Are you a former cheerleader? You can be a drug rep!

If you’re looking to be a pharmaceutical sales rep, it’s better to have been a cheerleader than to have a degree in science.  I am not making this up. The cheering adviser at the University of Kentucky, where the cheerleading squad are national champions, says he regularly gets calls from recruiters looking for talent. The cheerleaders, he says, have "Exaggerated motions, exaggerated smiles, exaggerated enthusiasm - they learn those things, and they can get people to do what they want." The recruiters don’t ask about majors. Science? Who cares?

There’s such a demand for former cheerleaders that an employment firm, called Spirited Sales Leaders, specializes in cheerleaders and has a database of thousands of potential candidates. You can find it on the internet. The company’s web site features a picture of a cheerleader.

Cheerleaders are generally attractive. On weekends, some of the cheerleader/drug reps work the professional football games. If you’ve seen these cheerleaders, you can imagine that there’s undeniable sex appeal. If the doctor is a male, the cheerleader sales rep has an advantage. A former male drug rep remembers a sales call with the “all-time most attractive, coolest woman in the history of drug repdom.” At first, he said, the doctor “gave ten reasons not to use one of our drugs.” The cheerleader “gave a little hair toss and a tug on his sleeve and said, ‘come on, doctor, I need the scrips.’” To which the doctor replied, “OK. How do I dose that thing?”

If you must know, I used to be a cheerleader, but I am a terrible salesperson. At least I majored in science.

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