Award Winners

Last week I caught up with one of the newbie reps who was honored with an award at the AAOS. In his first year, he was up 48%! I felt kinda proud because he was one of the folks I helped hire.

It seems like every time I checked up on this rep over the past year, he had just closed another video deal. He is delightfully humble, saying that our products are so good they "speak for themselves". Well, I think there's a lot more to it than that, especially when someone has to sign off on a purchase order worth nearly $200k. To win those kinds of capital sales, you not only have to have good products, but you also need a rep who knows how to conduct a successful evaluation, handle objections and win the confidence of the OR staff.

This rep is well recognized by his accounts for his conscientiousness. The distributor he works for tells me that all his accounts rave about him. "It's not just one account," his distributor says. "It's all of them." So, since I can't reveal his name lest his phone start ringing off the hook with job offers, that's just what I'll call him here...
Mr. Conscientious.

con'sci'en'tious adj. 1. Guided by or in accordance with the dictates of conscience; principled. 2. Thorough and assiduous.

Mr. Conscientious tells me that when he started in his territory, he began to make the rounds to meet his accounts and listened politely "hat in hand" to their concerns. Not all were happy with the amount of attention and service which they had previously experienced.I think new reps in any territory, in any industry can expect to encounter similar sentiments... hence the need for additional representation and expansion.

Mr. Conscientious, who says he's never has a bad day yet, took these concerns in stride and set about to remedy them by going "overboard" on service. He was polite, nice, and did exactly what his accounts asked and needed, even if it was a small thing that made him little or no money. Sometimes he would just drop by to ask if they needed any help and got to know his accounts by showing up regularly. (If you've read my earlier article called "A Doctor's Perspective", you'll notice a lot of overlap.)

Mr. Conscientious is himself from a clinical, rather than sales background, so he knew from his own experience that hard-nosed sales people who show up only when they can make a buck wear out their welcome pretty fast.

"There's a fine line between being a butt kisser and being a professional," he says. "I'm friendly and professional, but not oozing, fake or contrived. I try to be a nice guy and I'm concerned with good service."

He strives to take care of things before he's asked. One of the ways he does this is by checking the boards where the surgeries are scheduled so that he can anticipate the accounts' needs. By the sound of the feedback, they've noticed and appreciate his efforts to make their lives easier.

"My goal is to be prepared in advance, never to be behind the eight-ball," he says. He's friendly, prompt and doesn't b.s. anybody.

He's noticed that although reps may be in fierce competition trying to win deals, the hospital staff has their own struggles and day-to-day battles they are fighting. He believes that a rep who helps them solve their problems, rather than focusing solely on personal gain, can earn their loyalty and their business as a result.

After his first year, he's thrilled with the growth in his territory and is looking for ways to improve his skills and expand his business. He loves the daily challenges of being a medical device rep for Linvatec and the constant learning that is required for him to be his best. I think we can only expect his success to continue.

Valentine's Day Launch

This week is the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons' annual meeting in sunny San Diego. It's one of the big shows that Linvatec, and many other orthopaedic companies, attend each year. Today, Linvatec is officially releasing several major new products, including the much-anticipated  TrueHD - High Definition Camera System.

To read the press release about this product, plus the new 24k arthroscopy pump and our new hip arthroscopy set, follow this link...


2007 AAOS Product Launches

Recommendation from a Reader

I received an e-mail from a reader who suggested the following book...

I wanted to suggest a book that I think you (and your entire organization/ salesforce ) will enjoy. It is the easiest sales read that I have found, and the best part is that it is written in "simple" terminology by a very successful former device sales rep/manager from Johnson & Johnson. The book is called "The Greatest Sales Book Ever Written" by Dean Gould (modest title huh....but I think he might be right).


I located an entire copy on-line through Google. I have some other recommendations from our distributors which I hope to share very soon!

Free Newsletter, Orthopedics News & Analysis

I discovered a private equity group called HealthpointCapital which focuses largely on orthopedics. According to their 2006 Industry forecast, the orthopedics industry is forecast to increase around 15% per year... that means the industry is growing about $4 billion dollars a year. No, I did not make a mistake, that's $4 billion a year! I look forward to reading their 2007 forecast in the near future.

Here's their overall thesis...

We believe orthopedics will emerge as the single most promising source of future investor returns in healthcare, given the confluence of demographics, technology and global expansion. While other healthcare categories such as cardiovascular devices, cancer or biotech may have been more lucrative in the past, what the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) calls the "Decade of Orthopedics" provides the best opportunity for future investor profits in healthcare.

A number of elements will create this opportunity for the next ten years:

1. Increased life expectancies, which is a powerful demand driver that uniquely favors orthopedic devices.
2. Technological innovation, which will change the entire complexion of the industry.
3. Attractive industry economics and profitability.
4. Combined, these elements will cause the industry to grow more than three fold from $20 billion per year to $65 billion in the coming decade resulting in as much as $75 billion of potential investor profits.

This combination of factors supports sustained, attractive industry valuations.

Well said! Of course, it paints a pretty picture not just for investors, but orthopedic manufacturers and anyone lucky enough to sell such products. You can read more and subscribe to their newsletter at www.healthpointcapital.com

The Ultimate Tag Team Returns

Sunny Crocket and Rico Tubbs join me once again to share their perspective on life as a new medical device reps. Read the interview in our shared comments below...

Do What You Love

One of the best parts of what I do is congratulating someone when they get the job. They are usually beside themselves with excitement. They may have worked and planned for several years to get to the point where they are qualified for such an opportunity. Landing a job in medical device sales is often the fulfillment of a major life goal for a candidate and reason for celebration. Before we find the one who really wants it, a person who is prepared and committed to succeed, we often talk to a lot of window-shoppers, people who don't seem to know for sure what they want.

The employment section of the Tampa Tribune had a good article yesterday entitled, "Choose Your Career Wisely". The article makes some solid points about why a job that is rewarding on a personal level is so critical for a achieving a sense of satisfaction in life.

Here's one part I like...
"People ask themselves the wrong questions," agrees Hodowanes, a career strategy advisor in Tampa... "They ask 'what kind of money can I make, does the career have visibility, what is the career path?' These are all the wrong questions. The first question a person needs to ask him or herself is 'what can I get passionate about,' because what you can get passionate about is also something you have an ability to do."

As I wrote in my last post, some people are rather superficial about their reasons for wanting to get into medical device sales. Everyone I talk to seems to have a "friend" who is successful in medical device sales. Sometimes it's good, because such people sometimes have a more realistic perspective of the challenges and potential of medical device sales, but sometimes there's more job-envy happening than serious introspection and commitment.

Do what you love and the money will come... it takes someone with a lot of hunger and self-confidence to lay aside questions of immediate income and focus on the long-term, but I guarantee you, that describes our most successful reps. They know they can "make it happen" because they know deep down that this is exactly what they want to do.

Read the entire article at http://careerseeker.tbo.com/careerseeker/MGBL1N6D9XE.html
And do what you love!

Best Books on Sales

Over the next few weeks I will be asking our distributors what their favorite books on sales are. I hope this will be an interesting topic for both newbies and industry veterans. As a group, our distributors got to where they are because they were (and still are) extremely successful as sales people, so their recommendations should make for some interesting reading. I plan to read a few of the books myself.

So often when I ask people why they enjoy sales, they say something about how they like meeting new people, or that they like the variety and independence of being out of an office and visiting customers. That's nice for them and all, but it's rather shallow. If you like people, there are lots of jobs you can have... teacher, waiter, lawyer, nurse. It doesn't really answer the question why sales, in particular.

Sales is a profession and the best sales people commit to constantly improving their craft. Just like healthcare professionals earn continuing education credits, so salespeople should be constantly learning, improving, sharpening and updating their skills.

My recommendation is to check out Selling Power. They offer free newsletters by e-mail on a variety of topics, which alway contains really interesting and useful information. www.sellingpower.com

The first recommendation from one of our distributors is Execution, The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan and Charles Buck. Great title, isn't it? From the description on Amazon.com, it does not appear to be a book strictly on sales, rather achieving goals, which is very very important.

Results, not efforts, determine the worth of a salesperson. It's a salesperson's lot in life to be measured by the numbers they produce, as another one of our distributors says. You're only as good as your last month, laughs another. And off they go, after the next deal, the next sale, the next quota. Kind of exciting, isn't it?

If you have your own recommendations to share, please feel free to add to the list!