Medical sales jobs and the formula for success

For many, myself included, I spent much of my early years in medical sales searching for a formula to put me at the top of the heap. Considering myself a 'thinking man' I proceeded to formulate ideas and test various approaches and techniques constantly in the field with customers.

I guess the flaw in this is simple, the database of knowledge for medical sales and other sales jobs is already extensive, it's not a new form for which successful practices need to be discovered for the first time. As a result, when one attends an initial training course in such as the pharmaceutical industry, perhaps we should give the teachings at these events a little more credit and attention than we do.

To give you an example of what I mean, let me describe my first sales job before I subsequently entered medical sales. It was a job selling insurance for a major insurance company at the time. My job was to collect premiums from an established customer base and use the opportunity to sell more of their product range, upgrade people to bigger packages, and so on. I was straight out of University and the training course was extensive, three weeks in a hotel covering everything from sales techniques to product knowledge and how to keep records (paper in those days!).

Looking back, there was nothing complicated about the approach. In essence, it was portrayed as 'numbers' game where one shouldn't try to second guess which customers may be in a buying situation. Quite simply, we were taught to approach everyone with the same approach and wait for someone to bite. I found this difficult. As a 'thinking' man I was sure that there must be scientific patterns which I could determine to avoid wasting my breath on some and only approach the ones who were more likely to buy. Perhaps the houses with new windows were the ones with money? Or perhaps not, they just spent all their cash on windows.

There were a couple of fundamental problems with what I was doing. Firstly, there were always too many relevant variables I couldn't see, which made my simplistic assumptions poor. Quite often, the little old lady in the scruffy little house was storing a suit case full of cash under the bed which really needed to be invested! Secondly, I was ignoring decades of cumulative experience which culminated in my training course, which basically advised to knock every door without thinking. This experience accounted for what I now know, that there's always too much you can't see to make assumptions, and hence the only way to uncover the most opportunities to sell is to 'knock' every door, as I had been told to on my course.

There were all sorts on this training course, myself a graduate, former window cleaners, painters and decorators, even and accountant all of whom wanted to try their hand at sales. The guy who turned out to be most successful was called Paul. He was about 20 (couple of years younger than me) and had gone into a bank straight after 'O' levels. His leaving salary was £8000 per year (1991). In my first year I earned £24K, which was not bad in those days for a young chap. Paul cleared £72K!!

I just couldn't understand it, I was a bright graduate applying every ounce of cognitive thought to what I was doing to try and win. I had the 'gift of the gab' and put in more than enough hours. Paul was younger than me, very quiet, if a little boring, how on earth had he earned so much more? To learn I had to swallow my pride and ask him how he had done it. His reply at the time dumbfounded me. Almost a little bit confused himself at the difference in results, he simply said with a shrug of the shoulders, 'I just did everything they taught us on the course'.

A couple of years later I entered medical sales. you would have thought that I would have learned my lesson. Training courses are extensive in pharmaceuticals, some are months long. Again I did well, well enough to promote after a couple of years, but it was really hard work. Looking back, I did exactly the same, I tried to apply too much thought beyond my training course, rather than trusting the years of cumulative experience that had gone into the course. Subsequently as a medical sales manager I have seen countless medical reps trying to second guess which customers to see and ultimately not seeing enough people.

In summary, it is of course natural to want to think about what you are doing in medical sales and any other sales jobs. But do stop and think how many collective years have gone into constructing the approach presented on your training course, before you go changing and adapting this approach too much in the field. These are tried and tested methods which do deliver results. The most successful people are often those who can deliver the prescribed strategy in an almost 'mindless' way. This can take both persistence and discipline, but if you can do this, you'll like the results.

Good luck