What Are Medical Sales Rep Jobs Like?
Medical sales jobs are representatives or sales managers who focus on selling and marketing medical products, such as biotech, equipment, and devices to hospitals, clinics, and other medical facilities.
Where they work
Medical sales jobs can vary depending on whether the representative is working in inside or outside sales. Inside sales representatives may be based at home or in an office setting. Their interactions with clients will be over the phone or email, though sometimes they may conduct meetings to negotiate and close a sale. Outside medical sales reps tend to have more flexible schedules, but they’ll often travel to meet customers within their territory.
Skills needed
To land a medical sales job, you’ll need to be able to explain the benefits and side effects of certain drugs and manage your time between customer meetings, and organizing your records. The following skills are needed to become a medical sales representative:
Strong verbal and written communication
Problem-solving
Active Listening
Research
Discipline
Course quality and reputation
Time Management
Storytelling
Tasks and responsibilities
- Assess client needs and offer the right products and services
- Market medical products to healthcare facilities, such as providing information and offering samples
- Establish and maintain relationships with customers, including doctors, to persuade them to prescribe specific products
- Correspond with customers on the phone, by email, or in person to take orders
- Keep records of sales orders, customers, and products
- Educate customers about new product launches, technologies, and developments in the field
- Identify new opportunities to increase product sales
- Resolve customer complaints
- Attend sales meetings, training sessions, and conferences to keep up with the latest trends
- Plan work schedules with the sales team and discuss future targets with the area sales manager
Types of medical sales jobs
The different types of medical sales jobs are determined by the product or service being sold. As mentioned, you can either be an inside or outside sales rep, which corresponds to the type of company you work for.
As a sales representative, you’ll most likely specialize in selling specific products:
Biotech
As a biotech sales representative, you’ll recommend biotech remedies to physicians at medical centers and hospitals.
Medical Devices
Those with a medical or technical background may be more suited for these types of roles, which can require giving product demonstrations and tracking records of clinical sales. This could also include artificial intelligence (AI) or other specialized, high-tech machines.
Hospital Services
This includes health tech and IT, such as software services that help with everyday marketing, medical billing, and office management.
Medical Supplies
This type of medical sales job requires less technical knowledge and a more general understanding of medical supplies (such as face masks and gloves) that are often sold in high volume.