Medical sales careers

Medical sales careers Pharmaceutical Sales Careers Advantage Over Careers in Medicine Advantages can come in many forms. Looking at careers in pharmaceutical sales and careers in medicine, the thing I see personally that put them under the same umbrella is healthcare. Both careers affect healthcare, directly or indirectly. But the things that put them at different end of the line can be summed up in this sentence – demand and supply. Let’s take a look at both careers, in term of advantages, from that point of view. Pharmaceutical Sales Are Profit Driven It is not a mystery when a new pharmaceutical sales rep for a multinational company (MNC) got paid higher in basic salary and overall package than a new Houseman i.e. a new medical graduate. Such a high amount represents high expectation from the company. The company invests and expects higher return from the rep. Starting off high – who would not consider that as an advantage to their career? Flexible Working Hours This is one thing that really makes pharmaceutical sales careers more worthwhile than any medical careers. After a decade of working in pharmaceutical industry, I have never experience a time when I was On Call. You have a number of calls to make per day but how you are going to fulfill it is totally up to you. Chances To Bag Huge Incentive Huge incentives can take many forms depending on companies. Some give cold hard cash, some car incentives, oversea trips, expensive watch, and some just mix everything in. I have seen cases where a sales rep brings home more incentive than total annual salary. It is not typical but possible. I could not say the same to the folks in medical line though. More Careers Advancement Option In medical line, a natural progression is obvious if a person works for the Government. But for a pharmaceutical sales rep job, you can always be on the look out for bigger, better opportunity in other companies provided you have gathered enough experience. You do not need to wait for your boss to retire and you probably stand a chance of getting better remuneration than he or she in due time. Meaningful Transferable Skills I have friends who are former Sales Rep just like me making a killing on their own. They have their own companies and they are building strong business. And I knew they learn all these while serving their former pharmaceuticals employer. If you are in medical line, such transferable skills may be available but limited. Maybe an extreme example I can call upon right off the bat is our former Prime Minister who was a General Practitioner in a small town in Kedah, Malaysia. There is no former pharmaceutical sales rep that I know of in our local cabinet line up. But I know a lot of them who are busy building up their companies. A Liberal Playing Field I have a medical related background and if I have a career in pharmaceutical sales it looks somewhat normal. But my other colleagues in the same company, not all of them share my kind of background. Some of them were Air steward or stewardess, law students, engineers, clerical jobs, menial jobs, veterinarian, nursing and many others. And their chance to succeed in this career is not reduced by their background. In fact, some of them are far ahead than me in terms of position and salary remuneration. But you could not do the same in medical line. If you were not trained, you are out. These are some obvious advantages I observed all my entire pharmaceutical career life. Some of them you might also see in your local situation but some you might not be able to so take everything listed here with a pinch of salt. My own observation is not typical but probable. Nezrul offers pharmaceutical sales representative careers tips on his blog:http://contrarian-sales-technique.blogspot.com http://contrarian-sales-technique.blogspot.com/ ---------------------------------------------- Impact of Credit Crunch on Medical Sales Jobs Anyone who has been seeking for work over the last few years can attest to the fact that positions in the medical career field have continued to be in demand and may have actually grown over the years. Nurses, medical technicians, physicians assistants and other qualified healthcare positions are posted all over job search sites, classified ads, and recruited heavily from within. When looking at the span of positions available and what jobs will continue to be recession proof medical careers are easily spotted as a smart, safe, and financially sound career move. However, little information is given to careers in other parts of the healthcare industry such as the medical sales sector. Given the information we know about the economy and medical careers this is also an industry that could be considered recession proof. For instant, during hard economic times we see an influx of people actually using hospitals, clinics, and doctor's offices more frequently. Whether this is due to the fact that people do not have the extra cash to eat better, splurge gym memberships, or the overall stress that a recession adds on, causes increased medical problems, we don't know. However, past recessions show us that healthcare industries tend to thrive during an economic downturn. This means hospitals and clinics are more likely to spend money on equipment and new technology to compensate for the increase in demand on their staff and supplies. The more people they service the higher the demand for medical supplies is. Hospitals and clinics are not the only companies who tend to spend money during an economic recession. Businesses also tend to market themselves more due to increased competition for consumer's business. This is another way that medical sales vacancies tend to be recession proof. Sales positions are one way that businesses can save and make money during a recession. Since most sales positions are a combination of salaried and commission positions, businesses can lower salary but give higher commissions. This allows them to pay great sales people top dollar without taking a substancial risk. Since during recessions businesses tend to spend more money on marketing, and also tend to offer competitive prices to beat out other businesses in the industry, sales jobs tend to be more recession proof than other positions. Also, because the company is spending money to promote itself, sales positions tend to have better capture rate because you have corporate marketing as well as individual sales helping to promote your product. Recession proof jobs are hard to find, but medical sales could prove to be a lucrative career during a period of economic downturn. Sales people with experience and a proven track record may have their pick of positions since businesses tend to expand their sales teams during economic recessions. These jobs may have slightly lower salaries but usually come with bigger commissions and often even sign on bonuses. As hospitals are spending more money on supplies due to increase in demand, taking higher commissions may even work out in the favor of the medical sales professional. Joe Blogger is an expert author in the field of medical sales and marketing and a consultant to the leading medical recruitment company Zenopa. For more information about medical sales jobs visit http://www.zenopa.com