Healthcare and medical

As a medical sales representative, you will be responsible for selling medical devices and diagnostic equipment to healthcare professionals. It is your job to demonstrate to your client that your product is safer, more effective or more economical than its rivals.

But this is a different type of selling. Your clients are in the main experienced medical professionals, such as staff nurses, GPs, consultants, business and procurement managers based in large NHS trusts, private hospitals, dentists or even veterinary surgeons.

The purpose of your role will be to impart the clinical benefits of a product range through sales presentations and product trials in order to provide better patient outcomes and cost effective options for your clients. At the same time you will need to focus on achieving your sales targets, create raising awareness of your company’s products and ensure that you keep up to date with developments within your sector through training or attending relevant conferences.

As David Alexander, a leading specialist medical sales recruiter for STAR Medical, says: “Medical sales is a career which can provide a number of fantastic benefits. To be a success in this role you will need to be tenacious with a strong business-like approach which, combined with having an out-going personality and consultative style, can really help take your career forward.”

Hours and environment

This is a predominantly client-facing role, and the clients you will be dealing with may work irregular hours and have limited time to spare to meet with you. So you will need to be flexible with your time and work around their schedule to secure that all-important appointment with a client. This, in practice, will invariably mean that you’re working hours that fall outside the traditional 9 to 5.

You must be prepared to travel. As a medical sales person you will be allocated a territory to manage which could cover a relatively small area or a larger region and your job will be to make appointments and attend as many client meetings/presentations as possible within your designated area. So you can expect to spend much of your day driving between appointments while finding time to fill your diary with more meetings in the days or weeks ahead.

Skills and interests

There are sales jobs and there are medical sales jobs. While most skills are transferable between varying sales disciplines, the healthcare sector looksfor applicants with a specific set of skills, including:

Ability to absorb and convey highly technical information
Ability to demonstrate both clinical and sales aptitude
A general understanding of the specific sector in which you hope to operate and the challenges faced by professionals
Excellent communication and presentation skills
Degree-educated or degree-calibre
A hands-on and customer-centric approach
Ability to forge strong relationships in a commercial environment
Flexible approach
Determination to succeed and overall career ambition
Good time management skills and ability to prioritorise tasks
Ability to work as part of a team and on own initiative

Industry

To say that the healthcare sector is big is perhaps the greatest understatement of all time. In a sector employing over 2 million people, the NHS alone accounts for 1.3 million – making it the single biggest employer not just in the UK but Europe and the third largest employer in the world, after the India Rail Company and Chinese Army.

The healthcare industry is divided into a number of sub-sectors: alternative and complementary medicine, allied health and core health. And you may find that you are selling products and services into one or all of these areas.

Alternative and complementary medicine has gained an air of respectability in recent years with acupuncturists, homeopaths and osteopaths, for example, often seen working alongside traditional medical practitioners.

Allied health professionals are the people who work alongside doctors and nurses providing a range of patient support roles, such as rehabilitation or ongoing treatment. So the key people you will likely encounter will be physiotherapists, occupational therapists and health visitors. Whereas in the core healthcare area your clients will be the more traditional faces of the healthcare industry ie, doctors, dentists, nurses and midwives.

Entry

If you have a science-related degree, your chances of securing the job you want will be greatly enhanced. Indeed, around 50% of the 9,000 pharmaceutical and medical sales people in the UK have one, while the remaining 50% are mainly graduates from other academic disciplines. That said, non-graduates with a previous sales, marketing or medical-related background are also sought after by employers.

The UK has a strong medial sales industry with a number of global players operating in this country, which is great news for anyone considering a career within this highly rewarding career. However, competition for positions is equally high and employers can often find themselves with the luxury of being able to cherry-pick the best candidates available.

Training, other qualifications and advancement

Most new medical sales people will complete an initial three-month probationary period designed to introduce and bring you up to speed with all you will need to know about your product and the sector in which you operate. Thereafter, your career will be in your own hands and once you feel you have mastered your current role it is natural for you to contemplate your next career move.

From sales representative, your next move could be a territory sales manager position, then area manager before assuming the role of national sales manager and, eventually, sales director. But before you can progress from one role to the next, you need to focus on your achievements in your current role and make sure that the powers that be (your boss) realise your potential.

Some people simply ‘get by’ by plodding along, doing what is expected of them and rarely deviating from familiarity. However, the people who really get noticed and subsequently get promoted are those who step out of their comfort zone to try and do things better than they have been done before and make a real difference to their organisation.

So think about instances when the limelight has shone on you and you have attracted the respect from your peers. Perhaps you increase sales within your territory by 20% year-on-year? Maybe you are the top seller of a particular product or have the highest client renewal rates in the company? Have you won any awards or successfully won a new client that your predecessors tried - and failed - to win before you?

Of equal importance is your ability to show an employer that you already have some of the skills needed to do a good job in the role you are applying to do. For instance, having some experience in dealing with more complex medical issues and working on key accounts will make your application for the next territory sales manager vacancy stand out from most other sales representatives applying for the same position. This is because these are key aspects of a manager’s role and employers will always favour a candidate who can already demonstrate some of the skills needed to be successful in their next role.

So if you are serious about your career, you need to develop the skills and industry knowledge that will steer you along the right course as you move up through the ranks.

Top employers

The medical sales sector is a fast growing industry with a number of employers operating across general and niche areas such as trauma and orthopaedic equipment. Some of the biggest employers include: