How many medical device representatives earn 500,000 annually?

Today, Zhiyao Ke released the "2020 Pharmaceutical Representative Annual Report." This survey collected 6342 valid data entries, comprehensively covering 31 provinces in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macau SAR, and Taiwan). Over 70% of the samples came from pharmaceutical representatives with more than one year of experience.  

This annual report explores the current situation of pharmaceutical representatives from several novel perspectives, including compensation, work pain points, years of experience, and part-time work.  

▍Compensation is steadily rising; these cities have the most 

Looking at the overall annual salary distribution in this report, 52.17% of pharmaceutical representatives have an annual salary between 100,000 and 190,000 RMB, nearly 10% have an annual salary over 300,000 RMB, and 18.69% have an annual salary below 100,000 RMB.  

Since 2013, although pharmaceutical representatives have faced pressure regarding compliance and achievements, the changes in the industry over the past two years have had an unprecedented impact. With the full implementation of the "4+7" policy, the marketing space for mature generic drugs has been squeezed to the extreme. The market promotion of these products no longer relies on the business capabilities of pharmaceutical representatives but on the control of production costs and raw materials.  

Policy changes can make it difficult to meet targets, directly affecting the income of pharmaceutical representatives. However, the current data has given all pharmaceutical representatives a shot in the arm. Previously, the internet technology company "Xinzhi" released a market salary data white paper. Compared to popular industries such as finance, consumer goods, real estate, and the internet, the pharmaceutical industry is an absolute dark horse, with both industry growth and salary growth remaining stable and high.  

Besides choosing products, choosing a city also directly relates to a pharmaceutical representative's career. According to the 2020 Pharmaceutical Representative Annual Report, the top five regions with the highest proportion of pharmaceutical representatives earning over 200,000 RMB annually are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Shandong, and Jiangsu, with percentages of 37.41%, 36.85%, 34.17%, 33.4%, and 31.96%, respectively.

Generally speaking, Class-A hospitals represent the highest level of hospitals in China and the highest level of the country's medical industry. The number of Class-A hospitals a city has signifies the level of medical care in that city.  

In the industry's circulating rankings of the number of Class-A hospitals in various regions, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Hubei, and Sichuan rank in the top five. The top five cities with the most Class-A hospitals are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Wuhan, and Xi'an.  

To some extent, the annual salary of a pharmaceutical representative has a direct positive correlation with the level of medical care in the region. When planning their careers, pharmaceutical representatives must also consider the region.  

▍High Turnover Rate, High Liquidity 

Sample data shows that only 21.22% of pharmaceutical representatives have stayed with one company. 43.26% have worked for 2-4 companies, and 35.52% have worked for more than 4 companies.   

Policies such as the "two-invoice system," generic drug consistency evaluation, national centralized procurement, and per-disease payment have increased the psychological pressure on many pharmaceutical representatives, and the overall industry liquidity has increased.  

Even without the intention of changing jobs, some pharmaceutical representatives have started part-time work. Data shows that 27.17% of pharmaceutical representatives have part-time jobs, and 3.49% are starting their own businesses. In other words, over 30% of pharmaceutical representatives are not satisfied with being full-time representatives and are looking for new opportunities.   

▍High Work Difficulty is the Main Reason 

The report shows that 60.58% of pharmaceutical representatives visit an average of 5-10 clients per visit, and 29.09% visit 10 or more clients per visit—the entire group of pharmaceutical representatives is quite diligent.  

But this has also become a pain point for pharmaceutical representatives.  

Previously, DRG, a pharmaceutical industry research and consulting company,  released the latest report on pharmaceutical companies and doctor interactions in the digital age. The survey results show that interactions between doctors and pharmaceutical representatives are decreasing.  

Data shows that this year, the percentage of doctors who personally received pharmaceutical representatives decreased from 67% to  54%. Surveyed doctors stated that the main reasons are increased pressure from receiving patients, maintenance of electronic medical records, and increased time spent on other administrative tasks, leading to less time available to receive pharmaceutical representatives. In addition, the number of doctors who have not contacted pharmaceutical representatives in the past six months has increased from 24% last year to 39% this year.  

This trend is also shown in the 2020 Pharmaceutical Representative Annual Report.  

Besides the often-mentioned reason of "being greatly affected by the company and policies," the most difficult aspect of a pharmaceutical representative's job is the "high demands on interpersonal skills."

The decreasing proportion of doctors receiving representatives makes customer relationship maintenance more difficult for pharmaceutical representatives, leading many Generation 90s pharmaceutical representatives to exclaim that "high demands on interpersonal skills" is a pain point in their work.  

In addition, survey data shows that the job satisfaction of pharmaceutical representatives in Henan is as high as 93 points. Chongqing, Sichuan, Tianjin, and Shanghai also Enter the top five regions in terms of job satisfaction, with scores of 89, 88, 84, and 83 points, respectively.

For many pharmaceutical representatives, this may provide some guidance for their future work location choices.