How the modern sales rep fits into today’s market.
By Pete Mercer
Developing a mastery of anything requires years of practice. Mace Horoff compares it to learning how to fly a plane. There are many measured steps that pilots must take before they can even get in the cockpit, even more before the plane can actually take off – learning how to pre-flight the plane, how to start the plane, how to taxi it on the ground, how to talk on the radio, etc.
It’s all about layering successful skills. You work at each one until you develop competency, and then you move onto the next one. “Mastery is developed over time, but competency is the bare essential. It’s the same thing in medical sales – there are multiple skills involved in becoming a successful medical sales rep,” he said.
Repertoire Magazine sat down with Horoff, author of Mastering Medical Sales – The Evolution – The Modern Playbook for Medical Sales Professionals, about his new book, how medical sales has changed over the years, and what it takes to be a successful medical sales rep in today’s market.
Creating value in a changing industry
This is not Horoff’s first book about medical sales. In 2010, he released Mastering Medical Sales – The Essential Attitudes, Habits & Skills of High-earning Medical Sales Professionals, a practical guide for how to navigate and succeed in the complex world of medical sales.
With his new book, Horoff wanted to provide a more contemporary look at medical sales because it has changed so much in the last 15 years. He wrote Mastering Medical Sales – The Evolution for new and emerging sales representatives, hoping to give them a toolkit that equips them to navigate the dynamic waters of this industry.
“Medical sales has become a lot more complex,” he said. “When I wrote the previous book in 2010, things like value analysis committees existed, and we were certainly dealing with GPOs and IDNs, but it’s intensified and the number of people who sit on value analysis committees has expanded. It’s become a lot more challenging for sales representatives to define the individual value propositions for each of the stakeholders.”
Due to technology innovations, the pandemic, and economic pressures, the industry has changed drastically in the last decade and a half. Horoff argues in his book that ‘just selling’ doesn’t cut it anymore. A good pitch can take you a long way, but your customers need to see value in the products they are purchasing.
Horoff said, “Value of medical sales is so much more than selling the product. We always talk about things like relationships and understanding customer needs – I call this the value creation imperative. How do we create this? You have to focus on a few very important areas: you have to understand the customer’s world and provide solutions that address specific needs within that world.”
Reps need to understand their challenges, their concerns, and what they do every day. Does your product fit into their world? “It’s important to respect that every person you call on is an individual and what’s important to one won’t be important to the other,” Horoff said.
The other way to create value is to provide solutions that address specific needs. Relevance is an essential piece of the puzzle in medical sales, but Horoff argues that there’s a misunderstanding about the types of relevance that make a difference. While you might be selling products that are perfectly relevant to your customers, it may not meet the “real-time relevant” requirements that make a difference.
Horoff developed real-time relevance as a means of selling that not only considers whether a product has relevance for your customers, but also whether it has relevance for them in the moments that you are speaking with them. “You need to earn the attention of your customers to be able to position a solution. How could you possibly position a solution if you don’t know what’s important to them?” he said.
Developing a deep practice routine
An essential part of developing a mastery of medical sales is implementing a deep practice routine. Layering successful skills, just like when you learn to fly a plane, can help you to further develop each skill as you progress.
Horoff argues that a deep practice routine can transform sales reps into a “triple threat.” For movie stars in the golden age of Hollywood, this meant that they could act, sing, and dance. For medical sales reps in 2025, it means someone with relationship skills, because nothing is more important than being able to build healthy relationships; technical skills, because you have to know your product inside and out; and selling skills, because you have to know how to go through the sales process.
The idea for layering successful skills is that you continue to develop your competency at certain skillsets, while introducing new ones into the mix. With all the resources available to the modern sales reps, it’s more accessible than ever to develop a mastery of medical sales.
“How lucky are we?” Horoff said. “We live in a time when artificial intelligence is exploding, and all these new tools are coming into the marketplace that allow you to practice in very realistic ways in private. You don’t have to do it in front of your colleagues, that role play every rep hates – but there’s no excuse not to practice now. If you want to achieve that top 1% in medical sales, you have to put in the work.”
Qualities of a high-quality sales representative
Competition is always high, especially in a market like medical sales where there are so many products that can accomplish the same objective. In a highly saturated market, the sales reps themselves can be the differentiators. For Horoff, a high-quality sales representative has several key qualities:
- Ongoing continuing education – Leveraging continuing education opportunities for yourself is a powerful way to level up your knowledge and experience. Horoff said, “If your doctors have to do it, you should too. Medicine is dynamic – it’s a science – and it’s literally changing every day. Doing little things like setting up Google alerts for the specialty you sell to goes a long way to keep up to date.”
- Organization is key – Organization could be the secret ingredient that sets you apart from other sales reps. When you keep things organized, you will have a better picture of the needs and challenges your territory is facing. “If you don’t control your time and develop a true understanding of your territory, you’re going to be leaving money on the table,” he said.
- Let the experts be experts – This can be particularly challenging for medical sales reps because when you are calling on these highly educated individuals, it’s easy to feel like you need to match their level of expertise. “When you understand that they are the experts, all you have to do is allow them to be the expert,” he said. “If you ask the right questions, they will tell you what it is you want them to know.”
Finally, the mission mindset is what keeps the sales reps in the game. “When they say no, that’s not going to stop you because it’s going to be your goal to ultimately do what’s best for that provider and their patients. Looking at your job as a mission instead of just a job to sell a product makes a dramatic difference in how you think, how you perform, and what your sales outcome will be.”
Being a triple threat as a sales rep means having:
- Relationship skills (Nothing is more important than being able to build healthy relationships)
- Technical skills (Knowing your product inside and out)
- Selling skills (Knowing how to go through the sales process)