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
Building a Sales System and Becoming “Bulletproof” on the MedTech Battlefield
For the elite task forces that operate in the most dangerous places on earth, the difference between a process and a system isn’t semantic—it’s life or death. As former war correspondent Shawn Rhodes argues in his book “Bulletproof Selling,” processes are largely designed around individuals, making them harder to repeat, improve, and measure. Systems, however, are always designed around objectives. But that’s just one of several key distinctions that he believes most salespeople are missing. We caught up with Shawn to discuss how “systematized selling” helps senior and junior MedTech reps alike improve their pipelines, things companies can do to avoid being hamstrung by their own top talent and achieve consistent growth, and the importance of teaching customers “how to buy.”
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why buying a CRM and shoving it down every team member’s throat isn’t a “system”
- How to incentivize your top performers to systematize their wisdom
- What it means to understand “commander’s intent”
- Why the best systems are “T.R.I.M.” systems
- The power of using Drift and Loom videos as a sale call follow-ups
Plus, we define the difference between an unhelpful gripe and a responsible complaint.
What Helps a Rep “Win Over” a Surgeon (It’s Not What You Think)
So, you think medical sales is sexy? Prepare for a wake-up call. Johnny Caffaro, director of sales for the West at United Orthopedic Corporation, found out quickly that making a name for yourself in this industry takes more than the gift of gab and a firm handshake. Whether it’s intensive case planning weeks ahead of surgery, advising surgeons and scrub techs during procedures, or staying till 10 p.m. to clean your instruments, the logistics of medical sales are no joke. We sat down with him to discuss his success with a bold approach to business development: Selling your most complex product first, then backing your way into the primary products. Join us as we explore the psychology behind this tactic, how reps can become technical assets in the OR, and why competency is the best way to win over surgeons.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
– What MedTech companies are really looking for when they ask, “Are you a chameleon?”
– Why you should care about making the scrub tech look like a hero
– How to recalibrate your career if you’ve fallen into the complacency trap
– Why everyone in a hospital—from administrators to custodians—is worth your time
– Why smaller, “hungrier” distributorships are the best places to source talent
Plus, we explore how to get the ‘status quo’ bias working in your favor.
How to Implement “The Psychology of Persuasion” in Your MedTech Sales
What do sitcom laugh tracks and Hare Krishnas handing out flowers in the airport have to do with MedTech sales? Quite a lot, according to Robert Cialdini’s classic book, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” They’re all based on one or more of the six principles—or “weapons,” as Cialdini calls them—that we humans use to influence others. This week’s special book review episode is dedicated to exploring the MedTech connection to the first three principles of “Influence”: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, and social proof. Join us as we push beyond the abstract to show how reps can implement these proven psychological tactics in their daily dealings to greater effect.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- How simple social experiments revealed fascinating patterns in the human psyche
- Why you should always be asking your customers to “keep tabs on your stuff”
- How overzealous attempts to use social proof can backfire
- What it means to start out as a giver as opposed to a taker
- Why some physicians may respect—but not follow —KOLs in academia
How to Reignite a Fire in Your Sales Process With 3 Simple Values
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:
Encore Episode: How to Fight Status Quo in Your MedTech Sales Opportunities
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:
Encore Episode: Relevance as a Key Sales Ingredient and Why Most Reps Miss It
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:
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