Michael Monovoukas, CEO and Co-founder at AcuityMD05.19.23
While the forecast for growth is bullish for the medical technology (medtech) industry, medtech sales teams are more in flux than ever. Labor shortages in the marketplace and the highly specialized skills required for success have put medtech sales reps in a position where they may have more professional options.
As a result of this challenging and evolving environment, medtech companies must work harder to ensure that they can retain their best talent, even while navigating the ongoing challenges of inflation, supply chain issues and the threat of a global recession.
How can medtech companies create environments that will enable their sales representatives to feel empowered and appreciated? Leaning into technology can help ensure a more stable and confident workforce. By automating some of the more tedious and undesirable tasks of everyday work, commercial platforms with pre-populated intelligence can enable a faster, easier selling experience for sales teams – and cultivate a happier work environment.
But not all technology is the same. Bad technology investments bought by well-intentioned employers may do more harm than good. Many companies find that legacy, general-purpose CRM systems fall short of what today’s medtech sales teams require.
So how can organizations find the right technology to support their sales teams? Here, experts explore three key elements to consider when managing a medtech sales force – and how medical device companies can better retain reps in an uncertain economy.
Because of the proliferation of new medical technologies, medtech sales reps must do more to keep pace with innovation, often requiring them to have a specialized understanding of surgical techniques and interventions. And because the demand for such a niche skill set is already high, knowledgeable reps are becoming more valuable in today’s increasingly competitive labor market.
An important factor in recruitment and retention is to think beyond salaries and benefits and help individuals advance their skill sets. “There are so many opportunities for sales representatives to jump ship,” said Pat O’Brien, senior director of U.S. sales at Conmed AET. “But there’s less of a concern with job hopping than there was 20 years ago. In some respects, that’s a good thing because it has made us dive into what we offer to each individual employee and how we can do more for them across professional development and beyond.”
Increasingly, medical device companies must equip their sales teams for success by helping them stay on top of the evolving procedural industry, a difficult task in today’s hybrid work environment. Sales representatives also want access to their key targets, which is hard to come by these days, noted Mike McNulty, vice president of sales at Ossio.
“Access to hospitals and systems has always been a challenge,” explained McNulty. “When I first entered a cardiac cath lab in the 1990s, you could just walk right in. And over the past few decades, restrictions have understandably tightened – but that does make it harder for today’s reps to get in front of the right people at the right time.”
At the crossroads of these various challenges – including turnover, hyper-specialization, and reduced access – are new opportunities. New enablement technologies can help both sales reps and their employers overcome mounting roadblocks.
An advanced platform designed specifically for the unique challenges of medtech can provide sales reps with the concise information they need about the clinical practices of individual doctors. For example, reps might have access to the diagnoses a physician treats, as well as their average volumes, locations, publications, and more. Having such information at the ready can help reps spend less time keeping up with the ever-changing medical device landscape and more time with their customers, which is what salespeople want to do the most. Ultimately, such efficiency will also increase ROI as well.
Although technology can empower sales representatives, many medtech companies must still contend with a tension inherent to enablement tools: The so-called “Big Brother” phenomenon, where reps feel that their every move is being tracked. And while traditional CRMs require reps to input all data, advanced systems provide more parity in the user-to-system data exchange. By using a platform that provides prescriptive workflows and a recommendation algorithm, reps get something in return for their input.
That’s why, in a noisy market of ubiquitous technology, buyers should be particularly selective about which platforms they’re using and why. Ask software partners about the ROI of their solutions as well as how they increase efficiency throughout the sales cycle. It all comes down to two critical components: will it drive my top line, and will it help my employees be more efficient? Every buyer should be vetting technology purchases with these criteria.
For McNulty, the ROI became evident in just months of using a new technology solution.
“It’s unbelievable how much quicker we can laser-target on the right surgeons, and it has yet to fail us,” he said. “We have not gone into a single situation where we felt like we were targeting the wrong person. In a small organization like ours that increasingly feels the sense of urgency to reach profitability, that has been transformative for us.”
“Higher pay may get candidates to look at you, but at the end of the day, you’re not always going to win the money game because there will always be another company that can offer more,” explained O’Brien. “I’m a big believer in assessing someone’s engagement, looking at their strengths and managing people individually based on what’s unique for them. You need managers who can manage people the way they want and need to be led, and you must focus on how to develop reps as professionals.”
When medtech companies have the right tools, the results are powerful. Anika Therapeutics, a global joint preservation company that creates and delivers meaningful advancements in early intervention orthopedic care, launched Tactoset (a synthetic, biocompatible hyaluronic acid-based bone graft substitute) in 2019. But with the pandemic closing traditional avenues, Anika needed more power behind their sales process.
The company invested in an industry-specific, commercial platform so their reps could quickly identify and prioritize top surgeons. The software helped both their experienced and new team members track surgeons’ competitive interactions, educational backgrounds, publications, and clinical practices. As a result, Anika was able to deploy a detailed and specific roadmap for prioritizing their sales efforts, identifying over 500 surgeons for a robust target pipeline.
“Tactoset is a key regenerative technology for Anika in a $100m+ addressable market,” said Ben Joseph, vice president of commercial and corporate development at Anika. “We needed to unlock the full commercial potential with a specialized tool offering analytics, information, and procedural insights.”
But don’t overlook the importance of good management, too. Good platforms and good leaders go hand in hand to set teams up for success – and in this evolving industry and uncertain economic environment, companies can use all the support they can get.
Michael Monovoukas is the co-founder and CEO of AcuityMD. Prior to launching AcuityMD, he was a MedTech entrepreneur. He also held a leadership role at PatientPing, a leading provider of Care Coordination software. Michael started his career as a management consultant at Bain & Company, where he advised leading life sciences companies on growth and commercial strategy. Michael received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his B.A. in Public Policy and Finance from Princeton University.
As a result of this challenging and evolving environment, medtech companies must work harder to ensure that they can retain their best talent, even while navigating the ongoing challenges of inflation, supply chain issues and the threat of a global recession.
How can medtech companies create environments that will enable their sales representatives to feel empowered and appreciated? Leaning into technology can help ensure a more stable and confident workforce. By automating some of the more tedious and undesirable tasks of everyday work, commercial platforms with pre-populated intelligence can enable a faster, easier selling experience for sales teams – and cultivate a happier work environment.
But not all technology is the same. Bad technology investments bought by well-intentioned employers may do more harm than good. Many companies find that legacy, general-purpose CRM systems fall short of what today’s medtech sales teams require.
So how can organizations find the right technology to support their sales teams? Here, experts explore three key elements to consider when managing a medtech sales force – and how medical device companies can better retain reps in an uncertain economy.
1. Invest in Reps’ Success
In the age of the so-called Great Resignation, all business leaders are rethinking employee management, with a focus on keeping people happy and engaged. When it comes to medtech, the hiring and retention landscape is even more nuanced than many industries.Because of the proliferation of new medical technologies, medtech sales reps must do more to keep pace with innovation, often requiring them to have a specialized understanding of surgical techniques and interventions. And because the demand for such a niche skill set is already high, knowledgeable reps are becoming more valuable in today’s increasingly competitive labor market.
An important factor in recruitment and retention is to think beyond salaries and benefits and help individuals advance their skill sets. “There are so many opportunities for sales representatives to jump ship,” said Pat O’Brien, senior director of U.S. sales at Conmed AET. “But there’s less of a concern with job hopping than there was 20 years ago. In some respects, that’s a good thing because it has made us dive into what we offer to each individual employee and how we can do more for them across professional development and beyond.”
Increasingly, medical device companies must equip their sales teams for success by helping them stay on top of the evolving procedural industry, a difficult task in today’s hybrid work environment. Sales representatives also want access to their key targets, which is hard to come by these days, noted Mike McNulty, vice president of sales at Ossio.
“Access to hospitals and systems has always been a challenge,” explained McNulty. “When I first entered a cardiac cath lab in the 1990s, you could just walk right in. And over the past few decades, restrictions have understandably tightened – but that does make it harder for today’s reps to get in front of the right people at the right time.”
At the crossroads of these various challenges – including turnover, hyper-specialization, and reduced access – are new opportunities. New enablement technologies can help both sales reps and their employers overcome mounting roadblocks.
2. Leverage Tech Enablement
As medtech companies work to upskill their teams while breaking down access barriers, many are finding that their CRM platforms no longer meet their needs. With workers too busy to chase down prospect data, providing them with pre-populated sales intelligence can give reps a critical leg up from the bare-bones templates of common sales systems.An advanced platform designed specifically for the unique challenges of medtech can provide sales reps with the concise information they need about the clinical practices of individual doctors. For example, reps might have access to the diagnoses a physician treats, as well as their average volumes, locations, publications, and more. Having such information at the ready can help reps spend less time keeping up with the ever-changing medical device landscape and more time with their customers, which is what salespeople want to do the most. Ultimately, such efficiency will also increase ROI as well.
Although technology can empower sales representatives, many medtech companies must still contend with a tension inherent to enablement tools: The so-called “Big Brother” phenomenon, where reps feel that their every move is being tracked. And while traditional CRMs require reps to input all data, advanced systems provide more parity in the user-to-system data exchange. By using a platform that provides prescriptive workflows and a recommendation algorithm, reps get something in return for their input.
That’s why, in a noisy market of ubiquitous technology, buyers should be particularly selective about which platforms they’re using and why. Ask software partners about the ROI of their solutions as well as how they increase efficiency throughout the sales cycle. It all comes down to two critical components: will it drive my top line, and will it help my employees be more efficient? Every buyer should be vetting technology purchases with these criteria.
For McNulty, the ROI became evident in just months of using a new technology solution.
“It’s unbelievable how much quicker we can laser-target on the right surgeons, and it has yet to fail us,” he said. “We have not gone into a single situation where we felt like we were targeting the wrong person. In a small organization like ours that increasingly feels the sense of urgency to reach profitability, that has been transformative for us.”
3. Pair Tech Excellence with Human-Focused Development
Technology isn’t the sole remedy for medtech’s challenges. While enablement systems can help equip reps with the specialized insider intel they need, no single tool can solve the industry’s economic and labor challenges entirely. That’s why leaders suggest a broader focus on the human side of medtech sales force management. It goes back to “plain old good management,” said O’Brien.“Higher pay may get candidates to look at you, but at the end of the day, you’re not always going to win the money game because there will always be another company that can offer more,” explained O’Brien. “I’m a big believer in assessing someone’s engagement, looking at their strengths and managing people individually based on what’s unique for them. You need managers who can manage people the way they want and need to be led, and you must focus on how to develop reps as professionals.”
When medtech companies have the right tools, the results are powerful. Anika Therapeutics, a global joint preservation company that creates and delivers meaningful advancements in early intervention orthopedic care, launched Tactoset (a synthetic, biocompatible hyaluronic acid-based bone graft substitute) in 2019. But with the pandemic closing traditional avenues, Anika needed more power behind their sales process.
The company invested in an industry-specific, commercial platform so their reps could quickly identify and prioritize top surgeons. The software helped both their experienced and new team members track surgeons’ competitive interactions, educational backgrounds, publications, and clinical practices. As a result, Anika was able to deploy a detailed and specific roadmap for prioritizing their sales efforts, identifying over 500 surgeons for a robust target pipeline.
“Tactoset is a key regenerative technology for Anika in a $100m+ addressable market,” said Ben Joseph, vice president of commercial and corporate development at Anika. “We needed to unlock the full commercial potential with a specialized tool offering analytics, information, and procedural insights.”
Thriving in an Evolving Industry
With the Great Resignation hitting the hyper-specialized universe of medtech sales, the industry requires new strategies for managing and retaining talent. It’s up to companies to empower their people with more purpose-built, not burdensome, technology. In this shifting equation, consider next-level enablement systems that offer parity of data exchange and multidimensional ROI. And remember: If users are given value, they’re much more likely to return the favor.But don’t overlook the importance of good management, too. Good platforms and good leaders go hand in hand to set teams up for success – and in this evolving industry and uncertain economic environment, companies can use all the support they can get.
Michael Monovoukas is the co-founder and CEO of AcuityMD. Prior to launching AcuityMD, he was a MedTech entrepreneur. He also held a leadership role at PatientPing, a leading provider of Care Coordination software. Michael started his career as a management consultant at Bain & Company, where he advised leading life sciences companies on growth and commercial strategy. Michael received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his B.A. in Public Policy and Finance from Princeton University.