Master the art of sales in the medical field and unlock your true potential as a representative. Gain the essential skills that inspire customers to say yes, paving the way for success and making a lasting impact in healthcare. Welcome to the Medical Sales podcast. Today, host Samuel Adeyinka is joined by special guest, Andy Olen. In this episode, he discusses the essential sales skills required for success as a medical sales representative. Discover Andy’s expertise as he guides high-performing individuals, executive sales leaders, and professional athletes through his coaching and training organization. Through his book, “The Trilogy of Yes,” Andy empowers salespeople to inspire customers to say yes. Tune in now and unlock the sales skills that will propel your career in medical sales.
The CE experience for this Podcast is powered by CMEfy – click here to reflect and earn credits: https://earnc.me/0ArD2r
—
Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
Sales Skills You Will Need As A Medical Sales Rep With Andy Olen
In this episode, we have with us another special guest. He goes by the name of Andy Olen. He leads a sales and leadership training organization where he coaches and works with high-performing individuals, executive sales leaders, and professional athletes transitioning from their previous careers. He authored the book, The Trilogy of Yes, to help salespeople inspire customers to say yes. He hosts the podcast The Sales Warrior Within, where he coaches high-potential leaders and is also a keynote speaker and skills trainer.
He has many years of experience in sales leadership in healthcare. I’m happy to have him on the show, but I am not going to spoil it by giving you more. For the rest of it, you’re going to have to read the interview. As always, we do our best to bring innovative guests that are doing things a bit differently in medical sales and truly making an impact. Thank you for reading.
—-
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Andy, how are you doing?
Andy Olen (Guest):
I’m doing great. It’s good to see you.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Why don’t you tell everybody who you are and what you do?
Andy Olen (Guest):
I lead a sales and leadership training organization.
I coach and work with high-performing individuals, senior executives, sales leaders, transitioning special operators who are leaving the military and going into civilian careers, and also professional athletes who are transitioning from their professional athletic careers into the next 50 years of their lives.
I love working with high performers.
I love training and working with sales teams.
All of that came after many years working in healthcare, marketing, sales, and leadership positions.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
It’s great that you’re on the show because a lot of people assume companies have their own training, especially when it comes to their sales teams.
They think as long as they get hired by a good company, as far as sales training, they’re done.
Give us a little bit of insight into what’s going on and why it’s important to have people in the position you’re in.
Andy Olen (Guest):
During the years I spent in sales leadership roles in healthcare, I had a bird’s-eye view of what was happening in terms of training salespeople and sales teams.
Where companies in healthcare do a great job is product training and training their teams to communicate the clinical safety and efficacy aspects of their technology.
However, sales skills are not a core competency within most corporate healthcare training teams.
That’s where a lot of organizations outsource.
Interestingly, there are a couple of big training modalities and frameworks that companies often go to. You may have heard of a few of these, like SPIN Selling or the Challenger methodology.
These are very good.
My work is very complementary to what those organizations do.
However, those are big change management programs and significant investments.
You also have to rewire the way salespeople think, act, and behave.
That can be challenging, especially with all the demands sales teams have around hitting their quarterly numbers or adapting to an increasingly difficult environment.
So there is a lot of outsourcing of the sales skills aspect.
Where I fit in is I step in at a lower cost and with a much more tailored, customized experience to help sales teams and training groups deliver sales skills training that is simple, impactful, and can be executed right away without completely rewiring someone’s entire sales approach.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
That helps us understand what the landscape looks like.
One thing my listeners might be interested in hearing is that the companies they work for may outsource sales training anyway.
There has always been a pocket for individuals like yourself.
Let’s talk about that for a second.
As a salesperson, how important is it to always be looking for education around sales training?
Do you feel that as a salesperson, once you learn it and keep it in practice, you’re done?
Or do you see it as something where you should actively look for more ways, or even more innovative ways, to be trained in sales?
Andy Olen (Guest):
It makes me think about the term empowerment.
It’s a great term that’s thrown out a lot, but what does it mean?
The definition of empowerment is to focus on strengthening your own skills in order to control your own destiny.
As a salesperson, the way I think about that is, I want to control my own destiny.
I want to hit my numbers, exceed my numbers, walk across the stage, get the President’s Award, get the big crystal trophy I can put in my office, and be in control of my own destiny.
Therefore, I need empowerment.
The way I empower myself is by continuing to evolve and strengthen my sales skills and approach.
It is incredibly important.
One of the most dangerous things a healthcare sales professional can do is land the dream job and say, “I don’t have to change. I got it. I’ve been validated by getting this great job at this medical device company or diagnostic company, and I don’t have to ever change again.”
The reality is you have to change every day.
Otherwise, the person who is changing, evolving, and adding more to their sales armamentarium is going to pass you right by.
Great salespeople are always looking for that new edge and that new muscle to develop.
Think about great athletes like Lewis Hamilton in racing, Kobe, LeBron, Tiger Woods, you name it.
These individuals were never satisfied at the top.
They always needed to take that next step.
Salespeople have to continue evolving their skills in order to get to the top and stay at the top as well.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
So you see it as even the most veteran sales rep should be looking for training outside the organization they work for.
Andy Olen (Guest):
Here’s a stat for you.
In my experience, and I poll the sales teams I work with specifically around negotiation training, you would think most people in healthcare are expert negotiators.
They’re going up against doctors, big procurement agencies, tough economic customers, IDNs, GPOs, and big hospitals.
You would think these are great negotiators.
The reality is two-thirds of salespeople in my data in healthcare have never had a formal negotiation course.
That’s pretty striking.
You’ve made it to the top of the sales pyramid in many ways, but you’ve never learned how to negotiate.
That’s an example where a lot of companies say, “We need better negotiation skills for our team, especially in this higher inflation environment where our customers are trying to drive pricing down. We better be savvy negotiators so we can hold revenue and margin. We have a gap. Our team hasn’t been trained on this. Let’s give Andy a call. Let’s have him come in and work with our team to develop this muscle.”
That’s where I see even very tenured salespeople say, “I’m a lot more confident in negotiating now. I never have been before. I can go out and execute immediately with these very simple practices.”
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Let’s talk about negotiation for a second.
It’s an obvious thing every sales professional should understand how to do.
Talk to us about what it looks like when you’ve worked with a team that didn’t have negotiation as part of their arsenal, and then after training, you saw big differences.
What do those changes look like?
Give us maybe two or three stories.
Andy Olen (Guest):
Two quick stories.
I was working with a group from one of my favorite clients, which is a medical aesthetics company out of Long Beach, California.
I was training some of their international team members from around the world.
The next morning after the training, I delivered what’s called a “Yes, if” training.
You can say yes to every customer request if the customer is also willing and ready to trade value for value with you.
I got a note from one of the sales reps from Hong Kong who said, “I got on the phone with one of my customers after your training, and I ‘Yes, if’ into a multi-system deal and felt good about it.”
Literally within hours, this person was able to take the simple practices.
We’re not boiling the ocean with these negotiation skills.
These are simple actions you can take and immediately transform into successes.
Another company of mine trained about 500 people in their sales organization on this.
Right away, you saw a pop in the average selling price.
You saw a different confidence and swagger.
Keep this in mind.
The best salespeople run toward the negotiation.
The reality is negotiations are often conflict-filled events, and there are trained negotiators on the other side of the table from the salesperson.
They’re trying to bring prices down.
They use conflict, chaos, and crisis to do that.
When a salesperson has more confidence, they become better communicators.
They think about forming a cooperative negotiation.
And they see results immediately.
You see confidence scores go up.
Confidence leads to stronger negotiation outcomes for a company in healthcare, leading to higher price and margin preservation.
The return on investment for organizations is big when they have an upskilled sales force, specifically around negotiations.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Talking about these sales teams, you’ve seen a lot.
Before we do that, I want to color in your history so people can understand who they’re listening to.
Walk us back to your first medical sales experience.
What position did you have, and what were you doing in that role?
Andy Olen (Guest):
It takes me back to when I was first exposed to healthcare sales and healthcare companies.
I was an MBA student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
I went to a corporate presentation during my first year of business school.
I remember sitting in that room, and they showed a video of a grandfather talking about how he couldn’t play with his grandchildren anymore because his heart was beating too slowly.
He wasn’t getting enough blood and oxygen pumped to his muscles.
He was lethargic and tired.
He saw an electrophysiologist, received a Guidant pacemaker, paced up his heart rate, overcame his bradycardia, and it changed his life.
He was crying and talking about how he was able to engage with his grandchildren and how much joy that brought him.
When I saw that, I thought, “I have to be in this industry.”
Here was an industry where we could do cool things on the sales and business side, and we could also positively impact people.
I started after a summer internship as a compensation analyst.
I was writing comp plans and sales incentive plans for the sales organization.
That changed into a big change management effort I worked on when Johnson & Johnson tried to buy the company back in 2002.
That didn’t work.
The company got split out.
I ended up going to a company where I soon ran the XIENCE drug-eluting stent launch as a U.S. marketing manager.
We got to market leadership in 90 days.
I spent a lot of time in marketing, and then they said, “Good job in marketing. We’re going to ship you off to Canada.”
I said, “Sounds good.”
I moved to Toronto and was the national sales manager there.
I went from sales operations to marketing to sales, then from there to General Manager in Canada and Latin America.
I moved around a bit and ran a $1.5 billion business.
It’s been a wonderful and rewarding journey.
In 2019, I started my own company because I wanted to get back closer to helping salespeople and sales leaders upskill and live and work within my passion, which is teaching, presenting, communicating, and training.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
You’ve led sales teams.
You’ve seen the good, bad, and ugly.
Tell us the top three things you see sales professionals consistently do well.
When you see this happen, you know they’re going to do well.
And also, give us three things on the cons side.
Andy Olen (Guest):
Every great salesperson is hyper-curious and remains curious.
For example, we’re now living in a high-inflation, high-interest-rate environment.
The curiosity mechanism inside a top salesperson says, “What does this mean for me, my customers, and my products? Let me learn more about what a hospital is going through with higher interest rates. Their bonds are adjusting because it’s a variable interest bond. That tightens the P&L. They’re going to have to cut costs.”
They’re probably going to come to my company as a vendor and say, “We need to cut our costs. How am I going to negotiate my way through that?”
You can see that curiosity and awareness around what’s going on.
Studying it is critical when there are big headwinds facing the salesperson.
A great salesperson is hyper-curious.
Second, we talked about it earlier, they always have a growth mindset.
“I want to grow and improve.”
I link that to empowerment because that’s a way to control my own destiny.
That is number two.
The third is this.
Let me give you an analogy.
It’s Friday at 4:00.
You’re driving home from your last call or last appointment.
Maybe you’re at 100 percent or 101 percent to quota, but there’s something inside you that says, “I want more. I’m going to stop at 4:30 and then 5:00 at that last account. I’m going to see if the doctors and customers are there. I’m going to make that one last stop.”
Because on Friday at 4:00, it could be, “I’m going to drive home, hit the golf course, grab a drink.”
But great salespeople go to that one last customer stop before the weekend starts.
They’re probably after it on Saturday and Sunday, getting all their administrative work done so they can hit the road again Monday morning.
Those are three things I see great salespeople doing.
To answer the second part of your question, the challenging areas are often the inverse of that.
It’s, “I’ve been successful for the last three quarters, so I’m going to be successful for the next three quarters.”
It’s hubris or certainty.
Because I’ve created success, I know what I’m doing.
That leads to laziness in a way, or a lack of internal drive to get better.
I would always get worried about salespeople who said, “Why are you pushing me hard to get my number? I’ve gotten all these great results in the last three quarters.”
I understand that, but when you start to get soft and don’t push those extra few feet or yards, that’s when a competitor can pass you by.
That slowdown or lack of fire is a challenge.
Second, a lot of salespeople think they can win and achieve by doing it all themselves.
But that’s not possible anymore.
Sales in healthcare is a team sport.
You have great leaders around you who can co-sell with you.
You have great marketers who can engage with you.
Your customers are usually multi-level customers, horizontally and vertically diverse.
You need a team around you to get ready for a sales call, to prepare, and to get your training done.
Lean on your teammates and bring them into the sales process.
Those who are lone wolves out there continue to struggle.
This is a team sport.
You have to build that muscle to sell as a team.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
You have this framework you use to help sales professionals grow.
You can’t give us all your stuff here.
There’s Challenger Sale, SPIN Selling, Go-Givers, and other philosophies.
A lot of professionals are hard-pressed to truly understand what a fundamental framework of selling is and how to improve that.
Give us a little insight into what that looks like.
Andy Olen (Guest):
I’m happy to give you some of the insights here because I want your listeners to be able to take these skills and work on them right away.
My goal and mission are to help over one million people upskill themselves in sales and feel more confident and proud to be salespeople.
Here are a couple of things.
We’ll talk about negotiations and presentation skills, which are also a big need from a lot of my customers and within the healthcare industry.
My approach and framework, which I developed after many years and within the experiences I had in healthcare sales, is called the “Yes, if” mindset.
What this sounds like is when a customer asks me for a price reduction on my product, I say, “Yes, I can give you a price reduction if you give me more volume.”
“Yes, I can give you a discount if you give me another year on the contract.”
This is a trading mentality.
What I see a lot of salespeople doing in negotiations, especially when a sales rep is going up against a very powerful doctor or procurement organization, is they acquiesce.
Acquiescence is saying yes without any protest or without asking for something in return.
It sounds like this.
If a customer asks me for a price discount, I say, “I can give you a price discount.”
Then they ask, “Can you also give me a rebate at the end of the year?”
And I say, “Yes, I can give that to you as well.”
When you only say yes and don’t ask for anything in return, the customer is going to keep asking and getting more value from you.
Salespeople in healthcare often feel they need to say yes in order to be liked and move closer to getting the deal done.
The reality is they get taken advantage of.
That’s where revenue, price, and margin come down.
A better way is to say, “Yes, I can do this for you, Mr. or Mrs. Customer, or Doctor, if you can also give me something of value in return.”
What I encourage everyone I train in “Yes, if” to do, and your audience as well, is to start trying that now, even in negotiations in your personal life.
I negotiate with my kids all the time.
“Yes, you can go out and hang out with your friends if your homework is already done.”
“Yes, you can do this if you can do that.”
For me, it’s this cooperative trading environment where everybody wins, but value and equity are maintained.
If you think about this for healthcare salespeople, you want to create a triple-win outcome through negotiation.
The salesperson wins.
The customer wins.
And the company the salesperson works for wins a good deal as well.
If you can create that triple-win outcome through a “Yes, if” cooperative negotiation, then you’re well on your way.
You can find my courses at Learn.AndyOlen.com and dive into those.
There’s a whole series on negotiation training around the “Yes, if” mindset.
Second, on presentation skills, great salespeople are able to stand up, confidently communicate, persuade, and motivate a customer to follow them.
When you have presentation excellence and confidence in front of customers, that passion, optimism, and credibility can translate into incredible results.
I spend a lot of time with sales teams training them on how they can upskill their presentation approaches.
It’s through simple practices like the rule of three, storytelling, using slides as scaffolding, and a lot of very simple best practices.
Then reps go do it and get feedback.
It’s a lot of fun.
Those courses are available on my website as well.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
You dropped the rule of three.
I can only imagine how many people are wondering, “What is the rule of three?”
Why don’t you share with us what the rule of three is?
Andy Olen (Guest):
The rule of three is all around us.
Our brain can only take on about three pieces of data or information at a time.
There is a rhythm to one, two, three, and A, B, C.
If there’s a rhythm to three, our brain is able to remember three.
Let’s play to the way we’re naturally wired.
If we’re able to take on and remember three things as a salesperson, let’s share the three most important things in that presentation with our customer.
“I’d like to talk with you about one, two, and three, or A, B, and C. Let’s start with one.”
If you think about the rule of three, it’s everywhere.
Think about how we were trained as kids in North America and what we were trained to do if we caught on fire.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Stop, drop, and roll.
Andy Olen (Guest):
That’s the rule of three.
If we ever are on fire, and I hope none of your listeners ever are, what is the emergency number we dial on our phone?
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
9-1-1.
Andy Olen (Guest):
Those are three numbers because we can remember three.
Once we recover from our near miss or fire experience, there’s probably an interesting story to tell.
A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
The rule of three.
The rule of three is all around us.
Stop lights are red, yellow, green.
Starbucks has tall, grande, and venti sizes.
It’s all around us.
As we present and share information, especially when our pharmaceuticals, devices, diagnostics, informatics, and information system technologies have many cool benefits, a salesperson has to consolidate and prioritize the three main things.
Then they need to communicate them effectively so they resonate with customers.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
I’m going to switch gears a little bit here.
I want you to address something that’s been mumbled about before.
Introverts and extroverts.
The automatic notion when people hear that is that sales professionals are extroverts, plain and simple.
However, if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find there are quite a few sales professionals who are introverts and rather effective.
Talk to us a little bit about your take on this.
First of all, do you even believe that’s true?
What would you say about being an extroverted person versus being an introverted person and having the desire to be a medical sales professional?
Andy Olen (Guest):
In medical sales, we welcome all introverts and extroverts.
You can be wildly successful no matter what your personality type is.
You have to be self-aware of who you are so you are balanced in your sales approach.
My wife is very extroverted.
She is a sales manager in healthcare.
If you do the CliftonStrengths assessment, she’s WOO, the hyper-extrovert.
She wants to be at the dinner in the middle of all the conferences, and her energy level of engagement is nonstop.
It’s a wonderful skill for her.
I’m nowhere near that.
I’m extroverted usually around people I’m comfortable with or people, marketplaces, industries, or environments I’m familiar with.
But I can also be a little more introverted.
After a while at big trade shows, I get tired.
I need to take a break and have some alone time.
Introverts are wonderful listeners.
That’s a wonderful selling skill.
Introverts allow customers to speak and share.
The more you can get a customer to share with you what their goals are, what their needs are, and what their objections are, the more quickly you can tailor solutions for them.
Introverts have a wonderful superpower of usually being great listeners.
Extroverts have to work on skills like listening.
They might say, “I know I can be high energy. I know I can talk. I can fill all the silent space with energy and insight.”
But they might miss some of the things the customer is saying.
So they have to train themselves to be good listeners and ask thoughtful questions.
Introverts, although their superpower is listening, processing, and thoughtfulness, probably have to push outside their comfort zone a little bit, especially when knocking on the door of a new customer they don’t know.
That may feel a little funky, or they may have to get their energy up because it’s not natural for them to step into that social space.
You have to push yourself there and overcome some of those introverted feelings to be able to open new doors, generate leads, and prospect.
It takes skills on both sides.
But my experience is that great salespeople can be extroverts or introverts.
You have to be passionate about this field, and you can be successful.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Talk to us about someone who wants to get into the medical sales profession.
You work with sales teams and sales professionals.
What about the people who want to get in?
What should they be thinking about as far as themselves?
What do they need to demonstrate well to be taken seriously as a medical sales professional?
This is a little further than the scope of selling, but I’m sure you’ve hired quite a few leaders and sales professionals and have been part of the hiring process.
What would you say someone who wants to get into the industry absolutely needs to have?
Andy Olen (Guest):
The first preconceived notion, barrier, or block you have to get rid of is looking at yourself and saying, “I don’t have healthcare sales experience, therefore I can’t get in.”
You have to get rid of that.
If you put that wall in front of you, that because you don’t have the experience, you can’t do it, then you’re not going to do it.
You have to remove that wall.
Some of the most successful salespeople started in B2B selling.
They sold copy machines, printer solutions, and phone systems.
They started as inside salespeople.
My wife is a super successful sales manager.
She sold mortgages and loans for a bank, cold calling people at 5:00 in the evening.
She cut her teeth doing those types of roles.
Anyone can grab and hold onto an access point to move into healthcare.
If you want to do it, the door will be open.
You have to go find the doors.
A couple of ways, and this goes back to your experience as well, is that pharmaceutical sales coming right out of college is a good starting point.
Those are big sales teams, with incredible product training and a big investment in shaping younger salespeople or those out of college.
I’ve seen a lot of very successful people make pivots from high-tech industries, automotive industries, and manufacturing industries into healthcare.
I’ve seen a lot of people from the military move from leadership positions in the military to sales leadership positions and operations positions within healthcare.
You can come in from any angle.
What you have to do is network to get in.
For any of your listeners, if you want to network and you’re thinking about getting in, you can call or email me at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
I will open up my network to you.
Connect with me on LinkedIn at Andy Olen.
Check out my website, AndyOlen.com.
You’ll find a way to contact me, and I will help you with my clients because my clients are always looking for outstanding people.
It’s a tough labor market to find great people.
Smart and progressive companies will train people who have shown leadership and success in other industries.
In fact, a lot of companies like that because they can teach you their way of positioning their technology and products.
What you have to recognize is that if you don’t have healthcare experience, you have to think about the opportunity.
You’ll have to build new relationships.
You don’t bring a book of healthcare customer relationships with you.
That’s okay.
One thing people have to do if they don’t have healthcare experience is recognize that they’re not bringing a full set of healthcare customer relationships into this new role.
During your interviews, communicate effectively.
What is your process going to be, and how are you going to build new customer relationships?
If you can convince that hiring manager that your relationship-building skills are strong, they’ll say yes to you, and you’ve made a good case for yourself.
It is such a fun industry.
If you want to get in, I’m here to help.
Samuel is here to help your whole audience.
We want great people in this industry.
Get in touch with us, and certainly with me.
I will open my connections to you as well.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Think back to your time as a sales leader and being part of the interviewing process.
You were probably the last leg of the interviewing process and had the final say.
From someone who did not come from medical sales or any kind of medical sales before, what would you say someone did that impressed you the most?
Andy Olen (Guest):
I’m working with an individual right now.
I do a lot of work with a group that helps special operators, Navy SEALs, Marine Raiders, and Army Green Berets transition from their military service to the next civilian chapter of their lives.
I’m working with a very senior Army Green Beret, a special operations leader, and he’s making that transition.
It’s a unique transition.
To answer your question, if he were interviewing with me, what would be important is describing his leadership experience.
What I’m looking for in those interviews is whether someone has leadership experience.
Have they managed teams?
Have they dealt with difficult people on their team?
Have they dealt with big complex decisions?
Do they have a global perspective?
Do they have an enterprise mindset that they can demonstrate through examples and successes?
If they can, then I want them on my team.
I can teach the ins and outs of healthcare.
As you get to a more senior level, it’s more about business management and people management than being a deep subject matter expert.
Does deep subject matter expertise help?
It helps.
But at a more senior level, people who come in and demonstrate, no matter what industry they’re from, that they know how to create change, inspire people, lead and develop leaders, can be extremely valuable.
This individual I’m working with does not realize how valuable his skill set is after 30 years of military service and getting to the very highest levels.
Many companies will want him, even though he doesn’t have corporate or industry-specific insights.
I’ve already tried to network him with three or four healthcare executives where I know they would look at him, look at his resume, hear the first two sentences out of his mouth, and think, “Please come.”
Those are the big things that matter as you move up.
From a sales rep manager perspective, if you want to keep moving into leadership positions, you need to show that you can take on big projects, be successful, inspire people, motivate others, communicate clearly, work cross-functionally, and demonstrate strong business acumen and business savviness skills.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Last question as far as sales training is concerned.
Where do you see sales training headed?
COVID happened.
Companies had to cut all types of services that were entertaining for their employees left and right.
There are all these whispers about a big recession coming.
Usually, things like sales training are the first to go.
Think about the future.
Where is sales training headed in general?
Andy Olen (Guest):
In healthcare, it may be a little more immune to economic ups and downs because people unfortunately get sick, and people need service and care.
Healthcare can be somewhat resilient through an economic downturn.
We’ve seen that before.
In sales training, the clinical and product pieces will always be there.
I also believe that because of the competitive nature and ever-changing dynamics of the healthcare marketplace, sales skills are also going to be part of that curriculum.
I’m pretty bullish and optimistic over the next few years on where things are going, even if we go through some up-and-down macroeconomic cycles.
That being said, there are a couple of trends you’ll see.
One is a focus on how to gain access to customers as access is being shut down.
As you know, a lot of hospitals and healthcare facilities won’t let sales reps in.
How do I get in front of that customer?
You may have to do it at Starbucks, in the cafeteria, at dinner, at breakfast, or in a different environment.
How do I communicate and ask for that time?
How do I get that time?
There is AIR that I teach.
You have to get Access.
That’s the A.
When you have access, you have to make an Impact, especially if you’re asking for a customer’s time outside of normal hours.
I is Impact.
R is Revisit.
You have to ask, in the end, for the ability to come back and revisit with that customer.
Those types of skills are going to be very critical.
We are also going to see a continued transformation where the sales rep of the future has to be incredibly well-versed in financial insights, financial acumen, and understanding the finances, headwinds, and tailwinds their customers are facing.
Understand an income statement.
Understand how to create economic utility with the products you’re selling.
Understand how to manage Value Analysis Committees, or VACs.
There’s a procurement person, the chief medical officer, the doctor, and a few other people, like the lawyer.
The value proposition in front of them from that salesperson’s company has to be crystal clear.
There is an upskilling that will continue to happen as this environment tightens in terms of access and gets more complex in terms of integrating clinical benefits with economic utility or value utility.
I always think there’s going to be a place for sales training.
That’s where negotiation and presentation skills have a very good positive return on investment.
Lastly, this virtual world we all work in is here to stay.
Selling through Zoom, Teams, text messages, and informal negotiations will be much more important skills to have while we balance our time in front of customers between in-person moments and virtual moments.
Virtual is here to stay, and salespeople have to get comfortable selling in this medium as well.
I’m optimistic and bullish, but we certainly have a lot of work to do.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
I would even say it goes further than that with social media.
It has become critical for sales professionals.
Everyone can see that platforms like LinkedIn, if you can figure out how to hone in on your message and you’re an expert in your field, you can brand yourself into opportunities left and right.
Andy Olen (Guest):
A great shout-out to the leaders listening is that healthcare companies are rightfully very thoughtful about regulatory, compliance, advertising, and promotion of their technologies because it’s very strict.
You have to be very on-label and very compliant.
That being said, a lot of healthcare companies don’t want or discourage their employees from talking about their company and products on social media because that could be the Wild West.
Someone could go off-label, show something, and get them in trouble.
A great area of sales training for healthcare leaders is learning how to exploit the power of social and digital media.
How do we enable a sales force of 500 people, which could be 500 unique microphones and marketers, to use their social media platforms to send positive messages about our products and our companies in their own voices?
My client is very empowering with its people.
They leverage digital media big time, and their entire global sales team is a megaphone for them.
That’s a progressive view.
Others have to get there.
Otherwise, they will lose the full advantage of social media.
There’s a balance between being compliant and allowing your teams and people to share what needs to be found.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
It has been fantastic to have you on the show.
Anything else you want to share with our audience?
Remember, our audience includes people who want to get into the industry, people in the industry, and people leading the way.
Andy Olen (Guest):
One last tip for salespeople who are new to our industry, trying to get in, or even very tenured.
There are three foundational sales skills that I’ve seen great salespeople have.
I’m working with sales teams in Indianapolis and everywhere in between, and the three sales skills that inspire people to say yes are connection, communication, and cooperation.
These are the three foundational sales skills of healthcare and all of selling.
What I’d encourage your listeners to think about is taking an inventory of a couple of the great relationships you have in your personal life.
My guess is that the communication between you and that other person is fantastic.
You are connected.
You have a lot of the same values.
You cooperate to solve problems.
Think about that personal relationship and then ask yourself, “How do I take all the greatness and the things that work regarding connection, communication, and cooperation in my personal relationship, and bring that over into how I sell and build relationships with doctors, procurement folks, technologists, and healthcare providers?”
You’ll find that if you can create excellence in connection, communication, and cooperation, then you are well on your way to an incredibly successful career in healthcare.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
We’re going to switch gears for the last time.
I’m going to ask you a series of four questions.
It’s our Lightning Round.
Are you ready?
Andy Olen (Guest):
Bring it.
Let’s go.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Best book you’ve read?
Andy Olen (Guest):
I read a couple of them.
The one that comes to mind that was impactful is Company of One by Paul Jarvis.
As small business and entrepreneurial folks like us, it’s all about how you can prosper being on your own or with a small team.
It’s a great book for those thinking about entrepreneurial efforts.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Best movie or TV show you’ve seen?
Andy Olen (Guest):
I watched Better Call Saul and finished that.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
That show blew my mind.
That was a good one.
Andy Olen (Guest):
Vince Gilligan, the writing, cinematography, characters, and how Bob Odenkirk didn’t win a single Emmy Award is criminal.
Great job.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Breaking Bad was groundbreaking TV, and Better Call Saul stepped it up.
Best meal you’ve had?
Andy Olen (Guest):
My wife and I are heading out to New York City.
We’re going to a French restaurant in TriBeCa.
I’m going to put all my bets that that French meal, if it’s a three or four-course meal and we get a nice bottle of wine, is going to be the best one I’ve had.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
I’ve never had a future meal be an option.
Last question.
Best experience?
Andy Olen (Guest):
That’s an easy one.
My daughter verbally accepted and committed to Auburn University to swim and study there.
She did five weekends in a row.
Five official campus visits.
Ultimately, War Eagle.
She’s going to be an Auburn Tiger.
I’m super proud of her.
We are going to Auburn, and making that official is a big deal for the whole family.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Is she the last one?
How many do you have?
Andy Olen (Guest):
Ironically, she’s the middle one.
The way recruiting works for athletes is it starts after their sophomore year, which is early.
She’s a junior now.
Her older sister, the senior, is going through what I’ll call the more traditional approach to applying to colleges like I did.
The older sister is going through the process of applying, but her younger sister knows before because swimming accelerates that a little bit.
It’s exciting.
The freshman, the little guy, is watching his two big sisters do some amazing things.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
It was wonderful to spend time with you.
Please tell us where people can find you and your work.
Andy Olen (Guest):
AndyOlen.com is my website.
That will take you right into my learning portal if you want to jump into any of the online courses.
My book is The Trilogy of Yes, which talks about connection, communication, and cooperation.
I also have a podcast, The Sales Warrior Within.
If you like the style and the approach, simple actions that lead to big results, The Sales Warrior Within is a great resource for you.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
We look forward to hearing and seeing more from you.
Andy Olen (Guest):
Thanks a lot.
It’s great to be on the show.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
That was Andy Olen.
There were many pearls of wisdom shared.
I hope you were taking notes.
Some of you might be listening to this episode and thinking, “I want to be in healthcare. I want to sell.”
If you’ve been listening to this episode or any episode for any amount of time, then you already know what I’m going to say.
Stop wondering, wishing, and waiting.
Go to EvolveYourSuccess.com.
Some of you have been trying to get an interview, and it’s not happening.
Some of you have been in interviews, and you cannot seem to get an offer to save your life.
And some of you have no idea where to start, but you know you want to be in medical sales.
Fill out our application, have a conversation with our intake coordinator and account executive, and let’s get you into a position that will completely change your life.
As always, we do our best to bring you guests who are doing impactful and innovative things inside the medical sales space.
Make sure you tune in for another episode.
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!
Join the Medical Sales Podcast Community today:
Medical Territory Manager!
I was a Regional Sales Representative for Long-Term Care pharmacy services. I had dreamed of getting into the med sales industry when I went into my career as a nurse, but the pharmacy sales job came to me, and I had just settled. Fortunately, I had a job shakeup that allowed me to determine that now was the time to pursue my original vision.
I absolutely would not have this position without Samuel and the Evolve Your Success community. A lot of people my age would just stop trying, but EYS believed in me.
EYS allowed me to break into the industry in 90-Days after I had been trying on my own for over two years! I had lots of recruiter screenings, and a few interviews with hiring managers, but I was never offered a position.
Before EYS, I didn’t realize I was doing the bare minimum to get hired. I was applying everywhere, hoping to get noticed and waiting. It just wasn’t working! I didn’t know that that was not enough to compete in an industry this sought after, and against people who knew what I didn’t know about the process.
Of course, I had to think hard before making a financial investment that’s reasonably substantial. But when I read the testimonials of real med sales reps on the site and learned that I wasn’t the only one taking a chance on my success, that EYS was sharing that risk also, I knew I had to do it. Though you might be able to cobble together some of the steps of getting a role in med sales from online research on your own, you just can’t know what you don’t know!
The process of going through EYS presents this insider knowledge to the student, as well as giving you a progression of difficulty as you obtain the information, and you begin to master it. Not only that, but they give you access to amazing mentors and instructors, allow you to practice your interview skills, and teach you how to market yourself through social media and your own website! I cannot stress enough that EYS was the factor that made the difference in my successfully landing my dream job! The support, structure, and knowledge gained was invaluable!
I would recommend this course to ANYONE looking to break into medical sales
Thank you so much, EYS! This journey has been life changing and has resulted in the successful culmination of my 18-Year ambition! 
Sports Medicine in Phoenix! I extend so much gratitude to the Evolve Your Success group as I land this role and get ready to pursue my dream job. I am a Physical Therapist who became a little stuck in the profession due to issues with reimbursement and the difficulty for continued growth upwards. I turned to EYS to assist me in learning about the medical sales industry and gain knowledgable mentors who were able to help coach me in this process. I am a strong believer in surrounding yourself with the best and good things will happen. I did work hard, but with the support of my mentors and other colleagues going through a career change, I felt a sense of community and it confirmed my drive to get into this industry. I have already learned so much through the interview process, and feel very blessed to have had the resources this group provided. I have made lifelong friends and I cannot wait to continue to follow others’ journeys to pursue this incredible field. I urge you to give Evolve Your Success a try to gain mentorship, guidance, and support through any career transition.
and am excited to make a difference in patients’ lives as a Pharmaceutical Sales Specialist.
! Though I truly enjoyed working as a physical therapist, I can’t wait to start my career in the sales world as a Clinical Account Executive.
. I owe this opportunity to Samuel, the program, and the incredible mentors at EYS.
