out of school go to the best college you can possibly afford. Your resume will also be important, but not as important as your school. Now to answer your question about the difficulty; generally the sales person is a liaison. It is best if you have the technical background (Chemistry, Pharmacy, maybe pre-med) so you can understand and discuss the chemistry and bio-chemistry of the drugs with physicians & other purchasers who might be technical minded. You then need liberal arts skills so that you can effectively communicate that technical information to non-technical people who might be the people making the purchasing decisions, like clinic managers. You must understand what you are selling and be able to communicate why potential customers must have it whether they are of a technical mind or not. Also, you must be able to make that determination (qualify your potential customer) and speak accordingly. This is why you need the techical skills and the liberal arts skills.
Experience.
Answered by Jonathan

My husband is a pharma rep. It is extremely difficult to get in the field especially now that there are thousands of pharma reps out of work. You pretty much need to finish your degree and get at least a year or 2 of solid business to business sales experience. Pharma companies get thousands of applications weekly so it could take a year or 2 to get hired but without any sales experience, forget it.
Answered by blahblahblah