Medical Sales Jobs for Veterans

Excerpted from MilitaryOfficerJobs.com

The medical sales profession is tailor-made for many veterans. Why? – because the best salespeople need many of the qualities that make a good soldier  – aggressiveness, drive, willingness to take calculated risks, and capacity to work as a team member within an organization. And most large med companies are eager to hire military candidates.

Yet sales as a profession has a checkered reputation. You can catch a sense of this from the classic stage play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. In the play traveling salesman Willy Loman lives a life of frustration and financial hardscrabble, finally giving up and taking his own life by crashing his car into a bridge abutment. So not exactly your idea of a dream career?

But there’s another side to the sales story. Today, many companies offer terrific opportunities for salespeople – who, by the way, they prefer to call Account Managers or Account Executives or Territory Managers – and the job may be as much about consulting and customer relations as it is direct sales. There are innumerable types of such positions out there, but let’s focus on one of the most lucrative specialties,  medical sales.

The medical sales position usually involves consultative direct selling of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, capital equipment, and so-called “disposables” to hospitals and physicians in a given territory. (“Disposables” means single-use medical supplies, like syringes, medical gloves and gowns, etc.).

Selling such products to physicians and hospitals can, as said, be highly lucrative. Base salaries often start out ar $70,000 to $90,000, and OTE, which means “on-target earnings” (i.e., including sales commissions) is usually around $120,000 the first year and can be much higher. OTE simply means the company expects you to earn that much with commission added to base. That is good compensation for a young person in an entry-level job. With success, you can double it in a few years. And you do not have to have any particular technical skills – training is provided by the employer. However, there’s a catch (as always). You have to be a natural salesperson. Outgoing, professional, likable, driven to succeed. Well-organized. For while landing a medical sales position may not be too difficult for most vets, keeping it is another matter. Your employer will expect you to meet or exceed quota, quarter after quarter. Just being good isn’t enough, you have to be very good. As time passes, you’re expected to develop a “brag book” of sales accomplishments – like over quota, President’s Club, etc. This is not a job for slackers or people satisfied to vegetate in a cubicle.

On the plus side, you’ll probably discover very quickly if a medical sales job is for you. If it’s not, fine, just move on to something else. If it is, you’ll ascend the sales ladder to more and more lucrative territories, perhaps even moving into sales management. Many of these folks eventually earn in the low to mid-six-figures, and of course there are also the Superstars. Superstars can earn even more, with the rare rep cracking seven figures.  For most, though, med sales offers a solid upper middle-class lifestyle, though not a wealthy one

The area of biggest demand in the healthcare field today is pharmaceutical sales. AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Merck are a few of the big-name employers. They are hiring veterans on an ongoing basis.

Medical sales can be an especially great career option for transitioning military officers, both men and women, though all honorably-discharged vets are considered and welcome in this field. The top employers are aware of the skills you’ve developed in the military and are extremely interested in recruiting you. Unlike in many office jobs (including, by the way, inhouse sales – which you should avoid) you can’t be too aggressive, too driven, too ambitious in this field. Nor is a great deal of experience needed – at the entry level, they’re typically looking for people who can sell, period. 

However, a word of caution: choose your first employer carefully. Only work for a medical products or services company with name recognition and best-of-breed products or services. Do some research before you accept your first job. Check Glassdoor.com, to name one good resource, and talk to anyone you know in med sales. What’s it like to work for this company? How solid is demand for their products?  In particular, you’re probably not ready to jump into a startup company at this point. The top well-established companies have the best training programs, and that’s what you’ll need most. Also, of course, such companies have steady customers and markets so that “selling” can translate at least partially to “order taking.” That means less pressure while you’re learning. In any case, you should consider taking a consultative training course on your own (often available at community colleges – or check the Internet). Some employers weigh such training heavily in picking new employees.

As indicated, pharma is right now the hottest area and has the most jobs for veterans. But competition is tough there and, on average, you’ll make more money in medical devices or medical capital equipment (such as diagnostic equipment). Employers in these latter fields  will often consider candidates with sales in other fields, especially B2B, such as office equipment. Selling modern medical capital equipment can be complex and demanding, and requires a high technical skill level.

Clearly, medical sales is not for everyone. You have to be an extrovert who loves a challenge, loves talking to people, including strangers, and enjoys the thrill of the hunt. And also someone who doesn’t mind spending a couple nights a week at a motel. You have to be a Type A personality through and through. If you’re all of this, medical sales has much to offer – potentially high income, status, a sense of being your own boss. Another plus is that your prospective customers – people in the health care field – tend to be friendly and upbeat (i.e, no doors slammed in your face). You’ll be respected as a fellow professional. So all in all, medical sales really can be a great opportunity for many vets. Who knows,  nowadays maybe even Willy Loman would have done quite well.

Note: To learn much more about current job opportunities for vets, visit MilitaryOfficerJobs.com