Medical Sales Jobs - Boston, MA

A field preceptorship a fantastic way to boost your chances of landing a pharmaceutical sales job.  Also known as a ride-along or position shadowing, it’s usually something we associate with students, but a field preceptorship offers multiple benefits for the jobseeker:

• It gives you on-the-job experience without having to get the position.  You can explore it to see if it’s right for you before you make the commitment to change careers.
• You can use the experience on your CV, giving you keywords that will flag your resume in Applicant Tracking Systems–especially helpful for those with no prior experience in medical sales.
• It gives you material for your 30/60/90-day plan, an handsome document to have in a job interview.
• It sets you apart as a “go-getter.”  Not everyone will go to this length before they even have the career opportunity.
• It shows that you know how to make contacts, which is essential in a sales role.
• It’s impressive to hiring managers, and helps Them to see you in the job.

How do you find someone to ride with?  Ask your doctor or clinical laboratory for the names of sales reps.  When you contact Them, ask if you can ride along for the day, or even part of the day.  Reassure them that you’re not after their position, but are just looking for information.  Try to stay quiet during the actual sales part, but in between, ask questions about a typical day, the pros and cons of their position, what it takes to be successful, and so on.

When you get to the interview, the prep work you did will show, giving you the edge over other candidates and help you land the career opportunity.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized medical laboratory and clinical sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Use a Field Preceptorship to Get Your Next Sales Job

Well, I guess the first question should be:  CAN med techs or other laboratory people transition from a technical role into a sales role?  The answer is:  it depends.  The odds are low, but for those who can beat the odds, they’ll likely be awesome revenue reps.  It tends to be a love it/hate it proposition.  Why is that?  It’s because the medical is a black-or-white world.  There are absolutes and definites.  In the revenue world, there are many more variables, many more maybes, and much more fluidity inherently involved in dealing with people.  The clinical person who has good people skills coupled with that extensive technical background and who can deal with the uncertainty and constant change will be very successful.

So, if you’ve got the technical background necessary for success in laboratory sales, how do you make the leap?

• Before you do everything else, go for a ride-along with a few sales reps.  See what it’s like on the other side of the fence.  Ask queries about the pros and cons of the job, ask what a typical day is like, and find out how to be competitive in the job search and in the field.  The logical way to find a revenue rep willing to let you job shadow him would be to get names from labs they sell to.  If you’d like to keep this on the down low for a while, discover a lab where you’re not known to ask for a few contacts.

• Use the career opportunity shadowing experience to beef up your RESUME with keywords that will get it flagged by computerized tracking systems.  You’ll need to revamp your RESUME to give it a sales focus while still highlighting your technical background.

• Find out anything you can about how to get into pharma sales.  There are hundreds of articles available right here on this blog.

• Expand your professional network. If you haven’t done it already, set up a profile on LinkedIn.  Join sales groups like Revenue Cafe:  Sales Rep Careers to find out what’s going on and make more contacts.

• Shore up your sales skills. Research sales skills and revenue call best practices online.  Read books on sales techniques.  Watch YouTube movie scenes for career opportunity search advice.

• Seriously consider hiring a career coach to help with your medical revenue career opportunity interview preparation. On the face of it, it looks like an expensive option when you could do all this research yourself, but in reality, it’s a time- and money-saver:  if you want to get hired faster, you consult an expert who already knows the territory and can give you a map of the best way to get where you want to go.  It will keep you from making some completely avoidable mistakes and show you how to put your best foot forward.

• Get nice at handling phone interviews. Almost all your initial contacts with recruiters and hiring managers will be by phone.  Making a good impression there will be the key to landing the face-to-face interview.

• Learn how to write a 30/60/90-day plan. Use all of the research you’ve done on the sales process, and then research the specific company you’d like to interview with.  Write an outline of what you’d be doing in the first Thirty days, the first 60 days, and the first 90 days on the job.  That’s usually things like training (find out how they do that ahead of time) in the first 30 days, initial field work and customer introduction in the first 60 days (find out who their customers are), and going after new accounts in the first Ninety days (think about who that might be).  The 30/60/90-day plan will make you stand out as a person who knows how to be successful in this new role, and help the hiring manager see you in the job–which is half the battle.

• Polish your interview skills (this is a given).  Practice answers to difficult but common interview queries, know how to answer behavioral interview questions, dress appropriately for a revenue rep role, watch your body language, ask questions of your own, project confidence, know how to ask for the job, and don’t forget the thank you note.

This is all a lot to remember, and it’s certainly a lot of work.  But if you’re ready to transition out of the laboratory, the rewards will be worth it.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized pharmaceutical and medical sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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How Do Med Techs / Lab Employees Transition to Medical Sales Jobs?

A sales rep’s job is to make the sale.  So if you’re looking for a new sales position in pathology revenue, pharma device sales, or any other health care revenue arena, the best way to get a clinical sales job is to make it your mission is to demonstrate that you can ring that cash register, and do it well.

Start with your RESUME. Your CV is your product management document….your “brochure” that’s going to draw them into calling you for an interview.  And a sales resume is all about the numbers.  That’s what hiring managers (and medical sales recruiters) are looking for.  What kind of numbers can you pull down?  What’s your sales ranking?  Did it increase?  What does your customer/units sold/profit growth look like?  What was your budget?  What kind of sales have you generated?  (Either in actual dollar amounts, or percentage increases.)

Be prepared for the interview. There’s a admirable chance that you’ll find yourself in a behavioral based interview (also called BEIs, or Behavioral Event Interviews).  The reason hiring managers like these so much is that they get a better picture of what you’re like in everyday situations, as well as in difficult situations like the ones you’ll surely be in on the new career opportunity.  They wanna know exactly how you’ll represent the company in every circumstance.  The best way for them to get an idea of that is to see what you’ve done before, because past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.  And, any revenue rep worth his or her salt can talk a nice game, but only a few can back it up.  SO:  When you’re thinking about possible behavioral interview questions in a sales interview and coming up with excellent examples of your worthy selling and customer skills, quantify them as much as possible.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Headhunter at the nationally
recognized pharmaceutical and pathology sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Sales Interviews Are About Sales! Quantify Your Experience.

If you want your CV to actually be a marketing document for you, and get a recruiter’s or a hiring manager’s attention, you must pack that CV with the keywords that are relevant to the career area you want.  Recruiters, hiring managers, and Human Resource departments use computer searches and applicant tracking systems to flag resumes worth looking at, and that means they use keywords to search for the ones they’ll be interested in looking at further.

But what if you’re new to the area and don’t have much experience?  Well, then you’ve to be a little more creative in your mission.  That does NOT mean you should lie on your CV.  That’s always a bad idea, and you’re sure to be discovered out eventually.  What I mean is that you should highlight what is relevant to the potential employer.

So, for example, if you want a career opportunity in pharma revenue, clinical device sales, medical sales, biotechnology sales, or other health care sales area, here’s a few ideas for you:

• If you’re in real estate, but you sold to a group of doctors, you might want to list ‘em as one of the accounts you sold to.

• If you sold copiers, maybe you sold to clinics, day surgery offices, etc.  Not only does it help with the keyword count in your CV, it lets us know that at least you’ve been in the environment.

• By all means, go ahead and join professional organizations.  So for a pathology sales rep position, you could join AACC (American Association of Clinical Chemistry), CLMA (Clinical Lab Manager’s Association), or various other organizations where you’d discover people in that profession.  Then you can put Them on your resume, and elaborate on your association with them, which gives you more keywords for your resume.

• Carefully read career opportunity descriptions and ads to see what keywords they use; then see which ones you could legitimately incorporate into your resume.

• Don’t forget keywords for sales skills.

Need some more resume help?  Research resume writing skills using keywords online, or check out the Extreme Revenue CV Makeover Kit available from Career Confidential.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Headhunter at the nationally
recognized pharma and clinical laboratory sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Crystal G, former pharma rep in Texas, explains how she made the transition into surgical sales.
I asked her to chat with me about the process that she went through….

Was this helpful? Please give me feedback in the comments.
If you’re interested in individual personal coaching, read about it here…..

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Headhunter at the nationally
recognized pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical revenue recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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This is not your daddy’s job search….

You can’t just send out resumes anymore and expect to get a call for a laboratory sales career opportunity or health care sales career opportunity.  Life is different, and the career opportunity search is different.  Get a career coach, get on LinkedIn, discover some resume help.  Get serious, and play to win.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized pharmaceutical and clinical revenue recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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The Medical Sales Recruiter Sets Resume On Fire To Say This: Stop the Faux Job Search

I’ve been named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Online Recruiters by HR Examiner!  HR Examiner partnered with Traacker, the Boston-based online reputation discovery tool, to calculate online influence based on content, traffic, and activity.

I am #7 on the list, and I am in some very nice company:  from Jason Buss of The Talent Buzz (#1) to Dr. John Sullivan (#25) (who incidentally just recently guest posted for us on the cost of a vacant job).  You can see the rest of the list here.

I’m happy to be on the list, and wanna thank all my readership for helping me to get there.  I continually strive to provide good content for jobseekers, and hope that you find it useful.  As always, I welcome comments and suggestions for topics that you’d like to see covered here.

See you at the big!

Peggy McKee

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized medical and clinical laboratory revenue recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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About a year ago, I started publishing videos on YouTube (about position searching, interviews, resumes, LinkedIn, 30/60/90-day plans, types of pharmaceutical sales, and more) on the MedSalesRecruiter Channel.  To date, there are 54 videos available, and I’m happy to report that views of these movies have reached the 100,000 mark!

The major 3 episodes are:

Closing for the Job Interview In a Job Offer (over 12,500 views)

30/60/90-Day Plans for Career opportunity Interviews–Get Hired! (over 11,900 views)

Discussing Money (Salary Talks) in the Position Interview (over 10,300 views)

Here’s what a few jobseekers have to say about them:

Comment on your video: Position Interview Tips – How to use your brag book to get the job.

Thanks for this info! At the end of my interview today, I flipped through my portfolio to explain my color coding, then handed it over. Each one of them flipped through it, and it felt really worthwhile to see ‘em looking at my degree, awards, etc.

Comment on your video: Interview Tips for Hiring Major Sales Reps! Clinical Sales

It’s been several years since I was a surg rep. I only had a few interviews in my life. I had been recruited for nearly all my sales career opportunities. Now, trying to re-enter the laboratory arena, I’m finding it harder than it was as an entry level rep. These movie scenes are really helpful and I will bypass the HR department as you suggested in another movie.

Comment on your video: Career opportunity Shadowing :Tip for howto get a pharma sales position!

These movies are outstanding! Thank you very much for taking the time to post Them. You’re a great role model.

I am totally thrilled that the vids have been so helpful to so many people in the job search. I know it can be a difficult, stressful time, and I’m glad I’ve been able to make it a little easier.

Thanks for watching.

Peggy McKee

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized pharma and medical sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Sign up here to receive the PHC Consulting (pharmaceutical revenue recruiter) newsletter.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized pharma and medical sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Medical Sales Recruiter Monthly Newsletter – Signup NOW!

For those unfamiliar with the term, “preceptorship” is just another way of talking about career opportunity shadowing, which is the process of spending time with a professional as they execute their job in order to better understand what they do. It’s also called a ride-along, which gives you an idea of the day or days spent with your pro, riding along to different sites as they perform their job. If you wanna launch your career in clinical revenue, there’s no better way to get a feel for the every single day hustle of the job than participating in a ride-along with a seasoned pro.

If you’re looking at a career in medical sales, it’s likely you’ve gotten a science degree, or at least achieved a minor in science and studied the area more than the minimum amount needed to graduate. Yes, it’s not a legal requirement to have a science degree to go into clinical revenue, but the more you know about the field, the better you’ll be able to understand the products you’re selling and the way they can benefit doctors and patients. Talk with your professors or academic counselors about getting in touch with a pathology sales rep, or do some legwork and call local hospitals to discover out the names of reps that call on them.

Getting in touch with rep is the first step in landing a preceptorship. When you’re on your ride-along, ask questions of your mentor but also follow instructions about how and when to interact. It’s likely you’ll need to stay quiet when your rep is actually dealing with clients and trying to make a sale, and that’s precious. The purpose of the day (or days) spent shadowing a professional is to absorb the ins and outs of the position, not act as if you know it already. If you play your cards right, a successful preceptorship can benefit you in several ways:

Firsthand experience: This is vital. Instead of knowing the theory behind pharmaceutical revenue, a ride-along lets you see it in practice and understand what the job really entails. You’ll come away with knowledge of the real job, not the mythological version you may have built up in your head. As such, you’ll be able to start your career knowing exactly what you have to do to get the position done.

Pros and cons: A preceptorship is the perfect way to know exactly how the job will work for you and what upsides and downsides you will face. A Pharmaceutical sale is a challenging but rewarding career, built on the ever-changing health care industry, and there’s no better way to see what the job really entails than a ride-along.

Contacts: Participating in a preceptorship is a outstanding way to grow your field of professional contacts and develop yourself as a new sales rep. By establishing a admirable relationship with the revenue rep you’re shadowing as well as the clients you meet along the way, you’ll be setting yourself up for more professional opportunities when you’re out on your own. And don’t forget that a ride-along looks great on a RESUME, demonstrating that you’ve spent time in the real sales world and have a better grasp of the job than someone who’s only studied it from afar.

A preceptorship is an invaluable training tool and a great way to help your career get started. If you haven’t participated in one yet, now’s the time.

This guest post is contributed by Katheryn Rivas, who writes on the topics of accredited online universities .  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: katherynrivas87@gmail.com .

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Headhunter at the nationally
recognized clinical and medical sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Take the Ride: The Benefits of a Medical Sales Preceptorship