Interview with a Pharmaceutical Sales Rep-2

What do you do for a living?

Pharmaceutical Sales Representative

How would you describe what you do?

I manage a territory of NW Arkansas that consists of approx. 250 physicians. I am in charge of calling on a list of physicians, created by myself, my partners, and my company, and selling the doctors, nurse practicioners, and physician assistants the efficacy, safety, dosing, and clinical data of two products in which I have responsibilities for: basically bringing educational value to the office and physicians.

I have had patients in the waiting room thank me for what I do or tell me a success story of how my product changed their life. I enjoy the health field and I feel like I am making a difference each day in someone’s life.

I am also responsible for calling on pharmacy’s in my territory to keep up to date on my products and my competition. I am responsible for my "business" and must manage a monthly budget, travel and expense reports, appointments with clients, dinner programs, email, voicemail, and overall coordination with my teammates.

What does your work entail?

As a rep, I am required to make 8-10 calls on physicians a day, 2 pharmacy calls per day, and recording what happens during each call in my computer. I speak with the doctors through walk ins, appointments, lunch and learns, or dinner programs arranged through my company. I travel to each city within my territory and plan out my week based on my partners and the schedules of the physicians or existing appointments. Continue Reading …

Posted in Medicine, Sales, Salaried, commission pay   Posted: December 14th, 2007   4 comments




An interview with a Medical Device Sales Consultant

What do you do for a living?

My actual title is called a Respiratory Care Account Manager, but the job description is actually selling critical care and surgical type products in the hospitals and surgery centers.

How would you describe what you do?

The people I call on within the hospital for the products I carry range from anesthesiologists, to surgeons, to nursing staff, critical care, intensive care units, and then also into the purchasing department and the administration. Not very often, but sometimes CEO’s and CFO’s of hospitals. My main two products are types tracheotomy and endotracheal tubes. The tracheotomy tubes are basically a product for patients that go home and have trouble with some type of upper respiratory abnomally or problem. And the endotracheal tube line is more for surgeries.

A lot of people think that because we’re out there selling different products and pharmaceutical companies are selling all these different drugs that it’s driving our insurance up really high…in one sense you can look at us and say ‘yeah it does’…But I guess at the end of the day if you are on your deathbed do you want a product that is from Target, or do you want a product that has been in research and development for a long time and has had some of the best scientists in the world world looking at it?

The doctor administers the anesthesia and once the patient is anesthetized they keep them alive by a ventilator which is connected to the endotracheal tube.

What does your work entail?

It really entails knowing your customer’s very well, knowing what they do really helps you. I come from a nonclinical background in college. I have a double major in marketing and management, and I knew I wanted to get into medical device sales so I took a few premed classes, anatomy and physiology, some basic type classes to kind of get me a little bit of a jump start. It really helps me to know exactly what the doctor’s, or nurse’s, job responsibilities are. It allows me to just be able to communicate with them better. It’s actually a great job for those that are independent and self driven. I basically can wake up whenever I want. I work out of my home office here, and I basically run a territory. Continue Reading …

Posted in Medicine, Sales   Posted: December 10th, 2007   2 comments




Interview with a Pfizer Pharmaceutical Rep

What do you do for a living?

I’m a Pharmaceutical Sales Rep for Pfizer.

How would you describe what you do?

I would describe it as a sales person calling on doctors and my job is to get doctors to use the drugs that I’m selling. And I have four products, so I have to get them to write my four products for the patients. 

What does your work entail?

You see anywhere between 10 and 15 doctors a day for 5 days in a week. You call on those doctors who are the biggest prescribers, so I would look at a computer

You’re offering a product that a lot of times, people don’t believe in and you have to make them believe in that product because if your product wasn’t superior to most other products, it wouldn’t be out here.

and look at a doctor’s profile and if they have a lot of potential to write my products, I target those doctors and try to get those doctors to write my product.  During the work week, you travel a lot. Some territories are bigger than others, but mine’s about two hours long, so some days I’m two hours away from home in a small town calling on a small clinic or there’s other days when I’m in a bigger city and I call on the doctors there. Continue Reading …

Posted in Medicine, Sales   Posted: December 7th, 2007   7 comments




Interview with a Speech Pathologist

What do you do for a living? I’m a speech pathologist. How would you describe what you do? I primarily work with the geriatric population helping people

I enjoy just talking with the patients. I love the elderly…I love hearing and laughing at their stories, that’s the best part.

had strokes, swallowing difficulties, or who have cognition impairments. What does your work entail? I usually work from 7 to 3. I work in a nursing home. I usually see anywhere from 7 to 10 patients a day. I see most of my patients in the morning, see some at meals. There’s lots of paperwork involved and lots of notes…that’s about it. It’s between 36 to 40 hours per week. Continue Reading …

Posted in Medicine   Posted: December 5th, 2007   1 comment