Medical sales and gaining promotion

Without any prior knowledge of business and indeed corporate life, it’s easy to simply think that all you’ve got to do is do your job well and apply for that promotion and that’ll be it.

Unfortunately there’s a lot more to it than that, and most of us discover this, to our detriment, through hard experience rather than working it out in advance. Building up to a successful promotion from medical sales can be a mixed tapestry of circumstances and events which ultimately present the opportunity to promote. It’s rarely complete chance but more often than not, the result of a carefully choreographed sequence of events leading up to an inevitable result.

I found this out the hard way. Having entered medical sales the and had two years experience I expressed a desire to enter sales management. After a series of rather complex assessment centres I was bluntly told I was not management material, or at least not in that company. I was disappointed, although not altogether surprised, as it hadn’t felt right all the way through, a bit like asking for the business at the end of a sales call when you know you’ve not sold them properly on the way through.

This was something that, in the medium term was proved to be, thankfully, tosh! So what had happened. Well, I hadn’t learned the rules of the game. I hadn’t managed to lay any ‘other’ foundations to build upon my management ambitions. Although I wanted it, nobody else expected it, and this can’t be the case if you are to succeed. Think of it as a ‘group sell’, just like a hospital formulary. First you have to work out who has influence over promotional decisions, then you have to work out their differing ways and perceptions eventually gaining access to them to influence their opinion of you. The when you apply for a promotion, it’s not a surprise, all the key people know who you are and hopefully have a positive perception of you, you’re chances are then much higher. In my first company, I simply hadn’t done any of this.

So how do you do build your profile with the right audience in this way? Well much of it is about taking every opportunity you can to put ‘yourself about’. The pharmaceutical industry and the medical sales arena is awash with company meetings and conferences. Volunteer for everything, presenting in front of people at conference, product strategy groups, offer help on training courses. You also need to become a professional social net worker, and ‘work the bar’ in the evenings in hotels like a job task not a knees up. Meet and build rapport with as many people, particularly senior people as possible. Behind their titles, they are all human and your ability to build meaningful rapport and indeed respect from them is dramatically accelerated when their guard is down in this semi social scenario.

In my case, I joined my second company with the expressed intention of gaining a management role. Having studied the rules of the game to this point, and of course failed previously, I set about the task of laying the foundations from the start of my interview. Once inside the company, I was religious in my pursuit of developing the right profile. Last up at the bar in hotels as often as I could ( I found this really tough!) volunteered for everything in sight, and of course delivered excellent sales results. The icing was a round of golf with managers before a promotion opportunity and the guy I played with promoted me. Sickeningly cliché, but on this occasion, to the contrary to the first company, it was in the bag before I entered the room for interview. Everybody expected me to get that job.

You too can choreograph you progress with the following steps

Deliver excellent results in your current role.

Work out who has influence over appointments for the position you would like.

Seek opportunities to develop rapport and respect with them, last up at the bar!

Make it clear the promotion you would like.

Volunteer for everything, being on committees, active roles at conferences etc Use these to build rapport but also build your profile across the company.

Apply for the role when it arises.

Good luck.