When Your Medical Sales Competition Underestimates You — Competitive Advantage or Prophecy?

One of the best things that can happen in medical sales is when your competition underestimates you.

I spent most of my medical sales career as an orthopedic implant rep. I was hired at a time when the stereotypical ortho rep was male, a former athlete, and tall.

This description does not fit me, except for the?male?part.

Sports wasn’t my thing, and I stand 5’8’’ tall.

As I met my competitors, they literally looked down at me with cocky arrogance. They didn’t see me as a threat at all.

First, all of them had been in the territory for years. I took over a territory that hadn’t seen a rep in 13 months. The distributor I worked for had a bad reputation, and the existing business at many of my accounts was zero.

When I introduced myself to my competitors (which I loved doing, btw), almost all of them laughed a bit (knowing my company’s reputation in the territory) and offered a sarcastic?“good luck.”?

It was obvious that none of my competitors considered me a threat.

This was good for me, and bad for them.

The one thing I brought to the contest was?confidence?that was based on something different from the confidence my competitors carried.?

Theirs was based on their athletic backgrounds, tenure in the territory, and that they treated selling like an athletic event. They were super-competitive.

My confidence was based on my previous experiences working in healthcare, extensive medical knowledge, and a commitment to learning and applying proven sales skills.

I also spent hours studying my competitors’ products and many times during sales conversations with surgeons, I demonstrated a greater knowledge of those products than the reps who sold them.

Confidence comes from being thoroughly prepared.

Medical selling is difficult, and you find quality salespeople in this industry. Most reps appear confident from experience over time and developing relationships with accounts and customers.

Often, that confidence is shaken during difficult situations where the rep is unprepared. It could be in a sales or customer service situation, such as when providing case coverage during a surgical or clinical procedure.

Confidence is essential for medical sales professionals. The moment you lose confidence, your customers can smell it.?And they lose confidence.

In fact, your ability to drive new business and retain existing business hinges on your ability to project confidence—confidence that your product or service will do the job as promised.

When you’re in a sales situation, some nervousness is normal. If that feeling results from wanting to do well, that’s good. But if that feeling of gut discomfort is from a lack of confidence in your ability to handle whatever is thrown at you, you’re unprepared for the situation.

You can’t fake confidence, but you can acquire and build it by doing the work — studying, preparing, and practicing.

Many companies hire former athletes because they succeeded in competitive sports. Their success was based on preparation and execution, but in my experience, most medical reps try to execute without being fully prepared.

Do you fake confidence or continuously build confidence?

If you're ever feeling less than confident, don’t ignore it. Identify the cause and fix it.?

If you ignore it and try to psych yourself into powering through it, you’re lying to yourself and leaving money on the table.

In medical sales, confidence comes from mastering the playing field. It’s an essential part of your success.

If your competition underestimates you, it can be your competitive advantage or a prophecy. You get to decide.

Here's to real confidence and competitors who underestimate you!

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