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A Healthy Dose of Opportunity: Healthcare Sales and Marketing

By Kate McIntyre
Learning & Life Columnist

Boasting eight of the 20 fastest growing occupations in the country, the healthcare industry offers more opportunities than ever before. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 3.6 million new jobs will be created in healthcare by 2014, and these careers are not only for people with backgrounds in medicine. If you have training in sales, marketing, advertising, or PR, you might find that the healthcare industry is the perfect place to use your talents.

Marketing and Healthcare: A Perfect Match

Like any piece of merchandise, healthcare products (such as new medical devices or drugs) need effective marketing to maximize sales. As a healthcare product manager, you are responsible for creating a marketing concept for the product and designing a sales strategy that effectively shows off your product's attributes. You must convince customers (usually hospitals and medical offices) that they should use your product. As you gain experience in the industry, you might ascend to senior leadership roles, and your salary will move up with you.

Education for Your Sales Career

Earning your bachelor's degree in sales and marketing, or a liberal arts subject such as English or sociology, can get you started in your career. To advance to product and brand management positions, though, you should consider getting a master's degree in business administration (MBA) with a marketing emphasis. The MBA prepares you for such responsibilities as monitoring your product's position in the marketplace, setting prices, and overseeing the development and improvement of your product. Some companies help their employees to pay for MBA programs.

If you enjoy working with people, are never at a loss for fresh ideas, and have a keen attention to detail, healthcare product management could be a great career fit. Because the healthcare industry is growing so rapidly, it pays to get started now on a career in this exciting field.

Sources

• "Advertising, Marketing, Promotions, Public Relations, and Sales Managers," U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• "Five Careers: Big Demand, Big Pay," CNNMoney.com
• "Healthcare," U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

About the Author
Kate McIntyre, a fiction writer in Portland, Oregon, holds an M.F.A. in fiction writing from Oregon State University.

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