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

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...

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!

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!

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.

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!

My subscription button is active. Be sure to subscribe so you won't miss any of the fun!

The Truth about Copier Sales

It's a frenetic time of year for our reps and many others, and not just because of the holidays. Our reps are out closing every last deal in sight right now. I've been hearing it in candidates' voices too. Everyone sounds kind of winded. It kind of makes a good argument for a fiscal year that ends at some other time of the year. Then again, it's been a good year for Linvatec so there will be much reason to celebrate on New Year's Eve.

I've been pondering my resolutions for 2007. I usually have lots of them, in every category of life- home, family, work, personal, health. My resolutions this year include red wine and chocolate milk, among other things. I'm sure you've heard of the many benefits of drinking a glass of red wine every day. It's even good for your gums. But why chocolate milk, you ask.

First of all, tastes great, no question about it, I could use the calcium and I read recently that they've found that athletes recover most quickly from their workouts by drinking glass of chocolate milk. So everyday after my run I've decided to chug at least 8 ozs of the sweet stuff. I did pretty good with my resolution this past year to eat a square of dark chocolate every day so I think I can handle the chocolate milk thing too. The way I look at it, everyone needs a few easy resolutions each year in addition to the tough ones.

I'm gonna need all the energy I can get. When everyone recovers from the New Year's Eve revelry and post-quota hang-over, they'll fire up their hiring plans for 2007. Last January, I was extremely busy. It also seems like the time of year that sales reps like to polish up their resumes and test the waters, especially if they've busted their quota and banked president's club.

Maybe this year is the year you've decided you are going to break into medical sales, or maybe you're at a stage where you are trying to figure out the best interim steps to take to get you there. Sometimes I think the the hard part of making resolutions that matter is sifting out the good information from the bad, and there is an awful lot of bad career advice out there. Recently, a writer in the employment section wrote that "job hopping" no longer matters. He couldn't be more wrong.

So, I thought I might hit on a topic for those of you interested in preparing yourself for a career in medical device sales. It seems funny, but in our industry, hiring managers would much rather see candidates with copier sales experience than prior pharmaceutical sales. (In fact, some hiring managers consider pharma sales the kiss of death, but more on that another time.)

Could copier sales be your golden ticket to the chocolate factory? (You'll soon notice chocolate is a recurring theme with me.) It's no guarantee, but it's a good start. If you work hard at it, you can develop great skills that will serve you well throughout your sales career. Be prepared for a rough road if you decide to give a try. It's a relentless, cutthroat business. Don't cop out too soon. Stick with it for a while and get tough.

Listed below are some of the things that make copier sales such a great career booster.

1. Highly Competitive Industry: many players out hunting and beating the bushes for deals, head-to-head competition
2. Technical Products: think hardware, reps have to demo products, troubleshoot problems, study and develop their product knowledge and continuously learn about the competition
3. Capital Sale: higher dollar value means more commitment required on the part of the customer, more persuasion and skill required of the rep to close the deal
   
4. Higher-Level Decision Makers: C-level selling experience is good because a sophisticated and demanding buyer is more like a surgeon than is your average consumer
5. Excellent Sales Training: not just on products, but sales as a process, it should be "formal" i.e. classroom not just Joe Mgr telling you the way he's always done it
6. True Close: somebody's got to sign on the dotted line and commit funds from their bank account
   
7. More than a One-Call Close: consultative selling, digging into the buyer's needs/pain, requires some rapport/trust/relationship building
8. B2B: selling to businesses, not individuals, 'nough said
9. Rankings: you'll need to be able to document your performance against your peers
   

If you can find most of these characteristics in a sales position, then it might be a good alternative to copier sales. Other types of sales to consider include: wireless, IT/hardware, some financial sales, uniform sales. These positions may not have all of the characteristics listed above, but with a good training program, might be worth considering. Companies include Verizon, Cingular, Cintas, New York Life in addition to the Xeroxs, Laniers and Ikons of the copier world.

If you already have succeeded in such environment, please apply directly to our website or one of the other options listed to the right. Again, we prefer local candidates, so if you don't see an opening in your area right now, send me an e-mail with your resume and I will keep it on file for future reference. Soon I'll have a tidy button on this site where you'll be able to join our Talent Network through Jobster and be notified when positions open in your area. Happy New Year!