Taylor Mommaerts

I graduated from UW-La Crosse with a degree in Exercise and Sport Science: Pre-Physical Therapy. I always had an interest in sales, and medical sales was great way to combine my education and something I found intriguing. I worked in outside B2B sales for a little bit after college, but I wasn?t passionate about what I was selling so I decided to take a leap into something I knew I wanted to do.

I gained interest throughout high school and college as my aunt continued to encourage me to shadow her friend that was in the industry. I was exposed to it more throughout my time in college. Being able to work with people in the medical field was always something that I wanted to do.

I learned about the Medical Sales College after doing some research online about people who were struggling to get into the industry.

I saw the high placement rate and thought that it may be too good to be true. I decided to just put in an application because it couldn?t hurt my chances for the future. I knew that I was already successful at sales, but I wanted to be passionate about my product and be excited for the day when I wake up. Once I got the acceptance, I was very excited to start my journey towards becoming a medical device sales representative.

My training experience was extremely eye opening and at some times can be overwhelming. I was extremely lucky that I had great instructors such as Dr. Stephen Perns, Thiana Nebel, and Andrea Molinaro. I had a background in anatomy and physiology so I caught on pretty quickly. However, I did learn a lot about sales calls with surgeons, procedures, products, and how to conduct myself within the OR. The instructors were always willing to answer any questions we had, even after the class was let out. You can tell that they are passionate about what they do and who they teach. It was an extremely rewarding experience.

If someone is truly passionate about getting into the medical sales industry and has had no luck so far, I would highly recommend applying/attending MSC. I know that I would not have gotten a job offer without the help of my placement coordinator, Anna Elliot. She was the first person I would call after each interview I had. You can tell she cares about her students because when I called her she was extremely happy for me.

I applied for countless jobs for about 4-5 months before attending MSC. I only heard back from one company and it was a simple phone screening. However, with not much experience in the industry I was turned away immediately.

My interview process was quite lengthy. I had to send in an application and then complete a HireVue so they could get an idea of who I was. Soon after that, I received a call from someone that was from the company, but found me on ZeroFee Recruiting before he saw my application. I had a couple of phone screens before they asked me to fly down to Texas to interview in person. After I spent time with them in Texas, I flew back to Wisconsin and consistently stayed in contact with them by checking in multiple times a week about their products and what was happening within their company. About 3.5 months after my initial contact with them, they asked me to come down to Texas one last time for another sales presentation and ride along. Before I left, I was offered the position.

I wish I would have known how much work goes into becoming and maintaining a position as a sales representative in medical sales. You see a lot of people making a lot of money, but once you dig deeper you can see how many hours they put into their work, whether it be speaking to doctors, traveling, performing in the OR, or studying at night.

I have two valuable pieces of information that was taught to me. The first being my sales presentation skills. I had to perform two different sales presentations during my hiring process. We spent 40 hours going over sales skills and how to speak to surgeons so it was extremely useful. My second valuable piece of information had to be how to research your products and how to differentiate it from other products. Having a lot of knowledge about the company your interviewing for and the industry in total is extremely important.