Day in the life of a medical device representative

Well it was just one of those weeks. I fully intended to post more information on sales training pharmaceutical style, but Monday morning started with a call from an existing account that was having problems with their medical device recorder. After trying to troubleshoot the problem myself over the phone and not getting anywhere, I contacted tech support and conferenced everyone in. Three hours later and the device is still not functional, so I put on a comfortable suit and made the two hour drive to the hospital to physically see the problem. After another couple of hours in front of the medical device and on the phone with corporate, we decided that the recorder was defective and needed to be sent back to the factory for service.

Tuesday was not much better. A deal that I was working on for another major hospital that involved several different medical devices was starting to go south, so the rest of the day involved calling some key allies at the hospital and setting up a meeting with C-level people for the next day. After an all day meeting on Tuesday, we were not closer to closing the deal and I realized that I need reinforcements, so I called in the calvary. Brought in the Field Service Representative, National Sales Manager and Network Engineer for another all day meeting on Thursday. That meeting couldn't have been worse as some of the people at the meeting ended up in a verbal altercation.

So all day today was spent patching bruised egos and trying desperately to save the deal. But at 7pm tonight, I left the hospital with Purchase Order in hand.

For those who are new to world of medical devices representative, this is not a typical week. However, for those who currently work as a medical device representative you are all too familiar with this situation and realize that this is not something new. If you are looking to pursue a career in medical devices this is just one of many challenges that you will face. No two weeks are ever the same. Some are quite slow where you are making phone calls and leaving messages. Other weeks you might have five demos setup. But one thing is always the same, at the end of the month, or end of the quarter you will be looking for that one last deal to try and close.

Enjoy the weekend.