Got a pharma sales interview? Don't forget your "brag book"
By MedZilla Staff Writer
Marysville, WA - April 23, 2004--Landing a job in pharmaceutical
sales can be very competitive —even if you have experience
and an impressive sales record. Sales experts will tell you that
your portfolio of accomplishments, or "brag book", is
an important element that you probably shouldn't be without. Brag
books are made up of presentations that back up your claims, and,
in pharmaceutical or medical device sales, they can help in your
mission to land a job.
"Whether or not to have a brag book, what to put in it and
how to present it are some of the most frequently asked questions
on the MedZilla pharmaceutical sales forum," says Michele
Groutage, marketing director of MedZilla.com, a leading Internet
recruitment and professional community that serves biotechnology,
pharmaceuticals, healthcare and science. "We know the topic
weighs heavily on the minds of aspiring pharmaceutical sale reps
because the MedZilla forum is probably one of the key places on
the net where pharmaceutical sales people go to discuss job search
strategies."
Don't leave home without it
Tracey Warford, a surgery product specialist who sells injectables
for Ortho Biotech, a division of Johnson & Johnson, says that
if you want a job in pharma sales, you shouldn't go to the interview
without a brag book. Warford, who got laid off in December before
landing a new job with Ortho Biotech, says even professional career
counselors often don't realize how important these tools are in
pharma sales. A career counselor hired to help her in her job
search after she was laid off tried to dissuade her from bringing
her "big" binder to the interview. However, she knew
he was wrong, and she landed the job.
Warford had to redo and update her brag book, which she compiled
five years prior.
She learned about what it should include by asking colleagues,
going to the MedZilla forum and querying a pharmaceutical district
manager for feedback on the books. She realized, after five years
in pharmaceutical sales, that the brag book was very much like
the "detail binder" pharma sales reps present to physicians
and other clients. The detail binder includes information to support
what you're telling the physician about your employer's product.
It includes clinical studies, package inserts, marketing materials,
etc.
In the same respect, the brag book supports what you're saying
about your experience, accomplishments and more. Rather than selling
a product to a physician, you are selling yourself to a district
or hiring manager.
What should your brag book include?
Warford divided her brag book into sections, including her resume,
a list of references (with names and numbers of people she worked
with), her professional achievements (including certificates and
awards), letters of recommendation, annual reviews, emails from
colleagues and clients commending her on her work, and a miscellaneous
section. In the miscellaneous section, she includes an article
about doing lunches that she wrote for Pharmaceutical Rep magazine,
information about advisory board meetings she has attended, and
a company calendar featuring a picture of Warford and her office
staff.
The book should be professional looking, with neat tabs. "The
way that I present it is the same way that I present my product
to the physician. I don't go through page by page—that's
monotonous and boring," she says.
Warford might tell the district manager about her being named
the number one representative in the company one year and pull
out the certificate to support her claim. It's the same thinking,
she says, when you tell a doctor that a drug has a low side effect
profile and pull out information from the package labeling to
back up your statement.
Should you worry if you don't have pharma experience?
A hiring manager would know that a person who does not have direct
pharma sales experience would not have a brag book filled with
pharma-related accomplishments. That doesn't mean you shouldn't
have a brag book—it just means that your emphasis would be
different.
Warford suggests that you include sales accomplishments, certificates,
awards, recommendations and more from whatever industry you were
in. Put it together professionally, and it will show that you
have an understanding of the pharma sales process. Even people
just out of college can include college, summer work and volunteer
experience achievements. "But don't fabricate the information,"
Warford warns. "It will come back to haunt you."
Not just for pharma
"I think brag books are important not just for pharmaceutical
sales but also for many other interview situations," says
Frank Heasley, president and CEO of MedZilla. "It always
helps to bring along some sort of portfolio of the things that
you've accomplished in your career—things you would not include
with your resume but that certainly serve as points of discussion
to enhance communications with the person that you are talking
with."
Dr. Heasley remembers using the brag book concept when he was
interviewing for jobs in research and development. "I would
bring examples of products that I had played a key role in the
development of. I'd bring my certificates and letters of recommendation—just
things that back up your candidacy," he says. "People
appreciated it. Often, if I were waiting for the interviewer to
come into a room, I would take my products out of my bag and line
them up on the desk in front of me. Then, I'd bring pages out
of my portfolio and talk about them."
While industry experts differ on their opinions about whether
having a brag book is essential, there is general agreement that
having a brag book can help land pharmaceutical jobs.
About MedZilla.com
Established in mid 1994, MedZilla is the original web site
to serve career and hiring needs for professionals and employers
in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, science and healthcare.
MedZilla databases contain about 10,000 open positions, 13,000
resumes from candidates actively seeking new positions and 71,000
archived resumes.
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Copyright ©2004, MedZilla, Inc. Permission is granted to
reproduce and distribute this text in its entirety, and if electronically,
with a link to the URL www.medzilla.com. For permission to quote
from or reproduce any portion of this message, please contact
Michele Groutage, Director of Marketing and Development, MedZilla,
Inc. Email: mgroutage@medzilla.com.
