Let’s use this Spring Season to temper our demeanor with new insight, a potential different view and acceptance that we can’t change everything in the world, but we can make a difference with the customers and business climate around us!

Take a look around.  Uncover some new approaches to improve relationships in your medical sales role.  Either internal (company) or external (customers), it’s never been a better time to step up and be noted for your hard work and achievements.  Volunteer on a project for your DM or help with some training or a district meeting.  These activities can create additional value and garner additional sales that may be credited to you or your team.

Great numbers in the pharmaceutical or medical sales always help, but being well versed with your current business plan is also critical.  This can be especially useful if your numbers are not where they should be potentially due to a host of reasons outside of your own individual efforts.  At a moment’s notice, this analysis should show where your business currently resides, how you got there, and how you plan on achieving your next milestone.

It’s not as difficult as it might seem if you are able to take good call notes, document your successes, and reflect upon your territory as a journey (not simply a destination).  Before you bask in this year’s Presidents Trophy trip, hopefully you’ll be planning on how you’re going to make the next one!

There’s no question, the competition has increased for a shot at an available position in the medical sales field.  Just a couple of years ago it was much easier to find an opening in medical sales for new representatives and tenured folks.  As the economy has tightened, representatives with several years of experience have found themselves in some unfamiliar territory.  It’s true, closing the deal on that next job after being downsized may require some additional firepower that was not demanded just months ago. 

Here are some things to consider in preparing for your first or next job in medical or pharmaceutical sales.

Let’s use the acronym “EPIC” as an example of four key areas for you to review.  These areas include Education, Production, Initiation and Concentration.
 

EPIC

Education:

If you’ve been realigned, maybe it’s time to take a look at your educational background.  Taking a few extra classes to finish that master’s degree might just give you the slight edge over your competition.  Education is an objective area an employer can review.  Many times when all of the variables are equal, an advanced education can help.  It’s not just the degree, it’s the effort that you put forward to receive these credentials.

Production:

Produce documentation regarding your significant contributions.  Show them what you’ve done.  It doesn’t have to be in an elaborate “brag book”.  Many times documentation of rank reports, president trophy wins, significant contest victories and simply the ability to tie these “wins” to the prospective company’s product line will “close the deal”.

Initiate:

In a word, network.  Initiate contact at all levels.  Talk to your friends that are in medical or pharmaceutical sales, join social networking sites like LinkedIn, cold call on companies to see if they have openings.  Effectively your new job is to find one!  Work to find those openings and then do whatever is necessary to make the interview at the prospect’s convenience.  Yes, you may have to drive 100 miles.  Be excited about the opportunity and show it.

Concentration:

I’ve heard many candidates say, “I’ve sent out 100 resumes.”  I always want to ask, “Why?”  If there truly were 100 legitimate openings, that’s great.  Most of the time these candidates blindly send resumes to simply anywhere.  Doesn’t it make sense to research and come up with a “target list” of companies and contacts that you can concentrate on where you can actually see yourself working?  This high level of detail, follow-up and focus can make a huge difference in your visibility and credibility with a perspective medical sales company.

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The term epic usually refers to something “heroic” or “majestic”.  Maybe you can come out as a hero in your job search by finding the medical sales job of your dreams!

So you don’t have a golden parachute?  Most do not.  Medical sales and pharmaceutical sales jobs have changed dramatically over the last couple of years and will continue to do so into the immediate future.  There’s opportunity, but there’s also hardship.  Face it; we’re not in the eighties or nineties anymore.  Companies are attempting to reinvent their business and are becoming much leaner. 

Major organizations are reevaluating their needs almost daily.  With these changes the obvious occurs.  Good representatives are getting caught in the wake of reorganization and losing their positions.  It’s not their fault (most of the time).  It’s a sign of the times, tough times, the like that most of us have not lived through before.  What can you do as a feet-on-the-street representative?  Work on increasing your worth as a representative.  Be the value added representative by doing a little more, a little differently.  This is really not the time to “fly under the radar.”  It’s time to be noticed and volunteer for projects that can help the Team or Region excel!  Demonstrate new initiative by identifying or inventing new opportunities in the field.  Approach your clients with a positive, inspirational message relative to the attributes of your product(s), and then close them like there’s no tomorrow. 

Above all, don’t fall into the negativity surrounding the current economy.  There’s business to be had and you’re quite capable to pick it up.  Document your successes and increases in your territory and identify what this means over time for the territory, district and region.  Furthermore, make sure along your career path in medical sales that you collect and save every item that demonstrates your strong sales ability.  These could be contest results, rankings, significant meeting awards, performance awards and the like.  Hold on to these in a physical and digital file for access later to incorporate into your interview/presentation process.

Today’s medical or pharmaceutical sales representative face many challenges in the current competitive marketplace.  Managed care, generics and a host of other factors contribute to the daily roadblocks, which may stand in the way of increasing market share.  So what must the successful representative do to try and control their destiny? —Organize and plan.

I’ve heard it said many times at various meetings, “Plan your work and work your plan.” Also, how many times have you heard, “control what you can control.”  Well, sometimes representatives feel that they can control very little, right?  Agreeably there are many things outside the control of a representative.  However, organization is not one of them.  Gaining insight and organizational focus of your territory will make the difference between you and the plethora of other representatives in a commodity driven market.

Most sales representatives in the medical field are faced with similar obstacles at one time or another, so pulling together a game plan is in order.  Representatives are asked for documentation and 90-day action plans based upon what they thought management was requiring. Let me challenge you today to plan your territory based upon YOUR knowledge of the turf and work WITH your manager.  Trying to simply appease your manager with mundane territory plans, rarely works long term.  Challenge their knowledge, that’s part of their job.  Before you do, develop your plan with workable substance and understand your turf.  Remember, your goals and your manager’s goals are mutual in that in the end you will both want something workable that achieves results quickly. 

I talk to many representatives each day and rarely do I get through a day without someone accusing their current or previous manager of being a “micro-manager.”  Before making this accusation, some representatives may want to reflect upon what is being asked of them.  Many times management is simply asking for a level of detail that a representative cannot produce.  And by the way, they have the absolute right as your employer to ask for this information and these detailed territory plans.

So go out and “dig in” to your territory.  Probe for information from medical professionals that will help position your product(s).  Involve other personnel in office that can help facilitate your role and your relationships.  You’ll be amazed at the additional “depth” of knowledge you’ll gain in your territory in just 90 days.

Call it what you will confidence, conviction or just over-the-top-enthusiasm, in medical sales it is important to demonstrate a positive level of passion toward your products or services.  Your clients expect strong presentations and so does your employer, so don’t fail to deliver passion in your next presentation!

In most medical sales positions, as with any other type of professional sales role, confidence, conviction and enthusiasm are important.  These components can help you gain credibility as a medical sales representative and provide you the healthy bit of arrogance you may desire. Defining these elements is simple.  Confidence generally shows that you have “mastery” of your subject matter.  Conviction demonstrates that you sincerely believe what you are conveying and want the physician or prescriber to believe it too.  As far as enthusiasm goes, that just means you jumped out of bed that morning ready and excited to yell about your medical product or service!  (No diving back under the covers—The world awaits you!)

So, the real pitfall comes with medical sales representatives that demonstrate an “unfounded arrogance”.  Who are these folks?  They are the ones that have not earned bragging rights by projecting the necessary confidence, conviction and enthusiasm, thereby falling flat or stumbling through their presentations.  Maybe they don’t know their product information well enough?  Maybe they’re just plain boring?  Do they lack confidence?  Whatever, the most tenured sales representatives know that it takes time, practice, patience and experience to get the elements balanced to master a professional sales presentation.  Yes, there is a place for practicing, but I just can’t make myself call it role-playing.

If you think about it, you may have heard in the medical sales field that a competitor is “arrogant”.   Your client may say, “I don’t like representative so-and-so because he’s so cocky.”  Interestingly, that representative may very well be a top performer.  It seems like it just works out that way.  Their arrogance may contain just the correct level of confidence, conviction and enthusiasm necessary to move business.

Obviously, you don’t want to be an industry jerk, but a little bit of arrogance can move your career forward.  It might even make you a lot more money?  Think about it.