Why you shouldn’t hire a pharmaceutical sales rep for your clinical sales job–or should you?

Laboratory reps have a mostly negative image to overcome when venturing out into other medical sales areas–often deserved, but sometimes not.  If you’re a hiring manager, you shouldn’t dismiss a pharma candidate out of hand–it should be a decision based on the individual, with many factors to consider.  If your friendly clinical sales recruiter has submitted such a candidate to you, there must be a reason.  If you’re a pharma sales rep looking to move into pharmaceutical, clinical diagnostics, biotech, pharma device, or other healthcare sales positions, you should know what you’re up against, as well as how to deal with it.

NEGATIVES:

• They’re spoiled – do they realize this is the real world where you’ve to work for that sale?
• Great pay- base salaries between 55-75  +20  –are they realistic about starting salaries elsewhere?
• Great benefits – you’ve got benefits, but not like Pfizer had?
• No heavy lifting – they haven’t worked as hard as your career opportunity requires
• Work in teams – are they self-motivated?  Were the results really theirs, or did someone else on the team do most of the work?
• No “real” sales experience – they haven’t closed before, and don’t understand the sales process

POTENTIAL POSITIVES:

• They may have strong technical degrees (Reno science, biology or zoology)
• Many had tough b2b jobs in the past and excelled there
• Many are tired of delivering donuts (they get no respect) and want to really achieve success
• Many are really professional, motivated and just want a chance

What do I think, as a laboratory sales headhunter? 

I won’t submit a candidate who has worked for more than 2 clinical companies.  Why?  Because they must have liked that environment in order to have stayed in it, which means that they won’t like the vastly different environment in pharma, clinical diagnostics, clinical device, biotech, pathology, or imaging sales.

I won’t consider a candidate who won’t concede that clinical revenue is a detailing process, not a selling process.  Why?  They’re disconnected with reality.  Pharma reps, however successful they have been, do not follow a sales process in which they got to close a sale and ask for the business.

I won’t consider a pharma rep who is more interested in base salary than in total comp.  Why?  This is obvious:  A great sales rep will be much more interested in sales commissions, because they expect to do well and make money off their efforts.

I won’t consider a pharma rep who can’t provide me with a manager reference (although I really won’t do this with any candidate).  Why?  In this day of LinkedIn, etc., it’s ridiculous to say you can’t keep in touch.  That’s a red flag for me.

On the other hand, I’d be interested in a pharmaceutical rep with a science degree who 

(1) hasn’t been in the pharmaceutical area long and has realized it’s not the place for him/her, or

(2) has had some success with a real sales process in the past and wants to get back to it, or

(3) some combination of these with significant motivations to get out of pharmaceuticals, as well as a realistic attitude about pay and position.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Headhunter at the nationally
recognized clinical and laboratory revenue recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Why you shouldn’t hire a pharmaceutical sales rep for your medical sales job–or should you?