As an director of international distribution and sales development for Molecular Biometrics, Marianne Vivian frequently travels overseas to manage clients in 11 different countries, from Australia, Japan, and Italy, to Central and South America, Israel, and China. She has packing down to an art: she only carries two black suits, two sweater sets, two pairs of shoes, and wears jeans or chinos. Her days are filled with meetings, trade shows or training sessions, as well as a lot of schmoozing with distributors or reps. And dealing with jet lag is mind-over-manner, says Vivian, a veteran salesperson who has worked in the woman’s and reproductive health areas for over 15 years. “No matter what time it is, I adapt to the country where I’m at, instead of saying to myself, ‘it’s 1 a.m. back home and I should be in bed.’ ”

Vivian, who works out of Molecular Biometric’s Norwood, Mass., office, represents their ViaMetrics-E product, a non-invasive procedure for assessing embryo viability in an IVF laboratory. The new technology is sold through distributors to clinicians, including embryologists and reproductive endocrinologists. Since the product is in the middle of a major release phase, Vivian spends a lot of time meeting with manufacturers, marketing and technical people as well as the legal and regulatory team, to work out the details before it hits the market.

Vivian started her sales and distribution career just after graduating from college with an English degree, when she decided she wanted a job that offered lots of personal contact and a challenge. She quickly learned that sales people need a thick skin – “you can’t take ‘no’ personally, because 99 percent of the time, it’s not about you.” Sales representatives like Vivian are considered by many to be recession-proof, because even in difficult economic times, a talented sales force can pull a company out of downturn.