Is Medical Sales as easy as its made out to be on the tele?

If you've watched any 90's/00's show with a medical sales character, you'd be excused for believing the job is all about fluttering your eyelashes and going out on fancy dinners with clinicians (i.e. Penny from the Big Bang Theory!)...As fun as that may sound, please let me debunk that myth!

The reality is, none of us realllly know what other people do in their jobs- how could we? We can assume and have a pretty good idea but we'll never really know unless we take the time to learn. Then begs the question, how do we take the time to learn when we are so busy doing our own jobs! Alas, the never ending cycle of 'what do you even do anyway??'. I feel like sales is one of those career paths that can be easily misunderstood.

I wrote this little snippet below in the notes app on my phone a few weeks ago when I was pondering what I find most challenging in sales and what I think are common misconceptions. Let me know what you think!

Business Development and Medical Sales is much more than it may seem. I think from an outsiders perspective its understandable to think its simply closing deals as fast as possible by running around all week speaking to whoever will listen, praying that someone will buy something from you.

If only it were that straight forward! :-)

• It’s hours worth of research. If i am speaking to you as a potential client, I probably knew your priorities, career history and interests long before asking you.
• It's listening intensely. I mean really listening- actively. This can be a very difficult skill to learn when you're so eager to share the great things your company is doing.
• It's hours of strategic planning. Anticipating for potential pitfalls in your business plan that don’t even exist yet, and then coming up with a realistic solution.
• Its having thick skin. Get used to facing blunt knock backs from people who aren’t quite on the same page as you. This will happen again and again and again. You need to know when to leave a prospect and admit that its time to move on.

• It's overcoming funding challenges every single time someone wants to move forwards, particularly with the NHS's turbulent financial landscape. Gaining desire from someone to go ahead is the easy part. Who's going to actually pay for it? Unfortunately no, your customer doesn't have any idea either. That's on you to figure out.
• Its long nights and early mornings, with last minute conferences and your car becoming your own personal restaurant lol. Sometimes I'm ashamed of the inside of my car. Think banana peels, meal deal wrappers and an empty pack of wine gums.
• It's educating some of the most intelligent people on your solution without letting their educational background/credentials or job title intimidate you but also not appearing to be a “know it all”, a delicate balance.
• It's anticipating any reservations days before your meeting and prepping appropriately for each different personality/job function in the meeting.

Finally, and I would say most crucially, it requires consistently showing up with integrity and confidence in yourself and your solution, because you KNOW that you can genuinely make a difference with what you have to offer. Its then making sure they like you enough to buy from you and proving your worth over and over again.