May 2017 - ProSellus

Lifestyle Brands Are Onto Something: Sell Mindsets, Not Products

You’re a medical sales rep. You know certain “tricks of the trade” when it comes to marketing, in fact, you might even think that “marketing” is simply a support group for your company that doesn’t really help you sell – I mean they don’t even know the customers like you do, right? And you certainly can’t put your marketing people in front of a customer to help “seal the deal” right? (If any of you know me personally, you know this is the way I’ve thought for years!) If you think that, you definitely don’t know all there is to know. If you think a bit more critically about the current ads you see on social media, you’ll see that they are not only curated specifically for YOU, but also they aren’t just peddling products or services. In fact, they are hitting on a deeper psychological level for the consumer. Take a closer look at these brands. Notice things like Rapha, Hollister, Ray Ban, and others? What are they selling?

If you said “bike stuff, clothes, and sunglasses,” you’re wrong. Take an even closer look. They are selling lifestyles. Nike, Tesla, or any cosmetics company – all of them are lifestyle brands. Increasingly, brand loyalty isn’t built by just having great products; it is built by creating a mindset for market bases. It’s about tapping into that deeper psychological level for the consumer and selling a feeling that induces brand loyalty. Now, as a medical device sales rep, are you doing the same thing these ads are doing? Are you creating brand loyalty? (Hint: A lot of the time, YOU are the brand.) Or are you just selling your products on the features and benefits that differentiate from the competition?

If you’re just selling features and benefits… you’re missing the boat…

Change Your Outlook… Improve Your Business

Aside from pressure to hit quota, lack of time, and increasing competition, one of the major problems with how many medical sales reps approach their business practices is their own mindsets. Many reps focus on a commodity mindset thanks to all those outdated sales techniques and traditions drilled into us in training or trial by fire. We are intimately familiar with the benefits of whatever devices we represent and how we are better than the competition, but our clients are, at the end of the day, numbers to us – and most of the time we miss valuable sales opportunities due to our myopic view of selling. (A lot of us are SO worried about making “the number” we miss opportunities to create “the brand” that can ensure you’ll never be worried about making the number again.)

Excusing the sales acceleration techniques we discuss often around here at ProSellus, medical device sales reps need to adapt their mindsets and approach their physician customers from a different angle with a different pitch. That “feeling” or “lifestyle” being conveyed through those marketing ads I discussed can also be communicated through you – and in such a way that those other factors I listed above (competition, quota pressure, etc..) won’t be a problem anymore. I know, sounds crazy right?

Okay….So How Do You Sell a Mindset Anyway?

Forbes lists a few brands for you to study, but you don’t have to look much further than your own Instagram or Facebook feeds. Medical industry related brands include things like Fitbit or even Aflac. With a Fitbit, you are not only buying an activity tracker and gadget, you are buying your way to better health. With Aflac, you are literally paying for peace of mind or….a more peaceful mindset. Are you picking up what we’re putting down yet? So how can you adapt your own selling approach to build this advantage over the competition? It starts with understanding what it is your customer physician cares about and then curating that value specifically for them.

“Lifestyle brands implement a strategy that is the complete opposite of “A.B.C.” Their marketing doesn’t explicitly imply the selling of their product; rather, it’s about figuring out creative ways that their brand can enhance their consumers’ way of life.”
– Forbes on Lifestyle Brands

By marketing mindsets instead of products, you are doing the opposite of the adage “Always Be Closing”. Your first question might be: “I’m a SALES rep. If I don’t make sales, am I doing my job?” Nope. This strategy should be an ADDITION to your arsenal, but not a substitute for any other tool. Your job requires tenacity, adaptation, and versatility. Rise to the occasion!

Don’t Fall Behind…

For more brand study, consult this Business Insider article or email me Scottwalle@prosellus.com. Let’s talk all things marketing, medical sales, and revenue. Or are you okay with staying in that same old mindset? If you are, better beef up that resume.

How Can I Become A Thought Leader in Medical Device Sales?

Many self-proclaimed gurus and experts will sell you all kinds of tools, fancy words, and ideas that amount to bupkis. As a medical device sales rep, you know how to determine a good value proposition from a swindle, so how can you transform this savvy into leadership? As ProSellus approaches a huge milestone, our team began to ponder: “How do you go about becoming a thought leader in medical device sales?” Is it all about following the “right people” on LinkedIn and sharing, linking, or reposting things? Is it solely about letting your work speak for itself? As with most things, the ProSellus team found that it’s somewhere in between those extremes.

First Step: Have Patience & Fortitude

Everyone expects the first step to be some huge declaration of philosophy or self, but that’s not the secret sauce guys. Just take a look at a very brief snapshot of how Bill Facteau transformed Acclarent:

“Under Bill’s leadership, Acclarent went from concept to acquisition in 5 ½ years, raised over $100M, created jobs for approximately 400 employees, grew revenues to $100M and became profitable.”

MedInsider Interview with Bill Facteau of Acclarent

It took 5 and a half years yes, but look at all of those results. Folks, it takes time! Develop your business identity and hone in on what goals matter most to you. Diluting your vision is the biggest misstep you can make on your journey to becoming a thought leader in any industry. You might also want to list thought leaders you admire or want to emulate, as well as an action plan with long and short term goals.

There are many people who’ve been in an industry for years and think they “know” it all, but the reality is, unless you go further than your peers, you’re not really learning more right? I don’t mean further as in, “being promoted,” or “climbing the corporate ladder.” I literally mean you need to learn more about your business than everyone else.

Instead of knowing about your business, learn how other businesses impact your business and vice versa. If you have an innate knowledge of the flow of business and how yours will be impacted, you have tremendous insight most others don’t even know to look for. NOW you can speak at an entirely different level than your peers.

Now, THEY begin to look at YOU as a thought leader because you understand the business in much greater detail.

Next Step: Focus on The Message

Developing a consistent and resonating brand and message is tricky enough without the added stress of trying to become a thought leader. One unfortunate aspect of this journey: sometimes, you’re just not meant to do it. We can’t all be Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try. Steve Jobs once asserted that the most important thing he created was the company Apple – not the iPad or the original Macintosh. A true thought leader doesn’t concern themselves with the product or service their company represents. A true thought leader knows that the message is what matters and how that message interacts with and impacts others.

Of all places to expect advice on how to develop powerful messages, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (literally….NACCHO) offers great, straight-forward advice we just can’t ignore:

“Communicate clearly to the audience”
“Specify your request”
“Provide a reward that your audience cares about”
“Make the reward believable by providing evidence to back it up”
“Use vivid and appropriate images”
“Choose the right moment”
“Choose the right messenger”
– NACCHO Media Outreach

How do these platitudes apply to the medical device sales industry? GREAT question. Your audience is obviously your clients – WRONG. Your audience is your fellow salespeople and other medical device sales experts. For certain messages, your audience may even be the medical device companies themselves. Be sure to check back next month when we further explore this list and how it applies to medical device sales thought leadership techniques!

Final Step: Rethink, Not Repeat

The final step (which you do repeat often) is not about repackaging a message using synonyms and new graphics. It’s about approaching your message from an entirely different angle. By seeing how this might affect a different audience or how a different audience might view the message, you gain more understanding. Then, you can communicate the message more effectively to a wider variety of people, thus expanding your market.

Want to know more? Email me at Scottwalle@prosellus.com and let’s talk thought leadership, sales acceleration, and all things medical sales. What can the ProSellus Growth Engineers do for you?

ProSellus / Sales Acceleration Tools - 05/22/2017

How Can Sales Acceleration Become Your Ultimate Sales Solution?

As a Healthcare Sales Rep, you are always on the look-out for ways to improve your bottom line; or at least….you should be. If you aren’t, you may find yourself falling behind your competitors and fellow salespeople. Can you list on one hand how many tools you have just for data recording? (I laugh at this question because in my experience the company you work for probably wants you using a specific one, however there are 7 at your disposal and only 1 that you use as regularly – as you can remember. Interestingly enough, the one your company wants you to use just so happens to be the hardest, non-intuitive, non-helpful one of the bunch.)

What about techniques you use in your sales pitches or in client management? We talk a great deal around here about staying ahead of the technological curve. You may have heard of a thing called “end to end solutions”, but that’s old news. Turn-key solutions are the new black and sales acceleration is your turn-key tool for your sales business.

“Wait….What is Sales Acceleration?”

Think about it: what if you could harness the client management aspects of Salesforce with the connection powers of Facebook and LinkedIn? Not only can you more easily and effectively connect with your clients, you have tons of data and insights at your fingertips to improve your business. Sales Acceleration, as we’ve talked about before, focuses on the relationship development aspects of being a sales rep. Don’t just be organized; be smart. Growing your client base by flexing the connection muscles you already have is the next logical step, isn’t it? (Let’s put some context around this for a second… Think about it: You work with numerous customers and there is always the push from your manager and company to have MORE customers, doing MORE business right? If you’ve been in the business for any length of time, you’ll know it’s much easier to grow your business with current customers than it is to go and flip a competitive customer right? So, why wouldn’t we leverage our loyal customer’s relationships to grow our business? After all, that’s tremendously easier, less expensive and less time consuming to do!)

“This Sounds Complicated…”

Nothing worth having comes easily. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to work like a dog to get results. Like we said, turn-key solutions are where it’s at. Though medtech is pushed toward end-to-end solutions, Healthcare Sales Reps need something more efficient than that. We often also don’t depend as much on hardware beyond our tablet or our all-consuming smartphones. In fact, your smartphone and tablet are examples of turn-key solutions. Now, what if you could employ those sales acceleration techniques we talked about in an all-in-one ultimate sales tool from your smartphone or tablet? This is the best news you’ll get since your company decided to keep your quota flat for the upcoming year?! (I know, I know, not realistic, but it’s a good thought!!!)

ProSellus Can Help You Turn the Key of Success

We’ve talked before about how all-in-one tools can greatly improve performance and profits. Combine the technique of sales acceleration with the ProSellus mobile software solution to really amp things up. Don’t worry – we have enterprise and individual versions of this ultimate sales tool available! Email me at Scottwalle@prosellus.com and let’s tap into your true potential as a sales rep.

ProSellus / Sales Acceleration Tools - 05/15/2017

4 Essential Tips on How to Effectively Establish Value for Clients

Constantly and effectively bringing value can be a tricky business, but that’s part of the fun of being a medical device sales rep, am I right? Well, even seasoned veterans struggle with this integral part of the job from time to time. In the ever-changing world of healthcare it seems whatever is valuable today may not be valuable tomorrow. Furthermore, establishing value can seem like an impossible task in the world of big data, tons of competitors and the need for instant gratification. Pro-tip: nothing is impossible, especially when you’ve got the Sales Growth Engineers from ProSellus with 4 foolproof tips sure to establish value for current and potential clients.

Open With Empathy & Follow Up With Logic

Empathy

Big buzzwords outside of generic ones like “synergy”, “bizmeth”, or even “mindshare” are a big deal these days in every industry. One that comes up more often nowadays is the word “empathy”. Basically, this means putting yourself in the shoes of someone else, understanding their perspective, and developing a relationship based on this mutual understanding of that person’s situation. How does this relate to establishing value? So glad you asked! The better a relationship you have with a client, the more likely they are to trust your advice and believe in your services.

Extend empathy beyond the client/rep relationship and put yourself in the shoes of people using the device or service you’re offering. How can you appeal to them through your client?

Revenue

Your next step, once you’ve established an empathetic connection, is to remind your client of the logical reasoning behind the new device/service. What’s the bottom line for any business owner? PROFITS. That means you have a few questions you need to ask your client. Of course, if you’re worth your salt as a sales rep, you should be able to answer these questions FOR your client.

How happy are you with the current revenue numbers of your business?
What have you done to increase those numbers in the past?
What if I could show you a way how to increase those numbers?

Now, you might already see the next logical step in this process coming, but it’s not the cost of the new service/device. You just covered a “logical” reason for establishing value, so it’s time to switch back to empathy.

Notice, nobody has said anything about what you sell yet…

Quality of Life Determines Value

Time

That’s right – time. The biggest commodity on the market that everyone always needs more of (including you!). The obvious question is: “How much time do I have to establish the kind of value needed to win over this new customer?”. You can lead with that, but you never want to finish on that question alone.

How much time do I have and how much time does my customer have to really make an impact and potentially change the way we do things? After all, if you want to increase revenue, and you want to create value; do you REALLY expect to be able to do that by doing the same things you’ve always done? Nope. My friend, that would be the definition of insanity. Keep this part short and sweet. Time is money, after all!

Again… no one has mentioned your product yet…

Cost

Closing with this as your final step in your value proposition is like the cherry on top of your favorite ice cream sundae. You can present hard numbers as to what the value you bring will be to the customer, but if you stop there…you’re probably not going to close the deal.

The second half of this step (and more important part) is to establish the cost of NOT using you/your product/your service.. Throw in some callbacks to your points about revenue, time, and make new points about potential ROIs. Close with a subtle reminder about “doing things the same ways will never get you beyond where you are today…”.

Again… what have we not even spoke about yet? Our product…

You all may think I’ve fallen out of the clouds about not talking about my product at this point. Here’s the last point I want to make about “Bringing Value,” – when trying to work with new physician customers: what do you think they (physician customers) hear all day long from reps just like you? Here it is: “Let me tell you all about our new product,” or, “Let me tell you why our product is better than our competitor’s product,” or, “Let me tell you about a new study with our product.”

Newsflash: Let’s talk about something that your customer REALLY cares about. I’m not saying all of those other things aren’t important, but, what is MOST important? Wouldn’t you want to be the person who brings THAT value? If you are the person bringing the most important value, you’ve just become irreplaceable. Not a bad place to be for a rep if I do say so myself.

Are You Closing Often Enough?

Of course, even if you employ all the best advice from top sales reps, you still might not get the deal. If this becomes the norm, then that affects your bottom line which means it’s time to try something new. Email me at Scottwalle@prosellus.com and let’s explore strategies to improve your bottom line and maybe even – hear me out – your own quality of life.

ProSellus / Sales Acceleration Tools / Thought Leadership - 05/08/2017

Medical Device Reps: How Data Works for You…and Against You

Just How Does Big Data Work For You and Against You as a Medical Device Sales Rep?

We’ve talked a few times about how Big Data can be harnessed for your benefit and transformed into “Actionable Intelligence”. In fact, that’s one of the main tenets of the ProSellus philosophy in utilizing sales acceleration: Work Smarter, not Harder. That means making all those numbers from all those social media platforms and sales spreadsheets work FOR YOU. But, we aren’t talking about your Facebook digital footprint here. We’re talking about ROI’s from your favorite clients vs. potential ROI’s from your most well-known clients. We are talking about tracking the popularity vs. the effectiveness of one device over another in your territory. We’re talking about your job.

You Have Data…But So Do Your Clients

While social media platforms like Facebook would have you believe that data always comes in pretty graphs and easy to digest percentages, that just isn’t the case. Especially when it comes to the life and work of a medical device sales rep. Your data involves so much more than “Likes” and “Re-tweets”.

“Data is at the center of it all—and unfortunately, that data is dynamic. More than ever before, companies have loads of it—marketing technologies gather data from many sources, not only on the leads and accounts themselves, but also on how those leads interact with your brand, campaigns, and sales teams.”
– Heinz Marketing

This means you must constantly play catch-up with all kinds of analytics. Whether you have everything expertly organized across various Google Docs, spreadsheets, and digital files or you have a desperately jam-packed file cabinet, it’s nearly impossible to keep up with all the metrics at your disposal. (I remember this all too well. In my past companies we had data all over the place. One set was sent in a Microsoft Excel document, one was a monthly spreadsheet some analyst sent, one set came from my manager and then we had marketing folks always sending us something new. Enough already!!!! How are we, the salespeople in the field, supposed to look at and analyze all of this different data from all these different sources? To make matters worse, it’s not the sales person’s job to have to slice and dice data in Excel or CSV files. Seriously? Excel to me was a Microsoft Word document with box’s. Sooner or later the reps say to themselves, “Forget it. I’m just going to do my job the best way I know how. I can’t spend hours upon hours trying to open, analyze and then make a decision on this!” It becomes paralysis by analysis. More data isn’t always better….) So, in the time it takes to locate and organize and then understand all of these numbers, is it worth it? Isn’t that time you could spend instead tracking leads, researching new devices, or using sales acceleration techniques?

“The impact of “big data” analytics is often manifested by thousands—or more—of incrementally small improvements. If an organization can atomize a single process into its smallest parts and implement advances where possible, the payoffs can be profound. And if an organization can systematically combine small improvements across bigger, multiple processes, the payoff can be exponential.”
– McKinsey Quarterly October 2016

Well….when you put it THAT way….

Asking Yourself “What’s Actionable Intelligence”? You’re Late to the Party…

If the phrases “Actionable Intelligence” or “Sales Acceleration” stumped you, don’t worry. You’re late to the party, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time. Two of the biggest ways data influences the business of a medical device sales rep are simple: work and time.

Any medical sales rep – 1099 or W-2 – can answer the following question: what do you spend the MOST time doing? If you’re anything like me, and you may not be, the things I spent the majority of my time doing was simply trying to make my number, and if the stars aligned, trying to KILL my number. I didn’t want to spend time trying to analyze all the data we mentioned before, it took too much time and, in the end, didn’t give me actionable intelligence. It didn’t tell me, “Hey, go here, talk to this person, they have the patients you’re looking for to help make your business grow or to continue killing your number.” It also didn’t say “Hey look at your existing customers’ relationships, those docs (who are already referring to my customer) who, most likely, have a ton more patients that fit the profile of the patient that could benefit from our product, device, therapy, etc. Go talk to them!” IF I would’ve had that, that is EXACTLY what I would’ve been doing.

Like we said, work smarter because, no matter what, you WILL be working very, very hard. This is where Actionable Intelligence (also known as Actionable Insight) comes into play.

“Actionable insight is a term in data analytics and big data for information that can be acted upon or information that gives enough insight into the future that the actions that should be taken become clear for decision makers. It is often the result of extensive data analytics and other data processing; in short it is an analytical result that provides enough data for managers and organizations to make an informed decision.”
– Techopedia.com

Awesome – you can spend hours and hours and hours tracking data in order to improve efficacy and revenue! But there’s only one of you and you have to sleep some time, right? What if there was a way to combine that dated file cabinet, those highly organized spreadsheets, LinkedIn, Salesforce, and all those hours spent interpreting data?

Get With the Times

The world is increasingly interconnected, so why shouldn’t your business be the same? Fuse all the features of social media with the utility of customer management using ProSellus.You might have heard of the term “Growth Hacking”, well we are the Sales Growth Engineers here to see YOU succeed. Why continue going to the same customers HOPING for more business? Engineer your growth! Take hold of all the data at your fingertips in a fraction of the time others do. Literally, doesn’t it make more sense to spend 5 seconds while walking to your car and figure out where the best places are to grow??? When you’re a medical device sales rep, the name of the game is innovation and ambition. Are you hungry for more? If not, I can guarantee there are THOUSANDS of people lined up waiting for you to miss your number so they can get a shot in the medical device industry. Email me at Scottwalle@prosellus.com and let’s grab a bite, there’s much more to tell…

ProSellus / Sales Acceleration Tools / Thought Leadership - 05/02/2017