How to hire a pharmaceutical sales consultant

How to hire a pharmaceutical sales consultant, step by step

Here's a step-by-step pharmaceutical sales consultant hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a pharmaceutical sales consultant job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new pharmaceutical sales consultant
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

Post a pharmaceutical sales consultant job for free, promote it for a fee

Post free

1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a pharmaceutical sales consultant, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a pharmaceutical sales consultant to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a pharmaceutical sales consultant that fits the bill.

   This list shows salaries for various types of pharmaceutical sales consultants.

   Type of Pharmaceutical Sales Consultant	Description	Hourly rate
   Pharmaceutical Sales Consultant	Wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives sell goods for wholesalers or manufacturers to businesses, government agencies, and other organizations. They contact customers, explain product features, answer any questions that their customers may have, and negotiate prices.	$29-91
   Hospitality Representative	Hospitality representatives are guest service specialists who are generally employed in hotels. Typical responsibilities of hospitality representatives include giving front desk services, processing payments from guests, and providing guests with information on various subjects... Show more	$11-26
   Specialty Representative	A specialty representative is responsible for selling specific goods and services to target customers through remote communication or site visits, depending on business requirements and client needs. Specialty representatives assist the marketing and sales team in delivering high-quality sales strategies and promotional techniques to attract customers, identifying their needs by researching industry trends to drive more revenue resources and achieve sales goals and objectives... Show more	$12-44

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Pharmaceutical Products
   • Medical Professionals
   • Market Share Growth
   • Healthcare Professionals
   • Internal Medicine
   • Cardiology
   • Sales Growth
   • Neurology
   • Product Knowledge
   • Family Practice
   • Psychiatry
   • Diabetes
   • Product Portfolio
   • Sales Performance

   Check all skills

   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.
   • Succeed in building multiple territories in different therapeutic areas: rheumatology, endocrinology, OB/GYN, primary care and mixed-specialty IDNs.
   • Educate in headache, osteoporosis, asthma, heart disease/hypertension/hypercholesterolemia, depression, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your pharmaceutical sales consultant job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A pharmaceutical sales consultant salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, pharmaceutical sales consultants' average salary in hawaii is 64% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level pharmaceutical sales consultants earn 68% less than senior-level pharmaceutical sales consultants.
   • Certifications. A pharmaceutical sales consultant with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a pharmaceutical sales consultant's salary.

   Average pharmaceutical sales consultant salary

   $108,786yearly

   $52.30 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level pharmaceutical sales consultant salary

   $61,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 16, 2025

4. Writing a pharmaceutical sales consultant job description

   A pharmaceutical sales consultant job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. Below, you can find an example of a pharmaceutical sales consultant job description:

   Pharmaceutical sales consultant job description example

   Veeva is a mission-driven organization that aspires to help our customers in Life Sciences and Regulated industries bring their products to market, faster. We are shaped by our values: Do the Right Thing, Customer Success, Employee Success, and Speed. Our teams develop transformative cloud software, services, consulting, and data to make our customers more efficient and effective in everything they do. Veeva is a work anywhere company. You can work at home, at a customer site, or in an office on any given day. As a Public Benefit Corporation, you will also work for a company focused on making a positive impact on its customers, employees, and communities.
   The Role
   
   We are looking for an insights consultant with German language skills who will use scientific and pharmaceutical knowledge to derive and deliver meaningful business insights for senior executives in global pharma.
   
   In an energized environment, you will be delivering focused reports on insights and data, and providing actionable recommendations which meet the specific needs of our pharma industry clients. You will work closely with the Insights Manager and Insights Strategists who will uncover projects, and it will be your responsibility to deliver reports and insights to fit their expectations. You will also work closely with our Analytics team (who produce visualizations using Veeva Link's gold-standard scientific data) to deliver high-quality bespoke projects to support and optimize the customer's medical and brand strategies.
   
   As part of an innovative and rapidly growing team, you will bring insightful and relevant inputs based on your prior experience and will be willing to share your knowledge and collaborate, fostering a “team-first” attitude.
   What You'll DoBe able to work with speed, in a collaborative cross-functional team delivering business-relevant insights and recommendations to pharma to support their R&D, pre-launch, launch, and post-launch strategies.Carefully analyze Veeva Link's data to uncover relevant data trends and translate the meaning and strategic implications of that data.Write high-quality, impactful, concise market-relevant insight reports and executive summaries to support your data analysis and add value to the customer.Support large-scale transformative insights projects, working with clients to achieve their goals.Present your findings and recommendations to senior stakeholders at pharma and justify your findings.
   RequirementsExperience in understanding pharma customer needs Experience in insight generation at a consulting company, agency, or pharma Succinct, clear, and logical working style Healthcare/pharmaceutical knowledge either deep in one specific therapy area or across therapy areas Experience in structuring and successfully executing large and complex insights projects Confidence, comfort, and familiarity in discussions with senior stakeholders in pharma Scientific degree Fluent/full working proficiency in German (preferably a native speaker) Ambition for high-quality and self-motivated work
   Perks & BenefitsAllocations for continuous learning and development Health and wellness programs“Work Anywhere” policy
   #RemoteGermany
   
   Veeva's headquarters is located in the San Francisco Bay Area with offices in more than 15 countries around the world.
   
   Veeva is committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and growing a diverse workforce. Diversity makes us stronger. It comes in many forms. Gender, race, ethnicity, religion, politics, sexual orientation, age, disability and life experience shape us all into unique individuals. We value people for the individuals they are and the contributions they can bring to our teams.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are various strategies that you can use to find the right pharmaceutical sales consultant for your business:

   • Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your pharmaceutical sales consultant job on Zippia to find and recruit pharmaceutical sales consultant candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as salesjobs, salesheads, allretailjobs.com, sales trax.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting pharmaceutical sales consultants requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new pharmaceutical sales consultant

   Once you've decided on a perfect pharmaceutical sales consultant candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

   Sign up to download full list

   Sign up

How much does it cost to hire a pharmaceutical sales consultant?