LinkedIn Discussion: What’s your opinion on the American Institute of Medical Sales Academy?
Are you on LinkedIn? If not, you should be. Not only is LinkedIn an invaluable component of your professional network, it’s an amazing resource for information about medical and health care sales.
For example, in the Sales Café group, this is a discussion:
What’s your opinion of the American Institute of Medical Sales Academy?
The discussion started with a question from a recent college graduate interested in medical sales and was wondering if medical sales training programs were a worthwhile opportunity for someone with the degree, but no experience.
He got several responses from health care industry executives, sales reps, and others, including me (the medical sales recruiter), and generated a few more questions from more experienced jobseekers who do have the sales experience, just not the medical sales experience. (Just looking at the caliber of the people in the discussion will show you how valuable it is to participate in LinkedIn groups.)
The trend of the discussion seems to be that medical sales training programs are a big investment with questionable value, and that employers focus more on hiring sales reps with a good attitude, communication skills, and interpersonal skills, along with the technical knowledge. Although it’s acknowledged that medical sales can be a hard field to break into, and candidates are looking for an edge.
My input was that since I’ve never participated in a training program, I don’t know how valuable they are. As a career coach, I see value in training and job preparation, although I don’t know if that’s what would give you the edge in a job offer. As a medical sales recruiter, I’ve never had a client company ask for a candidate with those certifications, and I’ve never had a candidate win the job based on having gone through a course…so I don’t think candidates should expect a hot pursuit if they do.
The advice I always give to people trying to break into medical sales is to (1) do job shadowing, which provides you with experience, resume keywords, and sets you apart; (2) get a career coach who can show you how to present yourself as a top candidate and give the best interview of your life; (3) and research–read everything you can on getting into medical sales (this blog has hundreds of articles for you), and watch YouTube videos on job hunting and medical sales (I have a Medical Sales Recruiter channel, and there are many other great ones with specific information).
Let’s continue the discussion here: Have you participated in a medical sales training program? Did you find that it was helpful to your medical sales job search?
What To Do With A Stalled Job Interview Process
A Job Candidate’s Situation:
A recuiter called a medical sales candidate about a job, gave him the name of the company and the manager, said that he had submitted his resume for consideration, and had the phone interview set up. Then, the recruiter called back to tell him that the phone interview wasn’t going to happen, that the interview was on hold, and that he’d be in touch. After more than a week with no phone call, the candidate called me for help.
A Medical Sales Recruiter’s Advice:
This candidate should contact the hiring manager directly. If the recruiter has already submitted him to the company, and he approaches the company in a VERY professional way, then I don’t think a recruiter would be upset by that. I know I certainly wouldn’t be. Contacting the company to make sure the job didn’t go dead shows the candidate’s guts, determination, follow-through, and that he cares about the job (all desirable qualities to have in a medical sales candidate). The candidate must have been close enough to the job for it to work out, so it’s not like it would be a shot in the dark. He found the manager on LinkedIn, so I advised him to write a nice note to the manager on LinkedIn, saying something along the lines of “So-and-so submitted my resume for such-and-such opportunity and I’m so excited about it. I know we’re on hold right now for the phone interview, but I just wanted to let you know that it looks like a position I could really excel at, and where I could provide some value for you and I’d like to chat with you about it as soon as possible.”
See? It’s polite and professional, but shows positive go-getter qualities about this candidate that will almost certainly get the attention of a hiring manager.
LinkedIn Group for Medical Sales Reps
What LinkedIn Sales Group should you join?
Ours!!!
Sales Café: Sales Rep Careers
This group is all about the sales representative. We will provide cutting edge tips, tools and information about the sales rep and how they can take their career to the next level. Our topics will include training, tools, jobs, interviews, career management, and more.
Here’s the link:
http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/2416658/
I look forward to connecting with you there!
LinkedIn Profile Tip for Medical Sales Reps
I’ve talked a lot lately about LinkedIn profiles…it’s so important that you be on LinkedIn, have an attractive, professional profile, and present yourself well. Your LinkedIn profile is going to be the first impression of you for countless people (maybe your next job lead!) in your industry. If you’ve taken the time to create a profile, join the right groups, and make the right connections to boost your career in medical sales, don’t drop the ball on your LinkedIn photo. In this video, I’ll tell you what you need to keep in mind for a great LinkedIn profile photo:
Is Your Medical Sales Career Worth an Hour of Your Time?
Obviously, the answer to this simple question is a resounding “Yes!” After all, careers represent achievement and financial security. Giving up an hour of your time is an insignificant sacrifice considering the benefits that it can provide. The next question: How should you utilize that hour in order to maximize your results?
For this question, the best move you can make is to create a LinkedIn profile to increase your access to business opportunities in medical sales, laboratory sales, biotechnology sales, medical device sales, imaging sales, pathology sales, pharmaceutical sales, or healthcare sales. LinkedIn allows others to view your professional information online. For users, this means that you can control which details you want to show and make it easier to get in touch with others. The whole process takes no more than an hour, which makes creating a LinkedIn profile extremely convenient and efficient.
The first thing you should do is to create an account. Just like other networking sites, this involves entering certain professional and personal information and clicking a button to join. This will register you into LinkedIn and allow you to create and modify your page. Click here for LinkedIn Tips for medical sales.
The part that takes up the most time in joining LinkedIn is actually placing the details that you want to appear on the profile page. Input the important details and stick to an outline or bullet-type format. A good rule of thumb is that if it takes too long to write, then it will take too long to read. The idea is to provide your professional contacts a concise and accurate snapshot of what you have to offer.
LinkedIn has a feature that allows its users to customize the appearance of their URL. You can decide between using a designated URL, or changing it to your preference. If you choose a customized option, make sure to stick to a professional sounding name to create a good first impression.
Do you want to really make the most of your hour? Don’t waste time trying to reinvent the wheel. Get an expert’s advice and start out with the kind of profile that will get you noticed. Click here for the LinkedIn Profile Tutorial for Jobseekers.
If you’re using your LinkedIn profile as part of your job search, learn how to use it to maximum advantage. Click here for our LinkedIn Ninja tricks on bypassing HR and getting the job.
What LinkedIn Groups Should I Join As a Medical Sales Rep?
One of the best aspects of LinkedIn is that it allows people to connect with other professionals in specific areas of interest. It’s a terrific place for medical sales reps, laboratory sales reps, medical device sales reps, imaging sales reps, pharmaceutical sales reps, or anyone in health care sales, management, or marketing. LinkedIn Groups is a place for communities to form based on a common experience, goal, or any other characteristic. The idea is to provide a venue where collaboration and support can be encouraged.
There are plenty of LinkedIn groups to choose from…so many that it can be overwhelming to see which groups you should join. To make the task less daunting, a good practice is to see if the group you are interested in is in line with your goals. You shouldn’t simply collect groups. Instead, each group should be chosen carefully and have a purpose that can enhance your professional career.
Search and join relevant LinkedIn groups with words like: medical, sales, sales career, pharmaceutical, clinical, diagnostics, medical imaging, surgical or surgery. You get the drift right? These can provide valuable insights and referrals to benefit you in your search of employment.
When it comes to choosing which groups to join on LinkedIn, it is best to join groups that have a large network. The reason why people should stick to large groups is that they are, more often than not, the ones that have developed a reputable status. They also have the largest available resources. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with smaller groups, you may not be able to have as much access to various contacts.
You join LinkedIn to make contacts, build your network, and learn from others. Groups are one of the best avenues available to accomplish these things. LinkedIn will only work for you if you actively participate.
Such a massive effort to build your network and expand your online presence deserves a LinkedIn profile that is the best it can be. Is yours? Click here for a LinkedIn Profile Tutorial for jobseekers.
If your LinkedIn profile isn’t getting you the results you expected in your job search, click here for LinkedIn Ninja tricks on bypassing HR and getting the job.
LinkedIn Tips for Your Medical Sales Job Search
What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is a social networking site for professionals in the business world. It allows people to interact with other professionals in their industry and maintain a profile that contains career-oriented information. Other job databases and networking sites can be expensive or hard to navigate. LinkedIn is free for most and very specific to the business world. This is the place to toot your own horn about your skills, abilities, and career goals.
Why it is so valuable?
As of October 15, 2009, LinkedIn hit a new milestone with over 50 million professionals now a part of this ever-growing database (as reported by the CEO of the company). This large number should get your attention. 80% of employers and recruiters use this database to prospect for new candidates because it is perhaps the easiest and most cost-effective tool employers and recruiters have ever had available to them. There is a strong chance that your next employer, recruiter, client, or business partner is already on LinkedIn. So all you have to do is leverage LinkedIn to begin that relationship.
How does it work?
LinkedIn provides a profile format that the job seeker completes. The profile details past employment, interests, specialty skills and experiences and allows you to include a profile photo. [Tip: Be sure to use a professional (business-appropriate) headshot photo for this, although it doesn’t have to taken by a professional photographer.] Your profile can provide an employer or recruiter with a wealth of information before they ever speak to you. You can even reach out to those you have worked with in the past to get a recommendation about the quality of your work that will be displayed on your profile. These testimonials reinforce the details that are listed as well as help build trust about your work ethic—making them one of the most powerful aspects of your LinkedIn profile. One of the most valuable features of LinkedIn is its ability to show these recommendations, which allows hiring managers and human resources as well as recruiters to see if a potential employee is worth hiring. [Tip: You get to choose what recommendations you show on your profile. If the ones you have aren’t strong enough or persuasive enough about you as a great employee, don’t use them.]
What can it do for me?
LinkedIn is not just a networking site—it’s a resource center. Once you have your profile set up you can start checking out the different areas of LinkedIn and learn how you might use them in your job search.
- You can use the “Companies” section (top of the page) to find companies in your particular industry, along with an enormous amount of information about them—such as current employees, former employees, market size, location, website address, media age, jobs they have posted on LinkedIn, and stock information. Remember—candidates who get the job offer usually have done more research into the company and the job than other candidates. [Tip: Some candidates contact former employees of a company they are interviewing with to get an “insider” perspective as to what it was like to work there—that’s pretty strong research, right?]
- You can use the “Jobs” section (top of the page) to view jobs that have been posted directly on LinkedIn. If you use the “Advanced job search” you can see LinkedIn job postings and web job postings. The web job posting is an aggregation of all jobs on “the web”. [Tip: Remember to check out the job posting areas of the Groups that you join. These postings don’t cost the members (like the ones that are in the “Jobs” section) and they can represent great jobs that have just come open or available.]
- You can use the “Answers” section (top of the page) to view questions that have been posted over the last few years and the answers that were given to see what advice everyone has for the topic that you are interested in at this time.
- You can join the Groups that are relevant to you and your interests. These Groups can be industry specific, product specific, function specific, college alumni specific, or company alumni gathering spots. For example: if you search in the search Groups area for “sales rep,” you will see that the Groups you find are specifically for sales folks and will probably have a lot of great discussions, news bits, and job postings.
- You can use the “People” section (top of the page) to search for people that you want to “connect” with on LinkedIn. You should think about co-workers, clients, service providers, mentors, and other relevant contacts (both at present and in the past). Send them an invitation to connect. If they accept your invitation you will be able to see their profile as well as what people they are connected to in the network. [Tip: If someone invites you to connect that you don’t know or don’t want to connect to, just hit the “Archive” button.]
So, what should you do now?
Develop a selling profile for you! Think of it like an online resume (only not). With the way the economy is right now, the need to sell yourself well is even more important—you are competing with more people. You need to be both confident and competent to achieve maximum success. [Tip: Someone viewing your profile should be able to look at your resume and what type of positions you would be interested in pursuing.]
It’s extremely important that you have a LinkedIn profile, and that you put as much thought and effort into it as you did when you created your resume. Your profile will be the first impression of you for hundreds of people. Make sure that your objective or interest is clear, that the profile is neat, checked for spelling and grammar and as complete as possible. The more time and effort you put into LinkedIn, the greater the payoff will be for you! I promise. Check out this LinkedIn Profile Tutorial for jobseekers.
[One last tip: Just like every other online network, what you say and do on LinkedIn will be available for others to see for a long time (this means comments on discussions or news articles, questions and answers, job posting comments and other areas). Make sure that you are thoughtful about your remarks and apply the golden rule when judging others.]
Why is LinkedIn Important When I Already Have a Resume?
There are plenty of people who think that a LinkedIn account replaces traditional methods of job-hunting. While this might work for a few, this is not really the concept that propels the existence of this professional networking site. The purpose of LinkedIn is to provide a means of connecting with other people in the context of career opportunities…that’s why there are groups to join, Q&A sections, testimonials, and more for every area of medical or health care sales (medical device sales, clinical diagnostics sales, laboratory sales, imaging sales, pathology sales, pharmaceutical sales, etc.).
LinkedIn can be a valuable tool even when a resume is already in place. In fact, these two concepts should be used in conjunction with each other to produce the best results. It is a misconception to think that they are mutually exclusive. One of the ways to view this is to consider the differences and purposes of LinkedIn and resumes.
First, LinkedIn provides a way to establish connections. Your LinkedIn profile is not expected to contain all your work responsibilities and past employment experience. In fact, the best profiles are the ones that contain only the highlights. Just like with other things over the internet, people tend to scan over profiles instead of examining them carefully. Your goal should be to make it easy for them to skim and still catch your best or most unique qualities. It’s a general outline. On the other hand, a resume is more comprehensive and includes references that can be of interest to the company. Although resumes should be no longer than two pages, there is enough space to provide more than just a snapshot.
Also, LinkedIn is important even when there is an existing resume because they are useful in different environments. LinkedIn allows you an additional venue (the internet) in which you can showcase your career accomplishments. Access to it is greater compared to resumes, which should only be sent to a specific set of people—a targeted audience for specific circumstances, like a job opening. In essence, LinkedIn can appear to a larger audience compared to a resume, which should be customized to fit a specific company or position.
Your LinkedIn profile has it’s own purpose, just like your resume, your 30/60/90-day plans, or your brag book. Each document tells different parts of your story in a unique way, and each have an intended use they are best fit for. When they are all honed and polished to a shine, they will combine to give you the best possible results as a candidate, and in your career.
There are tricks of the trade when it comes to creating your LinkedIn profile. To find out what they are, check out our LinkedIn Profile Tutorial for jobseekers.
If your LinkedIn profile hasn’t gotten you the results you want in your job search, it’s time for you to consider some LinkedIn Ninja tricks on bypassing HR and getting the job.
Your LinkedIn Profile is Your Key to a Great Medical Sales Job
As any medical sales job-seeker can attest, finding a great position in laboratory sales, clinical diagnostics sales, medical device sales, biotechnology sales, imaging sales, pathology sales, pharmaceutical sales, or other healthcare sales has always been challenging because of the competitive nature of the industry, but today’s business climate makes it even more difficult. The good news is that it is not an impossible task. There are some tools that you can use in order to increase your chances of landing a great career opportunity.
One of these tools is LinkedIn, a professional networking site that connects individuals to a wealth of career resources. It can refer you to people or companies that are looking to hire someone new. In order to maximize the power of LinkedIn, your profile must be well-constructed. What are some of the things that make for a great profile?
Exercise Consistency
Pay attention that your profile follows a consistent structure when it comes to grammar and format. For example, if you use the third person in one section, then it should be maintained throughout the entire profile. If you start out using bullets to list down your accomplishments, do not switch to numbers later on. Following a consistent method makes it easier for people to read your profile.
Look for Testimonials
Utilize the recommendations that are given by other people about your work. These are so important. An objective testimonial can make a greater impression than any achievement that you have placed on your profile page. It also provides an insight into how you work and your personality instead of just focusing on the end results. These recommendations are influential to potential employers (and medical sales recruiters).
Remember to Focus
The profile page should focus on the industry that you are interested in (whichever segment of medical sales that is) instead of being cluttered with unnecessary details—just like a resume. You can either arrange them by chronology or significance. What is important is that people can get an idea of your capabilities and thus pique their interest in hiring you at a glance.
Your LinkedIn profile is important enough to your job search and online presence that it’s worth putting some significant effort into shining it up. It’s the first impression that hundreds or thousands of people in medical sales will have of you. Make sure it’s the best it can be.
If you aren’t absolutely sure that your LinkedIn profile is top-quality, click here for a LinkedIn Profile Tutorial for jobseekers.
If you’ve done everything you can to create an outstanding profile, but you aren’t getting the results you want in your job search, consider some LinkedIn Ninja tricks for bypassing HR and getting the job.
It is LinkedIn, Not Linked In. Are You On It?
What a difference a space makes. LinkedIn is vastly different from Linked In, which implies that it is something that you just plug into. That’s definitely not what LinkedIn is all about. Instead, this particular site is a powerful networking tool that allows people to get in touch with other professionals from around the world. It necessitates a proactive stance rather than a passive one.
LinkedIn is a networking tool that requires the cultivation of relationships in order to be effective. Making a profile does not mean that you get to sit back and relax. You have to work at creating an impression for other people and thus create more business or employment opportunities for yourself. You must continually update your profile, actively create connections, join online groups, and provide recommendations for others. In other words, you must participate.
A word of caution: LinkedIn should not be used as a spamming tool. It has tools that flag those who are prone to spamming and it will diminish your chances of getting results. Instead, LinkedIn can be loosely compared to the way the cold call process works. You get in touch with the company in the hopes that they entertain your proposal. The opportunity can swing in two different ways: success or rejection. One way to increase the chances of getting noticed is by customizing the spiel that you have when you reach out in order to build rapport.
Bottom line: make sure that you engage in LinkedIn in a manner that goes beyond simply creating a profile. Try participating in discussions and answering questions other people may have posted in the groups. Being on LinkedIn means that you are willing to be a part of a community so act accordingly. You’re networking. Just like in the real world, online networking is a two-way street. You have to give in order to get.
If you need more help to make LinkedIn work for you effectively and present you well, get the LinkedIn Profile Tutorial for jobseekers.
If your profile hasn’t gotten you one phone call or job offer lately, you need to think about this: LinkedIn Ninja Tricks that will help you bypass HR and get the job .
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