Rep Survey Insight: Independent 1099 Medical Device Reps prefer selling with a Start Up Company over a Big Brand Company
A sample survey was conducted by targeting multiple divisions of our medical sales rep network with 5,751 total qualifying respondents. MedCepts continuously seeks to offer new insight to the latest trends within the medical sales industry. There is no better way to gain insight about medical sales reps than to go directly to sales reps. MedCepts has access to tens of thousands of medical sales representatives. Ultimately, this allows for an efficient way to gather answers to questions best answered by sales reps themselves!
More about our Survey:
In summary, 6,800 medical sales representatives received our survey. We sent 1,700 random medical reps, within each of four different network divisions an invitation to participate in our survey. Omitted* were sales representatives selecting more than one choice.
- Division 1. 1099 medical device reps.
- Division 2. 1099 capital equipment reps.
- Division 3. Salary Pharmaceutical Reps.
- Division 4. Salary Device Reps.
Omitted* examples. A direct* pharma rep promoting a 1099 line was excluded. Additionally, a contract rep receiving a base pay also promoting a 1099 commission only line was excluded. Finally, a rep receiving compensation not based on a sale and carried a 1099 product was excluded.
There were several unrelated questions to our survey we sought answers to. However, this article only addresses one of the questions.
“When selecting a company to represent as a sales professional, would you prefer to work with a “Big Brand Company” or a “Start Up Company?”
In addition, anonymous and optional comment areas were provided to explain the reason for their selection. However, an explanation was not a required field.
Nearly 90 percent of all independent medical device reps prefer representing products from a start up company over a big brand company.
A total of 2,917 Independent 1099 medical device reps and Independent capital equipment reps participated in this survey.
2,212 of the 2,917 independent reps stated they preferred to represent a start up company over a big brand company.
Independent medical device reps’ results (excluding the votes of the independent capital equipment reps) showed 1,323 voted for a start up company with 124 selecting they preferred a Big Brand company over a start up company. Therefore, nearly 90 percent of all 1099 device reps voted for a start up company.
Seventy seven (77%) of all 2,862 votes preferring a start up company were independent 1099 reps. (Capital equipment and device combined.)
Twenty three percent (23%) of 2,862 votes preferring to work for a start up company were direct* sales representatives. (Moreover, those without a clear preference were removed from participating in the survey.)
Direct* Sales reps in this survey are classified as a rep receiving any sort of base salary.
Survey to Sales reps reflects their preferences of working with a Start up Company or a Big Brand Company
There were 2,834 Survey participants stating they received a salary or hourly pay comp plan.
2,917 survey participants were completely independent, commission only on sales.
1,323 Independent Device reps and 889 independent Capital equipment reps chose working with a start up company over a Big Brand Company.
Direct* reps were the smallest two groups to select a start up company over a big brand company.
A total of 650 direct* reps of the 2,834 chose a start up company over a big brand company. 2,184 prefer working with a big brand company.
“I don’t need a big brand to close sales when it’s a good product. I’ll take a higher commission any day over a base pay arrangement. Instead of paying base to all the reps they could be paying the producing reps a whole lot .more! This would eliminate the not so good reps.” – a survey participant’s comment.
75% of Direct Salary Reps surveyed voted for working for a Big Brand Company over a Start Up Company
There were 2,889 total votes for all survey respondents voting for big brand companies. Direct Salary Reps preferred Big Brand Company Products over a Start Up company. 33% of the 3,607 the total votes for Big Brand companies. Pharmaceutical direct reps preferred Big brand companies with 27% voting for a big brand company. Contract sales reps were the third highest voting for a big brand company. 1099 device and 1099 capital equipment reps came in last with 4% of all votes for a big brand company.
Overall, there were numerous rep comments to support their selections. We chose 3 of the most popular and similar type responses as shown below.
1. Salary Pharma Rep. “The Corporate world with a Big brand budget is more likely to be stable offering me job stability.”
2. Independent Device Rep. “I don’t need a big brand to close sales when it’s a good product. I’ll take a higher commission any day over a base pay arrangement. Instead of paying base to all the reps they could be paying the producing reps a whole lot .more! This would eliminate the not so good reps.”
3. Independent Capital Equipment Rep. “If all sales reps were paid on results then it would weed out the unsuccessful reps. Ultimately, this would increase the quality of reps and get rid of the bad rap for reps.”