How To Become A Pharmaceutical Sales Consultant: What It Is and Career Path

What is a pharmaceutical sales consultant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. John Hansen

The average pharmaceutical sales consultant salary is $108,786. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an business major. It usually takes 1-2 years of experience to become a pharmaceutical sales consultant. Pharmaceutical sales consultants with a Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 63,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a pharmaceutical sales consultant?

Dr. John Hansen

Professor and Director, Center for Sales Leadership, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Regarding the third question, the only real way to maximize your salary in sales is to perform well against the success metrics in place in your role. Sales is, for the most part, an outcome-based profession, meaning that pay increases (or decreases) based on outcomes attained. Whatever the success metrics are in the position one is currently in, they will maximize their income to the extent that they perform well in relation to these success metrics.

ScorePharmaceutical Sales ConsultantUS Average

Salary

7.8

Avg. Salary $108,786

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.6

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 5.09%

Black or African American 3.79%

Hispanic or Latino 13.93%

Unknown 3.71%

White 73.26%

Gender

female 54.30%

male 45.70%

Age - 48

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 48

Stress level

7.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.6

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a pharmaceutical sales consultant

Explore pharmaceutical sales consultant education requirements

Most common pharmaceutical sales consultant degrees

Bachelor's

81.4 %

Master's

9.1 %

Associate

4.6 %

Start to develop specific pharmaceutical sales consultant skills

Skills	Percentages
Pharmaceutical Products	14.84%
Medical Professionals	8.53%
Market Share Growth	6.68%
Healthcare Professionals	6.19%
Internal Medicine	5.94%

Complete relevant pharmaceutical sales consultant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New pharmaceutical sales consultants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a pharmaceutical sales consultant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real pharmaceutical sales consultant resumes.

Research pharmaceutical sales consultant duties and responsibilities

Team lead to coordinate and execute local and regional KOL lead speaker programs.
Manage client's regulatory document archives/submissions to, and the routine contacts with the FDA.
Manage Santa Rosa/San Francisco territories, marketing and selling respiratory, urology, cardiology to pharmacies and primary care physicians.
Drive growth in cardiovascular, diabetes, and anti-infective, Alzheimer's, and bone disease states.

Prepare your pharmaceutical sales consultant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your pharmaceutical sales consultant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a pharmaceutical sales consultant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable pharmaceutical sales consultant resume templates

Build a professional pharmaceutical sales consultant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your pharmaceutical sales consultant resume.