After I did my speech at a local Toastmasters meeting, another member came up to me and asked about how to get in touch with pharmaceutical companies. It turns out that she was a nurse at one of Montreal’s largest hospitals and she knew that I had worked in medical sales for many years. She was thinking about a career change after many years working in the hospital as a nurse and wanted to find out about the possibility of a medical sales job for nurses.

Of course, I told her that a medical sales job would be a natural career change for her and other nurses. They already know the medical science and anatomy. It’s only a matter of learning selling skills and some pharmacology which drug companies will train on.

Since this particular nurse was already a Toastmaster member for two years, her communications skills were pretty good and will get even better as she advances within Toastmasters. She will likely convince drug companies that she does have to communications skills required for a medical sales job. The only thing that she would need to determine is whether she has the aptitude for the sales environment which includes being able to take rejection every day. As far as how to get in touch with the pharmaceutical companies, she and other nurses have a huge advantage over other aspiring medical sales representatives because she is already working in an environment where she has access to many possible contacts to the drug industry.

She admitted that she has seen many medical sales reps visiting the hospital but never talked to any of them. I suggested that she makes an effort to talk to some of these reps to pick their brains. She can also make use of her present hospital network such as other nurses and doctors (as well as their staff) to perhaps help her on introductions to visiting medical sales representatives. This can in turn lead to introductions to the medical sales reps’ managers.

Many medical sales reps who were former nurses got their first medical sales jobs this way through direct contacts made at the hospital. A medical sales job for nurses could include positions involving pharmaceuticals, medical devices or equipment. This lady at Toastmasters can easily do the same.