How to Move Into Your First Medical Sales Manager Role
Moving into management can feel like the natural next step after several successful years in medical sales.
But being a strong salesperson and being a strong sales manager are not the same thing.
As a salesperson, you are primarily responsible for your own territory, customers and results. As a manager, your success increasingly depends on your ability to help other people perform. That means coaching, motivating, managing performance, setting expectations and having difficult conversations, as well as delivering against the wider commercial objectives of the business.
If management is where you want your medical sales career to go, there are things you can start doing before the right opportunity becomes available.
1. Make Sure You Actually Want to Manage People
Before focusing on getting the title, think about what the job itself involves.
Moving into management usually means spending less time directly managing your own customers and more time supporting the performance of other people.
You may be responsible for field coaching, one-to-ones, recruitment, onboarding, forecasting, territory planning and performance management. You'll also need to deal with situations where somebody is struggling, resolve disagreements and sometimes make decisions that won't be popular with everyone.
Ask yourself what appeals to you about becoming a manager.
If the answer is primarily increased status, salary or simply that it feels like the next logical promotion, it may be worth thinking again.
If you enjoy helping colleagues develop, giving feedback, solving problems and getting results through other people, management may be a much better fit.
2. Build a Strong Track Record in Your Current Role
You don't necessarily need to be the number one salesperson in the company to become a successful manager.
You do, however, need credibility.
A consistent commercial track record demonstrates that you understand what it takes to manage a territory, develop customer relationships and deliver against expectations.
Think beyond your most recent sales figure. Can you demonstrate sustained performance? Have you grown difficult accounts, launched products successfully, developed new business or turned around an underperforming territory?
Strong future managers also demonstrate accountability. They take responsibility when things don't go to plan, learn from mistakes and look for solutions rather than excuses.
These behaviours can be just as important as being at the top of the sales rankings.
3. Start Developing Management Skills Before You Become a Manager
You don't need to wait until you have direct reports to start demonstrating leadership.
Look for opportunities within your existing role.
You might mentor a new starter, help with onboarding, support a colleague who is moving into your therapy area or share successful approaches with the wider sales team.
You could volunteer to contribute to sales meetings, support a product launch or take responsibility for a project that involves coordinating people from different parts of the business.
Pay attention to how you give feedback and share your knowledge. A good manager doesn't simply tell somebody how they would do something themselves. They help the other person develop the skills and confidence to do it successfully in their own way.
These experiences give you useful evidence of your leadership potential when a management opportunity eventually arises.
4. Understand the Commercial Side of Management
First-time managers sometimes focus heavily on the people-management side of the job and underestimate the wider commercial responsibilities.
A medical sales manager may need to understand forecasting, pipeline management, territory design, target setting, recruitment, budgets and the performance of an entire region or team.
Start taking an interest in how your manager approaches these areas.
How are forecasts produced? How are territories and targets decided? How does your manager identify where performance problems are developing? How do they decide where to spend their time in the field?
Developing a broader understanding of the business will help demonstrate that you can think beyond your own territory.
5. Learn How to Coach Rather Than Just Tell
One of the biggest adjustments for a high-performing salesperson moving into management is resisting the temptation to solve everything themselves.
If somebody on your team is struggling with an account, it may be quicker to tell them exactly what you would do. It may even be tempting to take over.
But continually providing the answer doesn't develop the salesperson.
Good managers ask questions, help people identify what's going wrong and support them in developing their own solutions.
This requires patience and an understanding that different people may succeed using different approaches.
If you have opportunities to mentor or support colleagues now, use them to practise this skill.
6. Have a Career Conversation With Your Manager
Don't wait for a management vacancy to appear before telling your employer that leadership is where you want your career to go.
Have an open conversation with your manager about your ambitions.
Ask what they believe you would need to demonstrate before being considered for management and where they think your current development gaps are.
There may be opportunities to gain relevant experience before a formal vacancy exists, such as mentoring colleagues, supporting field visits, helping with recruitment or taking responsibility for a project.
Having the conversation early also means your employer knows you're interested when opportunities do arise.
Most importantly, listen to the feedback you receive. If your manager identifies areas you need to develop, use that information rather than simply focusing on proving you're ready now.
7. Be Prepared to Look Outside Your Current Company
Sometimes you're ready for management before your employer has a management position available.
A small team may have very little management turnover, or the structure of the organisation may simply mean the next opportunity is several years away.
If you've discussed your ambitions internally and there is no realistic route to progression, you may decide to explore opportunities elsewhere.
When applying for your first management position, don't try to present yourself as an experienced manager if you aren't one.
Instead, demonstrate why you're ready to make the step.
Highlight examples of mentoring, coaching, leadership, commercial decision-making and situations where you've influenced people without having formal authority over them.
Employers recruiting a first-time manager will be looking for evidence of potential as well as previous sales performance.
Think About the Manager You Want to Become
Your first management role is a significant career step, so don't focus solely on getting promoted.
Think about what kind of manager you want to be and start developing those behaviours while you're still in your current role.
Build your commercial credibility, help other people succeed, ask for feedback and learn more about how the wider business operates.
When the right management opportunity comes along, you'll then have much more to demonstrate than a strong sales record. You'll have evidence that you're already beginning to think and behave like a leader.