What to Look for In a Great Medical Sales Interview Coach
Today’s job search is unlike any we’ve seen before. Competition is especially fierce for medical sales jobs in this economy, and candidates get weeded out quickly. If you’ve landed the interview, you need to bring your best game right off the bat and knock the socks off the hiring manager. One of the most effective ways to become an all-star candidate is to hire an interview coach. Individualized coaching takes your personal work history and talents into account and customizes solutions for you.
How do you find a great interview coach? Look for someone who specializes in medical and health care sales with lots of experience. Look for testimonials from other clients, and take advantage of the consultation that they (should) offer. If you find someone with the right credentials that you feel you can work with comfortably, you’re good to go.
What should you look for? A really great interview coach will get to the bottom of your problem as quickly as possible. They won’t want to waste your time or money, and will be interested in helping you land the job you want. They’ll want to help you identify your goals and pinpoint the areas you need to improve.
You’ll probably get some homework to do on your own, like books to read or specific changes to make to your resume. It’s great if they can help you arrange a job-shadowing experience, and help you incorporate the keywords you’ll gain from that experience into your new resume. And they should help you role-play interview questions.
But the best thing about interview coaching is that it’s personalized. A great coach won’t have a standard plan they make everyone adhere to—they’ll customize the plan to what you need to be a winning candidate, whether you’re in medical devices, laboratory sales, pharmaceuticals, or hospital or surgical equipment.
A good coach won’t make you crazy promises, but he or she will want you to succeed as badly as you do, and will give you the tools, training, and expertise to make it happen.
I offer medical sales interview coaching, but you don’t have to work with me. Research what you can expect from a medical sales interview coach, and make your decision. It’s an investment in yourself and your career that will pay off for you.
Medical Sales Job Interview and Preparation Coaching
Did you ever wish you had the “inside track” at your medical sales job interview? Or that you knew exactly how to explain that slightly difficult/embarrassing/sensitive situation in your job history? Or even the very best way to explain who you are and what you do in a compelling, “hire me” kind of way? Maybe you’re getting interviews, but you know that something’s not going quite right because you’re not getting called back for the second one.
What’s your solution?
Hire an interview coach.
Interview coaching is an unexpected alternative for many health care sales candidates. There are so many articles you can find online about job interview preparation (including all the medical sales job tips on this blog) that it can seem just as easy (and cheaper) to just do it yourself.
But, an interview coach can take you beyond what you can accomplish yourself—providing an expert, unbiased insight addressing your individual situation, examining your job history and personality to help you devise the best way to position yourself in the interview, and even role-playing interview questions with you. It’s important that you get one who knows your field and that you’re comfortable working with….but once you do, you’re set. It is an investment, but it’s one that will pay off as soon as you land the job you’ve been chasing.
Maybe you’re not having too many problems but you realize you could be just a little bit better. It’s gaining that extra edge that turns a competitor into a champion. Pro athletes know that—that’s why they hire coaches, too.
Interview coaching can help you with confidence and presence, communication skills, your wording and emphasis in your answers to typical job interview questions. You’ll learn to customize your answers to fit your individual situation and stand out from the “standard” answers everyone else gives. Coaching can also help you master the all-important closing (asking for the job) at the end of the interview.
Don’t spin your wheels trying to handle this difficult job market on your own. Get smart, and get a coach who can help you get on the road to success!
You can check out what I offer as a career coach here: http://www.phcconsulting.com/interview-coaching/. I’m not saying you have to hire me, but you can get more ideas on what an interview coach can help you with. I’ve helped many candidates land great jobs faster than they could have imagined with just a little career coaching help, and I really believe it’s a great solution for every candidate. Best of luck.
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How Interview Coaching Can Help You Get a Medical Sales Job
Are you going to interviews, but not getting the offer? Or not even getting called back for a second interview?
Maybe there’s some issue you don’t have a great explanation for: a gap in your employment history, why you’re willing to take a pay cut in a new job, why you’ve been out of a job for so long, or something.
Maybe you don’t even know why–you think you’re doing a great job, but you’re not getting the call back.
It’s time for you to invest in interview coaching. Great interview coaching can help you with confidence, communication, presence, wording, emphasis, and other areas that are stopping you from getting the job offer you want and deserve. It focuses on your particular situation and your individual personality and style to give you the boost you need.
In this video, I’ll give you some examples of how I helped real candidates with roadblocks in their job searches that gave them a breakthrough and got them job offers. And we did it in less than an hour.
Should you hire a career coach to role play some job interview questions?
You know the drill for medical sales job interviews: research, prepare, and be ready for the toughest interview questions.
There are some job interview questions for health care sales jobs that inevitably trip candidates up. “What’s your greatest weakness?“ is a famous one. The typical advice you’ll usually find is to prepare for the interview by practicing your answers, and role-play it with a friend (if you’re really serious).
Preparation is key to landing any job in medical device, laboratory sales, or pharmaceutical sales; and role-playing your interview answers is going to do nothing but help you. That’s the truth.
Having said that, I want to suggest that you kick it up a notch: hire a career coach to role play job interview questions with you.
Think of it this way: You will get better at your golf game by going to the driving range or playing a few holes with your buddies–your skills will improve over time with practice and the competition from your friends. But if you were really serious about improving your swing or wanted to get Phil Mickelson good, you’d find a coach.
So how serious are you about your job search?
A coach can help you
- construct answers that sell you as a candidate for the most common interview questions as well as the toughest ones.
- take your personal history into account so that you don’t answer standard interview questions with the same standard answers everyone else gives–you’ll be memorable.
- practice closing the deal (many candidates find this difficult to master–but it’s vital).
Think about hiring a career coach before you go to your next interview. Seriously.
How To Get a Job In Medical Sales If You Haven’t Worked In Sales
As a medical sales recruiter, I get almost daily inquiries from people who would like to be in medical sales even though they have no sales background and want to know what they should do. I’m never surprised to get these calls. Medical sales is (I think) the top tier of sales categories, and there are many, many people who want to be involved in it. But because it’s such a desirable career path and so many strong candidates are vying for jobs, competition is tough–which means you’re going to have to be at the top of your game to land a spot.
Landing a job in medical sales is difficult, but not impossible. There are 3 ways you can go (or you can mix and match):
Hire a career coach. An hour will do it for most people, generally split up into short sessions over days or weeks, as you implement the suggestions. It might look something like this:
- First 20 minutes: Review your resume, identify your goals, and pinpoint which areas you need to improve. You’ll get a list of sales books to read (so you don’t have to take a class), and we’ll set up a job-shadowing opportunity, if you’d like.
- Next 20 minute session: Once you’ve read the books and made your resume changes, we’ll discuss the concepts and review your resume.
- Final 20 minute session: We’ll put together a plan for your job shadow, discuss what your goal is, and talk about how to incorporate the keywords you’ll get from it into your resume so that it will get the attention of hiring managers and their Applicant Tracking Systems.
But the best thing about working with a career coach is that it’s personalized. If you need help with another aspect of getting the job, that’s what you’ll concentrate on. You’ll talk about your specific situation, in detail, to determine the most effective steps you can take to land the job.
Get the How to Get Into Medical Sales kit. I have organized everything I’ve learned from the last 15 years in the business into a a step-by-step, comprehensive guide:
* tips and tricks from 15 years of working and placing people in medical sales
* a resume template designed to be your marketing brochure
* a bold and persuasive cover letter
* a technology sheet –your “secret weapon”
* a thank you note that will be another selling tool for you
* A 30/60/90-day plan – you’ll be the most prepared candidate the hiring manager has ever seen
The tools available in this kit are a complete, step-by-step map for you to follow to land your dream job in medical sales.
Work the “Do-It-Yourself” plan.
You can absolutely research what it takes to transition into medical sales from a non-sales background. There are hundreds of articles available right on this blog, and here are some key tips:
- Go for a ride-along with a sales rep. See what a typical day is like. Ask questions about the job, find out how to be competitive in the job search and once you get the job. Get a few names to call from labs, doctors, or hospitals they sell to.
- Use the field preceptorship (job shadowing) to fill your resume with keywords that will make sure it’s flagged by computerized tracking systems. Your resume should have a sales focus and also highlight your technical background.
- Work your professional network. Set up a profile on LinkedIn. Join sales groups like Sales Cafe: Sales Rep Careers to make contacts and gain knowledge.
- Improve your sales skills. Read about sales skills and sales call best practices online, and find some books on sales techniques. Watch my YouTube videos for job search advice.
- Learn to handle phone interviews. Most initial contacts with recruiters and hiring managers are conducted by phone, because it’s an efficient way to weed out candidates who aren’t going to fit. You must know how to make a good impression so you can land the face-to-face interview.
- Learn how to write a 30/60/90-day plan. This is a key element to your job interview process–especially if you have no sales experience. It helps the hiring manager understand that you know what it takes to be successful in the job, and helps him “see” you as a sales rep. A 30/60/90-day plan is a written outline of what you’d be doing in the first 30 days, the first 60 days, and the first 90 days on the job–like training, customer introductions, and going after new accounts. If it’s specific to the company, it lets the hiring manager know that you’ve researched and prepared for THIS job, and you’re very interested in working for this particular company.
It’s hard work, but it’s worth it. I wish you the best of luck.
Career Coaches In Medical Devices
If it’s true that 55% of medical device sales professionals will be looking for a new job this year, then odds are good that you might be one of them. Even with the ‘churn’ in the market this year, medical device is a great place to be. There are fantastic jobs available for the right candidate. But, if you’re in the medical device job market, you’ve already realized just how steep the competition is. If you’re going to stack the deck in your favor, you need a career coach.
A career coach can help you
- position yourself in the market
- wordsmith a difficult situation on your resume
- customize your resume and 30/60/90-day plan
- sharpen your interview skills with tips and role-playing
- negotiate your job offer
A career coach with experience in the medical device sales market is just the source you need to help you navigate your way through a crazily-churning market so you’ll land in the best-possible position with the best-possible company.
Should you hire an interview coach?
There’s tremendous amounts of advice you can find in books and online for how to answer job interview questions, and some of it says to practice your interview answers with a friend, or video yourself so that you can play it back to see your weak spots. It’s good advice. It’s always harder to critique ourselves constructively, and you need both practice and feedback to improve your game. The flaws in these particular plans are (1) a friend might just tell you what you want to hear, and (2) if you’re critiquing a video of yourself, the problem becomes “you don’t know what you don’t know”.
Here’s a thought: If you really want to improve your skills in something, you take lessons from an expert…in other words, get a coach.
Think about it. Even pro athletes, with amazing natural abilities and countless hours of practice, have coaches and trainers to give them that one last boost over the top to excellence.
Role-playing interviews with an objective, experienced industry expert can give you so much of a boost in your interview skills that you not only do well in the interview, you crush it….just blow the hiring manager out of the water with your confidence, competence and style. An interview coach can not only help you shape your answers to interview questions, she can help you spin difficult situations into positives (or at least neutrals), and can help you pinpoint and develop those intangible qualities that are ultimately job-winners.
I do provide interview help for candidates in sales and medical sales, and maybe I’d be a good fit for you–and maybe not. Either way, it’s still a good idea for you to get some outside help in this competitive job market, and I believe that it’s even more critical for entry-level candidates, who have the “lack of experience” issue working against them.
Find someone who is an expert in your field that you are comfortable working with. Hiring an interview coach is a small investment in yourself that will pay off big for you when you land the job of your dreams.
What Do Guitar Lessons Have To Do With Career Coaching?
I bought my husband Kraig a new electric guitar for his birthday in July. He’d wanted one for a while, and has tooled around with it pretty consistently, about 20 minutes a day–and he’s not bad. But, as he told me, he’s “plateaued”. He’s gone as far as his skills will take him, and he’s just not going to get a whole lot better under his own power. So, for Christmas I bought him guitar lessons. My expectation is that access to a specialist (an expert–someone who does this every day and will teach him how to think about it, what to practice, what to do with his fingers on the strings, and so on) will increase his skills exponentially, making him a better guitar player.
You see where I’m going with this….if we are willing to invest in swim lessons for our kids and guitar lessons for our husbands (and we do these kinds of things all the time), then we should be willing to invest in ourselves and our careers with career coaching. Find out how career coaching can exponentially increase your career skills and help you get the job, the raise, or the promotion you want.
What to Keep In Mind When Choosing a Career Mentor
How to Choose a Mentor for Your Medical Sales Career
There’s an article on EmploymentDigest.net that you should see. It’s about how finding a mentor can help you advance your career, but it also has several important points about how to choose a career mentor, keeping in mind that your manager, recruiter, or your friend might not be the best choices for you. A manager, for instance, might present a conflict of interest in certain situations, and they probably won’t have the time to help you. A recruiter just won’t do it–a recruiter’s primary concern is to please their clients (the hiring company) and he or she won’t have time, either. A friend might be unable to give you any constructive criticism out of a desire to remain your friend!
Even though it can seem difficult to find a mentor, I can’t emphasize enough how valuable a mentor can be to your career. A mentor in your field has been there, done that, and can help you advance while also keep you from making mistakes. A mentor can see the big picture of your career, but still knows how to coach you through the details. Example: I recently coached someone through the interview process. We worked on his presentation, his answers to interview questions, documents like his 30/60/90-day sales plan and brag book, and his negotiation skills–and he got the job, with a $22,000 base pay increase!
I’m not saying you have to hire me–I primarily help people involved in medical sales, laboratory sales, medical device sales, biotechnology sales, imaging sales, pathology sales, pharmaceutical sales, and other health care sales. As a career coach, I help them move from sales to management, and from other sales areas into health care sales. You should find someone who’s an expert in your field that you’re comfortable working with. Finding a mentor (or hiring one) is an investment in yourself and your career that has the potential for huge dividends. It’s worth it!
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