Medical Sales Article

You Think You Have The Right Skills For Medical Sales – But Do You?

By Mace Horoff, President
Sales Pilot Medical Sales Training

I heard it on a regular basis for years – “I want to get into medical sales. I can do what you do.” And I would always say, “Of course you can.” Anyone can get into medical sales and succeed – if he or she has the right skills. The truth is, most people don’t have the right skills. But they can learn them!

One of the constants of training medical sales people, that is people who have already been hired and are representing medical companies, is when I ask, “How many of you feel that you have professional sales skills.” Usually, the majority of the class will raise their hands. I then asked the question, “How many of you use questions to control a sales presentation?” Again, several of the salespeople will raise their hands. Later that day, as a benchmark for assessing where each person’s selling skills are at the time, I will have the salespeople engage in sales presentation role play. Usually, the people who claim to have professional selling skills and claim to control the sales presentation with questions don’t ask a single question.

What I have learned is that one’s perception of selling skills and the ability to demonstrate those same skills are two different things. I believe this is true for several reasons. First, while many people have had sales training or have read books about sales techniques, very few have gone through a structured curriculum that teaches them how to use the techniques in a realistic environment. Consequently, these skills are never really learned. The other issue that creates the chasm between perception and reality of one’s true sales ability is that selling is often assumed to be an easy task as long as you can speak. Thus the salesperson assumes a false sense of competency.

In any endeavor, professionals always make whatever they are doing look easy. Selling is no different. In fact, the best salespeople lead their prospects to believe that they are doing nothing more than having a conversation. and certainly anyone can participate in a conversation. Therefore these pros make selling look easy. So easy in fact, that many of the prospects will say, “I can do that.”

Flying an airplane looks easy. Since most people’s familiarity with flying an airplane comes from the movies, many people think it is as easy as driving a car. Of course, nothing is further from the truth. No one would dream of getting into an airplane without the proper training and verification of the necessary skills. Why? Because there is a good chance that you will crash and burn and probably kill yourself and other people as well.

What happens when someone gets hired for medical sales and doesn’t have the necessary skills to perform in the demanding medical environment? Metaphorically speaking, the same ugly thing that happens in the airplane without proper training happens in the medical sales environment – crash and burn!

What happens when you crash and burn in medical sales? You won’t die of course, but the business opportunities that exist at the start may take a fatal turn if you’re not fully prepared in advance. Often, sales opportunities occur only once with a customer and cannot be fixed if they are damaged due to mismanaging the sales situation.

Getting hired for medical sales is not as difficult as most people make it out to be. In fact, if you know what you are doing you can achieve predictable results in your quest for a position in medical sales. So congratulations, you’ve been hired. Now what?

You better be able to perform and please don’t make the mistake that many neophytes make in the medical sales profession. That is, that the new company will teach them everything they need to know to succeed. Some companies do indeed have phenomenal training programs that cover selling skills as well as product skills, but many don’t. Remember, in the medical sales hiring process you are selling yourself as a professional. If you do not launch from day one operating as a pro, there will be many people who will notice. This is a very unforgiving industry for sales people who don’t perform. The flip side is that it is a very lucrative industry for people who do.

The take home message: Make sure you have the skills you are going to need and don’t assume that you have them just because selling seems simple. Selling skills can be learned easily enough, but they will only work if you commit the time to practice them in a realistic simulaton of the medical environment.

Remember, the pros make it look easy. Invest in whatever is required to become a true medical sales professional, you’ll make it look easy too.

© Copyright Mace Horoff, 2007. All Rights Reserved