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Movin’ on and Movin’ Up: 4 Things to Improve Your Medical Sales Career

In the fast-paced world of medical sales, you must constantly adapt to an ever-changing industry. […]

In the fast-paced world of medical sales, you must constantly adapt to an ever-changing industry. In order to stay competitive, it is imperative to keep your finger on the pulse of the industry in order to keep up with the pack. If you fail to do so, you may find yourself out of a job while your colleagues have moved on to bigger and better opportunities.

Don’t get left in the dust. Over the course of your career, your hard work earns you connections, skills, and knowledge that you can leverage to move your career forward. Here are a few things you can do to jumpstart the process:

1. Do Some Spring Cleaning on Your Resume

How long has it been since you updated — or even looked at — your resume? If it has been more than a year, you’ll want to do some spring cleaning.

The medical sales resume should focus on numbers — they are certainly going to be the focus for potential employers. Include company sales reports, update your quotas, and include your ranking from recent years. If you were in the top 10 or 20 percent of the ranks, hiring managers will want to know this. You should also include your performance for each quarter of the current year. From there, include awards you’ve won, conferences you attended, involvement in successful projects or initiatives, and personal innovations.

Spring cleaning also involves removing unnecessary information. Potential new employers will not be focused on the accomplishments from a decade ago, so make sure to simplify — and even cut out — irrelevant experience to keep the focus on your more recent successes.

2. Keep a “Brag Book”

If you were a little hesitant to remove some of your older achievements to make way for the new, a “Brag Book” will ensure you are still able paint a complete picture of your career thus far. Your brag book is a portfolio of your professional achievements. Your book can contain everything from performance reviews, letters of recommendation, positive emails, and award certificates.

It is also crucial to include company ranking reports. If you choose to leave your current company for better prospects, you will not have access to this information anymore — make sure you have it handy to show prospective employers!

3. Create a Personal Website

When you think of personal websites, you may think of entertainers and artists. If you are considering a search for a new, better job in medical sales, however, a personal website is a crucial step. Include on it a web-friendly version of your resume, a few career highlights, and contact information.

According to a recent survey, 56 percent of hiring managers are more impressed by a candidate’s personal website than any other part of the application, yet only seven percent of candidates take the time to build one. In an era in which much of the hiring process takes place online, this is not a step you can afford to skip.

4. Find Out Which Companies are Known to Promote from Within

A possible reason your career has reached stagnancy could be connected to your company’s policy on promoting from within. In a healthy company, management keeps a keen eye on top performers, rewarding them with promotions. If you have your eye on district or regional management positions, or think you would be a killer director of sales, you want to be sure your company promotes from within more often than bringing in talent from outside.

Most of the top companies to work for in medical sales pay close attention to promoting from within in order to encourage top-level performance. Medline, Boston Scientific, and Amgen are just a few of the companies known to focus on giving sales reps plenty of opportunities for upward mobility.

If you are struggling to keep up in this fast-paced world, take steps to be proactive instead of reactive. Spruce up your resume, market yourself with the same creativity and innovation you use to close sales, and you’ll be on your way to professional growth in no time!

What do you think? What are the first steps you would take to improve your career in medical sales?


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Karyn Mullins

Karyn Mullins is the President of MedReps.com, a job board which gives members access to the most sought after medical sales jobs and pharmaceutical sales jobs on the Web.

This post appears through the MedCity Influencers program. Anyone can publish their perspective on business and innovation in healthcare on MedCity News through MedCity Influencers. Click here to find out how.

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