A comprehensive guide on how to break into the medical sales field. This issue will focus specifically on pharmaceutical sales and give you some insider tips and tricks on getting into a competitive market! Legacy MedSearch is a retained search firm working exclusively in Medical Device careers. We specialize in Surgery, radiology, diagnostic & therapeutic imaging & surgical navigation, medical device implants, MIS, LIS & SILS procedures in IMD, AIMD and Class I, Class II and Class III medical devices in orthopedics, spine, osteobiologic, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience, ophthalmic, cardiology, cardiovascular, thoracic, vascular, otolaryngology, robotics, haptic robotics, drug delivery, biologics, bio-pharmaceutical & healthcare IT related to PMA, 510(k) & IDE medical device classes. Our other video topics include: How to Get Into Medical Sales How to Get Into Pharmaceutical Sales Interview Tips How to Research Companies for your Job Search How to Preparea Professional Profile “Brag Book” Interview Tips for Engineers How to explain if you were fired from your job Telephone Interviews Senior Level Interviews Presentation Interviews Legacy MedSearch is a retained search firm working exclusively in Medical Device careers. We specialize in Surgery, radiology, diagnostic & therapeutic imaging & surgical navigation, medical device implants, MIS, LIS & SILS procedures in IMD, AIMD and Class I, Class II and Class III medical devices in orthopedics, spine, osteobiologic …
Posts Tagged ‘sales’
Where is the best website for medical device sales?
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010I am a manager of medical device company. What could I get my sales reps for a Christmas gift?
Monday, August 30th, 2010How many medical device sales reps are in the US?
Thursday, August 26th, 2010Nurses: Looking For A Career Change? Think About A Transition Into A Medical Sales Career
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010If you are a nurse who is thinking about a career change, youâre not alone. Thereâs a recent ANM Health Care survey that says over 40% of nurses are seeking a career change. Job satisfaction for nurses is low, for a lot of reasons: the hours, the pay, and a lack of respect from doctors are a few of them. Or maybe you just need a change. Thatâs not unusual. Many people make several major career changes over their lifetimes, just because their current job no longer fits into the life they want.
But if you got into nursing because you like science and you love helping people by making a difference in one of the most important areas of their lives and youâre not ready to make a 180-degree turn into show business or basket-weaving, what will you do? How can you transition the skills youâve learned as a nurse into another career? What kinds of careers can utilize your particular skill set? Medical sales. Medical sales reps often have high job satisfaction, generous pay and benefits, and a more varied wardrobe (no more scrubs for you).
Nurses can often make a smooth, natural transition into medical sales jobs: medical device sales, hospital equipment sales, imaging sales, pharma sales, pathology sales, biotech sales, laboratory sales, or clinical diagnostics. Why?
You have a science backgroundâa must for anyone getting into medical sales. You need to understand what youâre selling and how it can meet the needs of your customers.
You probably have practical, on-the-job experience with the products youâd sell. What better way to be able to demonstrate how your customer can benefit from your product than by having been in their shoes?
You already know how to deal with difficult doctors. (Enough said.)
However, landing a job in medical sales can be difficult because thereâs a lot of competitionâbecause itâs a fantastic career. So what do you need to do to place yourself in the best possible position as a candidate? Even though you have an advantage because of your background, youâre not in the clear yet.  You need to do some research on how to land a medical sales job, and make sure you can present yourself as a strong job candidate. Hereâs a quick outline of steps you can take:
Read sales books and get some sales trainingâ¦there are medical sales training programs, but theyâre only one option.
Job shadow someone in the specific product area youâre interested in. That way, youâll get a feel for a typical day, and furnish yourself with a resource for your 30/60/90-day plan and your interview conversation.
Conduct informational interviews with medical sales reps and medical sales managers. It will give you tremendous insight into the job, and make you a more informed candidate.
Establish a LinkedIn profile that will introduce you as a professional, and find sales-related groups to join so that you can networkâget your name out there, and gather industry information.
Write a killer resume. Hire it out if you need to, and include your job shadowing and sales training on it.
Polish your interview skills. This is critical. Interviews for sales candidates are difficult, so you must be prepared.
Learn how to write a 30/60/90-day sales plan to present to the hiring manager. Itâs a written outline of what youâll do in the first 3 months on the job. A 30/60/90-day plan shows the hiring manager that you understand the job, and arenât going in cold. Plus, it spotlights your initiative, drive, and energy (all desirable qualities for a sales rep).
Submit your resume to a medical sales recruiter.
Consider getting custom coaching. A recruiter doesnât have time to really help you get the job, but a career coach can show you what you need, role play interview questions, fine-tune your resume, and guide you through all the details.
How to Break into Medical Sales!
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
Gorillamedicalsales.com founder and former medical device sales recruiter, Steve Dill, talks about breaking into the medical sales industry.
Powerful Medical Device Sales 15: Professionalism
Saturday, July 17th, 2010
Demonstrating the Powerful Medical Device Sales 15: Professionalism e-Learning course from uohc.com (UniversityOfHealthCare & UniversityOfBusiness)
What companies hire entry level medical device/pharm sales reps?
Sunday, July 11th, 2010Sales Career In Medical Devices
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010Pharmaceutical companies do not only make money selling drugs. A certain percentage also comes from the sale of medical devices. If you think you have what it takes to sell, then perhaps you should go for a sales career selling these products.
A sales career in medical devices means going out of the office often to meet clients. You may have to drive a certain distance or get their by flying in a plane. But before you meet them, you should already have a plan on how to present this medical device and be prepared to answer any of their questions because you don’t have a second chance if you fail on your first sales pitch.
Your customers are usually doctors since they will be recommending your product t o patients. So, you have to tell them what you are selling and demonstrate how it works. If the device is placed inside the body of a patient, the best way to do this will be to create a computer generated visual presentation and then present it to them.
While you are doing this, you should let them hold the device and give them a hard copy of the brochure so they can also read it. As mentioned before, you have to be ready for whatever questions they throw at it because the minute you stutter or show that you are unsure of what you are selling, you may have already lost the opportunity right there.
This will never happen of course if you have reviewed your product carefully the second that it is given to you. Since you work as a department, you can ask questions or conduct mock up sales presentations because it is better to make mistakes now than with a client.
The best way to tell if the doctor will buy the medical device or not is to look for signals. These could either be verbal or non verbal. If they ask how many do you have, then you know that they are willing to get it. Non-verbal is a bit tricky so watch their hands. If they are playing with it as though they own it, chances are they are interested.
Once these signals are seen, then it is time to close the sale. You can be frank and ask if they are willing to buy if they have not said so yet. You may also say that the medical device is available in different colors and asking them which they prefer to get. Should they respond choosing one color or the other then it’s a deal. The other option will be to attach some freebies to the medical device. Usually, these help enhance the product which also helps.
One thing some sales agents forget to is to follow up with their previous customers. You have to remember that these doctors see lots of patients monthly. Aside from those who have to undergo regular checkups, there are new patients who come in so you have to call them up every so often to find out if they want to order from you again. This will also give you the opportunity to check if there are any problems so this can be corrected.
You can have a great sales career selling medical devices. You just have to be patient and persistent because along way, there will be some doctors that will not be interested in what you have to offer.
Avoid Hurting Sales by Ill-chosen Cost Cuts
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010When is a cost reduction a cost increase? When the cost reduction drives too many customers away!
Whenever you read in the financial press about a company making a large cost reduction, try to remember whether or not the same firm has done this before in recent history. Chances are that the latest announcement is just the latest in a series of such cuts. If layoffs and facility shut-downs are such a good idea, why didn’t the company make all of the changes sooner? The usual answer is because the company didn’t reach its sales targets following the last round of cost-cutting.
Most ideas that companies have for cutting costs will also cut sales. In fact, some of these “cost reductions” will permanently reduce earnings because lost sales will more than offset lower costs. For a typical manufacturing company, a one percent sales decline will have the equivalent profit impact of a six percent reduction in payroll costs.
While cost-cutting ideas are being generated, more analysis goes into examining how they will affect costs at budgeted or estimated sales levels than into how the sales levels themselves will be affected.
Layoffs, for example, often mean delays in making existing and new offerings available, poorer service, and worse quality. Do those degradations in performance usually help sales? Usually not. These harmful effects occur as many productive employees choose to leave for better opportunities with generous severance pay packets in their pockets, and processes are disrupted as work is reassigned to those with less experience in the key activities.
Spend ten hours examining the potential sales impact of any cost reduction you evaluate for every hour you spend on considering how it will improve your business model. The best cost reductions will be those, like Beckman Coulter made through its merger, that lead to better quality, more effective performance, and greater benefits for customers and end users.
If you are careful, you will find sales-expanding ways to established lower-cost business models almost as easily as ones that harm profitable sales. That care in selecting the right sales-expanding quality is a key secret of the most successful companies who routinely improve their business models, and makes all of the difference in your long-run success!
Each time you repeat looking at ways to use costs to improve your business model, you will benefit by reinforcing the perspective of adding sales in different ways. For example, you might look at being more attractive to certain classes of customers where you have profit margin advantages.
For another investigation, you might consider cost reductions that can help increase sales from the most important trend-setting customers. At another time, your attention might focus on customers whose volume would fine-tune your operations to become vastly more efficient.
Copyright 2008 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved
