Bessies Articles

This is definitely where the vast majority of pharmaceutical sales reps work in with the main target customer base being physicians. Based on the type of drugs promoted, sales forces target family physicians and/or specialist doctors his or her main customers. Some giant pharmaceutical brands like Glaxo and Merck have a lot of promoted products requiring several sales force divisions within each firm. There could be separate divisions promoting completely different products towards the same or different customer groups. Sometimes different divisions can have the same products but they have different groups of target customers to target. Each pharmaceutical rep could possibly be promoting typically three different main drugs with a few secondary products at the same time. New drugs usually only have a particular years before their patents run out. Drugs that were successful on the market will almost certainly attract generic competitors in time. Therefore, sales forces will normally spend nearly all of their efforts on newer drugs hoping to generate the maximum amount of sales as you can before patent protections run out. Once cheaper generic versions arrive on the market, sales forces usually switch their focuses to many other newer drugs that still have patent protection. It is almost always too difficult to compete against low priced generic products so brand companies usually promote just those items that have zero generic competition. Additionally, there are smaller companies that target niche specialty drugs. The sales forces of these companies probably will focus more on specific medical specialties as target customers instead of on general practice doctors. Understand that the quantity of family physicians outnumber any single medical specialty group by far so large companies which promote to general practice doctors will need large sales forces. In contrast, businesses that promote just to specific medical niches can pull off smaller sales forces due to the smaller variety of target customers. An example would have been a cancer or oncology drug which will usually never be prescribed with a family physician anyway. Sales positions during these specialty companies are generally a little bit more tough to get for candidates who definitely are unfamiliar with the business as experienced pharmaceutical representatives are often preferred. Selling to specialists is often thought to be a sophisticated measure of pharmaceutical sales more suited to individuals who have been in the industry for awhile. However, there have been exceptions, particularly with dermatology companies promoting skin products. Over the counter Products Most companies have over the counter (OTC) products like cough and cold medications that are non-prescription medications which represent another main sector. Larger companies who have both prescription and OTC products could possibly have separate sales forces for each and every sector. Some companies might be strictly OTC focused. On the whole, sales positions for OTC lines could be a bit quicker to get in comparison to prescription sales for new candidates. The reason being in many instances, OTC items are less technical than prescription drugs and are considered to be a lesser measure of pharmaceutical selling. Sales forces selling just OTC products will likely be calling on only family physicians as opposed to specialists as target customers. There could be more calls to retail pharmacists too because these health professionals are frequently consulted by patients in relation to product selections (for instance, customers asking a pharmacist to recommend a product of cough syrup). In all likelihood, the salaries for OTC sales reps will be lower than for prescription drug rep counterparts since generally OTC products cost less than medications. There has been instances when new pharmaceutical representatives got their start in OTC sales after which progressed to prescription sales after several several years of experience in the industry. So OTC sales would be an option for new candidates as a possible industry entry point.