"Early in my career, I failed to meet an important deadline in my first job out of college because I was completely unskilled in prioritizing properly. It sure was a hard lesson to learn because I let down a couple of my colleagues and a key customer. In the moment, I kept letting other menial tasks get in the way rather than focusing on finishing the project. Knowing I missed the deadline, I immediately held myself accountable and contacted the customer to let them know I would have the finished product to them by Friday of that week. Then I focused my attention on letting my colleagues know that I'd be finishing the project soon and apologized. That situation sure taught me a lot about how to prioritize my work and ensure my calendar allowed me to be flexible and set milestone goals for big projects."

First and foremost, your interviewer knows that any candidate they are speaking to about the position has faced a failure at some point in their career. It is certainly okay for you to talk about a failure you experienced, so make sure to think of a great example prior to your pharmaceutical sales interview. Whatever situation you choose to discuss, make sure you focus a majority of your answer on how you overcame that failure and what you learned that you can bring with you to this job.