Blog 1: Medical Sales Introduction: Skills

Welcome to my first-ever blog!  I’m Elisa, your Medical Sales Career Coach and Mentor!  The Medical Sales industry is rewarding, lucrative, and always challenging.  Exploring a career in Medical Sales will offer you an opportunity to grow professionally and impact the lives of patients every day, all while being generously compensated!  The purpose of this blog will be to provide industry insights as well as real-world experiences to help you break into Medical Sales.

What is a Medical Sales Rep??  Medical Sales Reps sell their products and services to a variety of entities including, hospitals, laboratories, outpatient clinics, and their healthcare providers and staff.  There are many sectors within Medical Sales including but not limited to devices, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, capital equipment, disposables, and supplies.  Each of these sectors will vary in the skills and relationships needed to excel in the position.  Each sector (and company within each sector) also varies in how it compensates its reps when it comes to salary, bonus, commission, and other benefits like a company car, unlimited PTO, and stock options.  Regardless of the sector you choose, you have the opportunity to improve patient care while earning a generous income.

When you begin your job search it’s important to consider the skills that hiring managers are looking for.  Strong communication, relationship building, business acumen, team player, listening ability, customer service, negotiating and many more.  Each job will have very specific skills they require to consider the candidate to be a good fit.  Many of the skills I mentioned are developed in any job and in any industry.  These are considered transferable skills and when pursuing a job in Medical Sales it will be important to be able to convey these important skills.  Look for ways in your current position to elevate these skills and be sure to document examples as this can be useful when building your resume and speaking about during interviews!! This is one example of how an industry-specific career coach can help!  I have been there….I can help!

Coaches Tip #1: Reflect on your past/current work experience, groups, projects, or teams you were a part of. What skills did you use? Document these skills including what outcome there was as a result of these skills. How many people did it impact? This is a start to a great “accomplishment statement” on your resume. Get used to documenting these types of things because it is a great “best practice” for updating your resume throughout your career and it is useful for annual performance reviews once you land your job as well. Take a look at the “Top Career Skills” example below (Credit Igor Buinevici @ Wild Capital). Send me an email at elisa@epcareercoach.com if you would like a PDF emailed to you.

Coaches Tip #2: What type of job are you in now? Is there a way, in your current role, to gain additional experience with some of your less-developed skills? Real world example, I started my career as an Exercise Physiologist working with patients in an outpatient clinic. I did not have any sales experience. I created a need and opportunity to market my wellness programs to area primary care physicians with the approval of my manager and marketing team. I was able to develop many sales-related skills I did not have and leverage them in interviews.

In future blogs, I will cover many different aspects of Medical Sales including common challenges to getting interviews, resume suggestions, LinkedIn recommendations, and networking best practices.  I will also be sharing my personal experiences and lessons learned from my 20+ year career as a Medical Sales rep.

If you have any suggestions for topics, visit my contact page or email me at elisa@epcareercoach.com and let me know.

I appreciate you taking the time to read my 1st blog and look forward to providing value to your journey!

Elisa

Elisa Perkins Career Coaching and Mentoring

Credit: Igor Buinevici @ Wild Capital