medical sales jobs
Social Media and the Aspiring or Veteran Medical Sales Rep
Social media and medical sales: good or bad?
During breakfast this morning, my wife C.J. asked, “Do you think corporations have the right to ask job candidates to reveal their Facebook page?” She was surprised by my answer.
I said, “Yes. Companies have the right to ask. Job candidates also have the right to say no, but that may not be a good move with respect to getting hired.”
How a sales candidate uses Facebook or responds to questions about Facebook says something about them and their judgment. I was interviewing candidates to fill a sales position for a small medical device company. After reviewing over 100 resumes, I narrowed the candidate pool to five. Following a round of telephone interviews, there were three finalists I planned to bring in for live interviews, but first I decided to check each candidate’s Facebook page.
One candidate did not have a Facebook page. One could interpret it two different ways. Perhaps the candidate viewed social media as a big time-waster or the flip side could be that the candidate didn’t recognize the potential value of social media. The lack of a Facebook page did not affect how I considered the candidate.
Another candidate had a minimalist presence on Facebook. She gave little information about herself other than where she lived, where she attended college and her interests which included aerobics and a passion for cooking. I was impressed that she used a professional head shot for her profile picture, which suggested to me that she favored a professional approach to things. Her page had little impact, but it did no harm either.
When I located the third candidate on Facebook, I said out loud, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Her profile picture displayed a picture of a girl wearing a wet t-shirt standing on top of a bar surrounded by other girls in wet t-shirts and a cadre of obviously drunken admirers toasting the ladies on the bar. While this left a bad impression, I read through some of her FB posts in hopes of finding some redeeming qualities. Sadly, most of her posts were laced with poor grammar and F-bombs…lots of F-bombs! Did this candidate’s Facebook page say something about her judgment and character? It did for me. She was out!
What about those of you who already have the job…do you think you’re free to post whatever you want on your Facebook or LinkedIn pages? Oh sure, you have activated all of the privacy settings. No one will see anything you post except those who you allow, right? Are you willing to bet your job and business on that?
Anything you post online, either in a website, forum, or yes—social media site such as Facebook, is for all intensive purposes in the public domain. All it takes is one person who has access to your information to pass around some less than savory information about you or a picture you wish was never taken and your reputation is toast.
A great word of advice is to never post any information online that you would not want a customer or someone from your company to see. Yes, you’re entitled to your privacy, but online, privacy doesn’t exist, regardless of how you create your Facebook privacy settings.
In an era of increased scrutiny for corporate behavior and regulatory compliance, assessing good judgment in potential medical sales representatives is essential. Good judgment says that when you’re competing for a desirable medical sales job, you’re prepared for questions about your social media habits and behaviors, including, “Would you mind if I took a look at your Facebook page?” Do you have the right to say no? Of course, but your interests will be best served if you can do so without it looking like you’re trying to hide something. From an interviewer’s perspective, I think it’s a fair question in terms of testing a candidate to see how well he or she handles stress in a critical sales situation (which is what a job interview is!).
What do you do when one of your customers sends you a “friend request?” Will your page reveal anything about you that may change the customer’s perception of you? You could ignore the friend request or just say no, but that sends a message as well, doesn’t it, such as, “I don’t want to be your friend!”
If there is anything on any of your social media sites that you would not be comfortable sharing with everyone you know—get rid of it. Don’t be misguided by thinking that your right to privacy protects you. When it comes to getting hired, keeping customers, or keeping your job, it’s too much to risk.
The Entitlement Mentality and Medical Sales
I get frequent calls from students graduating from college who want to know how to land a job in medical sales. Recently, I had a call from a young man named Shane, who asked me some questions. I don’t think he liked my answers.
Shane asked, “Where is the best place to send my resume to get hired?”
I ask a simple question, “Why would anyone who is looking to hire for a medical sales position want to see your resume?”
Shane, a bit surprised said, “What, are you kidding me? I just got my bachelor’s degree from…” and he named a respected University in the northeast.
I said, “Congratulations Shane. What did you get your degree in?”
“Computer Science.”
A bit curious, I asked, “Shane, why did you study computer science if you want to go into medical sales?”
“Well, I like video games and thought I would do that, but I can’t get a job in that field and I heard that you can make good money selling medical equipment, so I want to try that.”
“Shane, tell me about your sales experience.”
Shane seemed annoyed and surprised at the question. He just said, “What?”
I repeated the question. “Tell me about your sales experience.”
A bit agitated and annoyed with me, he responded. “I don’t have any sales experience. I’m really overqualified to sell so I think I should be able to get a job pretty easily.”
The silence was now on my end of the phone. I wanted to bring this young man to some level of reality. But first I wanted to be sure that I understood his expectations.
“Shane, what kind of job did you have in mind?”
“My fraternity brother’s dad works selling x-ray machines or something. He pulls something like two or three hundred K with a company car. I don’t know if I can find something like that but I’m willing to start at a lower level and work my way up.”
I figure, now we’re getting somewhere. He knows he’ll need to “work his way up.” I asked, “Shane, what kind of a starter position do you think you’re qualified for?”
He said, “I don’t know. Whatever I can get. I’ll work for a hundred K to start if they give me a car and benefits. I’m a smart guy. Do you know what companies I should send my resume to?”
Realizing he wasn’t going to acknowledge the reality of his situation on his own, plus the fact that my time was limited, I needed to just get to the point.
“Shane, there are talented and experienced people who already have medical sales experience and years and years of business-to-business selling experience. Some companies receive 100 or more resumes for each job they post and many never get posted. Medical sales is about sales. Sometimes clinical experience is preferred, but most of the time, companies want to see a history of sales success. If you’re serious about getting into this industry, I can make some recommendations about getting a starter job helping a distributor or sales representative as a helper, or you can go land yourself a position selling copy machines or postal meters or some other business equipment or service. But truthfully, if you’re lucky enough to land a starter job with a distributor it’s not going to pay anywhere near 100K and if you land a B2B sales job, your pay will be based on commission. If you can sell, you’ll do great!”
Shane sounded frustrated. He said, “Nah, that’s not going to work for me. I need a guarantee. Maybe I’ll do something else. I need to make some serious scratch. I didn’t go to college for six years (six years?) to have to bust my ass for 50 or 60K. Thanks for your time.”
He hung up.
Not all the calls I get are like Shane’s. Many college graduates acknowledge that they will need to prove themselves and rise in the ranks if they want the best medical sales jobs that offer the greatest income opportunities.
While the current state of the medical device industry is sound (yes, it’s changing, but it’s not going away), landing jobs requires more qualifications, not less, and keeping those jobs is going to require serious commitment and performance. Those who got by as “farmers,” i.e., being good enough to maintain the business, but not grow it, will be relegated more to a sales support role with a reduced compensation. The value of the “hunter” will increase, for the hunter makes more and more money for his company every quarter of every year. Hunters go after their prey and don’t wait for someone or some thing to feed them.
Entitlement is the kiss of death in this industry. If you think the world, your employer, your customers or anyone else owes you…get over it. No one cares how long you’ve been in the territory or brought donuts to the hospital. If you’re not consistently creating value for your customers and your company, you’re a dinosaur facing extinction…or uncertainty like Shane.
Medical Sales Reps Who Jump Around: What message are you sending to your customers and to future employers?
Aside from technology, I don’t change things much. I’ve had the same car for six years, the same house for thirteen years, and both the same watch and the same wife for 25 years (and the wife is much more dependable than the watch!). The last sales job I had in the medical device industry I kept for over twenty years.
Do I ever grow tired of things? Of course, but before I change anything, I take time to think about what quantitative and qualitative results I’m going to receive from the change. The hard part is to take emotion out of the equation, but it’s something you need to do when you’re considering the big changes—like a job change.
I’m amazed at how much people in healthcare sales change jobs. It’s as if they are always chasing that star, looking for the ideal job with the ideal company and selling the ideal product. Why? Most of the time, it’s due to emotion. Medical sales is tough. You don’t always win the business. Sometimes a competitor takes your business and you want to blame your company or your product. Where working on one’s selling skills, organizational skills and motivation would bring much better returns, many reps are drawn to the new shiny object and instead jump ship to work for somebody else.
If they start to have better sales because they have a “better” product, it seems like a good move. But what happens when that better product gets outpaced by a competitor’s new product? Should you make the lateral move again? And again? Many reps do, and it’s usually because of emotion. “I don’t like this territory so I’ll get a new one. I don’t like this company so I’ll go work for a new one. I don’t like my manager so I’ll go somewhere else.” That’s all emotion.
The first time you change jobs to move into another selling position it might be a legitimate lateral move. But often, any additional moves after that, depending on your tenure in each position can be a step backwards. Why?
Your healthcare customers, when it comes to changing their products, companies and sales reps are like me. They don’t like to change. They might follow you to a new company one time, maybe twice, although that is rare these days. But when you’re switching companies every couple of years, well, let’s just say you don’t exactly project the image of stability. Healthcare customers like…no they LOVE stability! When it becomes known in the marketplace that you’re a “jumper,” customers won’t think that you’ll be there for the long term and might choose to go with a sales rep that stays put.
What about future job opportunities? One of the first things that hiring managers look for on your resume is how stable your employment record has been. If you’ve stayed with one company like I did for a long period of time, they know you have the attitude, commitment and drive to ride out the rough spots that everyone goes through. If all you have done is jump from one job to another, they sense that you can’t take the heat in a changing marketplace. When their company’s business cycles down at some point, they know that you’ll be gone. Investing time, effort, training dollars and other resources in you doesn’t seem like a good idea. And having a revolving door in a territory kills the brand and makes a company look unstable.
Are you thinking about changing your medical sales job? You’re probably making a bigger career decision than you realize. The grass might seem greener on the other side of the fence, but more than likely, in a short period of time, you’ll experience the same emotions that prompted the move in the first place. Think you’ll stay put then?
Don’t let your emotions turn every good job into a stepping stone that leads nowhere. If you really need change, try the new car, the new watch, or a new hobby. The better decision is usually to keep the spouse and the job.
