Types of Medical Device Sectors to Consider
All medical device sales jobs aren’t created equal; there are various types of medical sales jobs that require different kinds of medical equipment, different procedures and operations, and therefore, different requirements for its sales reps.
Before you even begin applying to medical device jobs, you should have a basic understanding of these differences to ensure they align with your career goals. Here’s a breakdown of just some of the different types of medical device sectors to consider in your job search.
Capital equipment
Digital x-rays, MRIs, robotics — these are just a few examples of medical capital equipment found in health care systems. Health care centers, clinics, and hospitals typically set aside a large budget for capital equipment including adding new machines and upgrading equipment, which can be hundreds of thousands of dollars or even up to millions.
Typically, big equipment means big paydays. A multi-million dollar surgical robot can translate into a huge 10% cut after a sale. But it can also mean big risk; because of its size and cost, a hospital may only make a major capital equipment purchase once a year. You may not even be able to land that annual purchase if the hospital is having financial struggles or chooses to spend its budget on new hospital beds instead of a new x-ray machine.
Trauma
Are you a night owl… and an early bird? If so, you may be able to handle the ultimate grind of trauma. As a trauma medical device sales rep, your schedule depends on serious life-altering cases. In these high-pressure and high-intensity operations, doctors need your expertise. It may be a simple ankle fracture or it may be a spinal surgery after someone was in a bad accident. As you can imagine, trauma medical device cases are very common in metropolitan areas and therefore, the competition is thick. The cases can be cheap due to the massive contracts that are pushed forward. But if you land one and earn the trust of a few trauma surgeons, the sky's the limit. Just be prepared to sacrifice a lot of your life to earn that paycheck.
Total Joints Reconstruction
The joint replacement medical device field is one of the original sectors that used to cash the biggest checks. In the ever-growing market of arthritis, patients’ knees, hips, elbows, and ankles will eventually need a total joint replacement. Joint replacement sales reps oversee surgery that replaces a damaged joint or parts of an arthritic joint with a ceramic, plastic, or metal device called a prosthesis. Some of the top medical device companies in total joint replacement include Johnson & Johnson, Stryker, and Zimmer.
Some total joint reconstruction reps have well-established doctors with an endless pipeline of new patients. Despite the growing occurrence of arthritis, you can’t take this pipeline for granted; new technology like robotic total knee replacements can give the well-established docs a run for their money.
Orthopedics
One of the biggest fields in one of the most popular markets, orthopedic medical device sales can be a great place to start your career. While it does include some of the other sub-sectors mentioned in the post (like total joints reconstruction), this umbrella sector has tons of competition for what can be cheap cases. It can be relatively easy for doctors to switch products too — the loyalty doesn’t run as deep as it does for other medical device products.
How do you decide which medical device industry is best for you?
As with any career move, deciding which medical device sector to pursue involves a lot of time and consideration. You should consider the potential pay (base and commission), growth in the individual sector, and growth in the hospitals in the area where you are located.
There are also so many other competitive medical device sectors to consider: brain stimulators, wound care, biologics, robotics, stents, skin grafts — the list goes on. The best option for you is one where you have a dominant position in the market with an excellent pipeline coming out. All of these considerations will help you sleep better at night while filling your bank account up. At the end of the day, all medical device reps have a quota to hit, so don’t ignore smaller medical sales sectors in favor of the “sexier,” more popular ones because you could hit the jackpot.
