Medical Sales Nation

You need a mindset change going to a start up. If you are asking "what am I getting" vs. "What am I willing to Give", the getting mindset will be a major disappointment. MedTech startups are a process, not an event, and the payoff...if any...will be years down the road. Personal payoff and the art of giving of you time, thoughts, critical thinking and more is where you will "get" but you won't know it for years.

This is a 10 and under podcast where I am asked questions to give my thoughts. This one is about passion vs. career and asked by my daughter Dominique. We are an accumulation of our life experiences and this podcast dives into that to find that passion and how you have no idea where it will take you. Hang tough

Tom Patzelt and I go on to the next step in Medtech commercialization as an initiative with Value Proposition creation. After the team is aligned on the commercial strategy, the team shares their insights and vision for the product/service, Qualitative research has been the next step are getting the value propositions right.

With all evolutions change is obviously the mental obstacle that needs to be overcome. The way in which MedTech commercializes products via a 30 year old process won't optimize the chances of great products to come to market. It's not 2003. Tom and I lay out the steps needed to align a company to get ready to de-risk commercialization. If you are looking at a role with a start up or a new product roll out we give more guidance on asking the right questions to understand the culture around commercialization. It is your career so take it as serious as a heart attack. De-risk your choices by understanding commercialization as an initiative and process versus those that think the product will sell itself.

Tom Patzelt and I discuss the first stage in the new era of commercialization and how the "this product will sell itself" delusion that many startups/new product launches believe will not be successful . The point is not to point out failures but to share best practices and how to launch a product in this new era. Commercialization should start 12 month prior to an expected FDA clearance and not 90 days before as is the norm today.

The next series of podcasts will be focused on building a commercialization strategy from a start up/new product perspective that enhances product adoption from day 1 of launch. Tom Patzelt and I share our thoughts on building and sharing blueprints on how to commercialize products in this always evolving MedTech space. This is the intro with more to come.

Short Podcast to express my support and thanks for the entire medical sales community. You should all be proud of the work you do healing our healthcare system.

Interview with Chris Ernster the VP of sales and Marketing at SRS medical. We dive into how to successfully work with a board and investors, the clinical leadership as a sales rep that is needed, the difference of creating a market and taking share, and how the foundations of sales will always be essential. His 30 years of experience is definitely worth the listen. This is a lot of fun to listen to and learn.

Great conversation with Mike Moore discussing everything from selling skills, the new inside sales force in medtech, using LinkedIn as a personal strategy, and the skill set behind selling to the office as hospitals lock reps out.

I'm thrilled to have Keith Valentine on the podcast who is the President and CEO of Seaspine. We go through a little history on the early days of spine and how if it wasn't for someone like Ron Pickard the spine industry would look completely different. We dive into what Keith looks for in his team and the future of spine.

Bombs and more bombs of insight with Ted Newill. We dive into the impact of COVID on medtech commercialization on it's impact on: Ted drops this at the end of the podcast: "You can be better than your competition" Damn straight but it takes new skills and a new way of thinking. 1)Conventions 2)Marketings new role as the bomber to soften to ground for the foot soldier to make greater in roads. 3)Evolution of the sales process and the new skills sets that need to be developed to sell more 3)Changes in sales access and what to do 4)Sales management and the skills and tools needed to develop your team 5)Startup nation needs to adapt to the new access challenges to sustain new technologies. 6) More

Tom Patzelt joins us with his 28+ years in the medical technology field holding many roles and specializing in go to market strategies and forging new analysis and execution as our new normal evolves. We discuss how marketing in medtech needs to lead the customer/provider conversation using Digital technologies to virtually kick in the door that softens the front lines so reps have easier access. Why is this important? No way are companies launching new products and implementing the old school sales reps tactics of cold calling and thinking it will work. Why? No sales access - we have OR access to cover a case but selling has a new normal and we, the commercial team, have to become one to be successful. Take a seat and listen in as we talk about the new commercial normal.

We take a deep dive into the awesomeness of being a member of the medical device community with Matthew Ray Scott of Feed the Agency. This was so much fun that I had to get this podcast out right after the recording. Matthew drops his bombs, experiences and positivity around sales, distributors, the health of our healthcare system, and that sales training skills need to develop in this covid world and to embrace the tools to get there. We go into how his company is helping providers and device companies to get the word out about their products and services. Please enjoy

Joe Mullings going deep on the future of Medtech sales by Medical Sales Nation

Back by popular demand!! Bruce Radcliff the VP of Strategic Sourcing at the Aurora Advocate Health system gives his thoughts, perspective and some thoughts on post Covid. Bruce is a wonderful guest as he opens up and shares what he sees our going to be all our challenges in healthcare and once again how to vendors should interact with providers as we come out of the Covid crisis. This is a must listen for any medical sales professional.

Eko Health is healing our healthcare system and has been for a few years. Connor Landgraf is the Co-Founder and CEO of Eko Health, this is his first job out of Berkley where he earned is Masters in Bioengineering. Connor takes us down the path of how Eko started and how they plan on changing the world of cardiac care. This amazing technology utilizes AI to help doctors improve their diagnosis of heart and lung conditions so that the patients are put on the appropriate path of care. This obviously improves outcomes and saves money both healing our healthcare system. Follow Eko Health as they will be a rising star in the Digital Healthcare Market space.

In these uncertain times we search out for wisdom and vision in others to help us navigate these times. I could not think of anyone better that has navigated some tough situations, personally and professionally, to help bring some clarity to our medical device world. I'm proud to have the Company Group Chairman from DePuy Synthes, Aldo Denti, share his thoughts on career development, critical thinking in making changes to your career trajectory, and our future in the Covid aftermath. He shares some powerful thoughts on never underestimating oneself and take the choice to develop skills you don't have for the 2nd job after the one you are in. We discuss the top 3-4 areas where the commercial side of healthcare sales will be impacted, Rep Access is a key topic along with digital health and creating suites of IOT connected devices that communicate with each other to reach levels of efficiency to heal our healthcare. Once again, sit back and enjoy the ride, and listen to see if you can tell i'm at home recording this great interview.

In uncertain times we seek out those that can shed some light on what our future might look like and how to stand strong. There is no one better at painting that vision than Aldo Denti the Group Chairman Deputy Synthes. Aldo Share with us his career and his inner guides he uses and shares with others to make the best choices for themself. We dive deep into his career and the ups and downs and the surprises along the way. We also dive into the changes the Covid pandemic will cause in our healthcare industry. We can't look at changes as all bad, there is a lot that will help make the needed changes that will heal our healthcare. If you have or know a college graduate have them tune in as Aldo donates his time to Florida State University to mentor and guide our future. Telehealth/digital health and sales rep access are two points that we cover and acknowledge will change but will give us new opportunities to provide more value. Please take the time to listen, this is one of my favorite interviews and well needed at this time.

Digital health care is here and it will continue to change our healthcare marketplace. I received a lot of messages around this subject and was asked to try to do a podcast on Digital Health. I'm excited to have Dr. Lyle Berkowitz join us to discuss the 101 basics and history of Digital Health. Dr. Berkowitz is a primary care physician, entrepreneur, author, former CMO at MDlive, and consults on IT in the healthcare field for many entities. He has been involved with IT in healthcare since the beginning of his schooling. We find out that a lot of these concepts, such as AI, were discussed in the 1960's. Digital health will continue to evolve and morph into specific areas of care over the next decade, be a student of your profession and dive deep into this areas of growth.

Healthcare is moving from Fee for service to Value Based Care/payments. This basically means that providers will be reimbursed based on the quality of the care and outcomes, 85% of all payments will be Value Based by 2025 and the move is on now. As a commercial representative of Medtech/Pharma/ Biotech we need to understand how our market place is changing and evolving. In this pod cast Rachel and Bob focus on how we can think about advancing our knowledge and skill sets to be a stronger resource to our customers.

I interview Tom Williamson, the CCO of Tissue Tech and a friend of mine from my Entellus days. We go on a walk through his career starting off as a engineer and ending up in sales and marketing. We discuss our time at Entellus, the characteristics of successful reps, the truth behind going to a start up, training, and the great technology coming out of Tissue Tech that will light the field on fire.

ave Renker Is an Executive Search Consultant at The Mullings Group, he has held C level positions in premier device companies and built world class teams throughout his career. Dave shares his thoughts and insights on the MedTech industry during these challenging times with the Corona Virus. We talk about current trends, what may change the Medtech/hospital landscape forever, how to use LinkedIn to job search and get noticed, how to prepare for a new job search and more. A timely conversation in an unknown world as we see it today. We will overcome together as a community and be stronger to take on greater challenges.

A fascinating dive into Digital health with a Chicago startup ExplORer Surgical. Jennifer Fried, the Co-Founder and CEO, takes us on a journey unlocking the potential of real time, real life learning for providers to uncover potential efficiencies and best practices to heal our healthcare by capturing data. Device Companies need to pay attention to this competitive advantage that ExplORer Surgical offers as they can provide extended learning and training for sales reps and the providers they interact with on a daily basis. R&D you will love ExplORer Surgical and how they can help collect data that provides insights to product strengths and potential areas of improvement before a full launch. Listen to this podcast twice, there is so much here that so many of us can benefit from to heal our health care system.

Ryan Shelton is a Co-Founder and CEO of PhotoniCare, a company that is helping heal our healthcare system by utilizing Optics and Photonics to more accurately diagnose fluid levels in the middle ear. His journey started because his new born kept getting ear infections for his first year and he, as most entrepreneurs, said there has to be a better way. PhotoniCare's technology has the potential to help so many little kiddos and improve the diagnosis for tube procedures and improve the use of Antibiotics. This is huge!! Rain is a brilliant engineer and great guy as well, please sit back and enjoy.

I'm interviewing Rachel Armstrong who is a thought leader in quality and evidence based strategy, value based payments and the future of health care based quality outcome measurements. We take our first stab at trying to lay the foundation of how our field of medical sales is and will change as we move away from fee for service payments to Value based payments based on quality and outcomes. This is just an introduction to the topic and Rachel has agreed to do some follow ups where she can go deeper on just a few topics. Hold on tight, grab a pen and paper and start taking notes.

Interview with Robert Greenberg the Executive Chairman of the Alfred Mann Foundation. Robert has his MD and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and was the co-founder, President, and CEO of Second Sight. He started his career with the FDA was recruited by Al Mann and the rest is history. We dive into his work, past, present, and get a glimpse of what type of work the Al Mann Foundation is doing and how it's helping all types of startups get to market. A great story, a great listen and a great future ahead.

Interview with Omar Khateeb the Director of Growth at Potrero medical. We dive into their genius smart catheter the Accuiryn smartcath and Its' use of predictive analytics and AI to deliver data to healthcare providers to aid in making decisions to prevent Acute Kidney Injury. We also dive deep into our MedTech world, discuss value based payments, future of robotics, and how we must be students of our MedTech world to stay relevant.

Charlie is back in the house, going deep dropping his knowledge on sales training and why sales pros resist training. He dives into the emotional and logical brain and what holds people back from absorbing the information. No one likes roleplays, and I share how my first roleplay experience was horrifying. Uncle Charlie describes his methodologies on creating a learning environment around roll plays....genius. I've seen it work and it alters a sales training program across the board. Enjoy Charlie's sales development bombs, they are always the best.

If you are selling to hospitals this is a must listen to podcast. Bruce Radcliff is the VP of strategic sourcing with the Advocate Aurora Health system and we dive into: Supply Chain Value equation, Consolidation in the industry, Positioning your company's entry point, patient-focused products, thoughts on commodities, what he looks for in reps and companies, What he needs from Startups and how he can help, and the big hype around Robotics, AI, big data and the lack of the companies understanding how to bring actual value through Translational Medicine.

Jeff is the CEO of Valencia Technologies and I had the honor to work for him at 2 start-up medical device companies. We dive into his story, how a JAG attorney become a successful CEO of 2 companies that were sold for a combined $3.5 Billion and how he is using his experience building out Valencia Technologies. We go into leadership, team building, people and process, how integrity and honesty must be held high in times of struggle. Just a great interview with a great leader of people and companies.

I take a deep dive with CEO and founder Kaushal Solanki of EyeNuk. We go into how he started, secret government stuff, then how he used that experience to solve a problem that his father was diagnosed with as well as an eye diagnosis he himself was given. This is the intersection of AI, Deep Learning and predictive analytics which is the future of MedTech. This is a great entrepreneurial story and the journey has just started.

Julie Allen from The Allen Partners is an executive search consultant in the medical device field and happens to be one of my favorite people in the business. We go into how she got into the search business and the approach she takes to find a perfect match. She also started a coaching business that I used and referred two friends to and had an incredible experience. Her Coaching goes Deep into the person, passion and puts one on a path to discover the best company that you could work for and would love to have you on the team. Enjoy

A fun interview with Johathan Gunn of Briteseed based out of home sweet home Chicago. Sit back and enjoy and keep Briteseed on your radar as they take over the MIS instrument market place. Briteseed is a forward-thinking company committed to making minimally invasive surgery safer and more efficient. Briteseed is creating the next generation of laparoscopic and robotic surgical tools that provide real-time detection and visualization of hidden blood vessels, ureters, and other sensitive structures using advanced optics and artificial intelligence.

Charlie and i continue the discussion on how to build a sales force at a start up, turn around or upscale a current team. This series is based on our experience, where we have arrived today is based on many stumbles along the way. This our life expereinces, others may disagree which is fine, this is us sharing to help anyone that might want to lean in and learn from our ups and downs along the way.

An Interview with Cory Kidd the CEO of Catalia Health, Catalia is the type of company that is leading the MedTech revolution in our health care system by incorporating AI, Machine Learning and actual robots. The Catalia Health platform tailors conversations to each patient to obtain the hard-to-get data about treatment, challenges, and outcomes daily. The Mabu wellness coach, which is the robot communicating with the patient, is the key to long-term patient engagement to enhance outcomes and improve dialog with the patient. The Conversations actually evolve so that the interaction between Mabu and the patient becomes personalized. Incredible.

A great conversation with a West Point Grad and executive performance leadership coach, Jim Nalepa. He goes deep on what should be expected from Leaders, from yourself and your team. Accountability is the key focus and we learn about the Platinum rule vs. the Golden rule. Great Stuff, hand on to your seat it's a fast paced conversation on leadership.

We have been asked to share our thoughts on how sales, marketing, and R&D should interact with the customer in mind or why there are issues in some organizations not getting along. A big conversation. So we thought we would start this conversation by discussing the step by step process of creating a sales organization. We believe that creating a collaborative process from the start of building a commercial team will avoid most commercial issues otherwise known as "bickering". These podcasts are based on our experience, success, and failure, and I know there are other ways to succeed as well and are not claiming this is the only way. We wanted to share what has worked for us and we hope it's helpful whether you are a District or Regional manager or you are getting your first VP of sales job.

A deep dive into the understanding of a MedTech Venture Capitalist and how they see the future, how we should prepare for a startup opportunity and how to get his attention if you are an entrepreneur

Charlie and I dive into the lost art and the need to go back to coaching and developing sales professionals to enhance everyone's skill sets. We talk about the overuse of the CRM systems as a crutch and some stories on we learned from some of the best from good old fashion ride with's and field coaching. Lastly, you get to enjoy some dogs barking in the background to add some spice.

This podcast is titled "Negotiation basics to hit Quota," which is a natural follow up from the last podcast on overcoming pricing objections through a sales process. We touch on interest-based negotiations, purchasing tactics to be aware of, controlling your emotions, and concession strategies. Moreover, when to walk away to fight another day and keep the doors open for further business opportunities. Enjoy

Every day a sales person is working to define the value of their product or service, they are thinking about or dealing with the issue of price. It starts when the prospective customer asks: “What is the Price”, before the sales person has presented the value of the product/service. A simple way to answer the price question is to just tell them the price. A simple rule should be, state the list price and move on to selling value.

We are taught to demonstrate the features and benefits of our products. The value propositions the company provide us may not flow easily for you when speaking with a medical professional. When it comes to the medical provider, do they see our stated benefits as a value to their Patients, Practice and the Practitioner?

It’s not just dialing for dollars, a good recruiter takes time to get to know you so they can find a place that would be a great fit. I know what lots of you thinking, they are a pain in the bottom. That’s true when you speak about some recruiters, but not all. Ted will demonstrate to you how important you finding a company that is a good fit for you, because they get to really know you.

The culture of a company can be defined as its collective personality. Others will define it as the unwritten rules and acceptable behaviors. When an individual’s personality is aligned with the company culture, it is a good fit for you. Culture is so important that 50% of all mergers and acquisitions fail and the number one reason for failure is incompatible cultures. If that is the reason for company failures, it is easier to see how an incompatible culture/personality fit leads to career failures.

Building Your Own brand by Medical Sales Nation

Self Reflect to Self Develop by Medical Sales Nation

Introduction to the Medical Sales Nation by Medical Sales Nation