On Tuesday, Nov. 26 during Period 2, students abroad came to room M429 like mindless zombies ready to indulge in another Career Spotlight, ready for another typical presentation on the subject of medical sales.
Dan Duff made sure students would not be disinterested throughout his presentation by rewarding students who answered his questions with Sarris Candy and by showing that medical sales is not a bad job to have.
Mr. Duff works for Bausch + Lomb, a company that deals with eye care products. His normal day starts off in surgery where he looks upon eye care surgeons using his products on patients. He then leaves the surgery room, changes into suit and tie, and gets down to business driving around and looking for his next sale.
Mr. Duff’s work atmosphere is described as follows: “I work by myself ninety percent of the time.” Duff describes this as an advantage as he is the boss of what he does and how he does it.
Mr. Duff likes that the job pays well. On average, a person working around five years in medical sales makes $93,000 annually. This wage is measured on how long you work and how much you sell.
“Some reps can make almost $200,000 a year. It all depends on how much time and work you put in.”
Medical Sales is a very demanding and time consuming job.
“The stakes are high. I have to sell the perfect product, and talk to these surgeons in the way they are used to (medical terms),” Mr. Duff explained.
This can obviously be stressful for anyone and can make or break anyone in this field as this is the major factor of being a good or bad sales rep. The perfect product means everything.
Duff has advantages working as a sales rep. He gets paid on salary and commission. Duff also says there are incentives for having the most sales.
“An incentive I have had is a paid vacation to Hawaii,” Mr. Duff said. He also likes that he has a flexible schedule and can make his own time.
There are also some disadvantages to being in medical sales. “I am in a car 6-8 hours a day,” Mr. Duff said.
If you want to advance in this field you have to move. There is also a sales quota which is the requirement of items you have to sell in a given period of time. If you are below the quota, your job could be in trouble.
If you are interested in this job, the requirements would be a four year degree in college. You have to be willing to travel even on overnight trips. Previous sales experience is a plus, and you have to speak to physicians on their level.
“All in all, my job is very rewarding and there is plenty of motivation to do my job,” Mr. Duff concluded.