Focus on the “Medmainer” - Takahiro Yamazaki
My name is Daiki, I work in recruitment and PR team at Medmain Inc.
The member that we feature today in “ Medmain Speaks” is Takahiro Yamazaki from the sales team. Before joining Medmain, Takahiro was working as a medical representative at one of the major Japanese pharmaceutical companies.
“What made him to be interested in the medical industry in the first place?”
“What’s behind his decision to move from a pharmaceutical company to an IT startup?”
“What is the thing ‘engrossing”him?”
Let’s find out.
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Profile: After graduated from Tohoku Pharmaceutical University, obtained his pharmacist license, then started his career as a medical representative at Astellas Pharma Inc, where he was in charge of the pharmaceutical products related to prostate cancer and leukemia. He has a track record of leading the sales office he was in to achieve the highest implementation rate as a project leader for new products. He was selected as the youngest member of the company’s programs. With a desire to be a part of solving medical issues and to build a career at the forefront of the AI era, he joined Medmain in October 2019 and is responsible for sales in Eastern Japan.
What made him decide to work in the medical field
Why did you choose a career in the medical industry?
My parents worked in the medical industry, so I have been interested in the field since I could remember. Though I was not completely sure about if I wanted to work in medical industry when I was choosing a career path in high school, I decided to go on to the College of Pharmacy. At there, more than about 90% of the students had been aiming to become pharmacists there but for me, becoming a pharmacist was not my final goal.
At that time, I got to know about one of the professions “ Medical Representative”.It was interesting for me to study about medical related facts, so I was looking for a job where I could make use of my knowledge in medical field. At that time,I got an opportunity to participate in an internship at Astellas Pharma Inc. I became attracted to sales representative jobs, such as making presentations in front of many people. There I could work with excellent colleagues and improved ourselves by learning from each other . Through these experiences, I decided to look for a job where I can start my career as MR, and as a result, I ended up joining Astellas Pharma Inc.
Encounter with Medmain
Please tell us the story of your career in the pharmaceutical industry and how you decided to join Medmain.
Working as an MR was interesting and rewarding, but I started to feel that I wanted to do something that solves medical issues more directly. Due to many pharmaceutical regulations, information that MR can give the doctors are limited, so sometimes I could not tell the doctors everything that I wanted them to know so that they can solve their essential problems which made me feel frustrated often. So I was seeking for an environment where I could work as a Solution Sales Specialist to introduce useful products to customers. Then I decided to look for a new job.
Another reason is that I have an ambition to work to help people on a global scale. There was an event organized by “The Association of Pharmaceutical Students’ - Japan” that I belonged to when I was a college student. It was a two-week program held in Taiwan where students got together from different countries and shared medical issues and experience cultural differences. At the event I had the opportunity to visit one of a Taiwanese hospitals and had discussions with multinational students. The experience made me to want to be a person who works globally. So when I joined Astellas Pharma Inc, I had hoped to work in an international related department, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. When I was looking to change jobs, I wanted to work at a company that had the potential to go global.
One of the companies I applied to was Medmain. I had already heard about Medmain and Osamu(our CEO) from one of the articles on the Internet, but what made up my mind to finally apply for the job was that I felt the job met my desired conditions, being able to solve problems and having the potential to play an active role on a global scale in the future. Also it is a startup company, so I thought I could be a part of the members who build the service from scratch. I was genuinely interested in what Medmain is trying to do, using advanced AI technology to solve problems in the medical field, which was another reason I strongly wanted to join the company.
What are your impressions of Medmain after joining?
I feel that many of the members are highly communicative and friendly, at the same time they have professionalism. In terms of communication, I have the impression that the members immediately grasp requests of the others and responded to them accordingly. In changing jobs, whether or not I fit culturally in the team was very important for me, so I asked them to let me see as many members as possible during the selection process. My impression I felt back then was that “I can work hard together toward a common goal with them” and I still have this impression even now.
Working at Medmain
So, what kind of work do you do at Medmain?
Currently, I am based in Tokyo and conducts sales activities focusing on hospitals in the eastern Japan. The first step is to analyze the current situation and formulate a hypothesis of the issues that the customer is facing. Of course, the issues are different from hospital to hospital, but there are also trends in different prefectures and regions, so we make sales strategies and make appointments according to the trends. We already have business relationships with some hospitals, but we also develop new customers. We call hospital’s representative number and ask them to connect to the person in charge,or we ask medical professional to introduce us to another person in charge. Sometimes we try to contact them directly through SNS. Once an appointment is made, we set interviews to talk with them and see if our solutions match the issues that they are facing. In addition to talking about the issues, we explain how Medmain can solve those.
Do you have any important things to keep in mind in your business activities?
I think the most important thing is to make myself being into the product I am selling. For me, that is “To be responsible for the products I am selling” and “conducting sales activities with the sense that I am the one who solves the customer’s problems.That way, I meet so many people who would cooperate with me and Medmain, and as a result, they help us meet more customers who are in need of our solutions. When I conduct sales activities and meet customers, I try to convey the message that “With the power of technology, we would love to work together with you to solve the problems”. Strategies might be also important in sales activities of course, but I think it’s more important to be “engrossed”about it.
Finally, to our future members,
Do you have any message for those who are thinking about joining Medmain?
I think that the service that we are developing has high potential. It is great to see that the power of technology could solve problems that medical affiliates are facing, both domestically and internationally. In addition, introducing products or service that do not yet exist in the world is such a valuable experience. I can listen to our customers in the medical field and solve problems together as if it is a project team.
Thank you so much!
Takahiro was often using the term"engross” during the interview. He said that as a Medmain’s sales representative, there are many moments when he is “engrossed”to something.
In Medmain Speaks, we’ll continue to tell you his future endeavors!
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