From Ted Talks to the medical sales podcast!
Today’s episode has a 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.
Meet Andy:
Andy Olen’s Sales and Leadership Training along with his High-Performance Coaching efforts are rooted in his 20+ years of professional experience. Andy’s led sales and business teams around the world, negotiated contracts worth over $400,000,000 dollars, and knows how to deliver programs to teams where the action and impact is immediate. Real-world solutions for individuals and teams seeking to be best in class.
Andy is an author. He wrote The Trilogy of Yes – a guide for salespeople on how to use Communication, Connection, and Cooperation to inspire others to say YES. Andy has spoken on the TEDx stage and regularly shares his thoughts on the podcast The Sales Warrior Within. Andy’s corporate career spanned 17 years of sales, marketing, and global leadership experience in the medical technology industry with Fortune 500 companies. Andy, and his teams, sold and marketed over $4.5 billion worth of healthcare products on five continents.
Andy was a Senior Vice President at Siemens Healthineers, Global VP of Sales at Roper Technologies, and General Manager Canada & Latin America at Abbott Vascular. Andy lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his family.
You can find Andy cheering for the Milwaukee Bucks, playing a round of golf, jumping on a plane to explore, and soaking in the richness of being around amazing people doing amazing things. Andy is a proud Wisconsin Badger having earned his BA and MBA in Madison, Wisconsin. Go Red!
Connect with him: LinkedIn
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Episode Transcript:
00:07 – Samuel (Host)
Hello and welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. I’m your host, samuel, founder of a revolutionary medical sales training and mentorship program called the Medical Sales Career Builder, and I’m also host of the Medical Sales Podcast. In this podcast, I interview top medical sales reps and leading medical sales executives across the entire world. It doesn’t matter what medical sales industry from medical device to pharmaceutical, to genetic testing and diagnostic lab you name it. You will learn how to either break into the industry, be a top 10% performer within your role or climb the corporate ladder. Welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. Climb the corporate ladder. Welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. And remember I am a medical sales expert sharing my own opinion about this amazing industry and how it can change your life. Hey Andy, how are we doing today?
01:01 – Andy (Guest)
Doing great, samuel, good to see you.
01:05 – Samuel (Host)
You too. Why don’t you tell everybody? who you are and what you do.
01:06 – Andy (Guest)
Absolutely so. My name is Andy Olin. I lead a sales and leadership training organization and I coach and work with high-performing individuals senior executives, sales leaders, also transitioning special operators who are leaving the military going to their civilian career, and also professional athletes who are transitioning from their professional athletic career going into really the next 50 years of their life. So I love working with high performers and I love training and working with sales teams, and all of that came after about 20 years working in healthcare marketing, sales and leadership positions.
01:47 – Samuel (Host)
Fantastic. So you know, I think it’s great that you’re on the show, because I think a lot of people assume that companies have their own training. Companies have their own training, especially when it comes to their sales teams, and as long as you get hired by the good company, as far as sales training you’re done, you know, give us a little bit of insight into what’s really going on and why it’s so important to have people in the position that you’re in.
02:09 – Andy (Guest)
Yeah, it’s a great insight and it’s a great question and after and during the 20 years I spent in sales leadership roles and healthcare, I did have a bird’s eye view of what was happening in terms of training salespeople and training sales teams and what’s really happening.
02:27
Where companies in healthcare do a great job is on product training and on training their teams to communicate the clinical safety and efficacy aspects of their technology.
02:41
However, it’s not a core competency within most corporate healthcare training teams to train on sales skills and that’s where a lot of organizations will outsource that and, interestingly, there are a couple of big training modalities and training frameworks out there that they often go to and you may have heard of a few of these either spin selling or the challenger methodology, and these are very good and my work is very complementary to what those two organizations do.
03:12
However, these are big change management programs, significant investment to go with challenger, with spin, and you also have to really rewire the way salespeople think and act and behave and that can be really really challenging, especially with all the demands that sales teams have of hitting their quarterly numbers or adapting to a ever more difficult environment. So a lot of outsourcing of the sales skills aspects, and that’s where I sort of fit in is I step in and, at a lower cost and at a much more tailored or customized experience, help sales teams and training groups deliver sales skills training that’s simple, that’s impactful and can be executed right away without a whole rewiring of someone’s wholesale approach.
03:58 – Samuel (Host)
Absolutely so OK, and so that really helps us understand what the landscape looks like, right? One thing that I think some listeners might be interested to hear in is the companies they work for outsource the sales training anyway. So there’s always been a pocket for individuals like yourself. But let’s talk about that for a second. As a salesperson, how important is it to always be, you know, looking for the education around sales training? Do you feel that, as a salesperson, once you kind of learn it and as long as you’re keeping it into practice, you’re done? Or do you see it as something that you know you should be actively looking for ways new and you know, maybe even more innovative ways that sales training is conducted?
04:40 – Andy (Guest)
Yeah, it’s again a great question, and it makes me think about the term empowerment. It’s a. It’s a great term that’s thrown a lot out a lot, but what does it really mean? And empowerment the definition of empowerment is to focus on strengthening your own skills in order to be able to control your own destiny. So, as a salesperson, the way I think about that is I want to control my own destiny, I want to hit my numbers, I want to exceed my numbers, I want to walk across the stage, getting the president’s award, getting the big crystal trophy that I can put up in my office, and I want to be in control of my own destiny. So, therefore, I need empowerment, and the way that I empower is by continuing to evolve and strengthen sales skills and my approach. And so it’s incredibly important.
05:28
I think it’s one of the most dangerous things a healthcare sales professional can do is that when they, he or she lands the dream job, says I don’t have to change, I got it, I’ve been validated by getting my this great job at this med device company, this diagnostic company, and I don’t have to ever change again. The reality is, you have to change every day, otherwise the person that is changing, evolving, adding more to their sales armamentarium is going to pass you right by. So the great salespeople, samuel, are always looking for that new edge, that new muscle to develop. And think about the great athletes that we all know and love out there, from, in my hometown, giannis Adentakumbo to Lewis Hamilton in racing, to Kobe to LeBron to you name it Tiger Woods. These individuals never were satisfied at the top. They always needed to take that next step. Salespeople have to be continuing to evolve their skills in order to get to the top and then to stay at the top as well. Got it?
06:29 – Samuel (Host)
Got it. So you see it, as even the most veteran sales rep should be looking for training outside of the organization that they work for.
06:37 – Andy (Guest)
Absolutely. And here’s a stat for you In my experience and I pull the sales teams that I work for specifically around negotiation training. You would think most people in healthcare they’re expert negotiators. They’re going up against doctors, they’re going up against big procurement agencies and really tough economic customers at IDNs and GPOs and big hospitals and you would think these are great negotiators. The reality is two-thirds of salespeople in my in health care have never had a formal negotiation course and you know that’s pretty striking to think, hey, you’ve made it to the top of the sales pyramid in so many ways, but you’ve never learned how to negotiate.
07:19
A lot of companies are saying, hey, we need to get better negotiation skills for our team, especially in this higher inflation environment, while our customers are trying to drive pricing down. We better be really savvy negotiators so we can hold revenue, we can hold margin. Oh, we have a gap. Our team hasn’t been trained on this. Let’s give Andy a call, let’s have him come in work with our team to develop this muscle. So that’s even where I see very tenured salespeople say, wow, I’m a lot more confident negotiating. I never have been and I can go out and execute immediately with these very simple practices.
07:57 – Samuel (Host)
Let’s talk about that for a second Negotiation. I mean, it’s an obvious thing that every sales professional should understand how to negotiate. But talk to us a little bit about what it looks like when you’ve worked with a team that really didn’t have negotiation as part of their arsenal and then, after training, you know you saw some big differences. What do those changes look like? And you know, give us maybe one or two stories.
08:22 – Andy (Guest)
Yeah, absolutely so. Two quick stories. I was working with a group from one of my favorite clients, hydrafacial, which is a medical aesthetics company out of Long Beach, california, and I was actually training some of their international team members from all around the world. And the next morning after the training and I deliver what’s called a yes if training, so you can say yes to every customer request if the customer is also willing and ready to trade value for value with you, and I got a note from one of the sales reps, I think 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 really good about it. So, literally within hours, this person was able to take the simple practices. Again, we’re not boiling the ocean with these negotiation skills. These are simple actions you can take and immediately transform it into successes.
09:16
Another company of mine trained about 500 people in their sales organization on this, and right away you saw a pop in average selling price. You saw a different confidence and a swagger, and keep this in mind, samuel that the best salespeople they run toward the negotiation. The reality, though, is because 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. So when a salesperson has more confidence, they’re better communicators and they think about forming a cooperative negotiation. They see results immediately and you just see these confidence scores go up. Confidence leads to stronger negotiation. Stronger negotiation outcomes for a company in healthcare lead to higher price margin preservation, and so the return on investment for organizations is really big to have an upskilled sales force specifically around negotiations.
10:15 – Samuel (Host)
Absolutely so. Talking about these sales teams, you know you’ve seen a lot right and you know let’s actually. You know, before we do that, I want to color in your history so people can understand who they’re actually listening to here. Walk us back, andy, to your first medical sales experience. What position did you have and what were you doing in that role?
10:37 – Andy (Guest)
Yeah. So it actually 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, go red, and I went to a corporate presentation during my first year of business school from a company called Guidant Corporation and I remember sitting in that room and they showed a video. And they showed a video of a grandfather talking about how he couldn’t play with his overcame, his bradycardia, and it changed his life and he was crying in talking about how he engaged them with his grandchildren and how much joy that brought him. And when I saw that I’m like, I’m in, I got to be in this industry. Here’s a industry where we can do things really cool on the sales and business side and we can also really positively impact people. And so I actually started at Guidant Corporation after a summer internship and started there as a compensation analyst. I was writing comp plans and sales incentive plans for the sales organization.
11:55
That changed into a big change management effort I worked on when Johnson Johnson tried to buy Guidant Corporation back in like 2002. That didn’t work. Guidant got split out. Half went to Boston Scientific, half went to Abbott. I ended up going to Abbott, where I soon then ran the Zions drug eluding stent launch as a marketing US marketing manager.
12:17
We got to market leadership in 90 days and I spent a lot of time in marketing. They said, andy, good job in marketing. We’re going to ship you off to Canada. I said all right, sounds good. So I moved to Toronto and was national sales manager there. So I went sales operations to marketing to sales and then from there to general manager in Canada. General manager Canada, latin America moved around a bit, ended up at Siemens Healthineers and ran North American Lab Diagnostics, which was a one and a half billion dollar business, and so it’s been a wonderful journey and really rewarding. Then, in 2019, I started my own company because I wanted to get back closer to helping salespeople sales leaders upskill and really to live and work within my passion, which is teaching and also presenting and communicating and training as well.
13:07 – Samuel (Host)
Absolutely so. As we were saying, you’ve led, you’ve led sales teams. I mean, you’ve seen the good, you’ve seen the bad and you’ve seen the ugly, you know. Tell us what are maybe the top three things that you see sales professionals consistently do well, like when you see this happen, you know they’re going to do well. And maybe three things on the on the on the con side. Yeah, good question.
13:30 – Andy (Guest)
So curiosity every great salesperson is hyper curious and remains curious. So, for example, we’re now living in a high inflation, high interest rate environment. The curiosity mechanism inside a top salesperson is going to say what does this mean for me and my customers and my products? Let me learn more about what a hospital is going through with higher interest rates. Oh my God, 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 needed to cut our costs. How am I going to negotiate my way through that? You can see that curiosity gene just being aware what’s going on, studying it is really critical when there are big headwinds facing the salesperson.
14:15
A great salesperson is hyper curious. Second, we talked about it earlier always curious, as one of my friends and others call it, having the growth mindset. I want to grow, I want to improve. I linked that to and link it to, empowerment, because that’s a way to control my own destiny. So that’s, that is number two. And then I would say the third is that you know great salespeople. And let me give you an analogy here when it’s Friday at four o’clock and you’re driving home from your last call, your last appointment. Maybe you’re at a hundred percent to quote, a hundred one percent to quota, but there’s something inside you that says I want more. I’m gonna stop at 4, 30 and then five o’clock at that last account and I’m gonna see if the doctor’s there, I’m gonna see if the customer’s there and I’m gonna make that one last stop, because that Friday at four it could be I’m going to drive home, hit the golf course, grab a drink, but the great salespeople go to that one last customer stop before the weekend starts and then they’re probably after it on Saturday and Sunday, getting all their administrative work done so they can hit the road again Monday morning. So those are three things that I see great salespeople doing, three challenging areas.
15:26
To answer the second part of your question, it’s really a lot of the inverse of that. I think it’s sort of hey, I’ve been successful for the last three quarters, I’m going for the next three quarters, and it’s that, that hubris or that certainty, that’s because I’ve created success, I know what I’m doing, and that leads to then a laziness in a way or a lack of internal drive to get better, and so I always would get worried about salespeople saying, hey, why are you pushing me so hard to get my number today? Look, I’ve gotten all these great results the last three quarters. Yeah, I understand that, but it’s when you start to get soft, when you don’t push that those extra few feet or those extra yards. That’s when a competitor can pass you by. So sort of that slowdown or that, that lack of fire is a challenge. Second, you know a lot of salespeople who think that they can win and achieve by doing it all themselves. That’s not possible anymore.
16:28
Sales in healthcare really 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, you know, multi, multi-level customers and horizontally diverse and vertically diverse, and you need a team around you to get ready for a sales call, to prepare, to get your training done. So lean on your teammates, bring them into the sales process, and those who are lone wolves out there still continue to really struggle. This is a team sport and you have to. You have to build that muscle to sell as a team.
17:04 – Samuel (Host)
So you have this framework that you use, that you help sales professionals grow in. I mean, I know he of course you can’t give us your stuff here, but but give us a little bit insight into what it really looks like. You know, like you said, there’s a challenger sale, there’s spin, there’s spin selling, go go. Givers give more right. There’s all these different philosophies, for lack of a better word but I think a lot of sales professionals are hard-pressed to truly understand what a fundamental framework of selling and how to improve that looks. Give us a little insight into what that looks like.
17:38 – Andy (Guest)
Yeah, well, and 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. You know my, my goal, my mission, is to help over a million people upskill themselves in sales and to feel more confident, to be proud to be a salesperson. So here, here are a couple of things we’ll talk negotiations that we’ll talk presentation skills, which is also a really big need from a lot of my customers and within the health care industry. So, negotiations, my approach and framework that I developed after 20 years and really within the experiences I had in health care sales, is called the yes if mindset, and what this sounds like is when a customer asks me for a price reduction on my product, 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. And this is a trading mentality. And what I see a lot of salespeople doing in negotiations, especially when a sales rep is going up against a very powerful doctor, a very powerful procurement organization, is they acquiesce. And acquiescence is the is saying yes without any protest or without asking for something in return. You know it sounds like this If a customer asked me for price, yes, I can give you a price discount, oh great. Can you also give me a rebate at the end of the year? Yes, I can give that to you as well. And when you only say yes and you don’t ask for anything in return, the trained customer is going to keep asking and asking and asking and getting more value from you.
19:16
Salespeople in healthcare feel that they need to say yes in order to be liked, in order to move closer to getting the deal done. The reality is, they just get taken advantage of, and that’s where revenue comes down, price comes down, margin comes down, and so, yes, if is a way to say yes, I can do this for you, mr and Mrs Customer, doctor, if you can also give me something of value in return. And so what I encourage everyone I train in yes If, and your audience as well as start trying that now. If you’re having a negotiation, even in your personal life and 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, and it’s this cooperative trading environment where everybody wins but value and equity is maintained as well. And if you think about it this way, samuel, is that for healthcare salespeople, you want to, through negotiation, create a triple win outcome good deal, the customer wants to win, a good deal and the company that the salesperson for wants to win a good deal as well. And if you can create that triple win outcome through a yes if cooperative negotiation, then you’re well on your way to doing that.
20:32
And my courses you can find those at learnandyohlincom and dive into those. There’s a whole series on negotiation training around the yes if mindset. And then, second, on presentation skills great salespeople are able to stand up confidently, communicate and persuade and motivate a customer to follow him or her. And when you have that presentation excellence and that confidence in front of customers, that passion, that optimism, that credibility can really translate to incredible results. And so I spent a lot of time with sales teams training them on how they can upskill their presentation approach. And it’s really through simple practices like the rule of three storytelling, using slides as scaffolding, a lot of very simple best practices and then reps in actually doing it. So actually getting out there and trying it, getting feedback on doing it, and it’s a lot of fun. And those courses are available at my website as well, too.
21:33 – Samuel (Host)
Absolutely. 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?
21:41 – Andy (Guest)
Yeah, absolutely. And the rule of three is really all around us and it’s our brain can only take on three pieces of data or information at a time, and our brain is built because there’s a rhythm to three one, two, three, abc. There are actually, I think, songs like that too. So if there’s a rhythm to three, there’s an ability for our brain to remember three. So let’s play to the way that we’re already naturally wired. If we’re able to take on and remember three things. As then a salesperson, let’s share the three most important things in that presentation with our customer.
22:16
Today I’d like to talk with you, doctor, about one, two and three, or A, b and C. Let’s start with one. And if you think about the rule of three, samuel, it’s everywhere Think about if you know how we were trained as kids in North America. If we ever caught on fire, what were we trained to do? If we ever caught on fire? Stop, drop and roll. Rule of three stop, drop and roll. You got it.
22:41
And if we ever are on fire and I hope none of your listeners ever are, if we ever are, what is the emergency number that we dial up on our phone? 911., 911. Three numbers, because we can remember three, the rule of three. And then I always like to say, once we recover from our near miss or our fire experience, there’s probably an interesting story to tell, and a story has a beginning, a middle and an end the rule of three. So the rule of three is all around us Stoplights, red, yellow, green, starbucks, a tall, grande Vente size. So it’s all around us. So, as we present, as we share information, especially when our pharmaceuticals, our devices, our diagnostics, our informatics, our information system technologies have so many cool benefits, a salesperson has to consolidate, prioritize the three main things, communicate that effectively and that should resonate with customers.
23:37 – Samuel (Host)
I love it. I absolutely love it. I hope you’re enjoying today’s episode and I want to let you know our programs cover the entire career of a medical sales professional, from getting into the medical sales industry to training on how to be a top performer in the medical sales industry to masterfully navigating your career to executive level leadership. These programs are personalized and customized for your specific career and background and trained by over 50 experts, including surgeons. Our results speak for ourselves and we’re landing positions for our candidates in less than 120 days in top medical technology companies like Stryker, medtronic, merck, abbott you name it.
24:17
Would you run an Ironman race without training and a strategy? You wouldn’t. So why are you trying to do the same with the medical sales position? You need training, you need a strategy and you need to visit evolveyoursuccesscom, fill out the application schedule some time with one of our account executives and let’s get you into the position that you’ve always dreamed of. So I’m going to switch gears just a little bit here and I want you to address just something that that’s kind of been mumbled about before introverts and extroverts and I think the the automatic notion people hear, that is, sales professionals are extroverts, plain and simple. However, if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that there are quite a few sales professionals out there that are introverts and rather effective. Talk to us a little bit about your take on. First of all, do you even believe that’s true? And then, uh, what would you have to say about, you know, being an extroverted person versus being an introverted person and the desire to be a medical sales professional?
25:15 – Andy (Guest)
yes, in medical sales we welcome all introverts and all extroverts. You, you can be wildly successful no matter what your personality type is.
25:26
But or I should say, and because I’m trying to not use the word but and yes, and you have to be really self-aware of who you are, so you are balanced in your sales approach as well. And so if you are overly extroverted, my wife is very extroverted. She is a sales manager in healthcare and she is on the if you do the Clifton StrengthsFinder, she’s woo and W-O-O-O, woo and it’s like the hyper extrovert. She wants to be at the dinner, she wants to be in the middle of all the conferences and her energy level of engagement is just nonstop and it’s a wonderful skill for her. I’m nowhere near that. I am. I’m extroverted usually around people I’m comfortable with or people who I’m in a familiar marketplace or industry or environment with. But then I can be a little bit more introverted as well, because after a while of being at the big trade shows I get tired and it bit more introverted as well, because after a while of being at the big trade shows I get tired and it’s just okay. I need to take a break and need some alone time.
26:28
Introverts are wonderful listeners and that’s a wonderful selling skill. Introverts allow the customers to speak, to share, and the more you can get a customer to share with you what their goals are, what their needs are, what their objections are. You can tailor solutions for them so quickly. So introverts have a wonderful superpower of usually being great listeners. Extroverts then have to work on that skills. Like I know I can be high energy and I know I can talk. I can fill all the silent space with energy and insight, but you might miss some of the things that a customer is saying. So you just have to then train yourself to be a good listener as well and ask thoughtful questions.
27:06
The introvert, although their superpower is listening and processing and the thoughtfulness, probably has to push outside of the comfort zone a little bit, especially when it’s going to knock on the door of a new customer that they don’t know they have to. That may feel a little bit funky or they have to get their energy up to do it and because it’s just not natural for them to step out into that social space just not natural for them to step out into that social space. So you got to push yourself there and overcome some of that introverted feeling to be able to be successful, to open up new doors, to generate leads, to prospect. So it does take skills on both sides, but my experience is great salespeople can be extroverts, introverts. You just have to be really passionate about this field and you’re going to be successful.
27:54 – Samuel (Host)
Absolutely, Absolutely Okay. So talk to us a little bit about you know, when you’re someone that wants to get into the medical sales profession. Right, you know you. You, right now you’re working with sales teams, you work with sales professionals, but what about those that want to get in? What should they be thinking about as far as themselves, you know? What should they know? That they need to demonstrate well to be taken seriously as a medical sales professional? I mean, this is a little bit outside, this is a little bit further than just the scope of selling. But I mean, I’m sure you’ve hired quite a few leaders and sales professionals before being part of the hiring process. What would you say that someone that wants to get into the industry absolutely needs to have?
28:36 – Andy (Guest)
Yeah. So the first, maybe preconceived, notion that you have to just get rid of, or this barrier or block you have to get rid of, is if you look at yourself and say I don’t have healthcare sales experience, therefore I can’t get in, you got to get rid of that, you’re done, yeah, you got. If you put that wall up in front of you that since you don’t have the experience you can’t do it, then you’re not going to do it. So you got to remove that wall. Some of the most successful salespeople started in B2B selling. They sold copy machines or printer solutions or phone systems. They started as an inside salesperson.
29:12
My wife, again super successful sales manager. She sold mortgages and loans for a bank, cold calling people at like five o’clock in the evening. It’s like she just cut her teeth doing those type of roles so anyone can grab and hold on to an access point to move into health care. So if you want to do it, the door will be open. You just got to go find the doors. And so a couple of ways you know I think this is back to your experience as well is that pharmaceutical sales coming right out of college is a really good starting point. Those are big sales teams, incredible product training, big investment in uh and and in shaping younger salespeople or those just out of college. In shaping younger salespeople or those just out of college, I’ve seen a lot of very successful people make pivots from high-tech industries and automotive industries, manufacturing industries and come into healthcare. I’ve seen a lot of folks from the military move from leadership positions in the military to sales, leadership positions and operations positions within healthcare, so you can come in from any angle.
30:16
What you have to do is you have to network to get in. So what I will do for any of your listeners if you want to network and you’re thinking about getting in, you call me, email me, andy at andyohlandcom and I will open up my network to you. Link in with me at Andy Olin on LinkedIn, check out my website, andyolincom and 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 and it’s a tough labor market to find great people and smart companies. Progressive companies will train people that have shown leadership, that have shown success in other industries In fact, a lot of companies like that because we can teach you our way of how we want you to position our technology and our products.
31:02
What you have to recognize, samuel, though you know. One thing people will have to do, though, if they don’t have health care experience, is just recognize you’re not bringing a full set of health, healthcare customer relationships with you into this new role. So, during your interviews, just really communicate effectively. What is your process going to be and how are you going to go and build up new customer relationships? And if you can convince that hiring manager that your relationship building skills are really strong, I think they’ll say yes to you and you’ve made a good case for yourself. Boy, it is such a fun industry and if you want to get in, I’m here to help. Samuel’s there to help your whole audience. We want great people in this industry, so just get in touch with us, and certainly with me, and I will certainly open my connections to you as well.
31:46 – Samuel (Host)
Absolutely. Tell me this, Andy. Think about back to your time as a sales leader, maybe with Siemens, maybe with Habit, and being part of that interviewing process you were probably the last leg of the interviewing process. You know the final say. What would you say, if you can remember, from someone that did not come from medical sales or any kind of medical sales before, what would you say? Someone did that impressed you the most, that came from outside the industry.
32:16 – Andy (Guest)
Yeah, it’s a good question. You know, I’m actually working with an individual. Right now. I do a lot of work with a group called the Honor Foundation and this is the group that helps special operators so Navy SEALs, marine Raiders, army Green Berets transition from their military service to the next chapter now a civilian chapter of their life, and I’m working with an individual the next chapter now, a civilian chapter of their life and I’m working with an individual, a very, very senior army Green Beret special ops leader, and he’s making that transition and it’s a unique transition.
32:41
I think about to answer your question if he were interviewing with me. What is really important for folks like him is to really describe their leadership experience, is to really describe their leadership experience and what I’ve been looking for in those interviews is, if you have leadership experience you’ve managed teams, you’ve dealt with difficult people on your team, you’ve dealt with big, complex decisions if you have a global perspective, if you have an enterprise mindset that you can demonstrate through examples and through the successes that you’ve had, then I want you on my team and I can teach you sort of the ins and outs of healthcare. But as you get to a more senior level, it’s really about business management more so, and people management than it is about being a deep subject matter expert. Does it help? Yeah, it helps. However, really at that level of more senior level, people that have come in that have demonstrated, no matter what industry they’re in, that they know how to create change. They know how to inspire people, lead, develop leaders, just like this individual I’m working with, who’s transitioning.
33:51
He doesn’t realize how valuable his skill set is. He’s starting to realize it, how valuable his skill set is after 30 years of military service and getting to the very highest of levels. How many companies will want him, even though he doesn’t have either corporate or industry? Specific insights, specific insights. I’ve already tried to network him in with three or four healthcare executives where I just know they’d look at him and look at his resume and hear his first two sentences out of his mouth and be like yes, please come. So those are the big things that, as you move up, you got to demonstrate from a sales rep manager if you want to keep moving up to leadership positions is that you can take on big projects, be successful, inspire people, motivate, that you’re a clear communicator, that you can work well cross-functionally and that you have really good business acumen and business savviness skills.
34:41 – Samuel (Host)
Absolutely Last question as far as sales training is concerned, where do you see sales training headed? Covid just happened. Companies had to cut all types of services they were entertaining for their employees. Left and right, there’s all these whispers about this big recession that’s coming, and usually things like sales training is the first to go. Think about the future, maybe 10 years out. Where is sales training in general? Where’s it headed? I?
35:11 – Andy (Guest)
think sales training is, in healthcare, maybe a little bit more immune to economic ups and downs, because people get sick, unfortunately, and people need service and care, and healthcare can be somewhat resilient through an economic downturn. We’ve seen that before. And so I think sales training the clinical and the product pieces, will always be there, and I also believe that companies, because of the competitive nature and because of the very ever-changing dynamics of the healthcare marketplace, that sales skills is also going to be a part of that curriculum as well. And so I’m pretty bullish and optimistic over the next 10 years on where things are going, even if we go through some up and down sort of macroeconomic cycles. That being said, I think a couple of trends you’ll see.
36:02
One, a focus on how to gain access to customers, as access is being shut down. So, as you know, a lot of hospitals and healthcare facilities won’t let sales reps in, and so now how do I get in front of that customer? You’re going to have to do it at the Starbucks. You’re going to have to do it in the cafeteria. You’re going to have to go out to dinner. You’re going to have to grab breakfast or see that person in a different environment. So how do I communicate and ask for that time? How do I get that time? And then, as I say, you know this acronym, air, that I teach that you have to get access. That’s the A. When you have access, you got to make an impact, especially if you’re asking for a customer’s time outside of their normal hours. So I impact and then R is a revisit. You got to ask for, at the end, the ability to come back and revisit with that customer A-I-R access, impact, revisit.
36:51
So I think those types of skills are going to be very, very critical. We are also going to see a continued transformation to the sales rep of the future has to be incredibly well-versed in terms of financial insights, financial acumen, understanding the finances and the headwinds and the tailwinds that their customers are facing, understand an income statement, understand how to create economic utility through and with the products that they’re selling. How to also manage value analysis committees and ensure that when the VAC meets a value analysis committee and there’s a procurement person there’s the chief medical officer and the doctor Analysis Committee and there’s a procurement person there’s the chief medical officer and the doctor and a few other people the lawyer that the value proposition that’s in front of them from that salesperson’s company is crystal clear. So there’s an upskilling that’s going to continue to happen as this environment tightens in terms of access and also gets more complex in terms of the integration between clinical benefits and also economic utility or value utility of the products people sell. So I always think there’s going to be a place for sales training. That’s where negotiation, presentation skills get a very good, positive return on investment.
38:09
And then, lastly, I think this virtual world that we all work in is here to stay. So selling through Zoom, selling through Teams, selling through a text message, informal negotiations these are going to be much more important skills to have while we balance our time in front of customers between in-person moments and virtual moments as well. Virtual is here to stay, and so salespeople have to get really comfortable selling in this medium as well. So I’m optimistic and bullish, but we certainly have a lot of work to do, samuel, out there.
38:39 – Samuel (Host)
Absolutely, and I would even say that it goes even further than that. With social media, I mean, it’s become critical. As far as a sales professional, and if you’re paying attention, everyone can see that these social media platforms like LinkedIn, if you can figure out how to really hone in on your message and you’re an expert in your field, you can brand yourself into opportunities that are left and right is that I think healthcare companies healthcare companies, rightfully are very thoughtful about the regulatory and compliance and the advertising and promotion of their technologies, because it’s very strict and you gotta be very on label and very compliant.
39:24 – Andy (Guest)
So, that being said, a lot of companies, a lot of healthcare companies, don’t want or discourage their employees talking about their company, talking about their products, on social media, because that could be sort of the Wild West Someone could go off label and show something and that gets them in trouble. So I think a great area of sales training for health care leaders is we. As you said correctly, we need to exploit the power of social and digital media. How do we enable the Salesforce of 500 people which could be 500 unique microphones, unique marketers to use their social media platform to send out the positive messages about our products and our companies in their own voice? My client, hydrafacial, 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. So there’s a balance between being compliant and allowing your teams and people to be able to share. That needs to be found.
40:29 – Samuel (Host)
Absolutely, Absolutely. Andy, it has been fantastic to have you on the show today. Anything else you want to share with our audience? Remember, our audience are people that want to get into the industry, those that are in the industry and then those that are leading the way.
40:42 – Andy (Guest)
Yeah, One last tip for salespeople new to our industry wanting to get in, or even very tenured.
40:47
There are three sales skills, foundational sales skills that I’ve seen great salespeople have and this is from when I’ve been in India working with sales teams, to Indianapolis and everywhere in between that there’s.
41:00
The three sales skills that inspire people to say yes are connection, communication and cooperation. These are the three foundational sales skills of healthcare, of really all of selling, and all I’d encourage your listeners to think about is take an inventory of a couple of the great relationships you have in your personal life and my guess is that the communication between you and this other person is fantastic, that you are connected, you have a lot of the same values and that 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, cooperation and my personal relationship and then bring that over into how I sell and build relationships with doctors, with procurement folks, with technologists, healthcare providers, and you’ll find that if you can really create excellence in connection, communication, cooperation, then you’re going to be well on your way to an incredibly successful career in healthcare.
41:57 – Samuel (Host)
Fantastic, gotta love it. All right, andy, we’re going to switch gears for the last time and I’m going to ask you a series of four questions. It’s our lightning round and you have less than 10 seconds to answer each one of them. Are you ready? Bring it, let’s go Okay. First question Best book you’ve read in the last six months? You?
42:13 – Andy (Guest)
bet Read a couple of them. The one that comes to mind that it really was impactful is Company of One by Paul Jarvis, and as small business and entrepreneurial folks like us, company of One is all about how you can prosper being on your own or with a small team, so great book for those thinking about entrepreneurial efforts.
42:34 – Samuel (Host)
I like it. I’ll have to definitely give that a read. Okay, best movie or TV show you’ve seen in the last six months.
42:40 – Andy (Guest)
I’ve watched Better Call Saul and finished that.
42:46 – Samuel (Host)
That show blew my mind. That was a good one.
42:49 – Andy (Guest)
Vince Gilligan, the writing, the cinematography, the characters. How Bob Odenkirk didn’t win a single Emmy Award is that’s criminal.
42:59 – Samuel (Host)
Great show. I know you know Breaking Bad was groundbreaking TV and Better Call Saul stepped it up, so it was absolutely All right. Best meal you’ve had in the last six months.
43:10 – Andy (Guest)
Well, it’s going to be. Tomorrow night is date night for my wife and I. We’re heading out to New York City. We’re going to a French restaurant in Tribeca, so I am going to put all my bets that that meal, that French meal. It’s like a three or four course meal and we’re going to get a nice bottle of wine. That’s going to be the best one that I’ve had in the last six months.
43:28 – Samuel (Host)
I’ve never had a future meal be an option, but hey we will take it First, for everything. Yep Spoken like a true sales professional. And then last thing, last question best experience in the last six months?
43:42 – Andy (Guest)
Best experience last six months. That’s an easy one. My daughter, audrey, verbally accepted and committed to Auburn University to swim and study there, did five weekends in a row in September and early October on five campus official visits for her and ultimately War Eagle. She’s going to be an Auburn Tiger and I’m just super proud of her. So by far yeah, her going to Auburn and making that official is a big deal for the whole family.
44:11 – Samuel (Host)
That is fantastic. Is she the last one, or how many do you have?
44:15 – Andy (Guest)
Well, ironically she’s the middle one, so the oldest, and so the way recruiting works for athletes is it starts after their sophomore year, which is really early. So she’s a junior now. So her older sister, the senior, is going through what I’ll call the more traditional approach to applying to colleges, like I did, and she is. So the older sister is going through what I’ll call the more traditional approach to applying to colleges, like I did, and she is. So the older sister is going through the process of applying, but her younger sister actually knows before, because swimming’s accelerated that a little bit for her. So, yeah, it’s exciting. Then the freshman, the little guy he’s not so little anymore, just watching his two big sisters do some amazing things.
44:52 – Samuel (Host)
That is fantastic. All right, all right. Well, andy, again it was wonderful to spend time with you. Please tell us again where can people find you?
45:01 – Andy (Guest)
and your work. Absolutely, andy Olin dot com. A n d y o l e n dot com is my website and that will take you right into my learning portal If you want to jump into any of the online courses. Also, my book is the Trilogy of yes. That talks about connection, communication, cooperation and finally, like you, samuel, 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.
45:27 – Samuel (Host)
Fantastic. We look forward to hearing and seeing more from you, Andy.
45:30 – Andy (Guest)
Thanks a lot, samuel Great, to be on the show today.
45:32 – Samuel (Host)
I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and remember I have a customized and personalized program that gets you into the medical technology industry as a sales professional or any type of role for that matter. Become a top performer in your position and masterfully navigate your career to executive level leadership. Check out these programs and learn more at EvolvingSuccesscom by visiting our site, filling out an application, scheduling some time with one of our account executives and allowing us to get you where you need to be. Stay tuned for more awesome content with amazing interviews on the Medical Sales Podcast.
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.
