Opinion

The advantages of being a certified professional sales rep

During my first discussion I talked about the New Era of pharmaceutical sales professionals and compared the New Model with Old Model profiles in the overall health care system. I mentioned that physicians and customers in general are requiring more qualified professional sales staff, with broader skills, who can bring more value during the calls. This demand basically follows the description of the new model of professional, who has knowledge, experience, is involved in his/her career, and prepared to represent the pharmaceutical company he/she work for, performing the necessary, expected and required work.

We are all aware that the industry is changing; the new customer bases, new products and their needs are different to the past, (even 1 year ago) and the pharmaceutical industry is trying new practices.

Some companies find the way to improve and differentiate their sales team from others is by joining forces with medical associations and/or groups to provide classes to their sales employees. At the same time the process of recruiting the right candidate seems to be one of the reasons why pharmaceutical companies have a sales team below the average expected in terms of  physicians and other customers satisfaction. I imagine that it is not an easy task to select the right candidate especially in this recession time with so many candidates.

Overall, I think pharmaceutical industry and health care system is demanding changes and companies want to move forward and take the right steps to have a higher quality of sales force, but it seems that this process  is still rooted in  the old patterns which are based on old behaviors and thoughts  related to old model of sales reps. We are moving towards a New Era in the medical field at a global level, and every process requires time, analytical thoughts, reflection, and it is understandable that  transitions are not a smooth process. Changing behavior and mentality doesn’t happen overnight but it is important to be aware about this ongoing process, know where we stand, where we want to be and what requirements the pharmaceutical sales industry needs to meet in this New Era.

Lisa Roner, eyeforpharma editor, posted a blog on May 12, 2009: Certified reps an idea whose time has come. Please, take a moment a visit it: http://social.eyeforpharma.com/opinion/certified-reps-idea-whose-time-has-come. One of her thoughts about Pharmaceutical Sales is: As the most public face of our industry, reps have a huge impact on the publics perception of our industry and our reputation. They must be pharmas ambassadors.

 Certification  

 Pharmaceutical sales representative are medical professionals. Any professional especially in the medical and health care industry is required to have a license or be certified in order to either practice or be considered qualified for the job. The individual, after completing a bachelor degree and graduating in the selected area, i.e. nurse, biology and/or whatever the choice was made, is required to take the state and if he/she wants, the national license as well. The only profession who is not required to have a license or certification is the pharmaceutical sales representative.

First I want to make a comment about difference between license and certification: a license is a lawful grant to practice what one is certified for, and certification simply states one is qualified. I will use the term certification for Pharmaceutical Sales Professionals because it would be appropriate and is exactly what our customers require. Perhaps the certification would help Pharmaceutical Companies/Hiring Managers on the selection process regardless if the hiring manager belongs or not to the “new model” of pharmaceutical sales industry.

Lisa Roners blogmentioned above at http://social.eyeforpharma.com/opinion/certified-reps-idea-whose-time-has-come. She says: So I was quite interested in a quiet and perhaps not widely known movement by a newly formed non-profit at setting a national standard in the US for certifying medical and pharmaceutical sales reps.

Professional certification is a way to gauge competency, granting permission to some and restricting others.  It is a way to gain respect, value, and inform of being qualified and reliable in his/her functions, and ultimately it is a way to lead to a professional development. I want to emphasize that certification doesn’t replace the management of the pharmaceutical industry but  perhaps it is one of the factors that would guarantee the quality of the professional selected.

I want to list some of the additional advantages of being a certified professional:

• Certification preparation is a way to improve the skill set

• It is a way to convince the board, coworkers, costumers and society the professional knows what is doing

• It is a way to inform the standards and procedures have been followed

• It is a way to convey credibility, respect and value

According to Lisa Roners blog: Lyle Bootman, the chairman of the commissioners and dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Arizona told The Roanoke Times that the certification program has tremendous potential for changing the way reps interact with physicians, The quality of the information will improve and it will be more consistent from rep to rep, he said. . It will provide professional self confidence and motivation, instead fear and avoidance to discuss what they dont really know.

Lisa Roners blog also provides a very interesting stat about the certification: CMR says in an online survey among 159 doctors, 72% said they would be more likely to see a sales rep that was certified or had another similar type of designation.

As pharmaceutical sales professionals we spend time with medical staff who deal with patients and lives. They are usually extremely busy and when they share their time with pharmaceutical sales reps they want to make sure about the information they are receiving. They manage their time wisely and they will listen to somebody who is bringing value, although performing different tasks.

According to Trad Alkhelaiwi, Scientific Office Manager/ Oncology Sales Manager at Hospira, in Saudi Arabia pharmaceutical sales professionals must be licensed: in that country, once the professional has the bachelor in Sciences or Pharmacy degree, he/she is required to take a written exam from Health authorities. According to sources from that country the whole process of licensing is to make the market a healthy environment and educated based. The benefits are rewarding in terms of value and career. They also have continuing education program to renew their license, which requires 60 units (CEU continuing education units). The Sales professional is responsible for License Maintenance, or for their education, but sometimes, if the professional is working for a pharmaceutical industry, the company reimburses or takes the responsibility.

I just want to emphasize that this could be an alternative and/or solution to help the hiring sales selection process and this would be one more tool for pharmaceutical companies filter the right candidate. I am also aware that this is the beginning of a process and hiring managers, training departments still have their leadership skills to manage a qualified representative and actually it would be easier for these departments to deal with someone certified. These are all thoughts and I would like you to think about it. What do you think about it?