Sales Careers in the Medical Device Industry

Professional Recruiting Network, Inc.
Is a sales career in the 
Medical Device Industry 
right for you?
  • Do you want the opportunity to earn over $150,000 per year?

  • Do you want to work in a high tech, professional environment?

  • Do you work for companies like: ADP, Paychex, Xerox, Lanier, Ikon Office Solutions, Pitney bowes, Ikon, Cintas, Gallo Wine, Enterprise or Fed Ex?


Scott Grillo, President & Founder of Professional Recruiting Network, Inc., answers your questions about career development in the medical device industry.  Following a 17 year career in medical device sales, as an executive recruiter, Mr. Grillo has placed over 950 sales professionals with over 300 prominent medical device industry manufacturers. Having taken over 3,000 job requisitions and interviewing over 80,000 medical industry sales professionals, he is recognized as an expert in career development, sales talent acquisition and resume construction and formatting.

Medical device sales involve selling tangible products or services used by healthcare professionals in various settings such as hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and outpatient centers. The sales process can range from prospecting and closing deals with individual physicians to providing support during surgical procedures or managing accounts in hospitals.

Unlike pharmaceutical sales, where compensation is often heavily based on salary, medical device sales typically offer commission incentives that can make up a significant portion (60-100%) of a rep's income. This commission is often paid monthly and can result in substantial earnings ranging from $80,000 to well over $400,000 annually, with most falling between $130,000 and $250,000.

For college graduates considering a career in medical device sales, companies generally prefer candidates with a background in business or product sales over those from pharmaceutical sales. So, sticking with roles like Xerox for a few more years may enhance your marketability in the medical device industry.
In pharmaceutical sales, the focus is on promoting increased prescription writing of drug products to physicians, rather than traditional selling. Sales reps act as an extension of the marketing and advertising department, with a process-oriented approach heavy on report writing.

Management places emphasis on the number of calls and presentations made, rather than individual results, due to the difficulty in tracing sales or productivity of a single rep. This often results in larger salaries with small, quarterly bonuses based on regional prescription writing behavior.

The allure of high initial salaries can become a dependency, as individual income growth is limited. Total annual compensation typically caps around $90-100,000, with a significant portion as base salary. Territories are relatively small, offering benefits like company cars and flexible schedules.

While pharmaceutical sales can be appealing for a second income with minimal travel, individual efforts are rarely rewarded monetarily. Contrary to popular belief, transitioning to medical device sales is not straightforward, as device managers may perceive pharmaceutical reps as overly procedural with limited closing skills.

The best chance for a pharmaceutical rep to enter device sales is within four years of starting in pharmaceuticals, focusing on positions aligned with their physician or medical specialty customer relationships and clinical product knowledge.The average medical device industry sales representative earns between $140,000 and $200,000, with some exceeding $300,000.   How do you get in?

Most medical device industry sales reps are recruited from companies like ADP, Paychex, Xerox, Lanier, Ricoh, Ikon Office Solutions, Pitney bowes, Enterprise, Cintas, FedEx, Gallo Wine, or other prominent business products companies. If you have 3 + years experience,  you may be immediately qualified for a medical sales position that could  produce $150,000 to over $300,000 per year.  

Take a minute to register with us or send me a resume and let's have a confidential conversation about your options and the potential opportunities for your future.   Our clients have openings right now in many major markets.

 Send Resume


If you are a recent or pending college graduate,  your best option to prepare yourself for a lucrative medical sales career is to get a solid foundation in sales training and experience by working for one of these companies to get the "airspeed" to really take off with your career. 

A quick review of the information on this page will expose you to the types of opportunities available to you and guide you in the right direction before you are too far along in your career to change the path you are on. 

In any sales career, the leverage you have over your career development and earnings is the greatest in the first 5 years after college, so the decisions you make now are critical to your future.  The information below will help you decide if the medical device industry is the place for you, and help guide you through the first years of your career development and better understand the nature of the career paths.   

A Career in Medical Sales

A sales career in the medical device industry can be both rewarding and lucrative with total earnings ranging from $85,000 to $400,000 or more for top performers in some positions.  The industry is somewhat insulated from general economic downturns due to the nature of industry funding sources (government and private insurance) and the steadily increasing and predictable demand for healthcare services due to the aging population.  Technology plays an important role and unlike some high tech industries,  rapid product obsolescence and "bursting bubbles" rarely happen due to the FDA's mitigating influence on rapid product development and introduction.  Many sales professionals enjoy an entire career with excellent earnings without ever needing to advance to management in order to increase their income.   Now; the important part... how do you get these lucrative jobs?

Prerequisites for getting hired   

90% of sales reps hired from outside our industry come from business products companies like the ones listed above. The reason is simple: these companies  are well known to hire well, train well and provide entry level sales people the opportunity to develop and document their sales abilities. The high income ranges for their salespeople after 4 - 5 years are equal to the starting income range for the medical industry, therefore their sales reps become perfect targets for recruitment into the higher paying medical device industry. 

If you have completed 3 - 8 years of business products sales and have documented awards and rankings,  you are ready to go!   Submit your resume and give us a call!  

If you have recently graduated with little or no sales experience, our recommendation is to build a strong foundation for recruitability by first working for one of the companies below for 3+ years. Nobody wants to wait, but is if you invest your efforts wisely,  you will build the most solid foundation for recruitability and future success, as the very best companies hire from this resume profile.  Short cutting this by accepting a "substandard" sales position out of college with a less desirable company that will not prepare you for maximum recruitability,  can cost you untold income and opportunity over your career.   If you are recently out of school, it is your safest bet for a great future.

Recommended List of ideal entry level sales jobs with employment web link:

  • ADP    
   http://www.adp.com/careers.aspx
  • Paychex     
  http://www.paychex.com/careers/index.aspx 
  • Gallo Wine  
  http://gallo.com/jobs/CareersatGallo.html
  • Xerox  
  http://www.xerox-jobs.com/
  • Ikon Office  
   http://www.ikon.com/careers/
  • Cintas Uniforms  
  http://www.cintas.com/CAREERS/
  • FedEx
   http://fedex.hodesiq.com/careers/job_search.aspx?User_ID=
  • Pitney Bowes      
  http://www.pb.com/cgi-bin/pb.dll/jsp/GenericEditorial.do?catOID=-18255


Although the above companies are the most attractive recruiting targets for medical employers, sales experience with any nationally recognized company will do, so long as they meet the following important guidelines:

  • Must have more than 10 sales reps you compete with to establish "stack" rankings
  • Must establish and publish quota results by rep
  • Must provide annual stack rankings  (sales rankings)
  • Must provide sales awards (rookie of year, Presidents club, etc.)
  • Must be "outside" or field sales of tangible business related products / services
  • No real estate, mortgage sales, retail, family business, health clubs

If you graduate and go to work for a company that does not meet these criteria,  you will not be able to prove sales success on your resume thus you will find it difficult to compete for the better paying positions.

Send us your resume after 2 years and let us go to work to find you your first medical sales position.   Your peak recruit ability will begin after year 3 but 2 years is not too soon to begin to keep your eyes open.  See our resume support link for more information about formatting the optimal sales resume.

Although it is very possible for veteran sales reps from other industries to gain access to the medical device industry, the statistics show that about 80% of the hires made are from the business products world with the candidates being between 3 and 8 years out of college.  The reason is simple and has nothing to do with "age" discrimination.  It has to do with "income" discrimination.   The common denominator for hiring success in sales is to find the best talent making less than the job you are offering.  By definition, if a rep is growing and successful, their income will at some point, out pace the job market.  That happens around that 5 - 10 year mark at which point their marketability begins to fall.  That fact and the questions surrounding the reasons for leaving the other industry keep the sub 8 year "copier" reps in a more competitive position.  Until the world runs out of those,  the rest will have a rough time competing for the positions.   Regardless of your personal motivation, there is really no palatable reason for most managers to accept someone who is "ok" with a drop in pay.

Pharmaceuticals vs. Medical Device?

Before embarking on a career in medical sales, it is important to understand the key difference between Pharmaceutical sales and Medical Device sales.     

Pharmaceutical sales

In pharmaceutical sales, the focus is on promoting increased prescription writing of drug products to physicians, rather than traditional selling. Sales reps act as an extension of the marketing and advertising department, with a process-oriented approach heavy on report writing.

Management places emphasis on the number of calls and presentations made, rather than individual results, due to the difficulty in tracing sales or productivity of a single rep. This often results in larger salaries with small, quarterly bonuses based on regional prescription writing behavior.

The allure of high initial salaries can become a dependency, as individual income growth is limited. Total annual compensation typically caps around $90-100,000, with a significant portion as base salary. Territories are relatively small, offering benefits like company cars and flexible schedules.

While pharmaceutical sales can be appealing for a second income with minimal travel, individual efforts are rarely rewarded monetarily. Contrary to popular belief, transitioning to medical device sales is not straightforward, as device managers may perceive pharmaceutical reps as overly procedural with limited closing skills.

The best chance for a pharmaceutical rep to enter device sales is within four years of starting in pharmaceuticals, focusing on positions aligned with their physician or medical specialty customer relationships and clinical product knowledge.

Pharmaceutical Sales 

  • Small territories
  • Promotional style selling, soft close
  • Salary is major component of compensation total
  • larger salaries $50,000 - 75,000 +  
  • limited overall incomes $60,000 - $95,000 +
  • Limits ability to transfer to Med Device Sales 


Medical Device Sales

Medical device sales involve selling tangible products or services used by healthcare professionals in various settings such as hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and outpatient centers. The sales process can range from prospecting and closing deals with individual physicians to providing support during surgical procedures or managing accounts in hospitals.

Unlike pharmaceutical sales, where compensation is often heavily based on salary, medical device sales typically offer commission incentives that can make up a significant portion (60-100%) of a rep's income. This commission is often paid monthly and can result in substantial earnings ranging from $80,000 to well over $400,000 annually, with most falling between $130,000 and $250,000.

For college graduates considering a career in medical device sales, companies generally prefer candidates with a background in business or product sales over those from pharmaceutical sales. So, sticking with roles like Xerox for a few more years may enhance your marketability in the medical device industry.

      Medical Device Sales

  • Larger territories, some overnights in non major metropolitan area
  • True sales, close for signature
  • Salary is low relative component of compensation
  • Salaries run from $45,000 to $65,000 on average 
  • Income ranges from $75,000 to $400,000 +


How can Professional Recruiting Network 
confidentially  find me a job?

Confidential notification of job openings

Once your resume is confidentially on file with PRN,  we will call you anytime a position opens up that you are qualified for and offers an improvement in your income and/or an advancement in your desired career path.

Proactive Candidate Marketing Services

PRN maintains extensive relationships and contacts directly with the hiring sales managers of the over 1,000 medical device industry manufactures.  For the most marketable candidates, we can proactively contact and anonymously "market" your experience and skill set profile to hundreds of hiring managers who routinely hire sales professionals with your experience, then bring the opportunities directly to you before you ever risk releasing your resume to anyone and announcing your intentions to leave your employer.  After careful consultation, if you chose to have PRN release your resume to that specific employer, we will do so only with your permission and knowledge.  In this way, your identity is kept confidential between yourself, PRN and the employer with the job opening.


If you answer yes to these 3 questions, you could be weeks away from a new career in medical sales!