SALES TALENTS OF PHARMACEUTICALS
ARE IN GOOD GRACES

By Ms.Sandy Deng
Associate Consultant, Onpress International (Beijing)

All the time, the sales talents are in “eagerly need” in the HR market of the pharmaceutical industry.  Each company, big or small, is always racking its brains for how to find out the right sales management personnel, and how to establish an effective and performance-driven sales force.

Many European and US based pharmaceutical multinationals, including the tycoons of this industry, do not place much limit on the academic background of sales representatives any more. This means many young men could enter the pharmaceutical companies they are looking forward to and become sales reps., no matter what educational background they might have.  Like a recruiting manager said, “we can provide professional knowledge to these young men through our amplified training system.  However, nice personality, good communication skills, and creativity are hard to be trained up.  So we focus more on their positive working attitude and development potential rather than the educational background”. Accompanying the accumulation of practical sales experience and extension of the market, most of the senior sales people could expect a brilliant future.

According to the information published by China Pharmaceuticals Trade Association, there are 4 positive factors: great progress has been made in the reform of pharmaceutical circulation system; pharmaceutical retail market is continuously growing at a high speed: OTC market is boomed by 30% per year, as ethical drugs are steadily increased by 10%; drug consuming market in countryside is switched on, with great potential for in-depth development; the supervision system is being strengthened and perfected.  These 4 positive factors are brisking the buying and selling activities of the national pharmaceutical commerce. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical companies are facing a severe tribulation from the policy of purchasing bidding system and the price reduction.  The co-existence of opportunity and challenge is speeding up the scrambling for sales talents.

Onpress International is recruiting a number of sales positions, from Regional Sales Manger to National Sales Manager, for multinationals. According to our recruiting experience of these years, good personality and integrity are most important to a sales personnel.  In order to grasp a big market share, a qualified sales personnel must well present his/her personal charisma to pass the sense of security and trust to the clients.  Also the key accounts even pay more attention to the integrity than price quotation.  Therefore, a senior sales management personnel must possess: excellent communication skills, both with the boss and subordinates; the capability to analyze and observe the market; creativity and team-work spirit.