Medical device sales professionals operate as a vital bridge between medical equipment manufacturers and patient-facing healthcare providers.

While you may not have the experience or qualifications to be a medtech sales representative just yet, you might be surprised to discover you’re closer to qualifying for a role than you initially thought.

Admittedly, breaking into a new profession can be challenging, but there are lots of opportunities in the medical sales field and pursuing the necessary qualifications is definitely a worthwhile ambition. What’s more, medtech is a robust industry that offers many types of positions—and the list of jobs available is constantly expanding.

By now, you’re probably wondering how to develop your medical device sales career. Let’s look at how to get into medical device sales—and what you can do to start launching your career right now:

How to get into medical device sales

Pursue education

Securing relevant educational accolades is one of the most effective paths you can go down when aiming for a career in medical sales.

Medical device sales roles typically require that you hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a medical degree or a business degree, but proof of graduation from a third-level institution.

Some positions are happy to accept applicants with an associate’s degree plus a few years of work experience in a related field, such as those focused on clinical, nursing, or surgical settings.

Specific certifications will also stand to you when applying for a medical device sales job, such as:

• Surgical technician
• Specialized selling
• Sorts or athletic training
• Physical therapy
• Rehabilitation

If you can demonstrate to your employer that you have sufficient work experience, even with a lower level of educational qualification, you might find that you meet the criteria for employment.

Build professional experience

A role in medtech calls for skills in sales and marketing, relationship building, ethical integrity, technical know-how, and self-motivation. It’s a challenging, demanding, and hugely rewarding career path.

But to land a job in medical sales, you don’t necessarily have to meet the educational requirements above. Ultimately, you don’t have to have worked in medical sales previously, either.

Many job opportunities are open for applicants who have substantial experience working in any professional setting that’s somehow linked to the role of a medical device salesperson. Such experience might be that of a physical therapist, rehabilitation practitioner, EMT, or any other patient-oriented sector.

Develop soft skills

While educational background and work experience are inherently important to medical sales employers, they aren’t the only factors that could help you secure the job.

There are numerous soft skills that potential employers will surely be drawn to—and the chances are, you might possess some of them already.

Common examples are:

• strong communication abilities
• data analysis and problem-solving skills
• computer competency 
• attention to detail
• being results-driven
• ability to self-motivate and work autonomously, as well as in a team setting
• being customer-oriented
• organizational skills
• a good sense of medical sales ethics
• and possibly most notable of all, a strong ability to sell products.

Start exploring medical device sales jobs today

Whatever stage of the career journey you’re on, it’s always helpful to know what opportunities are out there and what you can do today to start working towards them. 

At IQVIA, we strive to support employees—from entry-level to executives—in finding the jobs that best match their skills and interests. We have exciting opportunities for medical sales reps all over the country, so start exploring the medical device sales jobs on offer to discover the future of your career.