Medical Sales Jobs: What Do Medical Sales Reps Do?

Medical sales jobs are often thought of as when it comes to working in sales. What comes with the territory though is that they are harder to get. To become a medical sales rep you will need to have a number of skills, likely some qualifications and the ability to work with people at all levels.

Before you decide if this is for you let's have a look at the different types of medical sales jobs there are. These can differ depending on the various countries across the globe. Medical sales reps tend to fall into two main categories, which I will you about later. So how do medical reps sell? It is similar to other sales representatives. They see their customers in a one to one situation, perhaps present to them accessing the various types of technology available. Or they meet them at networking events and what is basically and at medical meetings.

Medical Sales Rep

These are primary care medical device reps and hospital reps. The primary care sales rep visits Doctor's surgeries and talks to Doctors and nurses about the prescription drugs that they are selling. The medical representative will ask the Doctor or nurse various questions and then tell them about their particular product and how it can help the symptoms that their patients are suffering from.

The medical reps provide great service because they help the primary care health team know about the range of new medications out there and how they work. The Doctor or nurse, when the appropriate patient arrives can then prescribe the drug.

It is similar to hospital medical sales representatives as well. Generally, this position needs more technical skills and abilities. Usually, medical reps start off in primary care and then as their experience and results grow they are promoted to the next level which is usually a hospital representative position.

Hospital sales representatives will often see all the different stakeholders in a hospital, from the nurses in the clinic, to the pharmacist, consultants, registrars, and house officers.

Many hospitals still have a formulary and will only use certain medications. The hospital rep needs to plan for this and ensure that his or her drug is on the formulary.

So how do you become successful in a medical sales job? Sorry to disappoint you if you thought it was going to be easy. Basically, like any successful sales rep or business development manager you need to work hard and apply yourself. Like other sales jobs, there are two key elements. You need to be able to sell and master the sales process and secondly, you must have excellent product knowledge.

This takes hard work and application. The medical sales reps that do this always win out and are the most successful members of the company.

These are the two key roles that pharmaceutical companies generally recruit for. There are many other roles of course, yet the higher volume medical sales recruiters.

Medical Sales Recruiters