Sales Training in the Pharmaceutical Industry

While the days of the traveling door-to-door salesmen have long since come and gone, companies still need talented individuals to meet prospective clients, introduce their products, and generally just project a good face for the company. One of the most appealing things about sales is that the applicant need not have great knowledge or experience in the day to day operations of the company whose products he is selling, he simply needs to know the product. These days, some of the most prized and sought after jobs are in the pharmaceutical industry. As we mentioned, a talented pharmaceutical representative need not have a medical background to secure employment. He simply needs a college degree and exemplary communication skills.

If you are interesting in becoming a pharmaceutical rep, there a few things you should know. To begin with, you should know that once you have been hired, there is quite a bit of training involved before you speak to your first client. Many of the top pharmaceutical companies have a sales training department that runs like a well-oiled machine. It is the task of these sales training groups to turn naturally talented salesmen into working professionals who know everything they need to know about the company and the product.

Those who decide to dedicate their careers to sales training have a number of lucrative positions to choose from. They can apply for a job as a regular sales trainer, a regional sales trainer or a national sales trainer. They may also choose to become a training specialist who concentrates on things like project management, design, or media.



But sales training positions are not easy to obtain. Most of the time, pharmaceutical companies require that sales trainers have several years of experience as successful sales representatives. In fact, more often than not, these jobs are reserved for the company’s best sales reps.

So what does a sales trainer actually do? It is the responsibility of the sales trainer to create a program that will satisfactorily teach each new sales representative everything they need to know about the company and the products they will be selling. To achieve this, sales trainers organize and oversee training sessions with new sales reps and pay close attention to their progress. They also conduct skills tests and product knowledge reviews.

Because pharmaceutical firms expect that new sales reps will complete the majority of their studying after work, it is the primary responsibility of the sales trainer to stay on top of new employees and make certain that they are keeping up with their studies. In the end, it is up to the sales trainer and the sales trainer alone to decide whether or not the rep is ready to go out on the road. The sales trainer will then report his findings to management. If a sales representative is deemed ready, he will be granted permission to set up meetings with physician customers.

Since the average sales trainer must have years of experience in the field and since they are responsible for training the next generation of salesmen, they are extremely well-compensated. The average sales trainer earns between eighty and one hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year.