Influential Woman · Healthcare and Medical Device Sales
Vicki Pratt
Healthcare and Medical Device Sales, --
Washington, DC
Her Story
About Vicki
My career in healthcare began when I was working as a phlebotomist handling cancer patients, where getting their veins was very difficult but so important for their blood work. An opening came up in the operating room to train as a surgical technologist, and I just went for it. After about two years of training and learning the trade, I became the operating room night manager, and then I decided to go into traveling, working for a traveling nursing company across over 15 hospitals throughout the U.S. I've worked in 13 different surgical specialties, from gallbladders to total knees and hips to putting tubes in little kids' ears. I didn't just know the surgical techniques - I took the time to understand the surgeons, even conducting surveys with them to learn what they wanted in their medical device reps. My last job was educating people on the vascular access team at MedStar Hospital in Washington, D.C., and nobody wanted to work with the vascular surgeons because they were very tough, but I was able to train staff so those vascular surgeons accepted them into the room, and everyone looked towards me to train them. After 20 years in the OR, I wanted to move into medical device sales, but companies said I didn't have sales experience, so I took time off from my job to learn sales and marketing, and I ended up with a 4.9 seller rating. I learned what appealed to clients, what kind of service they wanted, and I made transactions as easy as possible with open communication. I have my bachelor's degree in psychology and got my certification in being a life coach and in emotional intelligence, which helps me tailor my approach to each person because everybody learns differently - some through videos, some through pictures, some through reading. I believe in starting at the bottom and working my way up, just like I did when I started as staff at a fast food restaurant and moved up to manager, or when I went from phlebotomist to running my own lab site and training nurses.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Vicki
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to showing up, being diligent, and having a strong work ethic. Honesty is absolutely critical. I've also learned that if someone is abrasive to you, you can't take it personally - you have to understand the person and where they're coming from. For example, a surgeon can be very abrasive to medical sales reps, and you just have to accept it and understand where he's coming from, and just stay strong. I also got my certification in being a life coach and in emotional intelligence, and that helped me a lot to train other people. I would walk in and have a very upset surgical technologist who thought a surgeon hated her, and I would ask, did he tell you that? You have to let that go if he hasn't told you that - you can't carry that forward into a surgical procedure. You have to focus on what you're doing because you're there to help save a life or put somebody back into a better functioning of their world.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The most profound advice I ever received came from an operating room manager named Annette. There was a situation where myself and a registered nurse were getting a room ready for a patient and everything just fell apart, and the nurse went off the wall. We were brought to the operating room manager, and she looked at us and said, when you look at the situation now, can you tell me what you could have done better? That just sat me down. I will never forget that. It taught me about ownership, responsibility, and looking at the situation not with emotion, but asking what could I have done better. That was very profound.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
On the sales side, my advice is to be yourself. Don't try to be that feminine, cutesy little girl to get a sale. I've seen women walk out of the surgery room, and surgeons say, oh, she's just a Barbie doll. They weren't there for the procedure, they weren't there understanding the surgeon's goals. Be your authentic self, know the procedures - when you walk in the room, know the procedure, because that sets you apart. Immerse yourself into the whole ideal of it. Take the care, be a patient advocate. We always had that outlook: what if that was my mother around the table? You need to stay strong, even in the male-dominant medical field and device sales. You just gotta be your true self and be honest. Tell the truth. That's so important. It's about building trust.
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