How to Build a Sales Training Program for Med Device Reps

Yet, medical device sales reps don’t have it easy. Every day, these sellers are expected to capture (and hold) the attention of busy healthcare professionals despite stiff competition and a complex regulatory environment.

Organizations must build a strong medical device sales rep training program so sellers are always ready to overcome these challenges.

In this post, we’ll examine medical sales rep training and its critical role in success. We’ll also explore how to build a more effective medical sales rep training program so your sellers are properly equipped to engage buyers and build their book of business.

What are medical device sales?

Medical device sales Is the process of selling medical devices to healthcare professionals and medical institutions, including:

• Hospitals
• Clinics
• Doctors’ offices
• Laboratories
• Pharmacies

But what exactly is a medical device?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a medical device is “any instrument, apparatus, implement, machine, appliance, implant, reagent for in vitro use, software, material or other similar or related article, intended by the manufacturer to be used, alone or in combination for a medical purpose.”

In other words, it’s any equipment used for medical purposes. That includes anything from x-ray machines to pacemakers to surgical instruments – and everything in between.

Over the last few years, the device industry has also pivoted importantly toward selling hardware and software. These companies are often starting to view themselves more like medical tech companies. This has created a new burden on sales reps, who must learn to sell an entirely new product category. And they need to do it with technical fluency as they are now speaking with clinicians and IT leaders.

Medical device sales training is critical
Medical device sales reps are expected to sell complex solutions to busy healthcare professionals in a highly regulated environment. They must know their products inside and out and master the skills needed to engage healthcare professionals across long, complex sales cycles—all while remaining compliant.

Proper medical device sales rep training is essential. In fact, with a strong medical device sales rep training program, your sellers will be properly prepared to engage buyers and close deals. But your medical devices sales rep training must be built to address the unique needs of medical device sales. A generic sales training program won’t adequately prepare these sellers for success.

Instead, you need a medical device sales training program that equips your sellers with the skills, tools, information, and support they need to overcome challenges and achieve their sales goals.

You can build an effective medical device sales rep training program by following the steps below.

How to create a medical device sales training program

Success in medical device sales depends on well-trained reps navigating complex products, evolving regulations, and high-stakes buyer interactions. A structured sales training program ensures reps have the skills, knowledge, and resources they need to succeed.

#1 Align cross-functionally

Several teams play a role in medical device sales rep training, including:

• Sales
• Marketing
• Product marketing
• Sales or revenue enablement

#2 Define medical device sales excellence

Any medical device sales training program aims to create a team of great sellers. But first, you must define what a great seller looks like.

Document the key skills and competencies your medical device sales reps need to be successful. Creating an Ideal Rep Profile (IRP) is a great way to do this.

Some examples of must-have skills you may want to include in your IRPs include:

• Product knowledge
• Discovery skills
• Active listening
• Objection handling
• Relationship building
• Negotiation

It’s important to ensure these teams are aligned right from the start. That way, everyone will work towards the same goals and understand their role in achieving them.

#3 Create medical device sales rep training initiatives

Once you know what skills and competencies your medical device reps need, you can build initiatives to help them master those skills and competencies.

Sales onboarding is a great way to set up your new medical device sales reps for success. Be sure it’s built around the key skills and competencies of your IRP.

But sales onboarding isn’t enough to prepare your medical device reps for long-term success.

Why?

Gartner research found that B2B sellers forget 70% of the information they learn within a week of sales training. Creating and delivering ongoing learning opportunities that reinforce sellers’ knowledge and skills is essential.

In addition, the medical device industry is extremely dynamic. Products, regulations, markets, and customer preferences are always in flux. Ongoing medical device sales rep training ensures sellers can keep up with change.

Remember: medical device sales rep training isn’t (and shouldn’t be) limited to live classroom training. Instead, create micro-learning opportunities and just-in-time enablement that sellers can access whenever and wherever they need.

#4 Assess knowledge and boost engagement

Developing great training isn’t good if your sellers aren’t using it. So, leverage tools like leaderboards and contests to increase engagement.

In addition, quizzes and tests should be incorporated to gauge sellers’ mastery of new information and skills and keep them engaged.

#5 Create practice opportunities

Completing medical device sales rep training doesn’t mean your sellers are ready for the field. Instead, they need opportunities to practice and hone their skills.

Allow your sellers to record role-plays and submit them for feedback from their managers and peers. Or, use AI role-plays, which allow sellers to practice as much as they want with a realistic AI bot and get real-time feedback for improvement.

#6 Develop winning sales content

Content is a key ingredient of any medical device sales training program.

Some content is internal. In other words, it’s meant to be used by sellers and not distributed externally. Some examples include medtech sales battlecards and sales playbooks.

Sellers also use other content to engage buyers. Some examples are case studies, sales presentations, and sell sheets.

Be sure to create plenty of content for both types of medtech sales. Then, organize this content in a sales content management system so sellers can always find updated, compliant content whenever needed.

#7 Measure and optimize your medical device sales rep training programs

Ongoing measurement is key to any medical device sales rep training program. Of course, measuring how (and if) sellers engage with different sales training content is important. However, it’s even more important to measure how medical device sales rep training is making an impact.

For example, you can measure how sales training programs are helping your sellers build the skills documented in their IRP. One way to do this is to leverage conversation intelligence software, which records and analyzes sales calls.

You can also measure how your medical device sales rep training programs correlate with outcomes. For example, you can hone in on sellers who completed a sales training program and see whether completion is correlated with higher conversion rates or quota attainment.

Then, you can use these insights to make improvements that’ll boost the impact of your medical device sales rep training programs.

#8 Invest in the right sales training tools

A strong medical device sales rep training program requires the right tools and technology. But adding another tool onto an already-bloated tech stack isn’t the answer.

Instead, consider an all-in-one revenue enablement platform to power your medical device sales rep training programs. With the right platform, you can build your IRPs to define excellence. Then, you can create and deliver training programs to ensure every seller on your team has the training and support they need to master must-have skills.

An all-in-one revenue enablement platform like Mindtickle also offers robust data and analytics, which can help you understand how your medical device sales rep training impacts outcomes. That way, you can make data-based optimizations to improve the effectiveness of your medtech sales rep training.

Key components of medical device sales training programs

Every medical device company is different. As such, medical device sales training programs vary from organization to organization.

However, certain components are common across all effective medical device sales training programs. Those components include:

Structured onboarding

Sales onboarding lays the foundation for sales success. Delivering a consistent, structured onboarding experience is important so all new sellers can get acquainted with your company, your products, and their role.

Personalized, continuous training

Every seller has unique strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles. As such, a generic, one-size-fits-all approach to medical device sales rep training will not work.

Instead, pinpoint each medical device sales rep’s strengths and weaknesses. Then, deliver tailored training and coaching to help close skill gaps and improve performance.

Ongoing sales coaching

When done well, sales coaching can reinforce what sellers learn during medical device sales rep training and positively impact sales outcomes. In fact, recent research found that nine in 10 (91%) sales managers feel coaching positively impacts their team’s performance.