Are You Actually Good at Medical Sales or Just Getting By?

You've read the listicles. "Top 10 Skills for Sales Reps." You know the buzzwords: product knowledge, communication, resilience.

But knowing what the skills are and actually being good at them are completely different things.

I had a client named Marcus last year who'd been in device sales for three years. He was hitting 80% of quota. Not terrible. Not great. Just getting by.

"I don't understand," he told me. "I know the product inside and out. I'm good with doctors. Why am I stuck?"

I asked him to walk me through his territory.

"I have about 60 accounts," he said. "I try to hit as many as I can every week. Some weeks I see 30 accounts. Some weeks I see 20."

"Which accounts?" I asked.

"Whichever ones I can get into," he said.

That was the problem right there.

Marcus wasn't bad at his job. He just didn't understand how the foundational skills actually work in practice. And nobody had shown him.

Let me show you what I mean.

Do You Know Which Accounts Actually Matter?

Marcus thought he was managing his territory. He wasn't. He was just driving around hoping to get in doors.

When I asked him to rank his top 10 accounts by potential, he couldn't do it.

"They're all important," he said.

No. They're not. Some accounts will drive most of your revenue. Some will waste most of your time.

I had him pull data on all 60 accounts. Procedure volumes. Historical purchases. Growth trends. Competitive presence.

We found that 8 accounts represented 65% of the potential revenue in his territory. And he was spending maybe 20% of his time on them.

"Why are you spending so much time on these small accounts?" I asked, pointing to his schedule.

"Because I can get in," he said. "The big accounts are harder."

Exactly. He was spending time where it was easy, not where it mattered.

We rebuilt his entire approach. Those 8 high-potential accounts got 70% of his time. Everything else got the remaining 30%.

Six months later, Marcus hit 135% of quota.

"I'm working less and making more," he told me. "I can't believe I was wasting so much time before."

That's what actually understanding your territory looks like.

Check out RepPath's program if you want help figuring this out for your own territory.

Are You Preparing for Calls or Just Showing Up?

I had another client named Jessica in pharma. She was struggling with a key account. A big hospital system she'd been trying to crack for a year.

"I've been there 15 times," she told me. "They're always polite. But I can't get anywhere."

"What do you talk about in those meetings?" I asked.

"My drug," she said. "The clinical data. Why it's better than the competitor."

"What are they trying to accomplish?" I asked.

She looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"What are the hospital's goals?" I said. "What initiatives are they focused on? What problems are they trying to solve?"

"I don't know," she admitted.

She'd been calling on this account for a year and had no idea what they actually cared about.

I had her do real research. She pulled their annual report. She looked at their publicly stated initiatives. She talked to other reps who sold to the same hospital.

She learned they were focused on reducing readmission rates for heart failure patients. That was their big push for the year.

Her drug had data showing reduced readmissions in heart failure patients. She'd never mentioned it because she didn't know they cared about it.

Next call, she led with that. "I know reducing heart failure readmissions is a priority for you. Our drug has shown a 23% reduction in 30-day readmissions in this patient population."

The conversation completely changed. The pharmacy director actually engaged. Asked questions. Wanted to see the data.

Three months later, her drug was on the formulary.

"I wasted a year because I didn't do my homework," she told me.

That's what real preparation looks like. Not reviewing your product specs. Understanding what the account actually cares about.

Do You Know How to Actually Sell or Just How to Service?

Marcus, the device rep, had another problem besides his territory management.

He was great at being helpful. Doctors liked him. He'd show up for cases. Answer questions. Bring supplies.

But he wasn't selling.

"I don't want to be pushy," he told me. "I want them to see me as a resource."

"They do see you as a resource," I said. "That's why they call you when they need something. But they're not buying from you."

He didn't understand the difference between being helpful and being a salesperson.

I watched him on a call with a surgeon. The surgeon complained about long OR times with the current product.

"Yeah, that's tough," Marcus said sympathetically.

That was it. He didn't ask about the impact of those long OR times. He didn't connect it to his product's faster procedure time. He just agreed it was tough.

"You had the perfect opening," I told him after the call. "He just told you his biggest problem. And you said nothing."

"I didn't want to jump in with a sales pitch," Marcus said.

"Connecting his problem to your solution isn't a sales pitch," I said. "It's being helpful in a different way."

We practiced. When a doctor mentioned a problem, Marcus learned to ask questions. How often does this happen? What's the impact? Have you considered other options?

Then, and only then, would he mention his product as a potential solution.

His closing rate went from 15% to 40%.

"I thought I was being helpful before," he told me. "But I was just being a friend. Now I'm actually solving their problems."

That's the difference between servicing and selling.

What Do You Do When Someone Says No?

Jessica, the pharma rep, had a different struggle. She'd get into meetings. Present her data. And then get shut down by objections.

"They always say they don't have budget," she told me. "I don't know how to respond."

"What do you say?" I asked.

"I tell them the price," she said. "And then they say it's too expensive. And then I don't know what else to say."

She was treating "no budget" like it was the end of the conversation. It's not. It's the beginning.

I taught her to ask questions instead of accepting objections at face value.

When someone says "no budget," ask "What budget are you working from? Is this a capital expense or operating expense? Are there any cost-saving initiatives this could support?"

When someone says "we're happy with our current product," ask "What do you like most about it? If you could improve one thing, what would it be?"

The objection isn't the answer. It's the start of a deeper conversation.

Jessica tried this with a different hospital. The pharmacy director said they didn't have budget.

Instead of accepting it, Jessica asked, "I understand budget is tight. Are there any quality metrics you're being measured on that this drug might impact?"

The director mentioned they were being penalized for high readmission rates.

"What if we could show that switching to our drug reduces readmissions enough to offset the cost difference?" Jessica asked.

That question changed everything. They started talking about ROI instead of price. The drug got approved.

"I used to think objections meant no," Jessica told me. "Now I know they're just questions I haven't answered yet."

That's what actually handling objections looks like.

Can You Actually Close Deals?

Marcus had a huge opportunity with a hospital system. Six-figure deal. They loved the product. Everyone was on board. The clinical team. The administrators. Everyone.

Except nobody was actually signing the contract.

"What's the holdup?" I asked.

"I don't know," Marcus said. "They keep saying they're working on it."

He was waiting for them to decide. That's not how big deals close.

I had him map out everyone involved in the decision. The surgeon who'd use the product. The department head who controlled the budget. The procurement person who handled contracts. The CFO who had to approve large purchases.

Marcus had only been talking to the surgeon.

"The surgeon loves it," Marcus said. "Isn't that enough?"

No. The surgeon doesn't sign contracts. The surgeon doesn't control budget. The surgeon is important, but he's not the only person who matters.

Marcus started meeting with the other stakeholders. He got the department head to agree to support it at the budget meeting. He got procurement to draft the contract. He got the CFO's team the ROI data they needed.

Six weeks later, the deal closed.

"I almost lost this because I was waiting instead of driving," Marcus told me. "I didn't realize closing was something I had to actively manage."

That's what closing actually requires. Not waiting. Managing.

Want to meet with a coach who can show you where your gaps are? That's what we do at RepPath.

Why Don't Companies Teach This?

Marcus asked me this after we'd been working together for a few months.

"Why didn't my company train me on this?" he said. "They spent two weeks teaching me the product. But nobody taught me how to actually sell it."

Most companies don't. They teach product knowledge. They assume you'll figure out the sales part.

Or they send you to a generic sales training program that doesn't address healthcare specifically.

Jessica went through her company's sales training. Three days. Very expensive. Learned nothing useful.

"They taught me how to handle objections," she said. "But the examples were all from B2B software. Not relevant to pharmacy committees at all."

That's the problem with generic training. The principles are fine. But the application is completely different in healthcare.

A software sales objection ("we're happy with our current vendor") is different from a medical sales objection ("we're concerned about patient safety data").

You can't use the same responses.

Are You Getting Better or Just Getting Older?

I've worked with reps who've been in the industry for 10 years. Some of them are incredible. Some of them aren't any better than they were in year two.

The difference isn't talent. It's whether they've actually developed skills or just repeated the same habits for 10 years.

Marcus had been doing medical sales for three years when we started working together. He thought he was experienced.

But he'd been making the same mistakes for three years. He wasn't experienced. He was just stuck.

Six months of actually working on skills changed everything. His quota attainment. His commission. His confidence.

"I thought I was good at this job," he told me. "I was just mediocre. I didn't know what I didn't know."

Jessica was the same. Five years in pharma. Thought she knew what she was doing. She didn't.

One year of intentional skill development took her from middle of the pack to top 10% nationally.

"I wish I'd done this sooner," she said. "I wasted years not knowing how to actually do this job well."

That's the difference between getting by and getting great.

If you're ready to actually get better instead of just getting older, we should talk. That's the whole point of RepPath.

Joe Licata
RepPath