Table of content
Introduction to Medical Sales Jobs for Nurses
Benefits of Transitioning to Medical Sales job as a Nurse
Skills Nurses Bring to Medical Sales
Transition into a Medical Sales Job as a Nurse
Challenges of Medical Sales Jobs for Nurses
Introduction to Medical Sales Jobs for Nurses
Are you a nurse seeking a career change or a healthcare role beyond nursing? Nurses for medical sales might find the perfect fit as a medical sales representative.
We understand how those nursing skills, knowledge, experience, and commitment to service really do translate nicely to success within the industry.
Day by day, top medical device companies such as Stryker, CONMED, Smith+Nephew, Arthrex, Zimmer Biomet, and many more hire experienced nurses for medical sales positions with no prior experience in B2B sales. Top medical device companies acknowledge the incredible value that on-the-ground clinical experience brings to medical sales. Your nursing background gives you an edge compared to other applicants in the position.
Overview of the Role
A medical sales jobs for nurses is about the use of medical knowledge of a nurse to sell health-related commodities, products, and equipment to hospitals, clinics, and other health professionals.
These nurses act as intermediaries where they bridge the gap between the health care providers and manufacturers and provide insights on how these products will enhance patients’ health care. They are likely to communicate better regarding the needs of the medical staff and patients since they have a clinical background, thus making them authentic and trustworthy salespeople.
A lot of communication and relational skills are required, along with educating healthcare teams on the use and benefits of the products.
Why Nurses Are a Good Fit for Medical Sales
Nurses are the perfect fit for being a medical sales rep, and most of them don’t know it!
They truly care about saving lives. During their career, they’ve been treating patients and caring about their health; as medical sales representatives, they will care about how their products can help patients’ quality of life.
Nurses can handle pressure. As a rep, you will always be pressured to sell and have a good performance, but for these great professionals, this won’t be a problem. They endure long shifts trying to save multiple patients’ lives, handling a lot of stress without losing their performance.
They are disciplined, and that’s the key to being a great representative. Always trying their best and working on improving their performance.
Calling all nurses for medical sales—if you’ve been hesitant about making the leap, consider this your sign to explore a rewarding new path!
Benefits of Transitioning to Medical Sales job as a Nurse
When you take yourself away from that traditional way of thinking about nursing as the only treatment of patients within four walls will you find scope through which you can put your skills to work. One such area is in MedTech sales.
Nurses in medical sales find solace in transitioning their healthcare expertise into a new role, where they continue to advocate for patients’ well-being while expanding their skills in a growing field.
As we’ve discovered, pursuing a medical sales job as a nurse doesn’t mean returning to university or abandoning your passion for healthcare. With transferable skills and minimal training, you can build a rewarding MedTech sales career.
A few things you can do to set you on the path of a rewarding MedTech sales career are:
- Talk to sales reps or managers in the areas you are interested in and ask questions; you can always meet for an informal chat over coffee.
- Fill in the knowledge gap through training courses and educational material.
- Jump into LinkedIn. Update your profile and get connected to people out there in the industry.
Career Growth Opportunities
There’s significant room for growth in such medical sales jobs for nurses, which forms one of the most promising avenues for advancing their careers above and beyond the clinical types. Their medical expertise and experience in providing patient care give them a firm footing in the sales arena as well, leading them to earnings-boosting markets like sales managers or regional directors.
The healthcare sector is always expanding, and so will the need for knowledgeable sales professionals who can deliver the benefits of medical products. Nurses in medical sales can look forward to promotions and bonuses through hard work and dedication, and find good career stability in the long run, while belonging to the healthcare profession.
Higher Earning Potential
A medical sales jobs for nurses pays much more compared to traditional nursing roles. Several medical companies are willing to pay nurses, especially those with experience in the medical field, competitive base salaries, commissions, bonuses, and other performance-based incentives. Nurses end up being valued resources to medical companies when combining their knowledge of medicine with sales skills.
In addition to base pay, commissions can increase the earnings of nurse sales professionals as they learn and build relationships, along with successful closure in medical sales. This is where they can grow professionally while continually applying their healthcare expertise.
Work-Life Balance
One attractive aspect of a medical sales jobs for nurses is probably the flexibility to have better balance between work and life compared to nursing roles in clinics. Nurses working in clinics have long shifts and work over weekends and until late into the night, leaving them drained and fatigued. Medical sales positions, on the other hand, typically offer flexible schedules, allowing nurses to take care of both their professional and personal lives.
These usually schedule their daily activities, as most of the work would consist of meetings with clients, some conferences to attend, or product demonstrations in front of clients. This flexibility makes achieving a healthy work-life balance much more possible, including:
Flexible working hours: Nurses are given the freedom to alter their own schedules and change meeting times and calls to suit personal responsibilities in contrast to rigid shift schedules provided in clinical roles.
Remote work opportunities: Many medical sales positions allow for remote work or telecommuting, reducing the need for constant travel and offering more home time.
Less physical strain: Unlike nursing, where physical tasks are constant, medical sales are less physically demanding, providing a more sustainable career in the long run.
This career shift gives nurses the chance to focus on their well-being and reduce burnout, while remaining connected to healthcare and enjoying a better work-life balance.
Skills Nurses Bring to Medical Sales
Companies such as Stryker, CONMED, Smith+Nephew, Arthrex, Zimmer Biomet, and countless others hire experienced nurses daily to join their company’s medical sales groups. They do not need experience in B2B sales because they are aware of the importance of having a medical background in the industry. With your unique nursing career and education, you will be head and shoulders above the rest of the competition.
While the actual accomplishment of attaining a nursing education is, in itself, a huge win for many hiring managers, it is key to understanding how to apply those skills, education, experience, and knowledge to your benefit.
Medical Knowledge and Expertise
Nursing is one of those fields where you can easily converse with the healthcare professional at their level. Hiring managers realize the value that your medical knowledge brings to creating such successful relationships and credibility with customers. That is a big plus, especially when you are not coming in from a sales background. More often, any kind of sales training is provided on a very superficial level as part of your onboarding process at a medical sales company.
Medical sales is a competitive industry. What hiring managers will look for in a good candidate is your extensive clinical experience. At the interview, find ways to tie in your knowledge of clinical dynamics and how your nursing experience has shaped productive relationships with patients, doctors, and colleagues.
Strong Communication and Relationship-Building
Medical sales representatives represent and sell medical products, equipment, and services to hospitals, health systems, doctors’ offices, and clinics. Their responsibilities may include visiting prospects on location; management of leads and customers within a defined territory; demonstrations of products; communication between the sales, marketing, and support teams; analysis of field sales data to aid strategic planning and implementation; and much more.
A huge part of your job is communication and relationship building. Having a nursing background affords you the ability to have interesting conversations with customers to create that first impression, and through that, you have conversations with them that other representatives may not be able to hold. That’s a huge advantage you have over other applicants.
When speaking to hiring managers, discuss how you have directly connected and contributed in clinical settings. Use a strong relationship with a physician, a scenario in which you have assisted another healthcare professional in making a decision, and/or ways you have been able to demonstrate your relationship-building skills. As a hiring manager looks for a medical sales representative, the experience and contacts you have developed can play a huge role that should be highlighted to the hiring manager.
Transition into a Medical Sales Job as a Nurse
It almost seems like nurses have a leg up when it comes to branching into medical sales. Well, after all, they have an abundance of medical knowledge and know what certain medications do, which devices to reach for in certain circumstances, and more. However, is it really that easy to just go from one job to another? After all, medical sales seem like a very different animal from nursing. One is patient-centered, and the other is about meeting sales quotas.
And as it happens, it’s rather not that complicated to make the switch from nursing to medical sales.
Education and Certifications
With a bachelor’s degree, you can qualify as a suitable candidate for this particular profession. Achieving a Master of Business Administration degree may uplift your chances of qualifying for a suitable job post.
The 2021 statistics indicate that about 82% of the medical sales representatives earned a bachelor’s degree. Your bachelor’s degree can be in life sciences, communication, business, or biology. Masters and Associate degrees comprise 7% each.
Certification is a way of transitioning from nursing to the working area in medical sales. Certification brings nurses credibility and fundamental skills in communication, product knowledge, and salesmanship.
Medical sales certifications can demonstrate experience in the health industry, and thus, enhance competitiveness in an application for a job as a sales professional. Nurses can utilize their clinical experience, which they acquire through experience and certifications, for them to be well-positioned for a career in medical sales. Companies are increasingly in need of medical sales, and these nurses would surely attract employers who wish to expand such a field.
Networking Tips for Breaking into the Industry
Networking is an essential skill in the medical industry. Whether it is career development, exploring new opportunities, or keeping current with industry developments, a good network can achieve everything you need to do. However, the industry is dynamic and it can be confusing to know where to begin.
Leverage Your Healthcare Network
You already have contacts in the healthcare industry because of your nursing career through relationships with doctors, surgeons, pharmacists, and suppliers. See what they know about the medical sales industry. They may even introduce you to potential employers or sales representatives.
Attend Medical Conferences and Industry Events
Conferences about medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and sales expos are great places to network. Attend these events so that you can meet the bigger players in the industry. Network with speakers and sales professionals while reaching out to ask for advice. Handing out your business card or sharing your profile with LinkedIn can make a great impact.
Join Professional Associations
Membership with organizations such as HSMN or the MDMA will offer more formalized networking. These organizations offer webinars and meetups where nurses can engage with experienced sales professionals.
Use LinkedIn to network in medical sales. Create a full profile highlighting your nursing background and transferable skills such as patient education, communication, and teamwork. Connect and engage with relevant medical sales company posts, join groups, and connect with anyone in your desired medical sales field. Posting well-thought-out content regarding new healthcare advancements and technology can also increase your visibility.
Find a Mentor
You may very well find it enlightening to have an experienced mentor in medical sales. Join professional organizations and search for mentorship programs, or reach out to senior reps directly on LinkedIn. A mentor can certainly share specific knowledge, provide potential job leads, and even prepare you for an interview.
Attend Local Meetups and Networking Events
Look around for local medical sales networking groups, workshops, or industry-specific meetups in your area. In general, these form some of the most effective in-person channels through which you can gain contact information and close long-term professional relationships. Developing rapport with people from your local medical sales network can serve as a good eye-opener to regional job opportunities that are not advertised on public channels of recruitment.
Update yourself on the latest industry trends
Use an industry news feed, read white papers, and stay current with the major medical device companies. All these knowledge representations depict you as being very keen and well-prepared for the transition.
Ask for informational interviews
Reach out to people in medical sales and ask for informational interviews. These are informal conversations that let you learn more about the field in which they’ve transitioned. They also make a personal connection. Prepare thoughtful questions about their experiences, clearly state your intentions to transition into sales, and see what potential networking opportunities arise.
Through strategic networking, nurses can obtain and maintain many contacts and thus learn effective insights into the medical sales business. These tips will not only expand your professional network but also lead to the exposure of many medical sales jobs for nurses.
Challenges of Medical Sales Jobs for Nurses
Several challenges accompany in Medical sales jobs for Nurses. Nurses have to change a clinical to a sales approach, requiring the learning of sales techniques, client engagement, and negotiating. The industry is also very competitive-mostly driven by quotas and pressures faced in terms of product performance.
The business environment presents a challenge to the nurse in terms of new relationships, mastering complex product lines, and keeping abreast of market trends. Viewed in this light, medical sales jobs for nurses are often the best career-advancing routes.
Learning the Sales Process
But for the newest salesperson, in particular, who has just entered the medical sales world, it could be truly intimidating. Understanding how the medical sales industry works and how the business is carried out within it is essential. As such, all companies invest in medical sales training for their newest employees.
So, if you’re considering a career shift as a nurse into medical sales, here’s what nurses for medical sales need to know and how to make it happen.
Learning on the road
The invention of the internet has not only made it easy to get in touch with people who are thousands of miles away but, for the first time, all information presented in a classroom is available at your home doorstep. Online lessons, seminars, and lectures mean that learning is just available with a click of a button. And with the e-learning market forecast to grow by $147.7 billion over the next four years, information has never been more readily available. This is really a game-changer for the medical sales representative, who spends much of their career on the road.
E-learning presents many opportunities for selling representatives to learn on the job while making use of less time in a classroom. Learning is more flexible, with education often now spread out in modules that are much easier to digest.
Learning basic sales skills
Any form of medical sales training should result in a simple guide on how to sell to the customer. Well, it should be little wonder that sales training does improve performance but what you might not know is that when your sales manager is also made to undergo training, their effectiveness improves by 24%. So, next time you are looking for the next medical sales representative job, just ask yourself if your sales manager is going to help you extract the most from your training.
A good salesperson is one who can easily strike a rapport with their customers. They need to be patient, considerate, and amiable so as to clearly explain and concisely advise why their product can solve the problems of their customer. Since 52% of the customers prefer solutions that are tailored to meet a particular need, it is obvious that you need to spend some time getting to understand your customer’s unique needs.
Learning how the industry works
Knowledge of the market is one of the top skills that a modern-day medical sales rep needs to thrive. To build your knowledge, hone your research skills. Medical sales is a highly specialized field of work; therefore, the medical sales representative must be very well-versed in order to deliver a quality service to others through training, keeping ahead of the market changes, and understanding the variety of products they will compete against when selling their own.
They also need a good understanding of things that are impacting the way in which they sell, and to whom they sell, keeping abreast of industry issues and the state of the health care system. A sharp awareness of healthcare economics, how GPs work, and legislation surrounding the buying and selling of medical products will take you a long way in today’s medical sales job market.
Learning how to keep up with and handle basic documentation
Salesmen should understand the basics of the job, which includes overseeing heavy paperwork that comes with being a representative selling pharmaceuticals and medical products. The expectations are very demanding. Medical sales representatives require sterling knowledge about what products they are marketing and the regulations that govern them. Abiding by such legislation is essential. Corporate sales training includes all the required regulations.
Learning to respect customers
One of the most important things anybody in sales needs to know is how to sell to their customer base. When it comes to dealing with medical sales, this is no different: here, though, you’re selling to busy, highly educated GPs. One thing you must learn out here is to respect the time of your customers: be considerate when they are free and schedule your appointment accordingly. Do not try to go for the ‘hard sell’ on them. These are professional people so they already know the basics of what you’re selling them. Instead, just keep customers informed about what they can expect from the latest models, the value of what you’re selling, and the pricing.
Learning to keep on top of the market
In addition to initial product training, it never hurts to keep abreast of current developments in the world of pharmaceuticals so that you can continue to serve your clients to the best of your abilities. Clinical studies often result in changes in treatment processes, so it is critical to keep abreast of new data releases.
This can be due to newer technologies, changes in regulations, or even new ways of doing things: for your sales representatives, education must always be a continuous process.
Competitive Market
Medical sales are considered highly competitive, especially for those coming from a clinical environment as nurses. They compete with other healthcare professionals in the industry and salespeople who have huge networks. Success is measured in terms of relationship building, product knowledge, and achieving aggressive sales targets.
They also have to be responsive to the fast-changing business side of healthcare, which can be contrary to their previous clinical work. In this kind of backdrop, medical sales provide a professionally rewarding and financially lucrative career to those nurses who will be able to survive this competitive landscape.
Conclusion
Medical sales jobs for nurses are becoming an interesting opportunity to blend clinical expertise with sales, opening the door to a dynamic and rewarding career. Successful transition is possible when networking, proper training, and adaptability are available to a nurse, which results in using their healthcare knowledge to build trust with clients to drive sales.
With the broadening role for highly trained professionals in medical sales, nurses can take advantage of this synergy to ensure a positive difference for patients and the healthcare delivery system.
