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day in the life of a GP / Hospital Representative
A day in the life of a GP / Hospital Representative
A day in the life of a GP / Hospital Representative
The following account has been written by
a GP/Hospital Medical Representative of about 12 months experience. The average
content of a day for a representative revolves around the following:
- Selling to customers, either one to one or via
meetings
- Administration - Business planning, journey planning,
setting pre-call and next call objectives, computer work.
- Driving between customers.
The rules to remember about being a
medical representative are:
- Two days are never the same
- The cliché, 'the more you put in the more you get
out' has never been truer'
What follows is the average or typical
day for a GP/hospital representative.
It is usually a fair goal to see
between 3-5 GPs per day, 3 pharmacists and 3 Hospital Doctors. However, this
can vary dependent on the products that you sell and the therapy area that you
are working in.
For instance, some products require contact with a
variety of Nurses (District Nurses, Practice Nurses and Hospital
Nurses).
In general there is always a stronger bias towards prescribers
i.e. Doctors.
GPs are traditionally seen in the morning, whilst
hospitals are visited in the afternoon. With most doctors not particularly
wanting to see representatives during their surgeries, the optimal time for
representatives to see GPs is before and after surgery.
Question - What
time does your local surgery open?
- If you want to see the doctor
before surgery then you will need to be there about half an hour before this
time.
Question - What time do you have to leave the house if this
surgery is 30 miles away?
- So the average day for a medical
representative starts early, from 7am onwards. This is why it helps if you live
on territory within easy reach of your customers.
From 7:30am - 9:30am
your sole aim will be to get to as many surgeries as possible to either try and
see customers then and there or arrange to try and come back later.
Between 9:30am - 10:30am most surgeries are in full swing and
representatives are not always welcome, not a bad time to see pharmacy or buy
sandwiches for your lunch meeting. In addition this time can be well spent
reporting the details of the calls you made on your lap top computer.
Madness from 10:30am - 12:30pm. Surgeries are closing, Doctors are
preparing for home visits and it is prime time for representatives to be seen.
In these two hours you will probably see between 3-5 doctors.
You will
use your extensive skills and product knowledge acquired on your initial
residential training programme to inform and influence. The dialogue, though is
two- way: representatives also play a Marketing role, detecting changes in
demand patterns and spotting new product needs.
12:30 - 1:00pm - after
seeing 3 GPs it is time to prepare for a lunch presentation meeting you
arranged last week. The meeting will entail standing on your feet, giving a
slide presentation for the GPs in the surgery and answering any questions they
might have. Besides settling your nerves the real skill here is being able to
sell your product over the competition.
2:00pm - 5:00pm Meeting over,
time for the hospital. You have 3 appointments you arranged 12 months ago with
the 3 different cardiology consultants. The consultants do not use your
product, they do not like it and are telling all the GPs in the area not to use
it. It is your job to persuade them to change this. Are you confident enough to
challenge leaders in their field or will you wimp out and agree with them?
5:00pm has arrived - time for home and a rest - not quite. As a new
representative you probably have another hour doing administration work. This
will include reporting all calls made, responding to e-mails and requests,
speaking to the boss, but most importantly planning tomorrow and the rest of
the week.
Maybe once or twice a week you will have an evening meeting
where you play host to between 6-30 customers. This will often involve a meal
and a promotional presentation.
The representative who wrote the
above has since gone on to pass her ABPI and to achieve outstanding sales
success. Having spoken with her recently, her comments were:
- Stay focused
- Stay positive
- Work hard
- Plan well and always know where your sales are in
relation to your targets
- Work as a team
- Always be prepared to learn and adopt new skills
- Believe in yourself, your company, your products and that
you are making a difference to the patients who ultimately benefit from using
your products.
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