Filling Medical sales vacancies with the right candidates

One of the main reasons for this, is that for many other roles the primary concern when recruiting is technical capability, do they have the right skills and experience to do the role, and much of this can be determined from the CV. In the case of the medical sales person, there are less tangible factors which can determine whether or not a candidate really is any good.

If you want somebody to write computer code for you, it's a relatively simple task to check a candidate's capability at interview, in particular, have they done it before. If the answer is yes, then more than likely they will do it again. For medical sales this may not be case, primarily because motivation plays such a big role in any sales jobs, medical sales included. Indeed, a key question when recruiting an experienced medical representative is why they are moving sideways. If they were a high performing medical rep be rewarded (as you would expect if they were good) and paid well, why would they want to take the risk of moving sideways where they would need to build a reputation all over again?

Here are some of the more acceptable answers to this question

• It's there first job in the industry, and they appreciate that to progress in the industry they will need to experience more than one company culture on the ground level of medical sales.

• They are looking for gain specific experience for their CV, eg some hospital experience having only done primary care.

• Their company is about to downsize and their job is in doubt.

• They are clearly a top performer but earning little or no bonus due to a poor scheme.

• They are in a small organisation with little opportunity to develop beyond medical sales.

Here are some less acceptable answers

• They have fallen out with there boss or don't get on with other people in the team.

• Their sales results have been poor due to reasons beyond their control.

• They are bored with their present role

• Their product isn't any good

• There only reason for moving is that they want a pay rise

• They failed their ABPI

• They don't like the company culture

• They want a more 'consultative' role

Of course in most cases they are not likely to divulge these types of reason directly so this will take some careful probing to discover the true reason behind their presence in front of you. Medical sales roles are not 'that' different in different companies, so to go through the upheaval and risk of finding, applying to and interviewing for new medical sales roles requires some significant and plausible reasons. When probing look for the old lie detectors of eye contact and hand movement around the face. Also remember that in the rule book of interviewing, specificity is truth, vagueness is usually embellishment or simply not true!

Stick to these tips and land a motivated and successful medical sales person and you'll like the results!

Good luck.