Many reputed Pharma Companies train their Medical Representatives for a minimum of 7-15 days, some companies, even for 21 days, before sending them to the field to meet the doctors. For an average size of a reputed pharma company with more than 25 brands, it is necessary to train the newly recruited Medical Representatives, so that, they are fully equipped to visit the doctors from day 1 of their fieldwork. Sending the Medical Representatives to the Field without proper training does not speak well about the Pharma Corporate. We see, many such pharma companies, sending their Medical Representatives without proper training to the field. These Medical representatives become the reason for headaches to many doctors, as they are not able to handle simple doctor’s queries and other important aspects of the brands they come for promotion to doctor’s clinic.
This training is called Basic Training, wherein the Medical Representatives across India, are called to the City of Pharma Corporate Office & kept in a Hotel, for a residential training program. All the Medical Representatives at their entry-level in any Pharma Corporate must get trained for the basics of all brands, starting from Human Physiology, Anatomy, Diseases, and Pharmacology of available medicines & that of the Drug molecule in the Pharma Corporate Brands. The rigorous training requires the Medical Representatives to be given a residential hotel stay wherein a group of min 20 Medical Representatives are called for a training program. This saves a lot of effort on the training team, marketing teams, travel costs, etc. Calling Medical Representatives at the Corporate Head Office town, also, allows the recruits to get bonding with the employing organization. This goes in a long way to ensure, the new recruits stay on with the Pharma Corporate for the long term.
They are acclimatized with the Brands, their dosage, unique selling features & visual aid detailing to ensure they become ready to visit the doctor with proper information. For any Pharma Corporate, in any particular division, the MRs are expected to remember, by heart, details about at least 10 Power Brands’ dosage forms, MRPs, Retailer Price, Stockist Price, Margin calculation if required for a new introduction. Each Brand Manager makes the Unique Selling Features about his / her brand. MRs need to remember this to have meaningful interaction with the doctor. Finally, Visual Aid detailing. Generally, 10-15 brands are given in Visual Aid. Each brand minimum 1 to 2 or sometimes, even 5 pages, depending on the indications covered and different doctor segments to which the Brand is promoted. It becomes, compulsory, for MRs to mug up the Detailing Story verbatim (word by word) during the classroom training. Everyone, knows, all doctors, does not allow much time to each MR to deliver entire detailing talk, but if the detailing talk is verbatim, the MR is better equipped to discuss the brand with a lot of confidence that results in a prescription generation.