The skills of successful medical sales reps 

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If you’re one of those asking what skills a medical sales rep will need to have to successfully navigate the complexity in today’s highly competitive medical market, you’ve arrived at the answer.  

We can all agree that gone are the days when a sales rep required simple interpersonal, communication, and closing skills. Clearly, the competitiveness of the medical market demands more of a sales rep. 

Sales leaders are also not left out and a key issue for them is having a clear understanding of the crucial success factors for selling in their specific competitive environment. Consequently, they can hire, train, and develop the correct set of skills to work in the ever-changing world of medical sales. 

These and more is what we’ll discuss shortly and proffer solutions to. But first let’s start with the skills every medical sales rep must have to survive in this time of competition. 

Medical sales rep skills 

Medical sales rep

Already 20 years ago, Marshall, Goebel, and Moncrief in the paper ‘Hiring for success at the buyer-seller interface’ identified and defined the top ten factors for a salesperson as follows: 

  1. Listening skills 
  1. Follow-up skills 
  1. Ability to adapt sales style from situation to situation 
  1. Tenacity – sticking to the task 
  1. Organizational skills 
  1. Verbal communication skills 
  1. Proficiency in interacting with people at all levels within an organization 
  1. Demonstrated ability to overcome objections 
  1. Closing skills 
  1. Personal planning and time management skills 

Although these ten competencies were not described specifically in relation to medical sales, all of them are relevant for reps working for pharmaceutical or MedTech companies and selling to healthcare professionals. 

“Customer-centric” mindset 

Today, in my opinion, a sales rep must have a true “customer-centric” mindset. Customer centricity, as you might know, is one of my manias and I have already discussed the topic extensively in several posts.  

To be successful, a medical sales representative must deeply understand the customer’s world, unravelling the goals, motivations, and needs. Becoming an expert on the customers’ jobs and problems is the key that opens the door to understanding how your solution can fix their challenges. 

Most of the ten key factors identified by Marshall et al. are fundamental to developing a genuine customer-centric approach.  

For example, listening skills are the foundation of any customer-facing job, as we can experiment in our everyday lives, and this is particularly true in medical sales.  

By asking well-designed open questions, sales reps can encourage customers to share the goals and challenges they are facing and consequently absorb the key information. 

Likewise, listening skills are essential in understanding the real Job To Be Done by the customer and how your solution can be helpful. 

These success factors are fundamental to improving the recruitment process of new hires and developing appropriate training programs.  

Final thoughts  

While the role of the medical rep has evolved over the years and will continue to evolve, some elements haven’t changed. In fact, the need for reps to be able to “sell” products to healthcare professionals, such as drugs, vaccines, medical devices, or medical equipment is still the same. 

The selling process clearly requires always dealing with people, so the skill set proposed by Marshall et al. is still relevant today, particularly when it comes to developing a truly customer-centric mindset; for example, anticipating the needs, aligning the objectives, and explaining how the product could help them. 

What do you think are the essential skills for a medical rep in 2024? Let me know in the section below. 

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