Medical Sales Accelerator

Are you 100% bought in to the product you’re selling? If not, the world’s best poker face won’t help you; sooner or later, a lack of passion will show up in your numbers. Chase Isaacs, director of business development for Physician’s Weekly, believes the problem is that most reps are unable to move beyond conceptual knowledge of their product toward a deeper realization of its impact. Worse yet, they listen to respond but don’t listen to understand. We sat down with Chase to discuss how reps can develop a more mature sales process by self-evaluating their performance on three criteria: belief, listening, and care.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What it means to bear responsibility for providing solutions
• Why words are very rarely where the meaning lies (and how to bridge “language barriers”)
• When highly polished elevator pitches do more harm than good
• Why thinking MedTech sales is a “numbers game” usually leads to burnout

Plus, we explore how VR and other digital technologies are forcing reps to own value-based selling.

Resources and links from the show:

• Connect with Chase on LinkedIn
• Explore Physician’s Weekly
• The Behavior Change Blueprint
• Connect with Zed Williamson on LinkedIn
• Connect with Clark Wiederhold on LinkedIn
• The Growth-Driven Practice Series
• Get your copy of Move the Needle

How do you compete against a MedTech Goliath and maintain price integrity? We’re paying another visit to the archives this week so more industry underdogs can hear Trent Campbell’s killer advice.

Prior to his role as VP for Axonic Modulation Technologies, Trent logged a decade of experience in numerous National and Corporate Accounts roles with medical device companies including Atrium Medical (acquired by Maquet/Getinge), Applied Medical, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare. 

Trent knows that while status quo may be your competitor's greatest weapon—it’s also their biggest weakness. In this popular episode, he shares how new challengers with a disruptive technology can turn the tide by having a brave “clinical champion” in their corner and win with a focus on long-term value. If you've been searching for a strategy to reshape demand and avoid commoditization, this episode is for you! 

Resources and links from the show:

• Connect With Trent Campbell on LinkedIn
• Explore Axonics Modulation Technologies
• The Behavior Change Blueprint
• Connect with Zed Williamson on LinkedIn
• Connect with Clark Wiederhold on LinkedIn
• Sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter
• Sign up for the Growth-Driven Practice Series

Innovation can render existing products or procedures obsolete, but is poor positioning the real threat to your relevance in the market?  We’re back in the archives this week to highlight Mace Horoff’s excellent take on why more reps need to understand the moment-to-moment relevance of their product.

Mace is the creator of the Medical Sales Academy, a professional keynote speaker, and a 38-year frontline sales veteran. As the Academy’s lead medical sales expert, he helps sales managers think beyond quotas and coach their teams on product relevance—i.e., how their product solves the problems customers don’t even see coming.

In this practical discussion, Mace explains why “pending” business is worse than no business at all, how to be aggressive with your quota without being pushy toward customers, and why understanding your own inherent value as a rep is the key to new opportunities.

Resources and links from the show:

• Connect with Mace Horoff on LinkedIn
• Check out the Med Sales Academy
• The Behavior Change Blueprint
• Connect with Zed Williamson on LinkedIn
• Connect with Clark Wiederhold on LinkedIn

We're diving into the archives again this week to highlight another popular value-packed episode. Every rep wants competitive advantages in the market, but the "old method" of selling and catering to physician customers won't help you recognize them. Ben Bouterie's approach is a great example of how to unlock opportunities through practice development and value-based selling.   Ben is the regional sales director at Aerin Medical. As a 7-time President's Club winner, he's spent his career creating markets for disruptive technologies in multiple specialties. In this interview, he shares practical ways to position yourself as a trusted industry advisor versus a sales rep, and leverage this authority to gain trust and opportunities.   Ben's lessons on agitating the market and simplifying solutions for your customers are worth playing on repeat. If you're trying to dodge the downward spiral of commoditization and crush growth expectations, then this episode is for you!

This week, we're turning back the playlist and featuring one of the most popular episodes to date. Every sales professional in this field is interested in how they can break into new territories and develop net new accounts. Jay Pendleton's advice and conversation is the perfect answer for this challenge.

Director of Strategy and Talent for Medtronic Cranial & Spinal Technologies (CST), Jay's held various sales and leadership roles for the company, most recently the last 3 years as Zone Manager for the Western Strategic Spinal Technology team — responsible for driving market share growth and engaging key surgeon customers through differentiating technology (i.e. OLIF, Titan, Medicrea) with sales reps and district managers for the Rocky Mountain Texas & Pacific Regions.

Digging into his innate ability to open doors with new clients, Jay shares tips and insights for medical device reps to get past gatekeepers, develop new relationships, and break into new territories. If you’ve been listening to the podcast and you’re wanting an episode that’s super tactical for new business development, you don’t want to miss this one!

What if you could get patients to call in so quickly that you can hear your ad still running in the background? It might sound like wishful thinking, but for one MedTech company, it became reality. In this episode, Corey Oldenhuis, one of our behind-the-scenes producers, joins us as a guest host to help break down the recent orthopaedic advertising program that generated dozens of net new appointments in a matter of days.

We discuss how a market agitation playbook allowed the client to uncover a highly motivated patient population, secure surgeon buy-in, and use simple “old-school” platforms to unleash a new wave of demand.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to get patients to drive physician interest
• What it means to put empathy at the center of your messaging   
• Why the message always trumps the medium
• How brand obsession often stunts MedTech companies’ strategy
• The power of knowing what not to track during a campaign
• How patient education empowers your sales team

Resources and links from the show:

• Book Your Free Consultation at the AAOS 2021 Annual Meeting
• The Behavior Change Blueprint
• Connect with Zed Williamson on LinkedIn
• Connect with Clark Wiederhold on LinkedIn

Your brain is wired for shortcuts—what’s the biggest one you take daily? Accepting the status quo! The pain of change often outweighs current frustrations, and the MedTech industry is no exception. Stu Brandon, a change agent for ASCdx, spent the first 21 years of his career giving his best to a large orthopaedic company. But when the juice stopped being worth the squeeze, he embraced the unknowns and carved his own path. Now, as a medical device broker, he helps both geographically exclusive and non-exclusive companies deliver ASC solutions. We sat down with Stu to discuss why so many 1099 reps act like W2 employees, how they can take back freedom and work with people they like, and why their influence is only as strong as their ability to have candid conversations.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Where along your career path it makes sense to suffer short-term pain for long-term gain
• Why Company X would ever prefer a rep to sell Company Y’s product to their account
• The blind spots that can accompany a direct selling role at a large company
• The personality traits best-suited for the brokerage model
• How to test whether your best relationships would follow you to a different company

Plus, we dig into the psychological underpinnings of why we’re often our own barriers to growth.

Resources and links from the show:

• Connect with Stu on LinkedIn
• The Behavior Change Blueprint
• Connect with Zed Williamson on LinkedIn
• Connect with Clark Wiederhold on LinkedIn
• The Growth-Driven Practice Series

Is all the “strategic” selling you’ve been doing really just economic and clinical selling? If you’re not challenging your customers on their assumptions and identifying the real motives behind their goals, then congrats—you’re 90% of MedTech reps. Strategic value is the only way to differentiate yourself, but what does that look like to your physician partners?  We sat down with award-winning rep Jonathan Lehmann, enterprise sales manager for the East at Ambry Genetics, to discuss how he highlights his customers’ blind spots, boldly leads them on a clear course for the future, and gives them the growth tools they didn’t even know they needed.  

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to combine vulnerability with curiosity to take new ground
• What it means to use collusion in a positive manner
• The value of using “tactical courageousness” to identify your customer’s boundaries 
• Habits that help you conquer imposter syndrome

Plus, we explore the impact of routine journaling on both personal and professional development.  

Resources and links from the show:

• Connect with Jonathan Lehmann on LinkedIn
• The Behavior Change Blueprint
• Connect with Zed Williamson on LinkedIn
• Connect with Clark Wiederhold on LinkedIn
• The Growth-Driven Practice Series
• The Waterproof Notepad for Your Shower Thoughts

Promise or pain—which is the stronger motivator? We know it’s the latter from decades of behavioral science. But Jonathan Burkett knew the answer long before many of his device rep competitors did. After an experiment gone right, he became an advocate for breaking down corporate silos and helping physician partners speak straight to patient pain points. Now, as director of MedTech market strategy for TrackableMed, he’s an architect of “win-win-win” scenarios: more patient access to life-changing therapies, more trust in the healthcare system, and more business for clients. In this interview, we discuss why he bought into the TrackableMed vision, how he stopped selling products and started revealing possibilities, and some of his best “out-of-the-box” solutions.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

- How to align sales and marketing through a focus on patient education

- The humble origins of a big idea that led to the creation of TrackableMed

- How Jonathan’s passion for marketing evolved over 30+ years in the industry  

- Why market agitation triggers loss aversion and faster utilization rates among physicians

-Why the wisest reps never attack their competitors’ products

Plus, we touch on the impact that patient education has made on the industry since the ‘90s.

Resources and links from the show:

• Connect with Jonathan Burkett on LinkedIn
• The Behavior Change Blueprint
• Connect with Zed Williamson on LinkedIn
• Connect with Clark Wiederhold on LinkedIn
• The Growth-Driven Practice Series

It’s great to have the backing of a key opinion leader, but do the folks in the trenches respect your product? Anesthesiologist Dr. Aaron Ali has witnessed scores of MedTech companies fail to design devices that take into account the needs of everyone in the operating room. The problem? Not enough access to the voice of the customer. That’s why Dr. Ali co-founded MedtoMarket with a mission to collect a multitude of valuable perspectives under one roof. We sat down with him to discuss the spirit behind MedtoMarket’s massive facility for co-working, consulting, and advanced medical training.  

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How MedTech companies can tap into the “360° perspective” of an operating room
• The limitations of developing devices on university campuses   
• Why every physician needs more than humdrum conferences to further their education
• How stronger collaboration between startups and practicing physicians improves patient care

Plus, we look at ways to step back from bureaucracy and get a more holistic view of customers. 

Resources and links from the show:

• Connect with Dr. Ali on LinkedIn
• Check Out MedtoMarket
• The Behavior Change Blueprint
• Connect with Zed Williamson on LinkedIn
• Connect with Clark Wiederhold on LinkedIn
• The Growth-Driven Practice Series