Hello Shannon. I have a M.S. in Biology and have been very successful in both business to business sales and pharmaceutical sales. I applied for a medical device position and received positive feedback on my background, however, the recruiter wanted to know if I was AIMS or RMSR certified, which I am not. They suggested that I take a course and certify in order to move further in the process. I find this a little preposterous.
I wanted to know both from you and any device representatives if this certification is really as necessary as it seems or am I just being swindled.
Post #10
I am not sure why this recruiter would want to know if you have been AIMS or RMSR certified.
Let me clear up one thing quickly. There is much confusion with the acronym AIMS. Equally, I hear the word AIMS certification thrown around too. We are the Medical Sales College. We have MSC certification or a graduate of the Medical Sales College. AIMS was the acronym of the American Institute of Medical Sales. AIMS was both an education center and recruitment arm. In 2010 acting in compliance with the Department of Colorado Higher Education, AIMS was replaced through two newer corporations the Medical Sales College and AIMS Medical Sales Recruiting. This change also resulted in a different ownership group and additional investors.
Furthermore, according to your question this “recruiter” said, “in order to move further” which makes no sense because the job would be likely be gone before you would ever finish the Medical Sales College. I am not sure who this recruiter would be. As far as being compared to the RMSR, the Medical Sales College is entirely different. We have however graduated several people that have taken the RMSR exam. I have not seen in any circumstance in which anyone has “required” the RMSR. Although, I know several hiring managers that like to see any effort on the basis to increase your knowledge or at least show that you are willing to go up and above the call of duty for a job.
I also want to make a quick point to the fact that NOTHING is required as far as training or certification to become a medical sales representative. On the other hand, you do need to know what you are up against when applying and more important if you are lucky enough, what you are up against once you land the job. Believe it or not, people that post networking; hard work and B2B experience is all you need are correct. Well not totally. Some people get in without anything! But here are the facts about the business that you must remember.
The average position garners more than 375 resumes. The hiring manager can only pick one person for the job. That would indicate that you have less than a 1% chance of landing the job. Actually .0026% to be exact. Then if you think about it, the hiring manager most likely is replacing an underperforming sales rep. Therefore, the weakest link in his/her territory. Hiring managers and distributors are based on performance. Not performance three or four years from now, performance today! This is why you see in many cases these open positions requiring previous medical sales experience. They need someone to start tomorrow and perform tomorrow. Problem with the high percentage of experienced medical sales representatives is simply that the good ones are not available. If they are successful, most likely they would stay with their current positions because of a non-compete or because relationships. Nobody in his or her right mind would want to start over. New to the industry presents a whole new challenge. The time necessary learning the “ropes” in order to produce. This is why new people have such a high rate of turnover. Hiring existing reps also has a high rate of turnover because naturally they are hiring somebody that most likely failed at their last position.
This is exactly why we are in business. We take those driven individuals that have the necessary drive, commitment and dedication and arm them with the tools to compete. Our process will speed up the learning process between 9-18 months. This will give you a much better chance to “succeed” in the field. Is it a guarantee that with the education you will get the job? Nope, that still counts on you! However, it increases your odds a great deal! In fact, you will see on the website that post 90 days; all of our graduates have seen a 6 out of 10 success rate. Again, that includes all of our graduates that have graduated 90 days out.
So do you need MSC? That is entirely up to you. We like to think that a 6 in 10 chance is much better than a 1 in 375.
How we differ from RMSR, resume writing, a sales coach is that our graduates are in demand. The largest medical device companies have flown out to see our college. Top executives have spent precious time figuring out how to utilize our system. Our list of executives on our site says it all. Jobs come to us, not us chasing jobs. RMSR is a book you read on the weekend covering 100+subjects with each subject one or two pages. I am not sure it actually teaches you anything. More like a book that introduces you to “what is…”. We have eight-weeks on a single specialty, including hands on learning. Manufactures can hire MSC grads and reduce recruitment fees to zero. It is a no-brainer for them.
Hope this long response helps. Good luck!
Shannon Marshall
Director of Social Media
Medical Sales College