5 Things That Will Stop You From Landing the Medical/Healthcare Sales Career opportunity You Want

1.  Wrong degree

To get a position in clinical sales, healthcare revenue, clinical diagnostics sales, pharma sales, medical laboratory sales, imaging sales, biotechnology sales, medical device sales, pharmaceutical sales, or any variation, you need either (1) a degree in one of the life sciences, like biology, chemistry, zoology, biochemistry, or biotechnology, for example, with some business classes and revenue experience, OR (2) a business degree with a decent number of additional science classes (maybe a minor).  If you don’t have one of these, your chances aren’t worthwhile.  These are technical sales areas, so you need a working knowledge of science and pathology technology to be successful. 

2.  Bad references

First:  when I ask about references, I’m looking for the name of one of your supervisors–either past or present, it doesn’t matter.  If you can’t give me that kind of a reference, it sends up a red flag for me–what are you hiding?  Second:  Know what your references will say about you.  You’d be surprised at how many references I call who (very carefully) don’t tell me fabulous things about the candidate.  If you’re not totally certain, stake-your-job-on-it sure that they will give you a glowing reference, don’t give me (or the hiring manager) their names.

3.  Bad driving record

You’ll spend your life as a sales rep driving to your customers, often in a company car.  No one is going to give you a company car if they’re not certain you’ll represent the company in a mature, responsible manner.  Reckless driving, DUIs, or even too many speeding tickets just won’t slash it.  Keep your driving record clean.

4.  Drug use

You’re supposed to SELL the drugs, not take them…  Seriously, any whiff (ha!) of drug use will put you out of the running faster than you can imagine.   It could be a little dangerous to have the surgical equipment sales rep standing in the surgical suite while stoned out of his mind.

5.  Criminal record/Felony

Same thing…do we even need to discuss this?  Employers in many industries routinely perform background checks.  Why would they in medical sales?  Pharma revenue reps have access to drug samples.  Other lab sales reps–pharmaceutical device sales reps, laboratory sales reps, surgical equipment revenue reps, and  biotechnology sales reps, for example, are responsible for expensive  equipment, instruments, tests,  and more…not to mention the company car.

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

Related posts:

1. Is There More Than One Way To Break Into Pharma Sales? I was asked recently about the National Association of Pharma…
2. Medical Device Sales job – Must have experience selling capital equipment into pharma environment…Read the job description. Yep, some career opportunity skills (like revenue skills) are transferable. Yeah,…
3. What questions will they ask in a clinical sales interview? Interview preparation in any industry requires that you know what…

5 Things That Will Stop You From Landing the Medical/Healthcare Sales Job You Want