Dr. Izzhar Putra has noticed many similarities between medicine and the field he has pivoted to – sales and marketing. Much of the similarities he has noticed was gleaned in hindsight. While this may come as a surprise to many doctors, Dr. Izzhar Putra spoke to Disruptive Doctors on why physicians would do well in the field of sales and marketing.
Dr. Izzhar acquired his medical education in the UK and lived there for over a decade but adapting to work life in clinical medicine in Malaysia proved difficult. Choosing a better quality of life for himself, he transitioned to the field of sales and marketing primarily in the pharmaceutical and laboratory services industries.
He has been in the field for 10 years now and his most recent position was as Commercial Director for a private medical laboratory. The main thrust of his duties involved revenue generation for his company as well as overseeing the performance and wellbeing of his sales and marketing staff.
Urging young doctors to consider a career in sales and marketing because “it’s not that big of a leap” between the two fields, Dr. Izzhar shares the commonalities between them.
Both fields essentially involve studying human behavior The field of marketing is about creating value for a product or service in order to appeal to existing and potential customers. In order to know their existing and potential customers, marketers must have the ability to connect with their customers at a deep level. To do this, one must understand human behavior. Here is where medical education becomes relevant.
Studying communication and human behavior in medical school enabled Dr. Izzhar to work with his patients and relate to their family members. It was this exposure to communication and human behavior that was pivotal in aiding him to successfully transition to the field of sales and marketing and be able to understand his customers.
In fact, he feels that this strength in emotional quotient (EQ) has helped him to identify the rationale needed for particular sales and marketing strategies. “There are some intangibles that someone with EQ can pick up and use as leverage when strategizing” he says with a smile.
The human touch in managing human beings Practicing clinicians are well versed in handling human beings. This is another reason why doctors may effectively do well in the field of sales and marketing. Their medical training will help them to manage customers such as businesses, doctors, and consumers and aid in staff management.
A vast exposure to the nature of people is a rarity in other professions but doctors are well-accustomed to the different temperaments of people and are able to handle them well.
Despite being technical, medicine provides doctors with many transferable skills Doctors know how to speak to patients and their kin and are able to share their findings with colleagues. Invariably, this prepares doctors for potential public speaking and presentation opportunities which are very useful in the corporate world.
Further, for doctors, there’s no greater pressure like trying to keep a patient alive. Doctors are well trained in high pressure work environments and stressful situations and these become an asset in their new professions.
Additionally, clinical life prepares doctors for a structured / methodical way of doing things such as in how patients are approached, in asking the right questions, reaching the right diagnosis, selecting the appropriate treatment etc. Managing a business also requires being methodical. In managing a business especially after revenue has dipped, the manager has to ask the right questions, identify where the source of the problem might be, test some solutions and so forth. So the processes in sales and marketing and medicine are quite similar in that regard.
Setting priorities is also crucial in both medicine and marketing. Recognizing which patient requires a doctor’s urgent attention is similar to a marketer recognizing which task to attend to on a busy, hurried day.
Doctors also take an oath to serve with integrity. This sense of integrity includes being honorable and responsible. These values are prized in any industry and implies that business owners can safely entrust their business into the hands of doctors.
There’s more from Dr. Izzhar on Thursday… Be on the lookout!
Disruptive Doctors sincerely hopes that this article has enlightened you and given you the confidence needed for your career move. If you’re interested in learning more about it and other learning and development opportunities, please visit us at https://disruptive-doctors.com/academy/
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the doctors Disruptive Doctors (DD) has interviewed and are based entirely upon the information provided to us by them. Disruptive Doctors (DD) is not responsible for any inaccuracy of the information conveyed to us.
