Being a Medical Representative builds remarkable skills in any individual, it builds communication skills, flexible thinking skills, interpersonal relationship skills, commercial skills and many others.
Becoming a Medical Representative is a good career choice, even though the routine sleepless nights and continuous pressure to deliver on Sales Targets can become tiring after a number of years, a very senior member of a multinational pharmaceutical company once told me that no one should be a medical rep for more than 3 years and if you do find yourself in a situation whereby you are on the Job for more than 3 years and you are still enjoying it then kudos to you, but if you aren’t then you will need to find different ways to continue to motivate yourself or simply find something else to do.
Sometimes that is easier said than done. Anyway the purpose of this article is not to question the viability of the Job but rather to examine what career paths are available to the average rep beyond field sales work. A lot of individuals who take on jobs as Medical Representatives particularly those who studied Pharmacy and other science courses in the University usually end up there because of 3 main reasons
1. That was the Job that was available.
2. it’s a Job that offers me the flexibility to do other activities or prepare for other future plans
3. I would get a car.
You might not agree with the reasons but you might agree that the decision to become a Medical Representative in a Pharmaceutical company is not usually as a result of some career guidance counselling in the Nigerian School system either at secondary or tertiary level. A lot of individuals usually just end up there and there are many examples of individuals who have built long successful careers even beyond the country and continent.
The most common career growth path for a Medical Representative is Sales Management (Depending on the organization this comes in various forms and designations e.g. Key account management, channel manager, tender manager etc.) other options include Marketing or Brand management, Training and nowadays Commercial Effectiveness, the Pharmaceutical industry in recent years has become more competitive.
10 to 15 years ago, Pharmacy graduates had variable options in the industry to become Med Reps, chances are if you wanted to be a Sales Rep you would get a Job if not in a multinational company then probably an indigenous one however those dynamics are rapidly changing especially now with the recent downturn of the economy leading to high level of downsizing and outright shutting down of branches of multinational companies in the Country and across sub Saharan Africa.
In any case the ratio of number of Medical Representatives employed in any Organisation is much higher than the number of available career growth spots in any of the aforementioned options mentioned above, in many cases at least 8 times within the organization, bearing in mind that the competition is almost always both internal and external. For those medical representatives who are not just passing the time to pursue other endeavours and actually want to build a career in the industry or out of it. Chances are even if you are the most successful, have the highest sales achievements consistently there are no guarantees that one of those spots will be available for you and now that the number of opportunities continue to shrink, it is highly important that we expand those opportunities or at least increase our chance of getting one of those few coveted spots. I have a number of tips that I believe every young Medical Representative should consider to improve their chances of progressing into the next step of their career;
1. Decide in advance what your next career step is from day 1; don’t wait till you are 3 years on the Job to decide which opportunity I want to focus on, if you do you will end up just applying for each and every single position that is available without actually being prepared for any. Chances are you could get lucky and get one of those Spots but sooner rather than later you will find yourself in a similar dilemma when you are ready to move to the next step and then it gets even harder if you are not fully prepared.
2. Learn about your chosen career path and develop yourself to fit into that role early on; A lot of my colleagues (myself included) usually decide early on that they want to do an MBA usually because they believe an extra business qualification gives them a slight edge in progressing to varied career growth options, some of the Pharmacists decide to do an MSc, what I have found out is that this choices are not guided by any specific goal in mind, but rather to build a robust looking resume. I know for instance that the ones who complete an MSc are not doing it because they want to end up as lecturers, a few maybe, but not most. When you decide on a chosen path invest your time and resources in courses and skill developing activities that will prepare you for the next role e.g. if you want to continue in sales management take a course on developing coaching skills, management skills , emotional intelligence etc.. An MBA could also be useful. The same goes for other options whether training, commercial excellence or marketing. Invest in developing yourself for the next role and start early.
3. Build strategic relationships within and outside your organization, once you have identified what your next role is start interacting with influential people in similar or related roles or at least individuals in an influential capacity e.g. if your goal is to become Commercial Effectiveness manager, build a relationship with the current managers and head of department, let them know that this is where your interest lies and make sure you do this right from the start don’t wait until a you see a job opening to start interacting with them. This can be done both in and outside the organization in case your next objective lies outside the organisation then find out who fits the same criteria and build a relationship with them, this can be achieved through social networking and mentoring.
4. Expand your opportunities: if you realise that opportunities within your organisation are severely limited look outwards and even within your organisation you can look at building a career in non-conventional commercial roles for example every organisation has a regulatory department, quality department, Human resources ( Yes I said it), finance department, Supply chain etc.
Unless you have an insurmountable passion to build a career in a core commercially related role you should consider expanding your options from an early age and ensure that you carry out step 2. I hope this knowledge will help out 1 or 2 young individuals starting out their careers as Medical Reps in the Pharma industry or any other, executing these tips like many other activities in life is not a guarantee for success but I believe they definitely enhance your chances, I certainly wish I could go back in time and tell this to my younger self.
I don’t claim to have all the answers but these are my thoughts purely based out of my experience in the pharma industry.
Mayowa Oyeyipo (B.pharm, MBA)
Sales & Marketing Professional.
