Happy Holidays from the Medical Sales Recruiter
Car or no Car?
Someone asked me whether I would let company car vs. car allowance vs. mileage reimbursement influence my decision to take one job over another. The answer is no – at least not as a key influence. Frankly, I have client companies (clinical diagnostics, pathology, histology, chemistry, microbiology, genetic and molecular based product lines) that provide company cars and client companies that do not. But companies with company cars may actually pay less commission. And companies without company cars may actually pay more commission. And with more commission the company car piece should become less important. For example, I have a candidate who currently has a company car that I am trying to recruit for a client that doesn’t offer a company car. What should she do? At first, she told me that she would not go to work for a company that did not provide a car…..I said that was a shame. She said why? I said “I can think of 15,000 reasons why” – that is the difference in overall compensation (my job paid that much more than her current position).
Aside from money there are many other factors to consider:
Management Style, Career Opportunity, Continuing Education, Location, Work Requirements, etc……Choose the company, not the car.
Just for fun, see The Top Five Signs Someone Is Driving a Company Car.
Technical Support or Field Service work….. anyone??
Feeling trapped behind your lab bench or desk? Come on over to the field side (or the industry side of the business). What is a field based position and what are the benefits of this type of position? Whether you’re a Med Tech, histotech, or a technical service engineer we have field based positions that require the technical expert to travel on site to your customers to assist them with their technical issues. In these positions, you are the “go to” person; both your company and customers value your expertise, training and advice you have to offer. Many no travel jobs can become monotonous, especially for the type of individual who can feel trapped being in the same place day in, day out. Field work offers more excitement with meeting new people, seeing new places, and having great variety in the work day, not to mention that increase in pay. These positions will keep you on the go and your frequent flyer miles quickly building up for that big vacation. So get out from behind that desk or bench, and come over to the field side. Let your job be an adventure.
Laboratory sales vs. medical device and pharmaceutical sales
My last post was on the differences between pharmaceutical sales and medical device sales. Now let’s cover how clinical, biotech and research laboratory sales fit into this equation:
The skill sets to be successful in this area are the same: strong sales skills, follow-up, follow-through, and technical knowledge. It can be more helpful to have a science background in this area, but still not completely necessary.
Job stability is a little greater than in other areas: this area is not as tied to the economy. Patients continue to get sick and require tests even when the economy is slow. Also, there are fewer lab sales reps than pharma reps, so they stand out more in their companies.
Respect is a little higher: customers see the representative as a consultant and value the information the lab sales rep brings to them; doctors often have ego issues and don’t believe the pharma sales rep can add value. And to some extent they are correct.
One last piece of the puzzle is # of calls per day. Pharmaceutical sales requires ~ 8-12 calls per day, medical devices is a little less at around 6-9 calls per day and laboratory sales calls per day average between 3- 6. I hope all of this helps you when considering the different areas for your next sales position. Please be aware that our specialty at PHC Consulting is the research laboratory and biotech laboratory sales market.
Pharmaceutical sales vs. medical device sales
If you’re at the PHC Consulting website or blog, you’re either looking for a new opportunity in your area of medical sales (pharma or medical device or laboratory sales), or maybe you’re looking to transition from one area to another. Maybe you’re unsure about the differences between them, and don’t know how to tell which would be the best fit for you. Vincent Ma, the author of Non Sterile (a blog focused on medical device sales) wrote an extremely informative guest column on http://www.pharmrepclinic.com/ that outlines the differences between pharma sales and medical device sales , sprinkled with examples from his own experiences, that you should read now. I can’t post the entire thing here, but here are some excerpts:
There are several similarities between pharmaceutical sales and medical device sales. In both professions, we are trying to educate doctors and other medical staff that the features and benefits of the products that we represent are better than that of our competitors. Both types of sales representatives provide lunches, samples, marketing tchotchkes and other forms of entertainment.
In both areas, you will be concerned with repeat business and purchasing groups, which Vincent covers. It gets more interesting when you start considering the differences:
The goal in pharmaceutical sales is to increase the number of prescriptions (”scripts”) written by physicians in your assigned geographical area. In medical devices sales, the goal is get the purchase order. In pharmaceutical sales, the results of your efforts are rarely instantaneous; weeks may pass before you know if the lunch you provided increased the writing habits for your drug at that particular office. With medical devices sales, you know at the end of the day if you did a good job, because you either got the purchase order or you didn’t. You don’t have to wait a month to see if your numbers go up.
Whereas pharmaceutical companies may provide their representatives with a targeted list of physicians, medical device representatives will spend much of their time prospecting for new hospitals, medical offices and clinics within their territory. With prospecting, there is a lot of cold calling. It is critical to network and ask for referrals in medical devices sales. The sales cycle is usually longer, and device representatives have to work harder to maintain relationships. Once a purchase is completed, a hospital may go five or ten years before they need to replace the equipment. This is especially true of capital equipment purchases. In pharmaceutical sales you follow a routing schedule and see many of the same physicians again and again. In device sales, you will usually cover a larger territory, but the bigger the territory, the greater the opportunity.
The differences are in selling styles and processes and in what your own personal risk/reward factors are. Vincent has a list of questions to ask yourself to help you pinpoint which area would be the best for you.
I loved this….
I stole this graph from Alexander Kjerulf. Not sure that you should follow it but it is amusing. I find that people are too quick to quit and if they hung around and pursued other avenues within the organization their opportunities could be much greater than they are in the job market. Also, the only constant is change – maybe the boss you can’t stand will quit? So think it through. It is much easier to get a job when you have a job.
Additional tips about ride alongs….
The folks over at http://nonsterile.com had a few more comments that I really like about ride alongs. I am going to take the liberty of just pasting those here:
“Medical Sales Recruiter posted a great article for those who are trying to break into the medical sales industry. The first suggestion is to ride along with a representative. So contact a representative and ask if you can ride along with them for a couple of hours.
Not only will you learn about the day to day responsibilities of a sales representative, but you will learn more about the corporate culture of the company. Find out how many calls you are expected to make per day. Watch closely and see how the representative interacts with the doctor. Are they pushy or more laid-back.
This is a great time to ask a lot of questions about what the representative likes and dislikes about the position. If will be reporting to the same manager, then take the opportunity to see if your styles are adaptable.
If you are lucky, the representative that you are riding with will schedule a luncheon. Representatives spend a lot of time setting up lunches, so you will learn valuable, first-hand experience.
Maybe not as important, but you will also see what type of company car you get. I have known pharmaceutical representatives that have chosen their future employer by the make and model of the company car. Me, I would rather have an auto allowance, so I can choose whatever car I like. “
Podcasts – sales insights, management insights.
Guess what? On the way to Toronto last week, I listened to a podcast about recruiting…..Very cool. I have a free subscription through my iTunes that downloads these podcasts onto my iPod. Candidates are always looking for ways to set themselves apart from the competition. Maybe there is a useful podcast on selling (how to get past gatekeepers, how to sell value not price, remaking your book of business, mining your contacts, etc.) that you could listen to while you are on the plane, driving (not on your iPod but through your stereo) or working out. If you get one little piece of insight that sets you apart….you have succeeded. I will look on iTunes and put some links in one of my posts as examples. With technology, the possibilities are unlimited!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you
I have received so many emails and phone calls from those of you who have read my blog. Very positive feedback (blush, blush). Thank you for taking the time to read this. I really do want this to be a helpful site. So if you have a topic that you would like me to address here, please let me know. I will do the best I can….But you must remember that my discussions are based on my experiences as a recruiter (8 years) and as a sales, marketing and sales management professional (7 years). Of course I will not divulge company names, product names, candidate names or any other information. Again, thank you for reading and please forward this site address to your friends. Remember, it is all about networking (this would be a wonderful way to reconnect with someone from your past….and we know why that is important? Right?).
Make sure your recruiter contacts have your personal email address…..
I just had the saddest thing happen. I had this great job. Incredible opportunity, professional growth, sunny location, good money, stock options. I knew the “perfect candidate”. I had not talked with him in the last year or so….I immediately called him. Number disconnected. Then I emailed. Email no longer valid. Called his company, they would not give me forwarding information. I got distracted working with other candidates, filled the job and thought no more of it. Fast forward 3 months. The “perfect candidate” calls me – his company that he has been with for less than 2 years is going through layoffs, do you have an appropriate opportunity? Well, I did. But I DID NOT HAVE YOUR PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS AND I COULD NOT CONTACT YOU!!! Don’t let this happen to you. Send me your personal email today!!
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