Women are outnumbered in medical sales. In fact, in the 2017 Medical Sales Salary Report, 70 percent of the respondents were men. In addition, the report found that women earn just 83 percent of what men do and make up only 30 percent of the respondents.
While this picture seems bleak, if you look for
them, you will find highly successful women in medical sales. We’re talking to
these professionals to find out what it means to be a woman in the field and
what it takes to be successful.
If you would have asked Emma Tod two years ago
which direction her career was going, she never would’ve uttered a title
involving ‘manager.’ Now, as the manager of the national strategic accounts
team at Allergan, Tod still isn’t a fan of that specific title. Instead, she prefers
to fall under the category of ‘leader.’
As a leader, Tod’s passions are deeply rooted
in growing large, corporate accounts alongside her team. But work isn’t the
only place you’ll find her enjoying her time. Tod spends much of her time on
her two greater passions: her children and rowing.
Find your passions and put them to work
Tod started out as a product specialist seven
years ago with Allergan. Even though she never pictured herself as a manager,
she discovered her passions and built a job around them and her managerial
style.
If you would’ve asked me two years ago, I
would’ve said I absolutely don’t want to be a manager. However, over the past
two years, I found I have a huge passion for developing skills and training my
team to work with high-growth accounts. I spent a lot of time detailing what
our team does and developed a training package that focuses on growing high
profile accounts.
I like revolutionizing our field and helping it
grow, but I’m not a normal people manager. I’m a leader, I aim to inspire
others, lead by example, and create an environment that allows people to be
creative, innovative, and achieve their true potential. Because of this, my
team is full of evolved, high-performing people.
Know when to say ‘no’
When it comes to passions, Tod has three — and
they’re all time-consuming. So, it’s important she know what’s important and
when she should say ‘no.’
Saying ‘no’ is incredibly important and
difficult — especially when you have a team that relies on you for a lot. I say
‘no’ because I have three passions: my children, rowing, and work.
At work, in the cash pay, private market of medical
aesthetics, I deal with business owners who want my opinion as a mentor to help
grow their businesses. This demanding customer base makes it easy to get
completely overwhelmed and feel everything is urgent and important.
At one point, I felt like I was drowning. Then,
one of my mentors here at Allergan told me to get a black board, hang it in my
office, and create an urgent/important matrix. This gave me real focus because
everything has to be done for a specific outcome. I use it to prioritize and delegate
all my time, which gives me precision for maximum impact for the least amount
of time.
Decide which plates are smashable
Because of all her passions, Tod is constantly
spinning plates. It’s her ability to step back and recognize which ones are
smashable that keeps her both sane and successful.
The only unbreakable plate is my children.
Everything revolves around their happiness and getting quality time with them.
To do this, I shut off access to emails on my phone every Friday. Luckily, I
work for a company that allows me the flexibility to have a four-day week and
works around my personal schedules for both children and most recently my elite
rowing career with team GB.
Driving growth forward at work is another
important plate. I always focus on maximizing impact to minimize my time spent
on projects. Recently, I started deciding which plates to smash by asking,
“Will it make the boat go faster?” If something doesn’t improve my personal,
rowing, or work life, then it isn’t worth spending time on.
I use the Be-Do-Have paradigm to prioritize
everything by impact and to be sure I set about it with the right frame of
mind. I act as if I have already achieved my goal, ensuring I do the things I
would do if successful in that particular task. This enables me to have the
rewards I’m striving for.
Don’t be afraid of failure
Tod will be the first to admit she’s made
mistakes — and that’s what pushes her success forward.
I live by this motto: be better than I was
before, better than anyone expects me to be, and better than my competition.
Everything I do is by trial-and-error, then I spend a lot of time reflecting to
find out why something doesn’t work.
For instance, I lost a huge account during
negotiations. Afterwards, I reflected on why it happened and took steps to
upskill myself to be better at negotiations. Taking time to reflect was more
productive than rushing through to the next step.
Surround yourself with positivity
You don’t need people on your team who always
think you’re right. But it’s important to surround yourself with people who
stay positive with the same drive and motivation.
I use my team as skeptics to make sure we’re
worthy and driving business in the right way. Making sure you have a team like
this surrounding you is critical for making yourself better.
I’m also never afraid to ask for help from
anyone who will give it to me. Someone will always have a different opinion or
viewpoint. So, I spend a lot of time on the internet looking for experts and
expert sources I can learn from every day.
Tod believes the most important key to success
is being yourself. In a demanding field, like medical sales, it’s easy to adapt
and lose yourself. But being someone you’re not is more exhausting than working
toward your goals.
Πηγή: www.medreps.com
Πηγή: www.medreps.com
