A medical representative is a person appointed by a medical company as a part of the sales team to establish a network with the healthcare professionals to promote new products, deals, sales, offers, advice and information about the usage of the medical products, medical equipment, devices or medicines. In other words, they are the front end representatives for pharmaceutical companies to a healthcare professional or a doctor.
A medical sales representative has good communication skills, convincing power and can easily influence people with his advanced marketing strategies. He is appointed by companies so that their respective products can easily reach the specialists and further be used by common people. He has to maintain all detailed records of sales and doctors data on a monthly and yearly basis.
The company allotted different territories to different representatives to manage the work easily and to help build stronger bonds & business. They lay the foundation for the company’s growth.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF A MEDICAL REPRESENTATIVE
The most important role of a medical representative is to promote and sell or in other words create demand for any old or new product in the market and ensure availability at retailers. Their role is quite challenging because they have to work continuously day and night at different hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and meet different people like doctors, medical professionals, pharmacists, clinic managers, etc.
They have to achieve their sales target by generating prescriptions. They have to be mastered in the skill of communication, problem solving abilities and time management.
A medical representative should be able to convince a healthcare professional to prescribe the company’s product as he is the building block of the company. They form the platform of the company in front of the customers and share the vision, promote the products and achieve the objectives. All these efforts of the representative add on to the revenue of the company.
They are basically the key point of contact between pharmaceutical companies and healthcare professionals, answering their questions, promoting products, spreading awareness and introducing new products.
Medical representatives’ role is to meet with doctors, nurses or pharmacists in their offices to look after the supply of drugs and to inform them of the forthcoming changes.
How to become a medical representative?
Those who wish to become a medical representative need to have a bachelor’s degree in a related field like science, pharmacy, business or healthcare. Person’s qualified in other fields can also become a medical representative but they have to undergo various training programs about the human body functions, diseases and drugs in which they want to specialize. These training sessions are normally for 30 to 45 days.
Skills of a medical representative
Lots of skills are required to develop trust and support of the people. Some of the skills of a medical representative are mentioned below:
- Hardworking and confident
- Good Product Knowledge
- Should be well groomed
- Should be dedicated and determined
- Ability to take a challenge
- Should be fluent with the language
- Should have problem solving skills
- Ability to handle different types of customers
- Should be punctual and disciplined
- Should have good analytical skills
- Well mannered
- Should have a positive attitude towards work
Medical Representative Salary
Salaries of a medical representative vary from company to company. Indian pharmaceuticals normally pay between Rs. 1.8 lacs Per annum to Rs. 2.5 lacs Per annum. Moreover multinational pharmaceutical companies pay between Rs. 2.4 lacs Per annum to Rs. 3.6 lacs Per annum.
Medical Representative Jobs
There are plenty of new openings or jobs for medical representatives in India with Indian pharma companies, pcd pharma franchise companies, medical equipment companies and multinational companies. One can apply with placement agencies or online job portals like Naukri.com or Monster.com.
We hope you have understood the role and responsibilities of a medical representative and how he plays a very important role in building the business of a pharmaceutical company.