Are You an RN looking to Break Into a Medical Sales Career? 10 Things To Help You.

We begin our new series on “Underdogs” – these are stories about people who became medical sales professionals, though everyone told them “You can’t do that.” The purpose of this series is to give you actionable information that helps get you into a medical sales career. 

Todays topic: “Are you an RN looking to break into a Medical Sales Career? 10 Things to Help You." 

All information comes from people who made this journey – some present clients of mine, some past clients, some helpful folks that I connect with on LinkedIN – thank you all for your stories and wisdom.

Here are 10 Takeaways from my research and conversations:

1.)   The proper mindset: realize no one is born out of the womb as a medial sales professional – someone somewhere gave them a chance. When you meet with medical sales professionals, ask them how they broke into medical sales. A caveat: how people broke into medical sales in the past is different than it is today – some tactics worked then that are less effective today and vice versa.

2.)   When you announce your resignation as a nurse and inform your colleagues you are going into a medical sales career, you will have two responses: One: Wonderful, good luck! Two: You are nuts!

3.)   Your first medical sales role may not be fun. You are probably starting at the bottom. But remember when you graduated college and became a nurse? Remember where you started? Yup – at the bottom. You may be offered a role with a smaller or startup company or distributor that provides limited training. Your first role might be 100% commission. 

4.)   If you are an nurse specializing in some niche area: Cardiology, CNS, Oncology, ICU, etc – leverage that in your resume and LinkedIN profile – that experience means you have the clinical acumen to quickly go toe-to-toe with specialty call points and not be intimidated by “medical speak.” Remember – a big reason you are being hired is your display of confidence. You have a lot of experience working with and communicating effectively with doctors! Leverage that.

5.)   A great way in – talk to doctors you trust. Ask them if there are any companies that call on them that they are particularly impressed with. Ask your doctor colleague if you can speak to their sales rep – take them to lunch – you have more to leverage than you may think: a doctor has referred you and you are an inside contact at a customer with potential growth. Discretion is obviously in order here.

6.)   You already know that sorority is a holy grail of nursing. Realize you are giving that up. Change is hard!

7.)   You are transitioning into a completely different work culture. You will likely feel more ‘empowered’ as a sales professional – you’ll likely see more control over your future and your career. That can be both rewarding and a bit scary.  

8.)   ALL of the folks that transitioned from RN to Medical Sales had encouragement. It doesn’t matter where that encouragement is coming from: family, colleagues, doctors, friends. You will need encouragement! Avoid negative people; you will soon discover who your real friends are.

9.)   You are transitioning from a nursing job with a base pay to a sales role with a base and bonus structure. That takes a leap of faith and it may also require a spouse/better half, assisting you in the rough first months or years you make that transition.

10.) Understand why you are doing this. Let’s face it – you’re a bit of a geek: you like new technology and medical science. And understand a key reason you want to go into a medical sales career is the same reason you got into nursing. . . you love people. . . you want to make a difference in the lives of patients and their families.

The biggest advice these underdogs want to tell you? Don’t give up. Keep going. If you have a competitive personality and work well with different personalities, you will be successful. Once you get that first medical sales role and hit your numbers, you are well on your way into a great career.

I hope you enjoyed the article? Questions, comments: [email protected]