Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Free Newsletter, Orthopedics News & Analysis

I discovered a private equity group called HealthpointCapital which focuses largely on orthopedics. According to their 2006 Industry forecast, the orthopedics industry is forecast to increase around 15% per year... that means the industry is growing about $4 billion dollars a year. No, I did not make a mistake, that's $4 billion a year! I look forward to reading their 2007 forecast in the near future.

Here's their overall thesis...

We believe orthopedics will emerge as the single most promising source of future investor returns in healthcare, given the confluence of demographics, technology and global expansion. While other healthcare categories such as cardiovascular devices, cancer or biotech may have been more lucrative in the past, what the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) calls the "Decade of Orthopedics" provides the best opportunity for future investor profits in healthcare.

A number of elements will create this opportunity for the next ten years:

  1. Increased life expectancies, which is a powerful demand driver that uniquely favors orthopedic devices.
  2. Technological innovation, which will change the entire complexion of the industry.
  3. Attractive industry economics and profitability.
  4. Combined, these elements will cause the industry to grow more than three fold from $20 billion per year to $65 billion in the coming decade resulting in as much as $75 billion of potential investor profits.

This combination of factors supports sustained, attractive industry valuations.


Well said! Of course, it paints a pretty picture not just for investors, but orthopedic manufacturers and anyone lucky enough to sell such products. You can read more and subscribe to their newsletter at www.healthpointcapital.com

Friday, January 26, 2007

The Ultimate Tag Team Returns

Sunny Crocket and Rico Tubbs join me once again to share their perspective on life as a new medical device reps. Read the interview in our shared comments below...

Monday, January 22, 2007

Do What You Love

One of the best parts of what I do is congratulating someone when they get the job. They are usually beside themselves with excitement. They may have worked and planned for several years to get to the point where they are qualified for such an opportunity. Landing a job in medical device sales is often the fulfillment of a major life goal for a candidate and reason for celebration. Before we find the one who really wants it, a person who is prepared and committed to succeed, we often talk to a lot of window-shoppers, people who don't seem to know for sure what they want.

The employment section of the Tampa Tribune had a good article yesterday entitled, "Choose Your Career Wisely". The article makes some solid points about why a job that is rewarding on a personal level is so critical for a achieving a sense of satisfaction in life.

Here's one part I like...
"People ask themselves the wrong questions," agrees Hodowanes, a career strategy advisor in Tampa... "They ask 'what kind of money can I make, does the career have visibility, what is the career path?' These are all the wrong questions. The first question a person needs to ask him or herself is 'what can I get passionate about,' because what you can get passionate about is also something you have an ability to do."

As I wrote in my last post, some people are rather superficial about their reasons for wanting to get into medical device sales. Everyone I talk to seems to have a "friend" who is successful in medical device sales. Sometimes it's good, because such people sometimes have a more realistic perspective of the challenges and potential of medical device sales, but sometimes there's more job-envy happening than serious introspection and commitment.

Do what you love and the money will come... it takes someone with a lot of hunger and self-confidence to lay aside questions of immediate income and focus on the long-term, but I guarantee you, that describes our most successful reps. They know they can "make it happen" because they know deep down that this is exactly what they want to do.

Read the entire article at http://careerseeker.tbo.com/careerseeker/MGBL1N6D9XE.html
And do what you love!

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Best Books on Sales

Over the next few weeks I will be asking our distributors what their favorite books on sales are. I hope this will be an interesting topic for both newbies and industry veterans. As a group, our distributors got to where they are because they were (and still are) extremely successful as sales people, so their recommendations should make for some interesting reading. I plan to read a few of the books myself.

So often when I ask people why they enjoy sales, they say something about how they like meeting new people, or that they like the variety and independence of being out of an office and visiting customers. That's nice for them and all, but it's rather shallow. If you like people, there are lots of jobs you can have... teacher, waiter, lawyer, nurse. It doesn't really answer the question why sales, in particular.

Sales is a profession and the best sales people commit to constantly improving their craft. Just like healthcare professionals earn continuing education credits, so salespeople should be constantly learning, improving, sharpening and updating their skills.

My recommendation is to check out Selling Power. They offer free newsletters by e-mail on a variety of topics, which alway contains really interesting and useful information. www.sellingpower.com

The first recommendation from one of our distributors is Execution, The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan and Charles Buck. Great title, isn't it? From the description on Amazon.com, it does not appear to be a book strictly on sales, rather achieving goals, which is very very important.

Results, not efforts, determine the worth of a salesperson. It's a salesperson's lot in life to be measured by the numbers they produce, as another one of our distributors says. You're only as good as your last month, laughs another. And off they go, after the next deal, the next sale, the next quota. Kind of exciting, isn't it?

If you have your own recommendations to share, please feel free to add to the list!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Jobster

There are some great benefits to having a techie husband. He has already helped me plenty with my blog. I have blundered through most of it on my own, but he so kindly pitches in when I get in over my head.

Like today, he helped me activate my Jobster links, over there to the left, wink wink.

  • Join Our Talent Network... means you can fill out a very short profile and will be notified when positions open up in your area. You choose the frequency.

  • Link to Our Current Openings... well, pretty self-explanatory, that one.

It's easy to get addicted to on-line networking. I read somewhere... is it networking or not working? (Which is one of the reasons I do this mostly in the evenings.) It's pretty easy to confuse the two. It's easy to start feeling like a character in a Bruce Sterling story, sucked up in some sort of virtual world.

In any case, we are in the process of rolling out Jobster, which is sort of a second (or maybe third or fourth) generation job "portal". I don't know what else to call it. Think Monster and CareerBuilder with a heavy emphasis on networking and on-line profiles. I've created a profile, anyone can. If you do, or have a blog or have a myspace or facebook page, let me know. Send me an e-mail, I'd love to check it out.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Topics for The Year Ahead

Last week, while I was off sipping champagne and celebrating, we received about 250 job applications. I'm telling you, this is the time of year when folks come out of the woodwork. Fortunately, I have a colleague who has been helping me cull through them.

This year I plan to have lots of fun with this blog. I already have a lot of topics in mind, for both wannabees and alreadyares. Topics for young and old, new and experienced will include:

more interviews with the ultimate tag team and other newbies
cover letters
resume do's and dont's
interviews with successful, seasoned reps, maybe a few distributors / hiring managers
1099 independent contractor, intro and advanced topics
typical day
healthcare savings accounts
our new HD endoscopy camera
lesser known routes to medical device sales
"ask the recruiter"
transition and career planning


If there are any topics you would like to see addressed here, please let me know by commenting below. For some reason, I've been getting e-mails from folks who've been reading and enjoying, but no one wants to be the first to comment. I am hoping some brave reader with lead the way!

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