Medical supply and pharmaceutical companies in the United Kingdom have been expanding their corporate structures to meet the diverse needs of their clients. Part of this expansion has been increased investment in research programmes meant to ensure the best possible products for consumers. Another part of this expansion has been the widening and deepening of the corporate employment structure in order to facilitate new needs. Sales, accounting, human resources, and supply chain departments, among others, have been expanded to meet the needs of a globalised clientele. While this means a stronger corporate structure for UK companies, it means more jobs available to medical sales professionals.
Young professionals often enter medical sales because they believe in the products they are selling. Perhaps they have been influenced by a loved one who has struggled with an illness or studied medicine at the university level and wants to help people get the supplies they need. No matter the motivation, medical sales professionals are in an important position. However, medical sales people also want to make a living and advance within their field. The expansion of medical supply companies has meant more advancement to management positions for exceptional candidates.
However, there are some impediments to upper mobility for even the most talented UK sales people. International workers and new graduates from UK universities are combining to flood hiring managers with hundreds and thousands of applications for medical sales jobs. Companies are also putting up road blocks to advancement, usually by putting high standards and requirements for these positions. After all, medical supply companies are running a business and management professionals are a higher investment level than entry level workers.
The question, then, is how a talented medical sales professional can rise through the ranks to their dream job. One way in which these sales professionals can achieve their dream job is to pursue every professional development opportunity. Courses and seminars can help a sales person increase their profile among managers and help them build knowledge of the medical sales field. As well, medical sales professionals should work hard to constantly increase their sales on a quarterly basis. While this is easy enough to say, medical sales people can keep customers coming back for more by empathising with their situation and helping them find the best products for their needs. In the end, medical sales people need to prove that they are committed and successful in their jobs in order to advance to management positions.
Monday 23 February 2009
Medical Sales
A career in pharmaceutical sales does not necessarily require a medical background. A four year college degree of any discipline is sufficient. What does matter though is the kind of efforts you take to secure a good job in pharmaceutical sales, and, once in, how hard you work at making a success of it.
The first step that you need to take is to prepare your resume tailored to the requirements of the pharmaceutical industry. Once your resume is ready it is imperative that you initiate and maintain the right kind of networking to see that your resume reaches the places that matter in the area of pharmaceutical sales. It is advisable to be well versed in relevant details about the industry in general and certain companies in particular.
One of the main appealing factors about a career in pharmaceutical sales is that any kind of work experience or background is acceptable. What is required is desire and willingness to learn the ropes and put in hard work. It is relatively easy to land an entry level pharmaceutical job. Hard work and diligence ensures that you stick on and scale greater heights in the area of pharmaceutical sales.
Those who look for higher jobs in this area are people who already have some amount of experience in pharmaceutical sales. Such people need to equip themselves with relevant information that will give them an edge over the competition. Pharmaceutical industry trends; latest happenings in the industry; an in depth knowledge of the targeted company's profile - like history, products and pipelines, is the kind of homework that must be done.
It is no secret that those who manage to get into pharmaceutical sales jobs are people who would have done exceedingly well in their interviews. Interviews for pharmaceutical sales jobs entail having to face several industry specific questions. There are no shortcuts here, those who do their home work well, succeed
The first step that you need to take is to prepare your resume tailored to the requirements of the pharmaceutical industry. Once your resume is ready it is imperative that you initiate and maintain the right kind of networking to see that your resume reaches the places that matter in the area of pharmaceutical sales. It is advisable to be well versed in relevant details about the industry in general and certain companies in particular.
One of the main appealing factors about a career in pharmaceutical sales is that any kind of work experience or background is acceptable. What is required is desire and willingness to learn the ropes and put in hard work. It is relatively easy to land an entry level pharmaceutical job. Hard work and diligence ensures that you stick on and scale greater heights in the area of pharmaceutical sales.
Those who look for higher jobs in this area are people who already have some amount of experience in pharmaceutical sales. Such people need to equip themselves with relevant information that will give them an edge over the competition. Pharmaceutical industry trends; latest happenings in the industry; an in depth knowledge of the targeted company's profile - like history, products and pipelines, is the kind of homework that must be done.
It is no secret that those who manage to get into pharmaceutical sales jobs are people who would have done exceedingly well in their interviews. Interviews for pharmaceutical sales jobs entail having to face several industry specific questions. There are no shortcuts here, those who do their home work well, succeed
Medical Sales Staff
If you are a recruiter, a manager or an owner of a medical staffing agency, your priority and lifeblood is finding talent for your medical staffing agency.
The positions you are trying to fill are probably from facilities that called that same afternoon and they are requesting that you send them a qualified candidate tomorrow. This can be a real danger for your medical staffing company, your reputation as well as your ability to get business is and will always be tested. You cannot let business slip through your fingers, leaving you to lick your wounds and hope you are able to fill the next call.
If you are new to the recruiting field then it is important to realize that if a call comes in from a facility you have been marketing to it is often associated with two reasons.
One: The medical staffing company currently working with this facility is unable to send them a qualified candidate.
Two: They are interested in working with you because you offered them a lower price than your competition.
Knowing this you must do whatever it takes to make sure you find the talent for your medical staffing company. So How Do You Start!
Finally, I will teach you some of the tricks of the trade. These are the most closely guarded secrets on recruiting for the medical staffing industry. Naturally, It would be impossible to list in detail the closely guarded secrets in this article. What I will do is simply illustrate one of the quickest and easiest techniques you can use today making sure you never loose a shift due to lack of qualified talent.
Finding Talent For Your Staffing Company!
Hire a full time employee that can cover various shifts and with multiple licenses. Explain to this employee that he/she will be used initially to help alleviate the growth of the company. When a call comes in send that employee to the facility to cover the shift. This will give you a few days to find a replacement with an employee with a lower rate. This technique will make you appear larger than you are and you will impress the facilities. It is a constant shifting game that is part of running a medical staffing agency.
Shed the notion that you must make available a 100% staffing rate, you build your company with fewer employees necessary for the staffing process. The facilities need to be aware of your techniques. They are mainly interested that you are providing coverage in a timely manner.
You have to gauge each request and deem the call for shift coverage in priority. If you are getting a call from a major 300 bed facility capable of growth then you need to use the above method. If you are getting a call from a small one person clinic then the urgency is less than the above example.
Using recruiting dynamics is what will allow you to fill shifts within a 24 hour notice or less. Finding talent for your staffing company is all about perceptions and how you use your existing talent pull. It is not the amount of talent you have but how you manipulate the perception.
Finding talent is not about sending thousands of mailers or calling hundreds of candidates a day. Recruiting dynamics explains the need to focus on the 80/20 principal of recruiting. Use 20 percent of your effort to find the 80 percent of you talent. Don’t use the old recruiting methods that teaches us to use the 80 percent of our time to find the 20 percent of our talent. Time is a fleeting commodity that cannot be replaced once gone.
Recruiting dynamics is what has allowed me to consult with other medical staffing agencies and successfully increase their net revenue.
Remember the principal of recruiting dynamics is all about spending less time recruiting and more time running your business. You have other issue you will need to deal with such as playing golf or taking vacations
The positions you are trying to fill are probably from facilities that called that same afternoon and they are requesting that you send them a qualified candidate tomorrow. This can be a real danger for your medical staffing company, your reputation as well as your ability to get business is and will always be tested. You cannot let business slip through your fingers, leaving you to lick your wounds and hope you are able to fill the next call.
If you are new to the recruiting field then it is important to realize that if a call comes in from a facility you have been marketing to it is often associated with two reasons.
One: The medical staffing company currently working with this facility is unable to send them a qualified candidate.
Two: They are interested in working with you because you offered them a lower price than your competition.
Knowing this you must do whatever it takes to make sure you find the talent for your medical staffing company. So How Do You Start!
Finally, I will teach you some of the tricks of the trade. These are the most closely guarded secrets on recruiting for the medical staffing industry. Naturally, It would be impossible to list in detail the closely guarded secrets in this article. What I will do is simply illustrate one of the quickest and easiest techniques you can use today making sure you never loose a shift due to lack of qualified talent.
Finding Talent For Your Staffing Company!
Hire a full time employee that can cover various shifts and with multiple licenses. Explain to this employee that he/she will be used initially to help alleviate the growth of the company. When a call comes in send that employee to the facility to cover the shift. This will give you a few days to find a replacement with an employee with a lower rate. This technique will make you appear larger than you are and you will impress the facilities. It is a constant shifting game that is part of running a medical staffing agency.
Shed the notion that you must make available a 100% staffing rate, you build your company with fewer employees necessary for the staffing process. The facilities need to be aware of your techniques. They are mainly interested that you are providing coverage in a timely manner.
You have to gauge each request and deem the call for shift coverage in priority. If you are getting a call from a major 300 bed facility capable of growth then you need to use the above method. If you are getting a call from a small one person clinic then the urgency is less than the above example.
Using recruiting dynamics is what will allow you to fill shifts within a 24 hour notice or less. Finding talent for your staffing company is all about perceptions and how you use your existing talent pull. It is not the amount of talent you have but how you manipulate the perception.
Finding talent is not about sending thousands of mailers or calling hundreds of candidates a day. Recruiting dynamics explains the need to focus on the 80/20 principal of recruiting. Use 20 percent of your effort to find the 80 percent of you talent. Don’t use the old recruiting methods that teaches us to use the 80 percent of our time to find the 20 percent of our talent. Time is a fleeting commodity that cannot be replaced once gone.
Recruiting dynamics is what has allowed me to consult with other medical staffing agencies and successfully increase their net revenue.
Remember the principal of recruiting dynamics is all about spending less time recruiting and more time running your business. You have other issue you will need to deal with such as playing golf or taking vacations
Medical sales Jobs
As we graduate out of college and step into the world, there are hundreds of career opportunities awaiting us. There are some who are extremely confident of their abilities and choose their dream job in college itself.
If you too are one of these and have the ability to talk and convince people into things, then you need to be a sales executive.
While sales might seem like a common thing, the job of a sales executive is an entry into a world that offers excellent remuneration and optimum growth opportunities. Within sales itself, there are so many sectors to choose from.
Medical Sales Jobs
But one of the most sought after ones are Medical Sales. Medical Sales have myriad sub-divisions like a Medical Rep, Pharmaceutical Sales, Healthcare sales etc. You can choose anyone of the following based on your needs and requirements.
Interview Tips
if you have decided to get into Medical Sales, then you need to land the right job and sail through the interview without any jerks and bumps.
For landing the right job, you can always rely on job portals. Since 'sales' is such a vast field, most job portals have a separate section for sales. In fact now there are several job portals that are solely created for sales jobs.
These portals only list sales jobs and you can find them with ease. Once you have landed the sales job, the next part is the interview.
Make sure that you have a detailed and well written resume with a covering letter. If you do not have this, then you can always use the resume services on a job portal.
Log on to the internet and conduct some research on the company that you are about to go to. It always creates a good impression when you have some info about the company.
Remember, you are trying to sell yourself within a small timeframe. So look your best and present yourself well.
If you too are one of these and have the ability to talk and convince people into things, then you need to be a sales executive.
While sales might seem like a common thing, the job of a sales executive is an entry into a world that offers excellent remuneration and optimum growth opportunities. Within sales itself, there are so many sectors to choose from.
Medical Sales Jobs
But one of the most sought after ones are Medical Sales. Medical Sales have myriad sub-divisions like a Medical Rep, Pharmaceutical Sales, Healthcare sales etc. You can choose anyone of the following based on your needs and requirements.
Interview Tips
if you have decided to get into Medical Sales, then you need to land the right job and sail through the interview without any jerks and bumps.
For landing the right job, you can always rely on job portals. Since 'sales' is such a vast field, most job portals have a separate section for sales. In fact now there are several job portals that are solely created for sales jobs.
These portals only list sales jobs and you can find them with ease. Once you have landed the sales job, the next part is the interview.
Make sure that you have a detailed and well written resume with a covering letter. If you do not have this, then you can always use the resume services on a job portal.
Log on to the internet and conduct some research on the company that you are about to go to. It always creates a good impression when you have some info about the company.
Remember, you are trying to sell yourself within a small timeframe. So look your best and present yourself well.
Medical Sales For Nurses
After I did my speech at a local Toastmasters meeting, another member came up to me and asked about how to get in touch with pharmaceutical companies. It turns out that she was a nurse at one of Montreal’s largest hospitals and she knew that I had worked in medical sales for many years. She was thinking about a career change after many years working in the hospital as a nurse and wanted to find out about the possibility of a medical sales job for nurses.
Of course, I told her that a medical sales job would be a natural career change for her and other nurses. They already know the medical science and anatomy. It’s only a matter of learning selling skills and some pharmacology which drug companies will train on.
Since this particular nurse was already a Toastmaster member for two years, her communications skills were pretty good and will get even better as she advances within Toastmasters. She will likely convince drug companies that she does have to communications skills required for a medical sales job. The only thing that she would need to determine is whether she has the aptitude for the sales environment which includes being able to take rejection every day. As far as how to get in touch with the pharmaceutical companies, she and other nurses have a huge advantage over other aspiring medical sales representatives because she is already working in an environment where she has access to many possible contacts to the drug industry.
She admitted that she has seen many medical sales reps visiting the hospital but never talked to any of them. I suggested that she makes an effort to talk to some of these reps to pick their brains. She can also make use of her present hospital network such as other nurses and doctors (as well as their staff) to perhaps help her on introductions to visiting medical sales representatives. This can in turn lead to introductions to the medical sales reps’ managers.
Many medical sales reps who were former nurses got their first medical sales jobs this way through direct contacts made at the hospital. A medical sales job for nurses could include positions involving pharmaceuticals, medical devices or equipment. This lady at Toastmasters can easily do the same.
Of course, I told her that a medical sales job would be a natural career change for her and other nurses. They already know the medical science and anatomy. It’s only a matter of learning selling skills and some pharmacology which drug companies will train on.
Since this particular nurse was already a Toastmaster member for two years, her communications skills were pretty good and will get even better as she advances within Toastmasters. She will likely convince drug companies that she does have to communications skills required for a medical sales job. The only thing that she would need to determine is whether she has the aptitude for the sales environment which includes being able to take rejection every day. As far as how to get in touch with the pharmaceutical companies, she and other nurses have a huge advantage over other aspiring medical sales representatives because she is already working in an environment where she has access to many possible contacts to the drug industry.
She admitted that she has seen many medical sales reps visiting the hospital but never talked to any of them. I suggested that she makes an effort to talk to some of these reps to pick their brains. She can also make use of her present hospital network such as other nurses and doctors (as well as their staff) to perhaps help her on introductions to visiting medical sales representatives. This can in turn lead to introductions to the medical sales reps’ managers.
Many medical sales reps who were former nurses got their first medical sales jobs this way through direct contacts made at the hospital. A medical sales job for nurses could include positions involving pharmaceuticals, medical devices or equipment. This lady at Toastmasters can easily do the same.
Medical Sales Interviews
Job interviews can be very stressful situations. To alleviate that stress so that you come across as confident, competent, and capable: be prepared, have good communications skills, and have a few tricks up your sleeve. Stepping it up so that you shine in the interview and stand out from the crowd is what's going to get you the job.
It cannot be stressed enough: Do your homework on the company. Know what they do, and what's currently going on with them. Check the company's website and Google them, too, to find information from newspapers, magazines, and blogs. That should give you plenty of material to discuss, as well as help you direct your answers to what's going to be of the most interest to them. And, it gives you material for great questions to ask-it fills in the information you need, and it demonstrates your interest in the company.
Check to see who you are LinkedIn with who has a connection to the hiring manager (or someone very close to them). If you find a connection in your networks, that's a definite plus for you.
Interview preparation and presentation will help you. Make sure you are fresh and alert, watch your body language, and be prepared to market yourself. Don't rely on the interviewer to lead you to the information they need on you. Not all interviewers are skilled at getting the information they need. Radiate enthusiasm for the job. Act like you'd enjoy it, not like you're desperate to get it.
Go into the interview with a 30-day, a 60-day, and a 90-day business plan. This is simply a plan for what you are going to do in that time frame after you get hired. If you want to get a hiring manager's attention, this is the way to do it. It shows that you are serious, capable, and committed.
If you're going to a dinner/lunch interview, please be sure your table manners are excellent. Get a book if you have to. It sounds basic, but candidates lose jobs because of poor table manners at dinner. And of course, dress professionally: conservatively, with nails trimmed, shoes shined, and no overt fragrances or flashy jewelry.
A few more tricks to tone your interview skills: have a few small talk topics ready to go, and remember to be confident. No sarcasm or self-deprecation. If you have to give yourself a pep talk before you go in, do it. Be positive. Videotape yourself answering interview questions to see how you perform. Ask for feedback from others.
Look at it from an employer's perspective: they want someone with the skills to do the job as well as someone they can relate to and work with on a day-to-day basis. Be friendly. Think of it as a networking opportunity. Being relaxed and confident, and asking your own questions in a give-and-take session will help alleviate your nerves and result in a great interview.
Peggy McKee is the owner and chief recruiter for PHC Consulting, a recruiting firm providing top sales talent, sales management, marketing and service / support personnel to some of the most prominent high growth companies in the medical and laboratory products industry for over 9 years!
Our client companies provide capital equipment and reagents for the clinical laboratories or research laboratories, equipment and consumables that aid the physician/clinician in diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic information, software that provides the workflow improvements that have unending positive impact on the patient, physician and the laboratory professional and a number of service offerings in the medical arena (for example: laboratory service, imaging etc).
Our expertise is in providing: Sales, Sales Management, Marketing, Technical Service, and Support Professionals.
We provide top talent (usually the top 10% of sales force rankings) and reduce turnover (through exceptional client knowledge and candidate screening) this in combination with our reputation for smoothly facilitating the hiring process makes us the search firm of choice in this arena
It cannot be stressed enough: Do your homework on the company. Know what they do, and what's currently going on with them. Check the company's website and Google them, too, to find information from newspapers, magazines, and blogs. That should give you plenty of material to discuss, as well as help you direct your answers to what's going to be of the most interest to them. And, it gives you material for great questions to ask-it fills in the information you need, and it demonstrates your interest in the company.
Check to see who you are LinkedIn with who has a connection to the hiring manager (or someone very close to them). If you find a connection in your networks, that's a definite plus for you.
Interview preparation and presentation will help you. Make sure you are fresh and alert, watch your body language, and be prepared to market yourself. Don't rely on the interviewer to lead you to the information they need on you. Not all interviewers are skilled at getting the information they need. Radiate enthusiasm for the job. Act like you'd enjoy it, not like you're desperate to get it.
Go into the interview with a 30-day, a 60-day, and a 90-day business plan. This is simply a plan for what you are going to do in that time frame after you get hired. If you want to get a hiring manager's attention, this is the way to do it. It shows that you are serious, capable, and committed.
If you're going to a dinner/lunch interview, please be sure your table manners are excellent. Get a book if you have to. It sounds basic, but candidates lose jobs because of poor table manners at dinner. And of course, dress professionally: conservatively, with nails trimmed, shoes shined, and no overt fragrances or flashy jewelry.
A few more tricks to tone your interview skills: have a few small talk topics ready to go, and remember to be confident. No sarcasm or self-deprecation. If you have to give yourself a pep talk before you go in, do it. Be positive. Videotape yourself answering interview questions to see how you perform. Ask for feedback from others.
Look at it from an employer's perspective: they want someone with the skills to do the job as well as someone they can relate to and work with on a day-to-day basis. Be friendly. Think of it as a networking opportunity. Being relaxed and confident, and asking your own questions in a give-and-take session will help alleviate your nerves and result in a great interview.
Peggy McKee is the owner and chief recruiter for PHC Consulting, a recruiting firm providing top sales talent, sales management, marketing and service / support personnel to some of the most prominent high growth companies in the medical and laboratory products industry for over 9 years!
Our client companies provide capital equipment and reagents for the clinical laboratories or research laboratories, equipment and consumables that aid the physician/clinician in diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic information, software that provides the workflow improvements that have unending positive impact on the patient, physician and the laboratory professional and a number of service offerings in the medical arena (for example: laboratory service, imaging etc).
Our expertise is in providing: Sales, Sales Management, Marketing, Technical Service, and Support Professionals.
We provide top talent (usually the top 10% of sales force rankings) and reduce turnover (through exceptional client knowledge and candidate screening) this in combination with our reputation for smoothly facilitating the hiring process makes us the search firm of choice in this arena
Medical Sales Jobs
One of the more interesting specialties in medical sales is pediatrics involving doctors who treat children. The pediatrics medical specialty involves a fair number of over the counter (OTC) non-prescription products in addition to the usual prescription drugs. Some pharmaceutical firms deal only with OTC products in this specialty including those with baby formulas. This may be a feasible entry route for newcomers to medical sales since the pediatrics field is so OTC intensive.
The OTC business is generally very sample intensive so medical sales representatives working in this particular area will be expected to deal with huge supplies of free samples for the medical clinics on a daily basis. One thing to be forewarned especially for pediatrics is that because of the nature of the baby formula samples in canned formats, there could be some moderate lifting required. Medical sales representatives routinely carry cases of canned baby formulas around for the pediatric clinics.
Cough and cold syrups as well as skin creams are also common products in pediatrics. Since many kids can’t swallow tablets, pharmaceutical companies develop many pediatric drugs in syrup formats. This often results in free samples in small bottle formats which of course will be heavier to carry around for the medical rep than samples in pill forms.
The field itself is a good one to work in because I have found in my experience working with pediatricians, they are generally a nice group of physicians to deal with. They are usually more relaxed than other certain types of doctors. Perhaps this is because pediatricians have to deal with kids all day so a certain playful personality is probably required for this specialty. This works well with medical sales representatives who call on this group of doctors.
Like other medical specialty sales territories, pediatric territories will likely be larger than the average family medicine territory in terms of geography since there are fewer pediatricians per community compared to family doctors. Family physicians seeing a lot of kids will probably also be included in the target group. Because of larger geographic territories, medical sales reps working in pediatrics will likely have to travel more compared to the average drug rep working only with family physicians.
Overall, pediatrics is a good specialty to work in for many medical sales representatives. It is also a possible entry point for those who are hoping to get a medical sales position for the first time.
The OTC business is generally very sample intensive so medical sales representatives working in this particular area will be expected to deal with huge supplies of free samples for the medical clinics on a daily basis. One thing to be forewarned especially for pediatrics is that because of the nature of the baby formula samples in canned formats, there could be some moderate lifting required. Medical sales representatives routinely carry cases of canned baby formulas around for the pediatric clinics.
Cough and cold syrups as well as skin creams are also common products in pediatrics. Since many kids can’t swallow tablets, pharmaceutical companies develop many pediatric drugs in syrup formats. This often results in free samples in small bottle formats which of course will be heavier to carry around for the medical rep than samples in pill forms.
The field itself is a good one to work in because I have found in my experience working with pediatricians, they are generally a nice group of physicians to deal with. They are usually more relaxed than other certain types of doctors. Perhaps this is because pediatricians have to deal with kids all day so a certain playful personality is probably required for this specialty. This works well with medical sales representatives who call on this group of doctors.
Like other medical specialty sales territories, pediatric territories will likely be larger than the average family medicine territory in terms of geography since there are fewer pediatricians per community compared to family doctors. Family physicians seeing a lot of kids will probably also be included in the target group. Because of larger geographic territories, medical sales reps working in pediatrics will likely have to travel more compared to the average drug rep working only with family physicians.
Overall, pediatrics is a good specialty to work in for many medical sales representatives. It is also a possible entry point for those who are hoping to get a medical sales position for the first time.
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