www.paristexasco.com

Come Hell or High Water We are #HoustonStrong

HOW YOU CAN HELP HARVEY VICTIMS

We at ProSellus have been hit very hard this past week and ½ with Hurricane Harvey. Most of you might not realize we are headquartered smack dab in the middle of Houston, TX. All of our employees are here, families and friends here, and each of us was affected by the hurricane in one way or the other. Most of our days lately have been filled with clean-up efforts, ripping out drywall, floors, grabbing personal items and trying to salvage clothes and anything else not destroyed. We have been volunteering in neighborhoods, at our places of worship, comforting one another, friends and strangers alike. Mostly though, it’s been about coming together as human beings and as Texans. It’s been about spreading love, support and encouragement. It’s been about rolling our sleeves up and jumping in to do whatever needs to be done. It’s also about being kind to one another and feeling a sense of brotherhood around us similar to what folks in New Orleans for Katrina or NYC for 9/11 must have experienced. For us around here, it renews hope and promise that we as human beings in the worst possible scenarios tend to work together more than apart. The walls come down and we become one. It’s quite remarkable really.

Over the past few days, our team has personally seen some pretty remarkable things done by regular folks. To share just a few – this was a video of complete strangers making human chain to rescue an elderly man from a drowning SUV on the flooded highway. Pretty chilling and amazing to see. If you are one of those that worries about the animals – this video of rescuers picking up those pets left behind in homes and tied to trees is pretty heartwarming. All of this is in our backyard of Houston. These are only TWO of hundreds upon hundreds of similar stories – all of which we will see coming out more and more in the upcoming months.

PHOTOS OF HARVEY

TEXAS BASED BUSINESSES LEAD THE EFFORTS

Just as we are proud of our local Texan citizens, we couldn’t be prouder at the Texas-born businesses that are going far and wide to help support the victims. We in Houston and the surrounding areas affected need help and we will need help for a good long while. The Texas burger-chain Whataburger is giving $150,000 to the Red Cross and $500,000 to Houston-area food banks. Dell has been around for decades and has become a global brand of choice in the computer industry. Recognizing the need to help its local community, Michael Dell pledged a whopping $36 million to assist his fellow Texans. Bass Pro Shops is focused on supply resources as their primary contribution to the hurricane relief. This includes nearly 100 boats for government agencies and rescue organizations to use throughout the devastated areas. Sometimes, even a single individual can make the biggest impact. Jim McIngvale, a Houston native and owner of several Gallery Furniture locations in the area, has opened up his stores as shelters for impacted Families. Our own JJ Watt has opened up a fund and already raised over $20M. Our Texas-based Grocery Chain HEB had local stores devastated by the flood – check out what they did to keep the chain up and running and for their employees. Here are a few other companies you may have heard of that are donating to Harvey victims.

TIPS FOR HOW YOU CAN HELP:

We have made a LOT of progress over these 4-5 days of recovery, however we have a LONG way to go. We at ProSellus want to spread the word on how to help victims of Hurricane Harvey.

GIVE LOCALLY AND MAXIMIZE IMPACT FASTER:

Even better? Donate your time/materials/proceeds to Houston area local charities:

As always beware of charity scams – here is a good article on how to know who is legit.

AFTER THE STORM, WE SHALL RISE

Remember, our recovery efforts are a marathon, not a sprint. If you cannot donate now, donate later – we will need all and for a long time. At ProSellus, we plan to donate to several organizations listed above to help ensure that we are all on the same page: that as long as we are here on earth, we must help each other in order to survive. No one should be alone, especially in times of need.  

We are #Houstonstrong and come #hellorhighwater – we will survive through this.

ProSellus - 09/05/2017
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What to do if You get Hacked on LinkedIn

As of August 30, 2017, our LinkedIn page was hacked.  Luckily, after 24 hours, we got it back. As you can imagine, most of us here in Houston, TX, were not too happy. On top of this, there’s the obvious disaster at hand: Hurricane Harvey.

Considering the tremendous losses others have incurred from belongings to homes and even lives, losing access for 24 hours to a social media platform seems like a walk in the park. But it got me thinking….whether you’re an individual sales rep or an enterprise level med-tech company, you need ways to protect yourself, your data, and your intellectual property. Specifically, with LinkedIn, there isn’t much recourse for users to take if a data breach such as this occurs.

Start With LinkedIn Customer Service Recommendations

Though this seems obvious, it’s a necessary step — especially reviewing your currently active sessions. If you see anything unfamiliar or suspicious, investigate it right away! The follow up check of your personal and work emails is also a must. You can avoid further compromises in one simple check.

TIP: I run a company and as CEO I can be a bit impatient – like I want results now – so when I have to fill out a bunch of online forms and wait…and wait…well – that doesn’t quite sit well with me. So after much digging I found this email: linkedin_support@cs.linkedin.com – and they responded rather quickly. You just have to be proactive! Also make sure that you have back up emails loaded on your account in case someone does try to change your primary email – they will notify your secondary email that there was a change.

But WHY Did I get Hacked In the First Place?

Great question! No idea. Apparently, hackers like to target LinkedIn accounts for the greater access to network information. Think about it: you can get to know A LOT about a person by looking at their LinkedIn profile. You can even identify more targets by looking at people’s connections. Gaining access to login credentials enables hackers to potentially crack greater codes than just a few LinkedIn profiles.

They target people in many ways, but an old favorite is the classically threatening security themed farce. You can see in the image below that this is a fairly well reasoned email, but it doesn’t look as official as one from LinkedIn should look.  It is a phishing email aimed to capture all your details.

By falling for this email scam and filling out the attached HTML file, you unwittingly hand the hackers your login information on a silver platter. While you might not fall for this, a coworker might. Your parents or your kids might. Who knows? Two-factor authentication is a great way to thwart these kinds of schemes if you have been compromised.

Simple Steps to Security

As we’ve mentioned, getting hacked is no picnic. But there are ways to mitigate the effects of being hacked. The following list is a great way to start:

  • Anti-virus software like Avast, Malware Bytes, and Webroot
  • Changing passwords every 3 – 6 months
  • Encryption or scrambling software
  • Proxies or VPNs
  • Keeping up with data breaches by following Twitter accounts such as haveibeenpwned as operated by Troy Hunt
  • Request a data archive of your profile
  • Add a second backup email to your profile
  • Download all of your contacts in case you lose your account

Why Do Some People Not Know That They’ve Been Hacked?

Though LinkedIn is great for many things like networking and thought leadership, the communication about security breaches leaves something to be desired. Though there was a ton of coverage on the 2012 LinkedIn data breach that affected nearly 6.5 million users, other breaches were swept under the rug. The reason why: its data from the initial 2012 breach either being released or used years later. That explains why the 2012 data breach gets listed among the worst data breaches of all time regularly.

What Else Can I Do to Protect Myself?

TIP: Go to a website called haveibeenpwned.com. I know — it looks like a spam website, but it’s actually one of your greatest tools in protecting your login information and email security. It automatically checks any email you put in for security breaches or compromises. The person who operates it, Troy Hunt, is a known specialist in this area and regularly writes about data breaches.

Avoid our mistakes: get a data archive, download your connections, and enable that two-factor authentication. Data matters more and more every day. The ProSellus Growth Engineers still have a little growing to do in some departments, but then again, shouldn’t you always be growing?

We’ll let you think on it a bit.

ProSellus - 08/31/2017
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Sales Acceleration is Your Turnkey Sales & Marketing Strategy…But What Is It?

Turnkey solutions are fantastic for enterprise and small sales businesses. They’re lean, often affordable, and — ideally — extremely effective. ProSellus offers such an all-in-one-tool in the form of a service that combines the capabilities of LinkedIn (hunting) and Salesforce (contact and revenue management). It also utilizes a little known sales strategy that could be the one thing you need to boost your sales numbers and improve your medical device sales business.

Customer Management Meets Inter-connectivity

As a medical device sales rep, if you could do more with leads, you would jump at the opportunity right? As a medical device marketing person what if you could find the hottest opportunities to feed to your reps in a  matter of seconds? Sales acceleration offers the unique fusion of customer management with the inter-connectivity of the 21st century. You can house and access client information, manage relationships, find new opportunities in your territory, and more all from the palm of your hand with ProSellus. The trick to sales acceleration: you.

One of the best weapons a sales rep has in their arsenal is their ability to establish value of a product/service based on personal interactions. Establishing a rapport with a client or prospect is just as important as understanding the product/service you are selling. Sales acceleration is a combination of tactics and approaches that utilize your best tool and extrapolate sales skills into actionable intelligence.

One of the best weapons a marketing person has in their arsenal is data intelligence. Having access to valuable healthcare data within an easy-to-acquire solution is a medical device marketing person’s dream. Finally, something that marketing can DO to effectively help sales – find quality leads and fast. No more wide-net fishing.

Don’t Get Bamboozled

Many companies offer sales acceleration tool packages, but at a cost or with confusing and difficult-to-understand interfaces. (Trust me, I’ve been where you guys and girls are.  My former companies would provide “great” software platforms that quite frankly my sales counterparts and myself would give up on rather quickly.  They were simply un-intuitive and impossible to use.) It’s understandable as the business of sales acceleration has reached more than $12-billion. It’s hard to ignore the numbers — especially when they indicate that you could be doing something better, but you don’t have to spend beau coup bucks to do it. ProSellus offers this turnkey solution right from your mobile device. Imagine it: having all the information you need on-the-go and more organized than any cabinet could ever be.

Optimize or Fall Behind

If you want to learn more about how sales acceleration can improve your sales & marketing business (and I know you do), email me. Scottwalle@prosellus.com. I want to personally help your business grow using my expertise and knowledge of medical sales gained over more than a decade of experience in the industry. So what’s it going to be — are you going to adapt to the modern age or stick with the dinosaurs?

Sales / Sales Acceleration Tools / Strategy - 08/14/2017
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Does Marketing Matter In Sales?

For Sales Reps…Does Marketing REALLY Matter?

Many people, including ProSellus Growth Engineers, place importance on the differences between marketing and sales. We have also talked about the relationship between the two. But…does marketing really matter for medical device sales reps? The short answer: you bet it does.

Enterprise Sales Teams and Mavericks…Listen Up

Regardless of the size of your sales business, marketing means more than pamphlets or social media ads. It means your entire brand identity and even how you interact with clients. In today’s modern age of 140 character interactions and algorithms that track mouse movements on websites, not only do you have to monitor your tone and diction, you have to be transparent, too. Whether you have a marketing team to support you or you’re flying solo and clocking in extra hours wearing a dozen hats, you’ve got to adapt and adapt fast.

 

Increasingly, sales and marketing tricks of the past like fear of loss, the “Jones effect”, or the impulse factor aren’t trade secrets anymore. To top it off, many consumers are more proactive than even five years ago. The immediacy of “Googling” something on their phones means that your clients could be 12 steps ahead of you in 30 seconds or less.

This also works in the reverse fashion: not only are consumers being proactive, but so should the salesperson. What does that mean exactly? How can you be more proactive as a salesperson? How about by being smarter? How about utilizing technology available to help understand who your customers really are (or should be!) and what THEY are searching for before they even know it.  Its called “behavior analytics” and there are many types (listed below) which is created from data all around you!  It is collected every time you do ANYTHING as a consumer, professional or business.

Wait…So How does Marketing Affect Sales?

You’re a discerning sales rep, so quick quips and industry jargon aren’t going to distract you from your objective. How does marketing affect your sales business? For individual sales reps operating their own LLCs or businesses, it can be the difference between a deal and a flop. Your personality is your brand and your brand is your business. Consider consulting several of our blog posts about developing a brand identity and voice. You can parlay this identity into your social media platforms, your web copy, and every other facet of your sales business.

For enterprise sales team that have marketing support teams beside them, the process is a bit different, but the variables are the same. You need the tools of brand development in order to implement them in your sales approach and process. Something as simple as a company logo can impact your ability to close a deal with prospective clients no matter how clever or charismatic you may be. Hey — the truth isn’t always pretty in the world of sales.

While branding, voice, personality and technique are all vital to help seal the deal, I cannot emphasize enough the crucial impact that data and analytics have to the success of both types of sales teams (Small LLC’s and Enterprise). Where does the data come from? Well, most marketing professionals should know where to access it. In fact, there are stacks and stacks of technology tools that offer data analytics (diagnostic, descriptive, predictive and prescriptive) available to both the marketing and sales professional. It’s all the rage and guess what, your competitor, you know the one that just poached your customer? They are taking advantage of these tools. This is indeed where the rubber meets the road with regards to marketing helping sales achieve quota. Marketing obtains the analytics and supplies the sales team with the data intelligence to help point them to the warmer leads and low hanging fruit. It’s a cyclical relationship. Boom – the family has finally found a way to work together.

Still feeling stumped?

ProSellus Growth Engineers is a company dedicated to growing your sales business using these revolutionary techniques – in a simplified way built for the sales rep in the field and the marketing professional in desperate need of some REAL leads. The future is already here, so you might already be old news. Email me at Scottwalle@prosellus.com and let’s get to the bottom of your sales and marketing questions

ProSellus / Thought Leadership - 08/01/2017
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How to Make a Sale 2.0 (for the new age)

For medical device sales reps, the process might get a little stale. Establish contact, build rapport, make your pitch and close the deal. Rinse. Repeat. Pro-tip: if you aren’t closing every time, don’t sweat it (but you should be able to close 95% of the time – this is where proper targeting is key). ProSellus Growth Engineers are always searching for ways to improve and streamline the sales process, so what is the latest news? As it turns out, one of the biggest changes to the sales process has been the shift from selling a product or service based solely on its value in the operating room or patient room. Want to know more? Keep reading.

Bye Bye Broseph…Hello Data

About prosellusA long time ago, you used to be able to “schmooze” your way to victory. Of course, you still have to schmooze, but today, it’s known as “networking” and “resource management.” Despite the fact that establishing value means establishing a relationship, you cannot close a deal on pure charisma and physician wooing anymore. You have to incorporate something else into the sales process: everyone else.

Extending the sales process and your mentality beyond the operating room requires a stamina not many sales reps can develop. You have to engage beyond the physician and establish a connection with administration of the hospital or ASC, or Operating Room Coordinator. So while you may only give your elevator pitch to a physician or small group of physicians, those unfamiliar with general medical processes or devices may require a more thorough education….which means that you may have to educate yourself a bit more. Either way, it’s your product or service. You SHOULD know that thing inside and out.

Also – if you haven’t caught up with the latest and greatest on sales & marketing tools and tactics today – it would be helpful for you to understand how DATA can help drive you towards better decisions that you can THEN turn into deeper networking relationships. Folks, data is power and it’s all around us now. If you don’t know how to harness it – then you might as well go get a job at Starbucks.

Build Trust to Build Your Business

One of the biggest mistakes sales reps make is focusing too narrowly on one aspect of a product or service instead of the broader meaning of the product or service in the context of the market. If you are selling a new piece of equipment for the OR, how does it affect the patient? The nurses? The Chief of Medicine? The EMTs or the administrative staff? By showcasing the fact that you have taken the time to consider the perspectives of people other than YOURSELF and the PHYSICIAN, you will not only establish value for the product or service you are selling, you will establish yourself as an effective and trustworthy sales rep, thus increasing your potential sales market.

Data can also help you achieve this trust. I am not just talking “statistics” – I am talking using raw data to UNDERSTAND your customer BEFORE heading into the practice to make that pitch. Data would help you understand what the customer’s perspective actually IS. What if you knew who your top 5 pain physicians to call on in a day were? Think of how much more effective and efficient you would be if you knew and could plan it out. Think of how much less time would be wasted schmoozing the wrong prospects for your device. Making sense? Read on…

The One Thing You Need Most

If you follow the steps in some of our previous blogs about the sales process, you will achieve success (we practically guarantee it). Of course, increasingly, you may encounter THAT client: the one who asks for extreme discounts, preferential treatment or things you simply can’t provide – even if that just means your time…which is arguably more valuable than your knowledge of all things medical device related. Rather than 100% blowing them off, consider that word we mentioned earlier…you know….”perspective”. Educate yourself with the data then try a different approach first.

“The key here is to understand the reasons behind the request. Is the materials manager asking for a discount because they are concerned about the impact of reduced reimbursement for the procedure? Or, is the materials manager primarily concerned about meeting their cost reduction goals? How would you know what their motivation is? The simple solution to this problem is to ask.” – PM 360

Remember all those blogs about establishing value through establishing relationships? Guess what: the biggest part of any relationship is communication. If you try to understand why this person feels entitled to or is asking for what you think is preferential treatment, don’t try to guess. Don’t try to “fill in the blanks.” ASK (relationship) and LEARN (data). You can improve your trustworthiness and potentially sell them on another product or service in one fell swoop. Boom.

Another big mistake many sales reps make? Not knowing what the heck ProSellus Growth Engineers does for their sales & marketing business. If you don’t know what actionable intelligence or sales acceleration are, you are in the weeds and behind the times. Email me at Scottwalle@prosellus.com . Let’s talk shop, sales, and growth hacking. Show me your perspective.

Sales Acceleration Tools / Thought Leadership - 07/18/2017
Smiling woman in a car with tablet

ProSellus Announces New Sales Enablement Tool for Medical Device Sales!

We are proud to announce that ProSellus, Inc. has released a new fully loaded sales enablement tool, designed by healthcare sales reps for healthcare sales reps. This new tool includes a multitude of functionalities specifically designed to support the requirements of the always-on-the-go healthcare sales rep while making calls out in the field.  These functions include: targeted physician & facility searches based on tens of millions of healthcare data points; the ability to forecast and track sales revenue, build referral networks for physicians and facilities, track sales call activities with physicians and much more. I am personally thrilled to offer up this un-paralleled solution to my former medical device peers.  When I was a rep, we needed the ability to generate sales at lightning speed and there were no tools that enabled us to do that effectively. Now both sales and marketing professionals can access (EASILY) robust healthcare data in a mobile, easy-to-use actionable format that points them to the hot opportunities in seconds.

Do yourself and your team a favor and set up a quick demo here and now. 

Whether it’s targeting physicians based on specialty, prescriptions or procedures, ProSellus can serve up a targeted list, in any geography in the country, in a matter of seconds while a rep is in the field.  While this tool crunches complex healthcare data on the back end, it’s easy enough for a 12-year-old to operate. As a former sales rep for a major medical device company, I was given tools to use that were clunky, complex and difficult to use. Those literally were a waste of time and company money. This tool was developed as an alternative to those dinosaur applications and spreadsheets. It actually impacts revenue for the sales rep immediately and is simple to use. ProSellus carries similar features as a CRM tool but with less complexity and more intelligence. It’s like having a healthcare database expert on key things device reps need to know (and normally don’t have easy access to) in your pocket at all times.  It is also designed specifically for the healthcare sales industry, although plans to apply the product to other industries are in the works.

As always if you have questions, please email me at scottwalle@prosellus.com. You can also check out our two new eBooks: one for Sales Reps and one for Sales and Marketing Directors/VPs – to learn tips and tricks from the pros on how to  set your quotas on fire!

Get to hunting and don’t waste anymore time!

 

ProSellus / Sales Acceleration Tools / Uncategorized - 07/10/2017
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Sales Vs. Marketing: What You Need to Know

Many people, regardless of industry, often combine two vastly different concepts: sales and marketing. While these two often work hand-in-hand to achieve great things and impossible tasks, they are incredibly different. I’ve heard all of the analogies – from salespeople being the talkers and the marketing people being “the brains” to both of them being written off as swindlers. Guess what: everything you have heard is probably 100% wrong.

So let’s set the record straight. What is marketing? What is sales? How does understanding sales and marketing help the business of a medical device sales rep? You know the drill. Let’s get started.

Sales: More Than Just Closing Deals

We have all seen Glengarry Glen Ross and that infamous scene where Alec Baldwin’s tells everyone to “Always Be Closing”. But the sales techniques of the past (even from the middle 2000s and early 2010s) aren’t going to cut it in today’s world of big data and transparency.

Sales reps today have to work even smarter to maintain and expand their territory. By utilizing groundbreaking and growth hacking strategies like sales acceleration, you can use actionable intelligence to grow your business. So, what is sales in the modern age? Is it just a series of numbers on a spreadsheet or a signature on a dotted line? Kind of, but it’s more about data interpretation and synthesis than it is meeting quotas. It’s also about utilizing the latest technology available to the masses and keeping up with the “Joneses”. If your career is in sales, and you do not stay up to speed with mobile tech – you are losing out.

The best way to look at sales vs. marketing is to consider sales the “Brick and Mortar” or “Practical” aspect of this relationship. You’re focused on hard statistics and timelines like sales numbers and fiscal quarters. Even moreso today, with big data playing an increasingly large role in how we conduct business, salespeople and medical sales reps are focused on numbers. The closest and simplest analogy would be the STEM department in your average university.

Marketing: Not Just Facebook Ads & Commercials

Let’s piggyback on that last paragraph. If your sales team is like the STEM department, what would that make the marketing team? If you guessed the social sciences and arts, you nailed it. In the same way that a society can’t function without its engineers and doctors, you need artists, writers, designers, and researchers to come full circle in the world.

The marketing team crafts the message that the sales team represents. Whether you are offering a service or a product, you don’t just have a Powerpoint of bulleted lists of why someone should be interested. You have engaging copy on marketing materials, online web ads, LinkedIn blog posts, or even in-person campaigns. Of course, individual sales reps have to pull double duty on this one; there is no “marketing department” to bounce ideas off or “HR department” to depend on for administrative help.

Regardless of the scope of your business, you need to always be ahead of the trends while still employing current strategies. One of the most popular marketing techniques today is selling a mindset or lifestyle instead of products or services. Brand loyalty hinges upon transparency and relatability of a company significantly more brand legacies. This is the point where sales and marketing come together.

Want to be a Great Sales Rep? Master Sales AND Marketing

Combine concrete numbers with creative problem solving solutions and you have a recipe for success. Your next question might be, so which came first – chicken or egg? Truth be told, that doesn’t matter. What matters is how your sales and marketing strategies work with each other toward the ultimate goal of success. You can’t make sales if your marketing doesn’t produce leads and you can’t turn leads into sales if your sales reps aren’t taking those leads successfully down the pipeline to close. Some have tossed around the term “smarketing”….but I have a better suggestion: sales acceleration.

What if there was a way you could marry sales and marketing into one software tool? Meaning, what if there was a tool that both generated qualified leads and then helped sales close the deal AND maintain the account? It is possible. Right now – sales lives in CRMs, and to a certain extent, marketing does too, however marketing also lives in marketing automation platforms and a million other types of platforms that cost thousands of dollars and turn your “tech stacks” to high-rises with confusing ROI’s.  There is no reason why sales and marketing should work within different technology platforms when they can work hand in hand.  

Sales acceleration strategies can streamline sales and marketing team processes for startups and enterprise level businesses alike. You don’t need tons of different specialists or software and programs anymore. Your all-in-one-tool for growing your business is right here with ProSellus Growth Engineers. Email me Scottwalle@prosellus.com to discuss the future of your business and be sure to read more about sales acceleration, growth hacking, and other medical sales reps tips on our blog.

Blog Classic / Blog Grid / Thought Leadership - 06/27/2017
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10 Things All Medical Devices Reps Should Learn in Training

Training sessions are often rehashes of what we already know, but, improving sales strategies should always be on your goals list. You don’t need to spice up training or even make it more complex; you need to focus the message and distill key elements from it. Basically – trim the fat. Here are 10 things all medical device sales training programs need in an easy to access list from ProSellus!

Start With The Basics

#1 and #2: Client Schedules & Mobility

Your first concern when crafting a new training program for medical device sales reps: respect for client schedule. After all, without your client base, your business wouldn’t exist! Listen to your clients’ needs, understand their needs, and be firm, but flexible. Next….you have to consider something mostly everyone takes for granted: mobility. The best part about smartphones is that you literally have a computer with you everywhere you go. You can access email, send texts, Skype people, and even access documents on your phone (and locate the nearest Starbucks). Can your training program work anywhere at any time for anyone – including you?

#3 and #4: Transparency & Snackable Information

Third up on the list is something many companies from “Mom and Pop” shops to massive corporations practice: honesty and transparency. Forbes argues that both of these factors are increasingly important in conducting any client based business. If you want to make sales acceleration techniques work best for you, ProSellus Growth Engineers recommend this path, too. Fourth on the list? Digestibility. And yes – information works just like food. Have you broken information in your training program into bite-sized pieces? Pro-tip: doing so allows trainees to more easily and effectively process information. It also gives you breathing room.

Protocols? Specialties? Vernacu-what?

#5 and #6: Documentation & Word Choice

HR (or human resources) gets the fun job of parsing things like employee handbooks along with administrative duties such as hiring and firing. Of course, if you’re a self-employed sales rep, you are your own HR department, accountant, chauffeur, etc. Adhering to documentation protocols might seem like it comes second fiddle to closing deals, but if you don’t practice good documentation, it could come back to bite you in uncomfortable places. Notice that I didn’t say a more common phrase that starts with “bite you in the…” there. That brings us to our next point: vernacular. That’s just a fancy word for the types of words you use, but it can drastically affect how clients interact with you. Consider the connotations of words and not just the dictionary meanings. Can you tell me the difference between “plot” and “plan”? The difference is probably a sale versus. a fail.

#7 and #8: Strong Sells & Specialization Knowledge

Our seventh piece of advice might seem counter-intuitive, but trust us – it makes sense. You need to avoid strong sells. It’s the 21st century. Everyone has internet access, curiosity, and common sense….or all of the above. No matter how much of a smooth talker you think you are, there will be clients who disagree. Read the room and have your facts handy. Speaking of facts, knowledge of adjacent specialties to a client’s industry and where patient populations come from will impress current and potential clients. It also works hand-in-hand with sales acceleration techniques. If you’re drawing blanks when we say “sales acceleration techniques”, keep reading.

Make Sure The Bow Looks Nice

#9 and #10: Repeat-ability & A Secret Weapon

What’s the last part of any gift you give? The bow! The ninth step to complete any medical device sales reps training package includes a key step: repeat-ability of training. You want complete strangers to be able to understand 100% of your training, but you also don’t want to expend every ounce of energy you have during training all the time, every time. All medical device sales training programs need to be easily repeatable, portable, and wrapped up in an attractive package that has evergreen information. Hint: “evergreen information” is information that never gets old and is always useful – like this list!

That brings us to number 10: ProSellus. Email me at Scottwalle@prosellus.com for more information on how our tool can enhance your business, improve efficiency, and put all that big data to work for you. In the meantime, check out our other blogs like Improving Your Bottom Line in 3 Steps or Learning the Market: A Beginner’s Guide

ProSellus / Sales Acceleration Tools / Thought Leadership - 06/20/2017
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Is Technology Rewriting the Marketing Handbook for Medical Devices?

The World of Marketing Is a New Wild West

You might have noticed a trend in all of those seemingly innocuous Facebook and Instagram ads you see every day: they relate to your recent searches. Marketing companies have been using curated ad campaigns for individuals for a few years now to better serve potential clients. Instead of seeing a random ad for something odd like the best preschool in your neighborhood, marketing algorithms will curate ads specifically for you. Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. It’s the new gold mine for sales.

 

No Followers Allowed; Leading Is The Only Option

Here at ProSellus, we talk a great deal about the life of medical device sales reps, as well as the changing industry with which we have to keep pace. But we also talk about the future. The truth is, the future is now. This article, written by the founder of Shift Thinking, unpacks the reality that technology has catapulted the medical industry into the future.

Not only are we seeing extreme advancements in medical technology, but the way we, as sales reps, can harness data for our own business growth strategies. Again, we work ourselves ragged maintaining and expanding our territories and cultivating relationships. However, in order for us to be the badass, successful reps we know ourselves to be, we have to keep up with, if not anticipate, technological changes and how they sway the market. This also means – yep, you guessed it – we have to adapt our marketing & sales strategies along with this. I don’t mean keeping up with the latest demo of a product or marketing collateral on your mobile device type of advancements – I mean adapting your thinking to outside of the box. It’s not difficult, actually when you get it – it’s a light bulb moment.  Keep reading.

 

What’s With the Sanctimonious Tech Talk?

You might be thinking, “My business runs mostly on relationships and my reputation. I don’t need to keep up with this Pokemon GO crap.” That’s where you’re wrong…again. Pokemon GO utilizes a budding technology in the medical industry: augmented reality. This is similar to virtual reality, but utilizes the user’s current world and adds virtual elements to it.

“…these virtual experiences can be delivery across a variety of platforms: on websites, sales laptops, mobile devices and high-definition touch screen appliances. Sales & Marketing teams can present any time and anywhere…”

The beauty of harnessing augmented and virtual reality technologies for medical sales reps is that you can make your business that much leaner, efficient, and effective.

Embracing Data Can be Quite Simple Actually

3D Technology, other interactive technology, and Big Data also play a vital role in this movement from products and services to mindsets. Changing the way people approach purchasing medical devices requires knowing what the focus of the industry is now: storytelling. Your clients care about things like: their patients, costs, emotional labor, etc. New technologies require new perspectives. Your job is to market these perspectives thereby instigating the correct value proposition which leads to a sale. Can you keep up? There is an entire world of data out there that can help you understand what your customer cares about. How do you access it?

(Let’s take a break here for a second, I need to vent… Data? Really? Me, as a sales rep, am supposed to use Data? Like Google? I Google docs all the time; the results usually leave me with more questions than I originally had. Sure, my company knows how many widgets my doctors implanted or prescribed and that’s helpful, but every time I get data from the Marketing team I can’t read ANY OF IT! Why can’t you get me this “so-called” valuable data in a format that I can actually do something with?!?! We typically just delete it.  We don’t use Excel or CSV, especially in the field! It needs to be easy if you want me, or us, to use it. Why is that so hard to understand? Ok. I’m done with my tirade.)

Now, how do you access this data? We can show you how and we have the technology to help. The light bulb went off for me and now we are giving it to you.

Sales Strategy is a Mindset…Time to Giddy Up

Being a medical sales rep is a little like being a cowboy in the wild west: every day is a new adventure. You have to adapt to the unforgiving heat and the cold, cold nights. Technology is your best bet on thriving so says Mark Bonchek:

“…digital innovation and technology is revolutionizing this by equipping Sales & Marketing to create compelling experiences, increase audience engagement, and build credibility and context.”

Technology and data are the key to getting ahead as a sales rep and as a sales manager. What if you could have all of this in your pocket while you were out in the field? If you are ready to transition from cowpoke to bona fide cowboy, email me Scottwalle@prosellus.com. Let’s begin exploring how you can incorporate new technology and metrics to bolster and enhance your medical device sales business.

 

ProSellus / Sales Acceleration Tools - 06/13/2017
brand-3

A Word of Advice for Creating YOUR brand

A Brand is Way More than the Logo and Packaging

In our last post we talked about changing your mindset to sell your product, or at the very least the mindset of your customer. We talked about how current marketing techniques are targeting specific things to make you think differently about products. For example, we spoke about Fitbit and how it not only sells an activity tracker, but it sells a “healthy lifestyle”, which obviously isn’t in their product. Fitbit is, in fact, building an image and inciting an emotional response that buyers associate with when they see the Fitbit brand.

So, when it comes to you, the medical sales rep (or quite frankly, the marketing team who work with the reps and are trying to determine a way to help your reps sell more) what “lifestyle” or “brand” are you trying to create? Is it the brand of, “My company ‘XYZ’ produces the best, safest, most effective widget?” Is it the brand of, “Our company created this market and we built the device to treat this market, therefore WE are the best, period?” As a medical rep or the marketing professional trying to put your reps in the position to win EVERY time, what brand are you creating or influencing?

I want you to take a hard look at what you sell, what products you support and deep down evaluate the following questions:

  1. Do your customers actually care what “brand” you’re currently trying to sell them?
  2. Do your competitors walk into your customer’s’ office after you leave and spin a similar story?
  3. Do you think that maybe, just maybe, your customers are tired of the same old thing?

Then, why don’t we try and actually sell a brand that transcends competition? A brand that stands out among the rest – truly.

Bringing Value and Creating a Brand go Hand in Hand

At ProSellus, not only have we created an intuitive, dynamic tool which helps reps crush their number, but we also work with sales teams in helping them incorporate a new way of selling. I ask all of the reps we work with a very straight forward question:  How do you bring value?  Interestingly enough, the answers I typically receive are similar to these:

  1. I’m on time…
  2. I have all of my equipment…
  3. I’m prepared for the case…
  4. I’m an “expert” in the OR…

Now, are all of these answers important? Of course they are.  You can’t even do this job if you don’t or can’t do the things listed above, however I’d say bringing value is much bigger than that.

These answers are nothing more than the price of admission to the game. As a rep in this industry you HAVE to do these things. They are the bare minimum!  If you think your competitors don’t do AT LEAST the same thing, you’re absolutely wrong!

So, if all this time you thought you were bringing a ton of value to your customers and they just couldn’t live without you – you are wrong. You’re doing the minimum, and your business is only a knock on the door away from being snatched from underneath you. So, how do we create a brand around bringing value?

I mean, if YOUR brand was that you bring value, and that value is often times unachievable without you, what have you actually created? You’ve created a brand that is irreplaceable – that’s what you’ve done. (This is where we all want to be… irreplaceable!)

Creating the Brand, Selling the Mindset, Changing the Game

Maya Angelou, a famous poet, memoirist and civil rights leader has a quote that I think exemplifies what we are trying to do with creating our brand, selling the mindset and changing the game: 

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou 

People will never forget how you made them feel… THAT my friends is what we are trying to create! Your customers are begging for someone to come into their office and talk about something that actually matters to them!  And it’s NOT your product, I don’t care how revolutionary it is! They want you to paint a picture for them about how THEY can achieve THEIR goals.  They don’t want to hear about YOUR goals, or YOUR product or how YOUR company wants you to sell their product. They hear that all day, every day!

So, instead of selling them something they hear about all day long, what if you sold them something they craved? And what if you were the only person selling it? Could you possibly change the game? Would you possibly change the mindset? Would you now have created such a brand that you (and your company) were known as: The Problem Solver, Different than Everyone Else, Understands the Need, Understands the Market or Totally Gets It?

All of these are better than, oh, the “xyz” rep is here. He/She is in the lounge waiting to see you. And your customer says in their head: “I wonder what line I’ll be told today about how this product is in some way different than it was the last time the rep was here?” Or instead, “what lunch did they bring me today to stand out?”

Wouldn’t you rather the customer to say in their head: “Great! I’ve got several questions to ask ‘John’. I hope he doesn’t have another case after lunch, I may want him to stay for a bit while we talk…”

There IS a way you can stop the madness of this hamster wheel and break free to WIN. I did it myself, and we have built the tool needed by the very folks I sold both side by side with and against. If you would like to chat about how to start creating your value and brand meaningful enough to break away from the herd, email me at scottwalle@prosellus.com.

ProSellus / Thought Leadership - 06/06/2017
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