Medical Sales Accelerator Podcast
The Medical Sales Accelerator Podcast brings you insider tips and secrets to help you drive your sales. Featuring interviews with top-performing medical sales reps, president’s club winners, and leaders in the MedTech industry. Hosted weekly by Zed Williamson and Clark Wiederhold. Listen online, or find us on YouTube.
Developed and produced by TrackableMed, the medical marketing agency known for creating predictable, trackable growth for MedTech companies and medical practices.
Episodes
Who’s Going to Tell Docs Old-Fashioned Spine Procedures Are Dead
“Old-fashioned spine surgery is dead—it just hasn’t been told yet.” That’s a bold statement, but if anyone’s qualified to make it, it’s Dr. Hamid Abassi. He’s chief medical officer at Inspired Spine, a board-certified neurosurgeon, and an internationally recognized expert in minimally invasive spinal surgery. Dr. Abasi is also one of the most experienced surgeons to perform the OBL lateral lumbar inner body fusion procedure, and the only surgeon currently performing minimally invasive thoracic inner body fusion. Join us as he explains how modern medicine’s tendency to “play it safe” can sometimes harm (or at least severely limit) patients, and what it will take for “game-changing” procedures to supplant outdated ones.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Stats proving Dr. Abassi’s claim that “having a spine problem is part of being human”
- Why Dr. Abassi likens the discs in our spines to tires on a car
- Lessons from one of Dr. Abassi’s hero, Nobel Prize-winner Barry Marshall
- The type of red tape that’s most restrictive to innovative surgeons in 2022
Plus, we explore MedTech’s role in spine’s patient-driven revolution
Resources from this episode:
Social Media:
Neurosurgeon Dr. Mohamed Draz on How Reps Can Balance Empathy with Expertise
People do business with people—but once you get through the door, you better know your product and be ready to field a variety of questions. Dr. Mohamed Draz, senior clinical fellow in neurosurgery at NHS Scotland, rarely sees reps who can balance disarming interpersonal skills with commanding expertise. Join us as Dr. Draz explains why the often-overlooked junior surgeon and support staff can hold the key to a rep’s long-term success, and how reps can let their expertise shine by communicating more empathetically.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why Dr. Draz started his popular YouTube channel
- How to break away from the ‘vomit information and hope something sticks’ approach
- What Dr. Draz means when he says, “The brain can be fixed, but the numbers can’t”
- The importance of ascertaining why someone is asking a particular question
Plus, we talk about how you can control a conversation while still remaining genuine.
Resources from this episode:
Social Media:
They’re Stealing from Your Territory with Digital Persuasion—the Rep of the Future Is Here
Today’s medical device companies produce mind-blowing technology that would impress The Jetsons—so why does their marketing seem like it’s no more advanced than The Flintstones? That’s a question which still puzzles Omar Khateeb, founder of media company The State of MedTech. When he first joined the show for Episodes 13 and 14, Omar boldly predicted that the MedTech sales rep of the future would be doing 80% sales, 20% (or even 30%) marketing. With that prediction ringing truer by the day, Omar returns with one simple message: the MedTech marketing revolution is already happening with or without you, but not primarily in the form of paid social, email campaigns, or even SEO—it’s time to think organically.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why physicians are flocking to LinkedIn (not Doximity) in droves
- Reading for interest vs. reading for application
- Why the ‘rep of the future’ invests in books, courses, and other resources
- The limitations of treating sales and marketing as two distinct silos
Plus, we explore why “you will be paid in proportion to the difficulty of the problem you solve.”
Resources from this episode:
Social Media:
Selling from the ‘Press Box’: Coordinating Clinical, Strategic, & Economic Value Like a Coach
Most reps feel comfortable facilitating the clinical sale, but when it comes to talkin’ business operations with their physician customers, they quickly turn from ‘go-getter’ to ‘procrastinator.’ So how do you address that elephant in the room and unlock deeper trust? Duston Harper has found success by broaching the business sale early and often, recognizing that today’s temporary discomfort plants the seeds for tomorrow’s opportunities. Join us as the VP of business development at SnapNurse shares what it means to “sell from the press box” and attack the sale from all angles with confidence.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- How Duston’s time in corporate sales for Home Depot gave him an edge in MedTech
- The subtle yet important difference between stress and worry
- Why avoiding business side discussions can often put the sale at greater risk
- How to proactively address a customer’s negative opinion of your company
Plus, Duston shares his most practical tips for broaching difficult subjects with customers.
Resources from this episode:
Social Media:
Building a MedTech Army to Drive Commercialization and Capture the Market
You’ve built a dream team of uniquely skilled sales pros, and you just executed a flawless exit—now it’s time to break-up the band, right? Jason Scherer and company took a different path and kept their rare entrepreneurial chemistry alive by creating Vita Group, a MedTech incubator that nurtures physicians’ ‘napkin ideas’ all the way to the commercialization stage. Join us as the chief operating officer himself discusses how a robust network of investors, a plug-and-play sales team, and an accelerated R&D cycle work together to bring bleeding-edge technologies to market.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why Jason and his team call themselves a “paperless” sales force
- How Vita Group is able to bring tech to market for one-fifth the typical cost
- The symbiotic relationship between visionary docs and MedTech incubators
- Why the true meaning of innovation is deeper than shiny robotics
Plus, we dig into the logistics of retaining and training a standing sales army.
Resources from this episode:
Social Media:
Investigating the Business Brain: Diving Deeper into Decision Science
Research reveals that only 10% of your message sticks in someone’s brain—so are you hammering home the point or burying the lede? You might want to ask cognitive scientist Dr. Carmen Simon, chief science officer at Corporate Visions and B2B Decision Labs who has developed a groundbreaking approach to creating memorable messages that are easy to process, hard to forget, and impossible to ignore. When she says humans are cognitively lazy by design, she means it as a compliment to efficient biology. Join us as Dr. Simon helps us investigate the ‘business brain,’ reminds us of the important distinction between ‘wanting’ and ‘liking,’ and shows us what ‘cognitive ease-infused’ content looks like.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- What it means to create “high arousal, positive valence” experiences in your audience
- Why your audience only has energy for rewards, not objectives
- How to present data in the most cognitively digestible way
- Why repetition and emotion are the one-two punch behind memory formation
Plus, we define the four quadrants of memory-making (and where your message should land).
Resources from this episode:
• Download the Behavior Change Blueprint • Explore B2B DecisionLabs
Social Media:
• Connect with Dr. Simon on LinkedIn • Connect with Zed on LinkedIn • Connect with Clark on LinkedIn
Responses