When I’m mentoring people who want to get hired in this industry, the first thing I always tell them is this, “You should be networking while the world is awake and researching while they sleep.” The pharmaceutical sales search is a full time job. Just ask anyone who’s done it with success. Every minute you have that can’t be spent networking can be spent researching.

Here are 4 things you can do (with relative ease) that will help you learn more about the pharmaceutical industry.

1. Make a list of companies you would like to work for and study them daily.

Start with 5 companies and go to their websites. Notice I didn’t say “read about” these companies. You need to study them, just like you would’ve in college. Learn about the products they own and promote, learn about their history, their financial stabilty, their future, and their pipeline. Any bit of information you can find on them . . . devour it. Take it to heart.

2. Use the list from above and stay up to date on current news about those companies.

Back in the days before the internet, this was pretty tough. It meant going to the library and poring over the Wall Street Journal day after day looking for news. Today it’s as easy as going to news.google.com and searching for the company you are interested in and/or its stock ticker. If you want a really easy way, spend a few mintues teaching yourself about RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and the freshest news will be waiting for you all the time.

3. Use your local library.

While the internet has made some things easier, it still isn’t a replacement for your local library (not for free anyway). Visit the library and take a look at the S&P Reports for the 5 companies on your list. Ask the librarian to point you towards similar information that might be of use. Often times you can find jewels in these publications. As an added bonus, you can take copies of the S&P report to your interview and show the interviewer that you’ve done more to research than just point-and-click.

4. Watch Television.

It’s no secret that pharmaceutical companies love to advertise. While your spending well deserved time in front of the television, keep an pen and notepad nearby. As you see a commercial for a drug, write down its name. If the company logo appears, write it down too. If you can catch the major selling points that the commercial makes about the drug, you’ll be on your way to superstardom. I’ll bet you never thought watching TV could be considered work!

As you start doing these four things you’ll quickly find that there are numerous other habits you could form that would help you learn more about the pharmaceutical industry. Do those too. As with anything, the more you put into your search, the more you’ll get out of it. But, um, don’t forget to have a life!

Think about someone you know who is excellent at remembering details about the people he meets. The guy who remembers birthdays, kids’ names and other facts that make the person with whom he is speaking feel comfortable and valued. Chances are this person is either a successful politician or one of the top sales reps at your pharmaceutical company. Why? Because he can recall information about the people with whom he interacts. Information about such things as what was discussed at a past meeting, people in their mutual network and personal facts.

Now, this person may have a photographic memory, but more than likely he is great at taking call notes. Call notes are details of a sales call. They can also pertain to a networking meeting or encounter. Good call notes will provide information that you can use to follow-up with someone regarding product information or a possible pharmaceutical representative opening.

Not everyone has the skill to think on their feet during interviews or sales calls and by taking thorough call notes, you can review them while doing your pre-call planning or developing your strategy for networking within the pharmaceutical industry. By taking the guess work out of your follow-up you will appear more knowledgeable and focused on the needs of your customer or network contact. Additionally, call notes make great tools for writing sales letters and follow-up notes.

By having all the information from your meeting you can also ensure that you deliver on a promise you made or remind yourself who may owe you an actionable item relative to your job search. Let’s look at the elements of all good call notes:

• First, you should have an organizer or notebook where you write ALL your notes. Someplace where everything can stay together. This eliminates the chance of several bits of paper floating about and getting lost. You should have this anyway if you are looking for a position as a pharma sales rep.
• Next, good call notes should include:
  • Date, place and time of your meeting.
  • Who was in attendance, that person’s title and organization.
  • Topics discussed and any people mentioned with whom you may wish to follow-up.
  • Actionable items promised by you and to you and due dates. These would include any interviews.
• Also try to summarize your notes with a headline for quick and easy reference. Something like: Pharmaceutical Job Fair Discussion with Pfizer or First Sales Call to Dr. Conway Re: Lipitor®.
• Finally, every good call note must note Action, Response and Next Steps. This means that you list what action was taken (interview, sales call, ride-along), what response was there (call for 2nd interview, request for more info) and the next steps you need to take (schedule another meeting, call the physician, meet with HR). At the very least your call notes should have those details: Action, Response and Next Steps.
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Be sure to click ‘discuss this article’ below to go to the PharmBoard.com Messageboards and get critiques on your call notes.

That’s a great question glinton, and it’s one that many people seeking a job in pharmaceutical sales either ignore or let scare them from the industry altogether. For those with scientific backgrounds, most often the issue is not understanding the science or knowing where to find the information, it’s translating the scientific information into the features and benefits that are used to sell the product. For those non-science folks out there, it is often easy to make the translation to features and benefits once the science is understood. In this article, we’ll take a look at the steps needed to allow both science geniuses and non-science geniuses to succeed.

Start at the Beginning – While you’re waiting for the phone to ring . . . get busy!
Unless you are from a medical background, you probably aren’t very familiar with many of the medicines that are out there and who makes them. These simple tips will give you an edge over your competition when your pharma sales interview rolls around.

• Keep a small notepad on your endtable. While you are watching TV, write down the names of drugs that you see being advertised. If you’re feeling really froggy, see if you can determine the exact message that the company is trying to get across in the ad. Most ads have 2-5 high points they want to get across.
• Repeat the process with magazines. Nearly everyone has a stack of magazines lying around. They don’t even have to be the newest issues – so long as their not more that a year old. Again, pick out the high points of the message
  • Because you have more time with magazine ads, you should definately be able to determine the high points.
  • If you own the magazine, tear out the article and create a file for the company that makes the drug (this name will be listed somewhere on the ad)
  • Staple another piece of paper to the ad and label that page ‘Competitors’. On the outside of the folder start a list of all the drugs made by that company.
  • If you have any question about whether or not to add something in your folder, add it. Few things make a bigger impact on an interviewer than for you to show him/her how much homework you’ve done.
• Because companies only advertise products they are interested in selling, it makes perfect sense that you will be selling a drug that you see in one of these ads

Dig a Little Deeper – Sniffing out the competition.
You’ll quickly find out that this research can snowball in a hurry. Be sure to stay organized during the following steps or all your work will be in vain.

• Pick an ad, any ad and start searching for it’s class or therapeutic category (i.e. Zoloft is in the SSRI class of drugs and it’s major category is Antidepressant). If you can’t find that information on your magazine ad, do a search for the medicine on a site like . This will give you some early reading about the drug.
• Use the class and therapeutic category information to branch out and find the competition. Again, sites like Drugstore.com generate near perfect results for this information. Don’t believe me? Go to and type SSRI in the search box.
• If you find drugs or companies that you don’t have folders or pages about, add them now.

Take It and Run – There’s plenty here to keep you busy.
The cheif complaint that many pharma sales job seekers have is that it takes too long to get an interview. Just think about it this way . . . every day that you wait for an interview is another day you can prepare to impress the pants off of your interviewer. There is absolutely no reason anyone should go into the typical pharma sales interview unprepared. As you learn more and more about the products, don’t be afraid to go to the scientific literature and familiarize yourself with the main articles used to promote the drug (these will be listed in the drug’s package insert which is available on the manufacturing company’s website).

Freebies – if you put in the work, there’s no catch.
The best news for many is the ancillary benefits that result from you doing all this research.

• Imagine sitting in an informational interview and talking intelligently with your networking contact about a drug that she promotes. You can ask questions about common areas of concern that their customers have, the competitions’ spin on the products, and more.
• What if one of your networking contacts looked at his district manager and said, “Hey Boss, you know that resume I sent you the other day? That guy knows his stuff. The amount of research he has done on our products is amazing.”

The research is simple really. If you stay organized , start at the beginning, and drill down, you will find that what you learn will enable you to enter the interview with confidence and conviction. Ultimately, it is these two things that will seal the deal and put you on your way to the pharmaceutical sales job you want.