Medical Sales Accelerator

Should a father, husband, and physician charged with the care of critically ill patients have to ask "an adult" to co-sign on a $2,000 personal loan? Of course not. Yet that's the message Michael Jerkins, MD, M.Ed, kept hearing from banks during his residency—and his frustrations became the fuel for co-founding Panacea Financial. We sat down with Michael to learn how his "bank built for doctors, by doctors" does things differently. Join us as we discuss the overlooked financial stresses of transitioning from med school to residency and beyond, financial options that can help junior partners buy into a practice, and smarter ways to consolidate student loan and credit card debt.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Valuable lending insights to pass along to customers
• The "learned helpless" that's holding docs back financially
• How physicians can finance a practice buy-in without liens
• The biggest financial barriers at each stage of a physician's care

Plus, we dig into why personal relationships—not balance sheets—should drive banking.

What does it take to get noticed by the biggest names in MedTech in 2022? Whether you're after compensation that's commensurate with your skillset or simply crave a more adventurous role, you'll need get inside the minds of hiring managers. Luckily, that's exactly where premier MedTech recruiter David Bagga spends a ton of his time. We sat down with the author of "A Millennial's Guide to Breaking into Medical Device Sales" to find the pulse of the job market and discuss pandemic-era trends. Join us as we explore the surprising reason why start-ups are the most requested placement among candidates right now, the kind of candidate that today's hiring managers never want to see, and some deal-breaking social media faux pas to avoid.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Strategies for better utilizing your LinkedIn network
• Why David avoids placing candidates in aesthetic jobs
• The top 5 things that cause reps to look for greener pastures
• Why everyone has a brand now, for better or worse (and how to manage yours)
• The truth behind expensive MedTech skill courses that promise you a job

Plus, we define the 'curse of knowledge'—and why you need to break it to land a better role.

You're out there grinding in the trenches—you don't always have time to sift a show's 60+ episodes to find the hardest-hitting sales insights. That's why we condensed six pearls of medical sales wisdom across six different episodes to help you move the needle. The goal for 2022 is simple: listen, apply, improve. While some of these concepts may seem straightforward enough, putting them into practice and upping your game is anything but. Join us to hear a recap of discussions with Trent Campbell, Garrett Watson, Dustin Poole, Jacob McLaughlin, and Thomas Buchanan.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why you need to stop winning and losing on price
• What it means to own criticisms and respond with empathy
• Why it pays to shift your mindset away from sales (and toward education)
• What it looks like to embrace failure and build from it
• How to leverage technology to stay top of mind

Plus, we explore the modern rep's responsibility to empower the patient.

"Honey, I crunched the numbers and... we don't need to work anymore." That's what Chris Larsen, a longtime investor and former medical device sales rep, told his wife some years ago. His secret? Hustling smarter, not harder. As Chris puts it, MedTech often attracts go-getters from working-class upbringings who aren't taught how to be rich—i.e., how to make their money work for them. We sat down with the founder and current manager of Next Level Income himself to learn how he managed to save 50% of his compensation and strategically structure his income. Join us as he maps out the journey to financial independence for the average MedTech rep and busts some money management myths.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why the best entrepreneurs avoid 'destination addiction'
• Some necessary trade-offs to achieve financial freedom
• How to respect your own limits and still set bold targets
• The financial flops you won't hear successful investors brag about at cocktail parties
• Why retiring in your forties isn't as far-fetched as you might think

Plus, we explore how entrepreneurialism also tends to make people rich in unique human experiences.

Is your physician customer's convoluted approach to accounting hurting your business? Perhaps. Without a healthy business behind the clinic, there's frustratingly little you can do to help a doc treat more patients. As part of TrackableMed's Growth-Driven Practice Series for 2021, Matt Garrett of TGG Accounting administered a dose of harsh truth to practice owners: Accounting for small businesses is black and white—stop overthinking it. As we discuss some of the eye-opening stats Matt presented, you'll discover why "accrual accounting is the only accounting," the shocking prevalence of small-business theft (plus the best ways to guard against it), and three hard-and-fast rules that simplify accounting across the board.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How cash-based accounting leads to inaccuracies that come back to bite a business
• The truth behind Matt's mantra, "Creative accountants go to jail"
• How someone siphoned $1 million from a practice by exploiting negligent accounting
• Why it's best for most practice owners to use two separate sets of books
• How fixing broken practice accounting allows docs to do more of what they love.

Plus, we explore popular misconceptions that unnecessarily complicate accounting for physicians.

It's high time you let yourself suck at something new—in fact, it could be the best thing you do for your MedTech career in 2022. You're probably familiar with the concept of fixed vs. growth mindsets as outlined in psychologist Carol Dweck's landmark book "Mindset." But mere surface knowledge of the daily tips, tricks, and techniques she popularized won't revolutionize your career. In this special book review episode, we explain why most MedTech reps manage a growth mindset in some areas but fall into a fixed mindset where it really counts. Discover the problem with "problem territories," why pointing fingers at marketing doesn't make you a better sales rep, and how to combat your customers' fixed mindsets.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why being your hardest critic causes you to miss more opportunities
• How to acknowledge failure in a healthier, more constructive way
• The reason we tend to seek comfort from our own faulty assumptions in social situations
• Practical steps for replacing self-deprecation with course-altering questions
• Why "smart" kids often grow up to be risk-averse adults

Plus, we explore adopting what works—and discarding what doesn't—from the mindsets of colleagues and competitors.

Is your physician partner lacking what's known as 'conversational capacity'? If so, they may be alienating staff, botching the patient experience, and hurting their bottom line. This week, we're sharing communication techniques from leading consultant Craig Weber that might just save a struggling medical practice and give you, the MedTech partner, a competitive advantage in the process. As we define 'conversational capacity' and how to deploy it in everyday scenarios, you'll discover the biases and 'ego traps' that plague medical practices and how physicians can make their most difficult conversations with staff more effective.

In this episode, you'll also learn:

• Why authority is No. 1 killer of conversational capacity, and how you can help docs be aware of this
• How overly candid people steamroll others and why overly curious people get nothing done
• Reasons a team member might consciously decide not to report an issue they're seeing
• 3 key questions that immediately remove roadblocks from internal meetings
• Why it's a rep's responsibility to impart techniques that could save a medical practice

Plus, we get explore how leaders—physicians or otherwise—can meaningfully address a lack of trust.

As a company grows and matures, how should its culture change? Some think it shouldn't change at all… and MedTech market development specialist Michael Waidler thinks they're half right. Michael is a President's Club winner and current area business director with Palette Life Sciences. And though the hustle-and-grind ethic of start-up culture courses through his veins, he understands change that is inevitable—and that every rep has a different threshold for it. Join us as we discuss what shifting company culture can reveal about you as a sales professional, how leaders can better prepare their teams for the realities of acquisition, and what a growth-driven culture looks like.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What it means to be folded into—and not steamrolled by—a larger organization
• How a team's transition from "nothing to lose" to "everything to lose" impacts a rep's mindset
• Why change isn't scary at all (so long as your company has the right stop gaps in place)
• Warning signs that your culture might be changing for the worse
• How to use the Predictive Index to find appropriate fits as you scale (or start from scratch)

Plus, we touch on the necessity of self-awareness when charting a career path.

Are your own mannerisms, body language, and tone working against you in high-stakes conversations? Almost certainly, says Shelly O'Donovan, communication expert and CEO of Authentic Influence Group. She's coached scores of executives and sales teams in MedTech and Pharma on how to be more conscious of nonverbal communication, and we caught up with her to learn how MedTech reps can recognize dozens of subtle, largely subconscious behaviors to secure buy-in, preserve trust, and drive business. Join us as we discuss the prehistoric reason why you should never talk with your hands in your pockets, how learning to read micro-expressions will impact the questions you ask people, and simple ways you can practice 'reading the room' to better manage conversations.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How to wean yourself off 'blocking behaviors' that can stunt dialogue
• What your suprasternal notch is, and how it releases hormones that help you calm down
• Why handshakes are worth at least 3 hours of quality face time
• Why your phone calls go better when you're looking at the person's profile picture
• How your smart phone can inhibit an in-person conversation—even when you're not using it

Plus, we talk about where (and when) you should be directing your eyes while speaking on Zoom calls.

Can you put a price on perspective? Believe it or not, it's the most important thing you have to offer a physician. That's why this week we're revisiting our chat with Amy Smith, director of marketing at Neuros Medical, to shine a light once again on the strategic advantages sales reps can realize through practice observation and candid communication. As Amy puts it, MedTech reps can only level up their relationships when they learn to identify and convey the unique blind spots that threaten each medical practice's business operations. In one of our very first (and most popular) episodes, you'll learn the importance of building a 360-degree knowledge base of each medical practice and its key role, what to look for when it comes to patient experience and the patient flow throughout a practice, and how to ultimately become the outside eyes and ears that most physicians never knew they needed.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Proven strategies for practice observation
• How to share uncomfortable feedback with your physician clients
• Why you're never as persuasive as when you commit to active listening
• The power of shadowing each team member in a medical practice for a day

Plus, we discuss why it's so critical to dive deep into the complexities and truly understand how a medical practice operates as a business.