pharmaceutical sales resumeMake Your Pharmaceutical Sales Resume Instantly Powerful

With the baby boomers entering old age, healthcare related fields are becoming more and more attractive to those looking to select career paths. The field of pharmaceutical sales falls right in line with this trend. In fact, revenue generated worldwide from pharmaceutical sales reached almost $1 trillion, with the continent of North America producing the largest share (40%). Even in a market that is performed well, you stand a better chance at securing employment through the preparation of a well-targeted pharmaceutical sales resume. Below are the top 4 concepts to include in your resume to give you the best chance of landing an interview.

Territory Management Skills

If you are in the business of marketing pharmaceuticals, you likely are responsible for the management and growth of a specific territory. If your pharmaceutical sales resume doesn’t show the ability to grow your territory, you will have a hard time getting a pharmaceutical industry hiring manager to give you a chance to market their products. A good territory manager will have a realistic view of their customers and their associated profiles. They will also demonstrate the ability to expand the customer base within that territory. A good pharmaceutical sales resume will communicate tangible and documented territory expansion metrics (either via percentages or dollar amounts). Let’s face it, hiring managers want sales professionals who know how to dig up new business and grow the bottom line. Be sure your resume says this at a glance.

Therapeutics Experience

If you are new to the pharmaceutical sales game, then you may not have much to communicate here. However, if you are a veteran of the industry, you can communicate additional marketability if you bring experience in the marketing of different therapeutics. (Note: therapeutics refers to the use of drugs and methods of administration in the treatment of disease) If you have experience in marketing treatments in the areas of cardiology, pulmonology, neurology or endocrinology, be sure to say so. Don’t trust your reader to get this by osmosis. A good pharmaceutical sales resume will put this out front so that it is not missed.

Medical Terminology Knowledge

It just makes more sense that you will have a better time selling tools to a mechanic if you can talk timing belts and transmissions with a mechanic. So it only makes sense that if you have to call on physicians, you will have a much easier time establishing trust if you have are able to speak their language. If you bring a mastery medical terminology to the table, that pharmaceutical sales resume has a much better chance of making it to the final decision maker. But try not only to mention your knowledge of it, sprinkle some of it organically throughout the resume (However, don’t force it, or any other concept). Like any other regular sales related relationship, much of it will be based upon trust. And it is easier to build trust when you speak the same language, right? This actually correlates with our next quality to communicate.

Relationship Development Skills

Anyone who has been in sales for any significant length of time can tell you that the long game is not about one sale. It is about building a solid and trust-laden relationship that results in a continuous pipeline of sales over time, along with colleague referrals. A good pharmaceutical sales resume will demonstrate your ability to forge meaningful and profitable relationships that create consistent revenue and open up opportunities to market products and services to new potential customers.

Negotiation and Sales Closing Skills

No sales professional (in any industry) is worth bringing aboard if they do not know how to “close the deal”. Powerful negotiation skills and closing strategy knowledge are a must in bringing your targeted medical professionals to the “yes” that you are seeking from them. In your resume, be sure you communicate any instances where you won over customers to launch a new relationship or make a big sale. Perhaps your efforts helped to land a high-profile client that would be an eye-opener to your resume’s reader. Anyone can make a sales pitch, but only the best know how to navigate the no’s to get to the “yes”. If this is a strength, be sure your reader picks this up with no effort on their part.

A good resume will quickly demonstrate targeted value in under 10 seconds. It will be easy to navigate and communicate relevance with minimal effort expended by the reader. Follow these guidelines and your pharmaceutical sales resume will have the phone ringing in no time.