Ask a Medical Sales Manager: ABC’s of Field Travel and Training (Part 3 of 3)
If you have a field travel trip coming up with your boss and you’ve got your head in the game and you’ve taken care of the details that will make your boss comfortable on the trip, now you can get down to the business of how to handle the field travel plan. (See Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.)
What does a well-executed field travel plan look like?
Let’s talk about your Plan A for travel (the ideal situation you can have if you prepare properly), Plan B (the “duck plan”) and Plan C (if your day falls apart, do this).
Having your boss or someone from the corporate office field travel with you is a total positive and an opportunity for you to establish a relationship and also to distinguish yourself among your peers.
History says that people that hate, postpone, whine about, and dread field travel are losers that won’t last long. Why so harsh? Because it is the truth. If you are doing a good job, you want the recognition and attention. Why are winners so jazzed to get to go up on stage at national meetings for recognition/performance awards? It is recognition of a job well done! If you aren’t proud of what you’re doing and your performance, you want to be “on the down low”. Successful sales people are self-promoters.
The A Plan with A accounts.
What is it?
The A Plan is a well-thought-out travel plan that hits your most important accounts and is a model of planning and execution. Here’s how to do it:
- You anticipated your guest’s hotel needs.
- You have a Travel Summary (paper) in their hands when they walk off the plane. I always wanted paper so I could put the summary in my portfolio and take notes on it in my lap while I was in the account. They are also handy to help if you space on a customer’s name. At the end of the travel, you can make notes on the summary and pass it on to an assistant for a follow up note or maybe someone else in the organization for follow up on a customer’s issue.
- You had already sent an email with a brief outline of the accounts to be visited and the objectives for each call.
- You ask when they would like to be at the airport for their return and if you need to schedule any one on one time with them. Your schedule for the following day’s travel should include some time on the morning for you to chat. That time may come over a cup of coffee on the drive to your account or at a formal sit down meeting in the hotel.
- The Travel Summaries are a contained in a presentation folder that contains the following:
- Cover Page (Prepared For, Prepared By, Date, Travel Guest with name and title spelled correctly–check it twice)
- Territory Summary-Brief, concise-2-3 paragraphs.
- Account Summaries
- Name
- Contact name and title
- Role they play (Technical Buyer, Economic, User, Coach)
- Outstanding account issues or red flags
- Role you would like the visitor to play
- A screen shot from his/her hotel that shows directions and phone/fax numbers.
- Account info from your CRM program (Salesforce, Seibel etc.)
- Strategic Selling “green sheets” for the accounts you will be calling on if you use Strategic Selling.
- Maybe a page or two dedicated so some issue important to your territory, a product show, early release of a product to a thought leader in your territory, etc.
Preparing for well-executed field travel takes some time, but the rewards are worth it. Poorly planned and executed field travel is hard to escape and can haunt others’ perceptions of you in the organization and at review time with your boss.
The A Plan represents the best image or picture in your territory that you would like to present to your manager. You have confirmed appointments for all customers on the schedule and specific objectives in each call (a single call objective). If you have done all of the things outlined above, you have already projected the image of an organized, motivated individual. Anyone that has traveled or managed at all knows that stuff happens and the mark of a winner is the ability to pivot on the new information/scenario and drive forward.
Remember, you aren’t trying to “fake out” your boss. Sometimes even a poor rep can pull together excellent field travel. They know the right things to do; they just tend not to do them unless someone is around. While they may fool some people some of the time, they won’t fool their competent manager much of the time. How so? People are creatures of habit and if you are a slacker, those slacker habits show up in other ways over time. The moral of this part of the story is if you are filled with dread about traveling with anyone, you may be in the wrong role. I swear I don’t know a single high performing rep that doesn’t enjoy showing off by demonstrating their product knowledge and account control/management through field travel.
Plan B
The specific person you have an appointment with in one of your largest accounts becomes unavailable—sick kid, called in to a meeting, sick themselves, emergency etc. Hopefully they have left you a message or told you when you are verbally confirming your appointment with them the day of the call. If not, don’t freak. If their assistant tells you that he/she is sorry and will have to reschedule, you may ask if he/she (the assistant) is available or if there is someone else that she had directed you to see.
No matter what the case, handle it with style and grace. Visualize the duck….smoothly gliding through the water seemingly effortlessly until you look below the surface and see it paddling like crazy. Since you are a sales professional, you have already anticipated this possibility, hence THE B PLAN Accounts. There is no one else that can see you in the account and you have 90 minutes until your next call. The B Plan in action.
The B plan is simply a backup plan for your original call plan and it can take many forms. In this scenario there are 2 immediate things that come to mind.
- Tell whoever is traveling with you that there has been a cancellation and ask if they would like to go somewhere (maybe the lobby of your next call) and chat or he/she can make calls and check emails. Now before you freak, competent managers know that a fair amount of success in sales comes from adaptability and driving forward. Even Mr. Rigid Manager will be ok with this. The fact that you don’t freak and reflex to Plan B will score points. Drive forward.
- Tell your guest that your customer cancelled and you have a maintenance call that you are going to squeeze into the schedule.
Before offering the second option mentioned above, you have surreptitiously called the account and confirmed that it is ok to stop by. This is more of a “howdy doody” call, so you will have to formulate you single call objective on the fly. Most reps have customers that like to see them and will welcome the attention. In the lab world, many customers will take great pride in offering your boss a tour of the lab.
In summary, The B Plan could be called the duck plan. Your original plan/schedule blew up. You remain calm and smooth (like the duck on top of the water) but immediately begin paddling to fill the time with productive sales calls. The big thing to focus on here is that you have already thought about an alternate plan and how to execute it if your A Plan explodes.
Plan C
- My boss is in town, my schedule exploded and I was hoping we could come by and show you the new X.
- My boss is in town, my schedule exploded, you have a pulse and won’t throw things at us—will you see us?
- My boss is in town, my schedule exploded and I will buy pizza for your lab if you can see us and show us X.
Get the picture? Plan C accounts are accounts that will see you on short notice and generally like you.
The message here is planning. By investing the thought and effort into well planned field travel, there is no obstacle or circumstance that can make you look bad. You just flex from A to C if needed.
–Kraig McKee, Senior Recruiter, PHC Consulting
PS – Are you trying to break into medical sales? Get a picture of what life will really be like on the job with the Ask a Medical Sales Manager posts.
Medical Sales Job Interviews: What Hiring Managers Really Think About What You Wear
Listen to this conversation between two former medical sales managers Chris Norris (formerly with GE, CCS, Bayer) and Kraig McKee (formerly with Ventana Medical, Transgenomic, Bayer/Chiron) chat about what to wear to the interview and how to think about it–for both men and women:
Hear about how to buy a suit, all the details about what’s appropriate in terms of attire, jewelry, hair, and more. And get the inside scoop about what all those details tell the hiring manager about you in your job interview.
For additional information, check out this survey of what hiring managers expect you to wear in the job interview.
If you have a topic that you would like a manager’s perspective on, let us know in the comments below.
Ask a Medical Sales Manager: ABC’s of Field Travel and Training (Part 1 of 3)
Are you a seeker?
When managers travel with new medical sales reps, their focus is not just on what they know. They’re trying to help identify what you need to be successful and point you in that direction, and evaluating how you take charge on your own of pursuing the information and the resources you need to be successful.
In other words, they want to know if you are you a seeker. Do you have the info I need? Do you know who might be able to help? How do you take steps to resolve issues or needs? Sometimes it’s a complex customer problem, but sometimes it’s as simple as: How do I get my car fixed? How often can I get it washed? Am I allowed to take customer to lunch? How do I sign up for direct deposit? How do I buy a plane ticket for a customer?
Being a “seeker” is one of the key attributes that is always present in winners.
If you’re not a seeker, it shows up like this: When you’re questioned about your actions, it is someone else’s fault: “Why is your car so dirty?” You answer: “No one told me how often we could get it washed.” A seeker would have asked.
One of my favorite dirty car stories:
Our organization had just gone through the J.M.O. (Junior Military Officer) phase and hired a training class full of JMO’s. The new hires went through 90 days of in-house training and were sent to their territories. The sales trainer then field traveled with them in their territory. One new hire was an ex-Army helicopter pilot and a really pleasant guy.
He shows up at the airport to pick up the trainer (who flew from Boston to the Northwest to travel with this guy) and sees him at the curb. We’ll call the trainer Bob. Bob sees the newbie, waves and heads for the car. He opens the door, sticks his head in the guy’s car and says: “Take this car and have it washed and the interior cleaned and then come pick me up. I’ll stay here and make calls.”
Ninety minutes later the newbie is back at the airport and picks up Bob. Bob gets in the car and tells the newbie, “If you ever have your car that filthy again when someone from the organization comes to travel with you, it could mean losing your job. It goes without saying that you should never have a customer in a car that filthy.”
The newbie was rattled, but tried to pull it together for the rest of field travel.
What is the end of the story? The trainer reported that the newbie would struggle and was ill-suited to a selling role. The manager said she didn’t sense that the newbie was pursuing (doesn’t that mean the same as seeking?) the info and resources he needed. He seemed to be in a bit of paralysis.
Well, this newbie resigned about 60 days later. When he resigned, he told his manager, “Everyday out there is like a war”. “Out there” was defined as selling in his territory for an internationally known diagnostic company! Really nice guy that had been very successful in the Army, but just wasn’t right for sales. He was not a seeker!
A seeker understands that the end responsibility to acquire/identify information, resources or services he/she needs to be successful is theirs. They understand that if they are unsuccessful in the efforts to acquire that information or resource, they are ultimately responsible for the outcome. They apply that same logic to sales success in the field and they are focused on eliminating barriers to success. Not just identifying them and whining about them. Eliminating them. When the task/what needs to occur are beyond their position, they sell their manager on the concept and then solicit support from management. They actively seek the resources they need.
The “seeker” attitude that’s going to help you be successful as a medical sales rep is also what’s going to help you land a job in medical sales in the first place: You have to be aggressive and go after the things that you need to succeed. You solicit support, you tap resources, and you focus on identifying and eliminating the barriers in the way of your goal.
–Kraig McKee, Senior Recruiter, PHC Consulting
Ask a Medical Sales Manager: How will my boss measure my success after my first 90 days as a medical sales rep?
Are you trying to break into medical sales? We talk a lot about preparing for your medical sales interview with a 30/60/90-Day Sales Plan. A well-done plan is your blueprint for the first 3 months on the job–but what about after that? How will your performance be assessed once you’re “on your own”? Well, the stakes get a little higher. “On your own” means the performance meter is running and your evaluation and scrutiny will increase.
Life after the first 90 days as a medical sales rep
Welcome to the big leagues! By now, you better be very familiar with your company’s CRM program (e.g. Salesforce.com) and used to the constant conference calls and/or Facetime calls. If you own or have a company-issued Iphone or Ipad, your regional manager is likely to use that as a tool to update the region’s forecast. What does that mean to you? Don’t be sitting in your jammies at the time the call is scheduled and always have your information and your office area organized.
You’ll probably have very little in-person time with your manager (maybe once a quarter field travel plus national meeting time), so the time you do have with him or her counts. Your manager probably didn’t get to be the manager of your team by not being observant and judgmental, so when you are around your manager, the recorder is running: evaluating your words, actions, and presence. When he/she gets good data and feedback, your life and how your manager deals with you will get better.
Perceptions are reality, so make sure your manager’s perceptions of you create the reality you want. A painting is composed of many brushstrokes, and every interaction is a brushstroke to your manager. Always remember to use the same skills internally as you do externally.
Your hiring manager’s perceptions of you have a big impact on your reality–your life on the job. Some of the rules he has to implement are dictated to him by the company, but on a lot of other stuff, he has discretion on enforcing. For instance, in my experience as a sales manager/director, the rule was that everyone starts out even and everyone does everything for the first 90 days. If you were at or above plan at the end of the 90 days, you got some reprieve based on your performance and compliance. That meant that you had longer to turn in your forecast, your pick of check-in times, your choice of projects to lead, etc.
Will you be a top medical sales rep?
Influence your hiring manager’s positive view of you
Your attitude and interactions have a big impact on your manager’s perceptions of you, too. (Brushstrokes, remember?) In my 20 years of managing sales reps, I noticed that players always like to have attention and contact. Top reps enjoy chatting with the manager and gaining his or her perspective. Because they’re good, they most often have thought through their situations and have already formed a plan of action, but they believe “two heads are better than one” and are interested in the manager’s input. Reps that are scarcity-based don’t like working in a team environment and rebel at authority. They will have a very difficult life in the corporate world. It doesn’t mean they’re bad, it just means that maybe they’re an entrepreneur and don’t know it yet.
How will your boss measure your success?
My rule was always “Constant Improvement,” and that’s likely to be your manager’s rule, too. As a new rep, that means you should constantly be making strides toward meeting or exceeding your sales goals. So this month is better than last month, and the month after will be better than this one. If you are doing the right things, the right things will happen to get you to that goal.
There are always exceptions and it’s true that if you took over a territory at 65% of plan and after two quarters in the field you’re at 70%, your manager is not likely to be pleased. An improvement of only 5% in 6 months just isn’t fast enough. At that rate, it would take almost 3 years to turn around a poor-performing territory–and if it takes that long, your manager will not likely survive.
10 critical checkpoints to help you stay on track:
1. Have you made face-to-face calls for all of your Best Few prospects in your sales funnel?
a. Have you documented the status of these accounts in your CRM records?
b. Is the sale on track to close? By definition, a Best Few prospect is a 90/90 prospect, meaning 90% is will happen and 90% it will happen in the specified time frame.
c. If it’s off track, have you developed a plan for correction and gained your boss’s input?
2. Have you met all the thought leaders in your territory?
3. Are there any special events/shows planned in your territory? If not, what do you need to do to get one?
4. Have you called Marketing and asked for one of the product managers to field travel with you?
5. Have you corrected any customer satisfaction issues? If it’s a longer-range issue, do you have a plan in place with the buy-in of your boss and the service/technical organization?
6. Have you identified who you can develop as a positive reference/demo site in your territory?
7. Have you met your service engineers and taken them to lunch/breakfast?
8. Are you using a “blown up day” to use as your office day to set appointments? (You haven’t set a particular day like Monday or Friday as your office day every week, have you? You shouldn’t.)
9. You are focusing on accomplishment instead of activity, aren’t you?
10. Are you being a seeker? (Seeking those with information you need.)
Keep a great attitude
Don’t associate/commiserate/communicate with team members that are always negative and complaining.
90% of selling is mental and the rest is in your head.
–Kraig McKee, Senior Recruiter, PHC Consulting
PS – Got questions that only a medical sales manager can answer? Put them in the comments section below.
How To Answer 5 Medical Sales Job Interview Questions
Here’s a quick guide to answering 5 common (but tricky) job interview questions within medical and health care sales. Click the link for the answer.
Don't make a mistake in your medical sales job interview!
2. “What’s your greatest weakness?”
5. “Can you sell me this pen?”
Perfecting your answers to these typical questions will go a long way toward helping you with what you have to prove in the interview to get the medical sales job you want.
Get an inside track with my free training webinar: How to Land a Medical Sales Job
Top 3 Tips for Your Medical Sales Job Search in 2012
Happy New Year 2012! 
If you’re in a medical sales job search, you’ve got your work cut out for you…but I’ve got 3 ideas that will get you rolling in the right direction:
- Take advantage of free training. Register for this free webinar: How to Land a Job in Medical Sales. Whether you’re an experienced sales rep or a brand-new rookie, you will benefit from the tips you’ll learn in this discussion.
- Learn how to find medical sales hiring managers. Going straight to the source is the most likely way you’ll find a spot before everyone else hears about it. Hiring managers appreciate an aggressive go-getter. Here are some ideas for how to find hiring managers.
- Learn to write a 30/60/90-Day Plan. Not everyone does this, because they’re a lot of work…but I would never go into a medical sales interview without one of these babies if I really wanted the job. It’s the key to what you have to prove in the interview.
Bonus Tip: Don’t forget to sharpen up your resume and submit it to PHC Consulting!
Best of luck!
Reach Your Medical Sales and Job Search Goals With Visualization
What are your goals for 2012? To be the top performing medical device rep in your company? To land the medical sales job you want? 
A big part of how I achieve my goals (when I was a laboratory sales rep and now as a medical sales recruiting business owner) is that I actively visualize my success–what it will look and feel like when I reach my goals.
Here is a great article about effective visualization techniques that will help you achieve more success–not just in your professional goals, but in your life:
Effective Visualization– How To Use The Subconscious & Law Of Attraction To Materialize Our Dreams
By Kurt DuNard, The Exceptional Life Coach
The secret is that you have an amazing power within yourself that can bring about miraculous outcomes. The power that you have has been known to cure incurable diseases, build billion dollar companies, create magnificent symphonies, paint masterpieces and build fantastic loving families. The light switch that turns on this power is called visualization. Anyone that has created anything worthwhile in their lives used visualization whether consciously or unconsciously. The ones that systematically use visualization consciously have created amazing success. We all know who they are. They are Olympic athletes, the super rich, star entertainers, top salespeople, and almost anyone you can think of whom you believe has created an exceptional life. Visualization is such a powerful tool that it pays to practice and increase our visualization skills. Here’s how.
Why Visualization Works
- It puts the subconscious on notice by saying “Here are my dreams—help me achieve them.” The subconscious then sends creative ideas and amazing inspirations.
- There is a place in the brain that is called the Reticulated Activating System (RAS). You might tell your subconscious that you would like a blue Lexus LS 430 and all of a sudden you start seeing these cars everywhere. The RAS has been activated and you are noticing lots of beautiful blue cars. Visualization causes you to notice. Before you were blind and now you notice.
- Here is the spooky part. Visualization, like prayer, activates the law of attraction. In totally unexplained, accidental, coincidental ways you attract the right people, the right situations, and the right resources. You are living a charmed life. Most successful people will tell you that they worked hard but they also were very fortunate. You can also be fortunate.
- Visualization creates enthusiasm, excitement, and joy because your subconscious starts believing that your dreams are coming true. Enthusiasm, excitement, and joy are the fuel that is needed to emotionally make it OK to take action to achieve our dreams. You believe that success is yours for the taking and so you are enthused and take action. If diamonds are in the road, you must take action to pick them up and you are enthusiastically picking them up. There must be action—pick them up.
Start Where You Are
Visualization should be a fun relaxing exercise. Visualizing your dreams should never be a chore, a have to, or routine. It should always inspire emotions of happiness and peace.
If you think you are new to visualization, you are mistaken. You have visualized all your life, you were just not conscious of your practice. What may be new is that you have decided to become better at the practice and to be a conscious guide to your visualizations. You have decided to consciously tap into your power. You can only succeed. Follow these few simple rules.
- Visualize what you want. Make them positive visualizations.
- Avoid visualizing disaster or what you don’t want. Avoid negative visualizations.
- Visualize living your dreams now in the present tense and how you feel.
- Use lots of emotions and all the five senses if you can. It is important that your subconscious believes this is real.
- Do balanced visualizations to create a balanced life. Visualize health, prosperity, family, friends, job, spiritual, wisdom, creativity, etc.
- Visualize every day in the morning and just before going to bed. The more you visualize, the more you will look forward to it and the more you will notice positive changes in your life as a result.
Priming the Visualization Pump
The real power to change our lives comes through visualization; however, there are other practices that can help us augment the subconscious other than visualization. These practices can be done through the day or just before a visualization session.
- Use pictures to help you visualize
Find pictures that make you emotionally excited, that represent goals, and aspirations. They could be the perfect house, you at the perfect weight with your picture Photoshoped onto another body, or it could show laughing friends and children. The pictures are more powerful, when you are in the picture. When you test drive your favorite car, have a picture taken of you with the car and another picture that you have taken from behind the wheel. Have a picture for all your dreams and goals. Make sure your goals are balanced in all areas of your life. Otherwise, you could have a great career with a sadly neglected family. Jack Canfield talks about how he took a $1.00 bill and then wrote six zero’s behind the “1″ to make it a million dollar bill. He then put that “$1,000,000 bill” above his bed so he would see it every morning. That representation of a million dollars soon materialized in Jack’s life.
- Written Goals on 3 X 5 Cards
Put each goal on one side of the card. You could make it even better if you put a picture on the other side representing the goal. Morning and night, look at each card and visualize how you feel having accomplished this goal in the present moment—not the future.
- Convert Your Goals to Affirmations and Memorize Those Affirmations
These affirmations are a statement of how you feel having accomplished the goal. It is a verbal visualization.
I feel fantastic, full of energy, and always ready for action now that I weigh 150 pounds.
Because you repeat these affirmations so frequently, they almost become a mantra that can be used to still the mind during meditation and visualization. To be effective, however, they must be done with thought and never as a thoughtless chant.
- Get Ready For Success Because You Know it is Here
If you don’t prepare for success, then you don’t believe in success and even if it came you would not be ready. Part of making it happen is to assume all of these ideas work and you must get ready. Buy the new wardrobe for the new job. Learn Italian for your dream vacation to Italy. Move to where you want to live even if everything is not perfect right now. We must have an unwavering faith that everything is going to go our way or maybe even better. That faith is what convinces the law of attraction to go into overdrive.
Example of a Simple Visualization Session
You get very relaxed and sit down in your favorite chair that you use every morning. It is quiet and you have learned to love this time of day. You get out your power pictures that help your visualize. You go through them and get more and more positive. Then you go through your index cards and look at all your goals. You are starting to get ready for visualization. Now you relax, with both feet flat on the ground and both hands resting lightly on the chair arm or on your legs. You close your eyes and slowly you say your affirmations.
Legend has it that Bill Gates, Paul Allen and many Silicone Valley entrepreneurs were influenced by the book The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel. Here is a series of affirmations he talks about.
I am whole,
Perfect,
Strong,
Powerful,
Loving,
Harmonious,
And Happy.
You say your affirmations to yourself at least three times. As other thoughts outside of your visualization invade your mind, you come back to saying your affirmations. Now you are in the right frame of mind for effective visualization. You start imagining your life as you live your dreams in the now. You imagine perfect health and what that means to you. You imagine perfect friendships and how they interact with you in your home. You imagine your career working with the kind of people you love and how every day you are being recognized and appreciated for your excellent work. You imagine going to those wonderful places you have only dreamed of—now you are there. Your clothes, the food you eat, where you live, everything is in living color and you can smell the ocean breeze as you sail in your yacht. Everyday as you do your visualizations, the images, the inspirations and faith will become stronger and stronger. One day you will come to a clear realization that you are living what you lived in your visualization only two years ago. It will be no surprise.
Visualize all your goals, dreams and affirmations. Change them when they are no longer exciting. Spend at least fifteen minutes a session.
Copyright © 2008 Kurt DuNard
Kurt DuNard, The Exceptional Life Coach, is the author of EXCEPTIONAL LIFE: Living the Life You Were Meant to Live. High achievers seek him out to pinpoint their soul’s goals, increase abundance, and find more happiness and joy. If you think you would also like these things, then receive your FREE success tools from Kurt DuNard now at www.DuNard.com.
Job Search Tips: How to Take Advantage of Holiday Networking
Holiday networking is a gift to yourself
The holidays are possibly THE perfect time to build your network–which is important for your entire medical sales career, but vital during a job search. There are so many opportunities for you to reach out to others, and it will pay off for you throughout the new year.
Take advantage of the season
The most important thing you’ve got to remember about networking during the holidays: just do it. You can be confident that just about any contact you make this time of year will be received positively. People expect it, so take advantage of it. Reach out by sending out cards and emails to EVERYONE.
Reconnect with people you haven’t talked to in years
Think about all possible contacts: people you used to work with, former bosses, old high school or college buddies, former neighbors, your kid’s Little League coach from 10 years ago, everyone. Send a card or an email. You have a reason–it’s the holidays. Just say, “Hey, how are you? I was thinking about you and wanted to say Hi. What have you been up to? Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!” (Or Happy Holidays, or whatever holiday you celebrate right about now.) You don’t have to tell them you’re looking for a job. And you shouldn’t, yet. There will be time to gracefully fit that into the conversation later.
If they respond and they’re geographically close to you, invite them to grab lunch or coffee or drinks with you to catch up. If they’re too far away for that, they might ask how you’re doing and then you can talk briefly about your job search goal in a positive, upbeat way. (If that seems difficult, watch my video Be Positive When Explaining Your Unemployment.)
Thank your boss
If you’re employed, now is a great time to give your boss a gift or just say “Thank You” without looking like a suck-up. Bosses like appreciation, too.
Attend holiday parties and events
If you’ve got a holiday party on your calendar, check out these networking event tips. Set a goal of a certain number of people to meet, and follow up with them after the party with a nice “It was good to meet you” note.
Offer help and information to others
Keep in mind the spirit of the season. If you can think of a way to help someone else out–do it, even if it’s as simple as giving them a link to information they might want. Be a resource for people. I firmly believe that if you put good things out there, good things will come back to you.
Holiday Gift Ideas for Your Medical Sales Team
Need some quick, easy and great gift ideas for the medical sales rep on your team?
- You almost can’t beat a gift card…to a restaurant, a spa, or even their favorite store (bonus points for you if you know what it is).
- If you don’t want to give something a little more personalized than a gift card, try a themed gift basket built around just about anything: coffee, movies, fruit, candy, gourmet food, or chocolate.
- Get them a Kindle. What’s better for a busy person on the go than a quick and easy way to keep up with their reading?
- If they already have a Kindle, get them e-books to go on it. Read anything great lately?
- Get them a magazine subscription (print or digital). I like Selling Power.
- I think the ultimate gift for a sales rep is more sales training. After all, what’s better than learning new ways to build your skills and make more money? If there’s a good training program that the reps would normally be required to pay for themselves, foot the bill for them. You’ll both benefit from this one in the long run…
A really nice finishing touch to any gift: write your team member a note expressing your appreciation for them, and/or noting something especially great they did in the past year that really impressed you.
2 Easy Holiday Gifts for the Medical Sales Job Seeker
Need a quick and easy holiday gift idea for your favorite medical sales job seeker? Any medical sales professional (employed or not) will appreciate these ways to boost 
their social media presence and grow their networks.
If you’re in sales, you probably already have a LinkedIn profile. But if you’re not getting actively recruited for new opportunities, there’s no question you’ve got some work to do. Your profile should be robustly representing you and selling you as a candidate, making recruiters and hiring managers interested enough to contact you. It ranks right up there with your resume in importance. You just can’t run a full-on job search without being on LinkedIn, and your profile is the first key to your success. Career Confidential has a profile tutorial that guides you to creating the best LinkedIn presence possible.
Who isn’t on Facebook already? But the real question is, do you know how to use it to benefit your professional life and your job search? Most folks only think about Facebook in terms of how it can hurt you, and they fail to realize how much it can help you if you use it right. Recruiters search Facebook for candidates all the time (I know I do). Plus, Facebook friends almost always give you a bigger and more varied pool of networking possibilities. You never know who might lead you to your next job.
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