MedDeviceJobs

With Obamacare making it increasingly difficult for US based companies to thrive or survive in many cases, medical device companies have been forced to look outside the US for ways to achieve the necessary growth and to compensate for the difficult, even hostile US environment. 

Some of the emerging markets are outpacing the US in growth as device companies are breaking ground on new ways to penetrate those previously unattractive markets. India and China are the two largest markets with the greatest growth as those markets are still expanding and hospitals are being built in areas that previously didn't have them.

Dubai and Kuwait are other smaller markets with the resources to support the newer medical technologies that are being developed in the US. Public companies are driving this expansion because they must have sustained growth in order to deliver the kind of returns that their shareholders demand. Stock prices must increase, or the executives in these companies will be replaced.

We get this question a lot. Many people ask what they can do to break into the medical sales industry. They are often told that you can’t get in without prior experience doing the same.  It’s a little bit like obtaining credit. How do you get credit when you don’t have any established credit? 

In medical sales, every single person in the industry today had to start at some point without prior experience, so we know that the statement that you “must have prior experience” is false. This is a tactic that is often used to weed out those who don’t have the will and determination to do it.

Those who are determined to get in, will.  There are techniques that you can use to greatly enhance your chances of breaking in. Those techniques are the topic of discussion in the ebook that can be acquired atwww.breakingintomedicalsales.com .  

It’s a quick read that explicitly details how to break through the barriers. 

In a recent conversation with a sales manager at a large company, I listened to his venting about the Mob Style “roll over” he and his team had just undergone. He explained that he and his team’s “certifications” were expired and he was in need of re-upping his certification, which amounts to nothing more than paying his annual fee.  In order be able to comply with the onerous rules dictated by hospital purchasing departments, reps must go through an Authorized process by which they supply information to the organization called RepTrax. This for profit company then supposedly verifies the information to ensure the rep has had all their shots and is not a known fellon. All this for what?  For RepTrax to make money and extract part of the revenue pie that prior to RepTrax didn’t exist. So to run up the cost, what does the hospital get in return?  They get to punish and bully sales reps who, lets be honest, they often have disdain for. I’m not exactly sure why except that I have observed certain people in OR’s and Purchasing department that seemed to resent the reps who walk in wearing their suit and tie with their tassles on their loafers, while the hospital employees wear, scrubs or whatever was clean in their closet this morning.

  Let’s face it, the reps are partly responsble for the reputatations they received while they pull up to the red-zone in their foreign sedan or park in the doctor parking provided by the hospital. Meanwhile, they stroll in with their Rolex into the doctor’s lounge as they show up to make sure their products are properly used in the procedure.  These reps who perceive themselves to be peers with the doctors, while the lowly hospital staff are treated like servants to the high and mighty doctors…

 I think you get the idea. 

 All too often, the hospital employees resent these reps coming and going as they please only to drop off an invoice and demanding a Purchase Order # so that they can collect their enormous commissions checks. 

In today's marketplace, medical devices seem to be under attack by all parties. The FDA is making it more costly and difficult to get products approved, while hospitals are creating new and bigger barriers to entry with approval committees and Reptrax type screening programs. The net result is that it is increasingly difficult to navigate the channels to sell new products into hospitals. 

The administration is also making matters worse by adding the 2.3% medical device tax which is on all sales revenue. This is a death blow to many small start ups that are months if not years away from being profitable.  Things just seem to continue to trouble the industry.

We can assume that things are not going to become less complicated in the years ahead and no amount of complaining will change the status quo. So, how does a talented device rep deal with these ever increasing challenges?  While the complexity increases, the pressure to lower prices mounts which is a recipe for frustration and disillusionment. We want to hear from you who are in the battle each day.

This blog is designed to be place for candidates to interact with recruiters to discuss a cornucopia of different topics.  Ideally, people will exchange ideas as well as provide open forums for Q&A.

Don't be shy...