How to get hired in the Aesthetic industry for sales roles and the experience required for each title.

Below is what I send to all candidates who do not come from this industry but are interested in getting into it.

As an executive recruiter, I want to remind you that my job is to get my clients the right candidate, not to get a candidate a job. I have clients who pay me as a recruiter to find them the exact talent they need. You must have specific experience in your current and previous roles to be considered. I get many messages a week from candidates wanting to break into the industry or from candidates who do not have the right experience or have been in a different industry and want to transition into aesthetics.

I wrote this article to explain the titles and the compensation for the roles I recruit for and to educate candidates that just because I have an opening in their territory does not mean I can or will submit you. The problem is, if you do not transition into this industry within 7 years of graduating college, it can be extremely difficult - especially to sell the devices.

The Skincare and Injectable roles are easier to place senior/ seasoned or veteran recruited candidates in but almost always require that you are already selling those products, meaning you got hired by the company directly early in your career.

So, to educate you more, getting into this industry can be challenging. If you are not in an outside sales cold-calling role, none of my clients will want to risk hiring you. However, if you have some aesthetics background, like working at the front desk of a medical spa as a plastic surgeon or a dermatologist, it makes getting into this industry much easier. Unfortunately, I get many candidates who want to transition out of their roles and merge into aesthetics without the outside sales and cold-calling experience. It is almost impossible.

The aesthetics industry has multiple sales roles - here are the most popular.

Territory Manager

Area Sales Manager

District Sales Manager

Regional Sales Manager

Post Sales Support/Business Development Manager

Skincare Sales Rep

Injectables Sales rep.

The first position is Territory Manager.

The Territory Manager role is a junior outside sales role selling aesthetic devices/lasers. This role is more of a door opener for the Area Sales Manager. You have to learn how to be told no over and over, so this is the role you would have to start in to sell devices. This Territory Manager will be driving around from 8-5, knocking on doors all day long, trying to get a doctor to let them come in to pitch one of the devices they are selling. If you are in a desk job, my clients will rarely, if ever, consider you for this outside sales role. You'll need to show you have "current" experience cold calling to get new customers.

This is a college grad with at least 2 years of sales experience but preferably no more than 7 years of work experience since getting their degree. These reps are young and hungry and can be away from home for multiple days at a time during the week, sometimes living in a hotel if necessary.

If you are in a role where you are only calling on existing clients for your current employer to see how they are doing or to get them to buy more products or services over the phone, they will not consider you. If you are not in a role where you are getting up every day and driving to random businesses to pitch a product your company sells, I will not be able to submit you. If you are a pharmaceutical rep, it is almost impossible to transition into this industry. My clients want candidates who are actually selling a product to a business or doctor. A pharmaceutical rep sells more of a relationship or hopes the doctor will write as many scripts for that product as possible. This is a challenging role where you are driving all day long, walking into a potential client’s office, introducing yourself to them, and trying to get them to let you come back and pitch an aesthetic device to them.

Many of my clients have been looking for candidates from a competing aesthetic laser/device company or from companies with heavy B2B sales like Cintas or Unifirst or any payroll or HR company like Paychex, ADP, Paycom, etc. Copier and printer sales companies are also some of the best companies to get started in, as those pieces of capital equipment are expensive, just like aesthetic devices.

My clients will consider sales reps from other medical device companies but are not excited about a rep that is in hospital sales. If you are only selling to a hospital, it is very difficult to transition to aesthetic sales as the doctors in the hospitals are not the ones paying for the products you are pitching, it's the hospitals paying, and this means you do not have experience asking the doctor to take out a personal loan to pay for what product you are selling. The devices in this industry are $80k to $350k, so they want the candidate to have experience asking the customer to personally pay for the product they are trying to sell them. This Jr rep makes a $60k-$65k base plus a $600-$800/month car allowance, and after commissions, these roles pay $120k to $200K depending on how good you are and where you live in the US. I have some TM's that have made $350k their first year on their W-2s and others that have made only $80K

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The next position is an Area Sales Manager.

After being a Territory Manager for at least a year, you can be recruited away or get promoted to?Area Sales Manager. This role is for sales reps who have already been Territory Managers or have sold expensive capital equipment to private businesses or?physicians' offices, not into hospitals but to actual private physician offices. This is for aesthetic laser or device sales reps who are ready for a promotion to this title. If you only have experience selling to a hospital where the doctor does not personally have to pay for the device you are selling, it is tough to get hired for this role. Sometimes, although it is rare, a client will consider experienced capital sales reps from outside the aesthetics industry, such as medical equipment sales, dental sales etc., for this role. In my experience, I have yet to place a hospital sales rep as an ASM. You would have to be closing your own deals and have significant numbers of sales, such as over $2M annually, to be considered for this title of Area Sales Manager.?The annual quota for an ASM is usually $2.5M to sometimes over $5M depending on the company.

My clients want top TMs from competitors (newer to the industry and hungry) or ASMs stuck with no mobility.

• Will not consider industry veterans with 5 companies in 10 years and no P-club awards.
• Will almost never accept a seasoned sales rep selling into hospitals only
• Will almost never accept a seasoned med device sales rep from Pharma, Biologics, Surgical, Orthopedic, Cardio, or any industry selling to a hospital where you are in a clinical OR sales position.

Will consider:

• Aesthetic sales non-capital equipment sales reps with documented presidents club awards
• Dental sales with P-club awards
• Surgical B2B sales with awards (not OR sales)
• Ophthalmology sales with awards

This position is almost always a $70k-$75K base with a $600- $800/mo car allowance, and after commissions, these roles pay $250k - $500k+ depending on where you live in the US.

Some Area Sales Manager roles for certain companies will offer an $80k to $90k base - but it isn't typical.

Next is a District Sales Manager. To be considered for a District Sales Manager, you must have been an Area Sales Manager for usually 3 years and have had a TM or multiple under you. This role pays a base of $85k to $100k and at plan you can make $350k to $500K+

Next is a Regional Sales Manager. To be considered for a Regional Sales Manager, you must have been a District Sales Manager and usually requires 7+ years of experience and strong sales #s with high quotas, such as a territory with a $6M quota. The base pay is usually not higher than $125k, sometimes $150K and the on-target earnings can be $400k to over $1M

The next role is a post-sales support/business development manager/key account manager/practice success manager.

You can get this type of role in the aesthetics industry if you have worked in the aesthetic industry selling skincare or injectables or as a front desk patient coordinator, Social Media and Marketing Specialist, patient care coordinator, or treatment coordinator at a local plastic surgeon, Medspa, or Dermatologist. ?Also, if you have marketing and social media experience in your current role, you would be considered for this type of aesthetics position. Still, they also want you to have some aesthetic experience for that.

If you are an esthetician or an RN - this will not help you get a job for this position. I repeat, if you are currently working at a MedSpa, Dermatologist, or Plastic Surgeons’ office doing treatments on patients, or an RN at a hospital, that is not the experience needed to get into this type of role. YOU MUST HAVE CURRENT SALES EXPERIENCE FOR ALL AESTHETIC SALES ROLES.

These roles are for the reps that go into the clients' offices after a device has been sold and work with the practice to help them utilize the device, open houses, events, launch parties, etc.

Some of my clients have changed this role in the last year. They are now less about social media and marketing and more about whether you can upsell the client on buying more products or a second system if they only have one.? So on top of working with the current client to host events, launch parties, and social media posts to showcase the device they just bought, you will also have to sell, sell, sell. Another client of mine now requires this position to sell a device a month or close to that. They require you to sell $200k worth of services and/or devices monthly.

These roles pay a base salary of $60k to $80k and a car allowance of $600-$800k a month, and after commissions, these roles pay $120k to $200k+, depending on what company you work for. I have some candidates making $130K on their W-2 and others making $350K on their W-2 for the same role. This all depends on the commission percentage you are getting and where you live in the US.

Next is Skincare Sales

You can get a job selling skincare with me as your recruiter only if you have sold skincare before. Therefore, I can only submit candidates to companies with skincare sales experience. Every now and then, my clients will accept a pharma rep selling to Dermatologist.

How do you get the skincare sales experience, then? First, you would have to find a skincare company and apply to them directly online on their careers page to see if they would accept you as a skincare rep without any sales experience. Then, once you have worked for them for at least a year, I can help you.

These roles pay a base salary from $80k to $100k and a car allowance of $600-$800k a month, and after commissions, these roles pay $150k to over $200k+ depending on what company you work for, the commission percentage and where you live in the US.

If you are an esthetician or an RN - this will not help you get a job for this position. I repeat, if you are currently working at a MedSpa, Dermatologist, or Plastic surgeon office doing treatments on patients, or an RN at a hospital, that is not the experience needed to get into this type of role. YOU MUST HAVE CURRENT SALES EXPERIENCE FOR ALL AESTHETIC SALES ROLES.

The next position in an Injectables Rep - Botox and fillers, for example

You can get a job selling injectables such as Neurotoxins or fillers, but almost always, you would have to be currently selling skincare or injectables to be considered. Some of my clients will accept a pharma rep for this role. Again, you would have to get a job selling pharma products to be considered. If possible, you will also want to sell pharma products related to the skin. This means you would be selling to dermatologists or OB/GYN primarily.

These roles pay a base salary from $90k to $110k and a car allowance of $600-$800k a month after commissions; these roles pay $150k to $300k depending on what company you work for, their commission percentage and where you live in the US.

If you are an esthetician or an RN - this will not help you get a job for this position. I repeat, if you are currently working at a MedSpa, Dermatologist, or Plastic surgeon office doing treatments on patients, or an RN at a hospital, that is not the experience needed to get into this type of role. YOU MUST HAVE CURRENT SALES EXPERIENCE FOR ALL AESTHETIC SALES ROLES.

OF COURSE, ALL COMPENSATION DEPENDS ON THE COMPANY, AND THE DOLLAR AMOUNTS I LISTED ARE AN AVERAGE OF WHAT I AM CURRENTLY SEEING.

I hope this explains the titles and if you are overqualified or just do not have the experience for me to submit to you. As an executive recruiter, I want to remind you that my job is to get my clients the right candidate, not to get a candidate a job.

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