Sample Interview Questions

The following is a list of sample interview questions as referenced in Tom Ruff's book How to Break Into Pharmaceutical Sales - A Headhunter's Strategy.

Q: What are your biggest strengths?
District managers are looking to see what you consider your biggest strengths and if those are the same strengths the company is looking for in a sales representative. Some good attributes include: driven, self-motivated, good leadership skills, intelligence and the ability to learn new material quickly.

Q: What are your current rankings?
DM’s are looking for the best. Someone ranked #1, 2 or 3 out of 200-500 is great, but #1, 2 or 3 out of 4 is not nearly as attractive.

Q: Do you have performance evaluations?
Refer to your brag book here. Managers are, first, looking to see if you have them on hand, and second, to see what a previous boss has to say. Past performance evaluations speak volumes about a candidate.

Q: What is your quota, and where are your ranked against your quota?
Here, managers are looking for high achievers that have high goals and are consistently above quota.

Q: What is the most difficult situation you’ve been put into in your
professional career, and how did you handle it?
This question almost always comes up. The manager is looking for a couple things here; first of all, what you define as ‘difficult.’ It gives him or her some insight as to how you have handled adversity in real life situations. This is a good opportunity to answer the question using the STAR format: Situation, Task, Action and Result. Some managers ask these types of questions to see if you will answer using the STAR format without being told.

Q: What is the toughest sale you’ve ever made?
Again, this sheds some light on what you define as ‘tough’ and is another real life example of what you went through to close a sale in the past.

Q: What was the most difficult sale you’ve lost, and how did you respond?
Managers are looking to see if you answer the question using the STAR format as well as how you deal with adversity.

Q: How do you handle rejection?
Here, DM’s are looking for the person that uses rejection as a motivator to keep charging forward until they get a deal, versus the person that takes it personally and gets upset, emotional, and intimidated to move forward with more calls.

Q: How would your current boss describe you?
This is a great question that really makes candidates think objectively as to how someone else would describe him or her. Managers want to hear similar attributes as to what they are looking for a in a candidate: driven, self motivated, leader, intelligent, quick learner, integrity, etc.

Q: What are the steps in the selling process?
Do you understand and are you even aware of the steps in the sales process? Candidates that have formal sales training should understand this question and the ones that don’t will flounder. If you don’t have formal sales training, you need to study the steps in the sales process and understand and be able to apply them. Please visit Chapter 8: The Interview—How to Sell in Tom Ruff’s book How to Break Into Pharmaceutical Sales A Headhunter’s Strategy.

Q: What do you do to keep improving as a sales person or an individual?
Are you reading books, going to seminars, meeting with mentors, listening to audio tapes? District managers are always looking for candidates that are learning, growing and improving.

Q: Why are you looking to leave?
Great question that you can plan on being asked. You need legitimate reasons for leaving your current position. Ideally, managers want candidates that have been focused on breaking into pharmaceutical sales for a while. Managers like to hear from candidates that went to work for a Fortune 500 sales organization to get the formal sales training and experience with the ultimate goal of breaking into pharmaceutical sales.

Q: What do you like most about your current position?
Managers are looking to see if what you enjoy most about your position is in alignment with the day in the life of a pharmaceutical sales position: autonomy, self motivated, ability to learn clinical material, work well with other team members, passion for the industry, etc.

Q: What is the least favorite part of your current position?
Never bad mouth your position or your company. Typically, managers are looking for people who are not challenged in their current position, no growth opportunity, etc. Be sure the least favorite part of your job is not the same as what you would be doing as a drug rep. I’ve heard candidates say that they hate paperwork and reports and as a drug rep, there are a lot of reports, paperwork and computer reporting done on a daily basis.

Q: How do the skill sets of your current position apply to this position?
Here, managers are looking to see if your skill sets are in alignment with the skill sets of a drug representative: driven, self motivated, intelligent, etc. (Do you see the consistency here?)

Q: What gives you the greatest feeling of achievement in your current position?
Looking for parallels to the position: educating people, persuading a person to buy your product, exceeding your goals and quotas.

Q: What is your current compensation package?
Ideally, DM’s are looking for a candidate who would consider this opportunity a financial step up. They are looking for people that are hungry to earn more verses candidates that are making a lot more money and who would consider this job a step down financially, which might not be as motivating for this type of individual.

Q: What are you looking for in a new compensation package?
Checking to see if your expectations are realistic for what the job pays.

Q: What do you do in your free time? Hobbies?
Contrary to popular belief, most managers are looking for balanced individuals that have activities and hobbies outside of work. Managers like to see candidates that are involved in competitive sports or healthy physical activity and learning.

Q: What are the last 3 books/magazines you’ve read?
Attractive: Forbes, Fortune, Inc., Wallstreet Journal, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Less attractive: People, US, Glamour, Cosmo.

Q: How do you plan and organize your day?
Looking for candidates that are aware and smart about planning their day. Those who take time the night before to plan out the next day, pre-call planning, using a day planner or time management software are tell-tale signs of a highly organized candidate.

Q: Why do you want to work for our company?
Looking to see if you have done your research and if you have good, legitimate reasons for wanting to join their organization, and, if, why you are looking to join is in alignment with what they offer.

Q: What do you know about our company?
You really need to impress them here. They are looking to see if you have done additional research other than just spending time on their website. Talk to sales reps working for the company, their competitors; talk to doctors, pharmacists about their organization, and research them online with Yahoo! Finance, Google, cnnfn.com, etc.

Q: What do you know about our industry?
Looking to see if you have thoroughly researched this industry. Same as above, have you talked to doctors, reps, pharmacists, gone on ride-alongs, looked up industry stats online? You need to have your top 5 facts down cold for this question.

Q: What type of research have you done?
Same as above.

Q: Describe a day in the life of a pharmaceutical representative.
If you have interviewed enough pharmaceutical sales representatives and gone on ride-alongs, you should have this answer down pat, as well. I recommend writing up a brief description of a ‘day in the life’ after you interview some pharmaceutical representatives for your own knowledge.

Q: What is the biggest challenge facing a pharmaceutical representative in
today’s market?
Looking to see if you have a good handle on the current marketplace. A good candidate will have interviewed reps and asked this question already. Managed care seems to be the biggest challenge currently facing reps.

Q: Why did you choose your college?
Looking to see there was a logical/rational thought process in deciding what university you attended instead of “all my friends went there, etc.

Q: Who is the best manager you’ve ever worked for and what made him/her so special?
Managers are looking for someone that describes attributes similar to what that manager has to offer. Traditionally, fair, honest, strong leadership skills are good attributes to mention.

Q: What are your career goals and aspirations?
Looking to see if your goals align with what they have to offer. You need to make sure you parallel your goals with what they have to offer.

Q: Are you currently interviewing with any other companies?
The reason they ask this question is to see how motivated you are. Typically, good candidates will be interviewing with several companies and advancing on to 2nd/3rd and final interviews with companies. Some people are scared to say they are interviewing with other companies but this can work to your advantage because competitive managers will want you even more if they hear you are interviewing with 2-3 of their biggest competitors and moving on to final interviews. A red flag may go up if you aren’t interviewing with other pharm companies or if you’ve interviewed with 3-4 different companies but never made it past the first interview. They may start thinking something must be wrong with this candidate if they didn’t move on this person. That being said, it is most important to be truthful here, do not make up what you think they want to hear. If you are not interviewing anywhere else, you may want to position yourself as having your full focus on wanting to work for their company. Be sure to have your reasons for wanting to work for them down pat.

Q: What are your short-term and long-term goals?
Looking to see if you have goals and if so, are they in alignment with the work life of a pharmaceutical representative.

Q: Give me an example of dealing with a difficult co-worker or customer
and how you handled it.
Managers are looking for maturity and sound judgment. This is where someone who is not so mature can slip up. It also gives DM’s a glimpse into your ethics. They are looking for someone who won’t go along with an unethical choice and who won’t let the team go along with it either. This is more important than ever for district managers, who have to be very careful about adhering to industry guidelines.