Robotic Sales Associate: Day in the Life

Overview

My goal with this article is to give a high-level breakdown of the overall activities of my role. The previous article spoke about my time in orthopedics and what that was like, so this article will be a continuation. The next article will conclude the first two articles and continue from where this one leaves off. It will be hard to touch on every activity in this article, so I am going to keep everything high-level and will highlight key details.

Product Knowledge

From a broad perspective, there is only one product, which is a robot. Although there’s “one” product, the robot services a wide range of specialties. With different specialties, there are different procedures, anatomy, patient populations, and surgeon types. In orthopedic sales, you essentially only deal with one type of surgeon. When you are selling or increasing the utilization of a soft tissue robot, you are engaging with general surgeons, bariatric surgeons, thoracic surgeons, urologist, gynecologist, colorectal surgeons and more. Although, it is only "one" product to learn, instead of hundreds like orthopedic sales, "one" product has technological complexities that take months of training to lay a foundation. There are also countless procedures that can be done, amongst various specialties, meaning understanding anatomy and bodily functions is necessary. Mastering the robot is the first step. Mastering the clinical is the second step.

6 Key Activities

In the simplest terms, each day revolves around building and growing robotics programs. What that involves for each member of the ecosystem will vary. As an associate, my goal has been to add value and be a sponge. Advancing in any field requires the same core principles and traits. Instead of speaking about the day-to-day, I wanted to highlight key tasks that go into my daily and weekly agendas.

1. Hospital Executive Alignment: In this role, there is much more communication with hospital executives. Associates get to shadow their senior reps in key meetings. There must be alignment and cohesiveness with all divisions, not just the direct care team. These meetings have different purposes, but from a broad perspective, they involve strategizing, communicating the impact, and how things can be improved.
2. Staff Training: Associates are heavily involved in helping teach the technology to the care team, such as nurses, scrub techs, and first assists. Time is reserved and groups are brought together for an hour or so. During this time information, techniques and strategies are shared, which helps build skill, improve procedural efficiency and increase technological understanding.
3. Surgeon Training Pathway: For untrained robotic surgeons, associates have the opportunity to be a part of their robotic learning pathway. This includes case observations, practice sessions, arranged dinners and meetings, assigned modules, and certification training. This process can be weeks, months, or years depending on the individual surgeon and what the history or volume is. Different activities are done weekly, which play a role in this pathway. As an associate, you begin by shadowing the different reps and learning different techniques from them, so you can be prepared when your opportunity comes.
4. Robotic Case Support: Another part of the role is attending robotic cases and providing technical support or guidance. There are times where troubleshooting errors occur with the system and assistance must be provided. In these robotic cases, the goal is to provide value, but also learn and build clinical understanding.
5. Team Meetings: There are weekly meetings with the team. Sometimes the meetings are virtual. Sometimes the meetings are 1 on 1. Sometimes the meetings happen over lunch. These meetings are designed to review and strategize. When you are apart of an ecosystem it is high communication and high feedback, so there will be many different hats that are worn.
6. Advanced Trainings: Technology is always evolving which requires continued learning and education. Advanced trainings are also incorporated into the culture. No matter the role or tenor there is always training that will have to be done, whether it is a new technology, product, or leadership evolution.

Prioritizing Each Day

A lot that goes into the role and prioritizing is a key skill. There will always be something to do, but understanding how to best prioritize the activities you do takes some time to learn. How activities are decided determines the impact that you have on the growth of the territory and care of patients. From a broad perspective, all roles help build and grow robotic programs, but within that are different activities for each level and role. The one thing that is consist is knowing how to prioritize activities are key to growth and success.

Learn the Role

It takes time to grow into any role and as my career progresses my activities will evolve. Associates have a great opportunity to build a long and meaningful career from step one. Associates do not have assigned accounts like the sales reps. Associates quota is the same as the manager, which is the entire territory. I have discovered that associates who make big impacts, in the simplest forms, help build and grow the robotic programs in the territory. Associates that help increase robotic utilization, through daily sales activities impact the territory positively.

Close

There are more things that I need to learn and experience. 8 months do not define the complete role of any job. I do feel like the first-year perspective serves as an impactful resource. Every new journey requires you to start somewhere. Medical sales is a unique industry. The represented product impacts what goes on day to day for a sales rep. I interact completely different with hospital staff and surgeons in this role versus my last role. Orthopedic sales helped me transition to a new role and there are many benefits starting there before coming here. The days are much different, but at the same time very similar. For me, the past 8 months have been exciting and I look forward to continuously growing and documenting the process.