Strategic Team Building Importance when Launching Medical Products

As an Arizona-based healthcare leader and consultant who has devoted 15 progressive years in commercial leadership to innovative medical device companies, I know what it’s like to work in both worlds: sales and leadership roles.

They seem to inform each other, actually.

Because of this, I’ve spent a lot of time building and leading great sales teams and developing empowering cultures. My strategy involved devising go-to-market strategies and propelling revenue growth for startups and large, publicly traded organizations.

However, I have learned many important lessons – like not just building a team but the “right type of team” for a medical product launch. This often means the difference between teams that drive revenue, meet clients’ diverse needs, and propel the company to new heights – and those that do not.

How to spot them?

Look for people who want to become the best they can be.

WHAT IS THE “RIGHT TEAM”?

The right team can make or break a company – so never underestimate the immense value of the RIGHT team, the one that makes things hum in the healthcare field.

When launching a product, we often need certain sales representatives and team members with a distinct type of prior launch experience–whether traditional medical devices, disposables, SaaS-based, or capital.

Prior launch experience is helpful. When team members have this experience, they’re often able to triage issues faster which helps me build consensus, maintain motivation, and float morale when challenges arise.

• Do they know what’s at stake?
• Does every cross-functional team member understand the precise strategy and link their own goals and actions to the strategy? Team alignment is crucial for success to prevent strategic drift and ensure launch readiness.

It’s essential to BE TRANSPARENT with your team about what is needed for the team and organization to not just survive, but thrive.

THE ADAPTABILITY METER

What distinguishes a talented sales team from a lackluster one is whether it can turn around a situation using its resources and expertise when the going gets tough – for instance, when there are zero current customers, exceptionally light clinical data, and no brand name tags.

How far does a sales team reach on the adaptability meter – closer to a five or a ten?

What I mean about an adaptability meter is a tool or framework used to evaluate and measure the effectiveness of how a sales team or individual can adapt to various market shifts and challenges, including product changes, market conditions, customer needs, and sales techniques.

To ensure that sales team remain productive and agile in the dynamic medical sector, the question you want to ask yourself is how well can that salesperson handle change and uncertainty?

Only certain sales professionals with an innovative, superbly adaptable mindset driven by solid business acumen and high emotional intelligence can do that well.

I have collaborated with people who have said, “I am good at what I do, and I can work well with the people in the hospital. But look, I need a current customer base and some contracts to get the fuel going.”

BEING PRACTICAL

So, what is needed is to ask the fundamental question:

What type of sales makeup is required when hiring the first sales team?

If you bring in people who have previously worked for the competitor, that may be good, but in the end, they may not operate as quickly as the competitor.

And then, often, you may come to a startling lesson that I have heard many CEOs admit: “We should have hired differently to ensure that we had the right talent.”

The initial hiring process is the key to building the foundation of success for the present and future in healthcare. You can always scope out the real ones from those not well-vested – those who are in it for the short haul or solely their interests – and those who tend to think long-term and go the extra mile.

Those keepers and far-reaching innovators propel the healthcare industry forward and make a life-changing difference for patients and key stakeholders.

The bottom line: It’s not about having cookie-cutter industry experience but the type of team player you are hiring.

Using NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) principles, have you identified what you have now and what exactly you need? These questions will reveal what you must do next to ensure you hire and build the right sales team.

INDICATORS OF HIRING THE RIGHT PEOPLE

If you were to ask me, what are the indicators that you have hired the right people? You see, either you are coaching people to move up or scale to a higher-level role or you are coaching them to transition out of the role to a different role or a new one if they are not the appropriate fit for the role or organization. It’s that simple. But you need to assess first.

It would help if you were upfront in pinpointing the organization’s requirements, including labor and capital.

I had an interesting conversation once with a CEO recently who cautioned how we must identify where the struggles and successes lie with performance – that is where the commercial success is. For example, he admitted that he could not say if they hired the right salespeople. He acknowledged that they possessed great, well-rounded experience, but they were struggling because they seemed stuck at the mid-level when they needed to function at higher levels to make faster decisions.

Sound familiar?

Sometimes, team members can be the “right ones”.

However, as the company changes and grows, from infancy to maturity, the team members either mature or need to be groomed further or coached out.

As the saying goes, “what got you here, won’t get you there.”

That is the reality behind strategic team building.

UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENT SALES CYCLES

Regarding capital sales versus consumable sales, ensuring your team understands the nuances of these sales cycles is important:

• Consider whether you are serving customers versus handling recurring orders.
• Is there a hunting and tracking mentality or a push-through-the-sales-cycle approach?

These factors will determine what type of salespeople you need for your team. Specialized salespeople can do both, yet some struggle with one aspect.

These are critical factors to determine when building a high-performing sales team.

If you are a CEO and are seeing initial success and growth, you need to look at what is working and hire from that standpoint or break the issue down further if there are challenges.

What are the reasons for those challenges?

HIRING FOR DIFFERENT SCENARIOS

Building something from the ground up versus harnessing an existing offering and scaling it are two different concepts and business models and require a different team type. An “entrepreneurial” or take-charge leadership sales mentality is necessary when building something without vendors, contracts, or a distinct brand. Additional support will be critical to ensure success.

Every scenario will call for a different team dynamic, and blending team strengths and learning from one another will build momentum to surpass upcoming or unexpected challenges.

MY APPROACH: AN ACTIVATOR BUILDING STRONG CULTURES

As a natural activator, I like to review things and make decisions quickly. Therefore, I need team members who align with my vision and mission. On the other hand, I have required prepared and proactive teams to navigate an addressable market and choose not to be stuck in one place.

They are simply agile and forward-thinking – the ideal team members of 2024 and beyond who possess these marketable skills are priceless.

I’m big on a robust and resilient culture and positive motivation as the vehicles for propelling the team and organization forward.

RECALLING A KEY CAREER MILESTONE: AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP

I recall one of the most engaging moments of my career that embodied authentic team leadership and collaboration. Authentic leadership is rooted in high standards of integrity, initiating responsibility for action, and making decisions based on principle versus short-term success.

I led a sales and marketing team in 2016. We garnered consumables for a new localization device when we made capital sales.

A lot of important decisions had to be made.

But the driving factor was that we had a solid and adaptable team.

We doubled the salesforce, and spending increased. I changed the messaging and technology from a surgeon-driven technology to a radiology-driven technology. Revenue expanded significantly, and the surgeons had the power to push through the sales cycle. Of course, there was pushback with vast investments. Yet, I knew there was a distinct niche in the market. We had to move quickly and run with the ball. And we succeeded because we hired and built a cohesive team.

These people would have instantly hopped on a plane across the country at a moment’s notice to cover for someone else.

Never take that super-ambitious mindset for granted. I mean, that kind of energy is hard to find today! It takes a selfless, servant leadership mindset.

It’s a blessing that pays off overall for the team, organization, stakeholders, and the entire community as an added return on investment.

Whatever you desire – believe – and expect (subconsciously) is likely what you will get.

When you drive accountability and allow people to harness their talent while fully believing in their value, magic happens.

 Transparent processes and change management are key.

Is that person adaptable to managing business challenges and issues outside work hours?

• Can a team member navigate when a company operates at peak speed or is slow and operating at low funding levels while fiercely competing against aggressive competitors?
• Can the team members get things up to speed with efficient timing?

It’s about what that team member can produce at the end of the day and how they influence others to do their part.

Throughout my career, I have made good and bad hires. Yet, throughout each experience, I have grown and learned from it without regret while inspiring others with my stories. Each hire teaches us something about ourselves and others, teamwork, and business.

I have learned that during an LMR, there are a lot of things that need to be completed. And you are supposed to be able to count on the team, but that is not always a guarantee.

As a leader, I need to always be prepared for the unexpected.

Life happens. Things happen without your control.

Sometimes, people will push forward; other times, they will bend.

CAUTION AGAINST OVER-AMBITIOUSNESS – BE PURPOSEFUL AND REALISTIC

In the initial stages, executives tend to get overambitious – to a fault, though.

Here is the catch––hiring 50 people off the bat is not advised without considering all the dynamics – the field feedback, market trends, competitive landscape, pressure-testing the messaging and pricing, customer service, and building from that.

It would help to consider how these sales professionals deal with committees and C-level relationships.

Do they have enough strong business skills and emotional intelligence (EI) to navigate the tough client conversations and even dire selling times? Whether it’s a good or subpar market, the sales talent needs to be ripe and well-equipped to understand and navigate all the parts of the sales cycle – and take the company forward in a growing direction.

The key: do you choose to invest in them, and to what degree? Results go both ways, but the level of investment is usually proportional to the quality of results.

Ask yourself these questions:

• As a leader, do you believe in your team?
• Do you spend time with them in the field?
• Can you confidently send them across the country to deliver sales results?
• Are you paying attention to non-verbal cues or putting them with tenured reps? Mentorship wins and delivers significant gains for everyone.
• Are you encouraging your team to learn and address challenging sales scenarios?
• Do you always prepare your team to be well-organized so they aren’t mindlessly fumbling for contact information throughout the day and can use the CRM well?
• How are you leveraging your most vital talent to utilize internet resources for research, originate the best ideas, and deliver the best results?

Metrics don’t lie.

Neither does honest customer or patient feedback.

I am big on metrics – metrics reveal the team’s results and the challenges that lie ahead.

To ensure success, train the right sales team using empowering messaging to have the right AMMO at the right time.

But the best part is hiring and coaching people to become authentic and robust leaders. I appreciate it when someone takes on a management role and then reaches out and asks me for some career or business advice. It’s validating that I served my mission well.

These results translate into high-performing, forward-thinking leaders and empowering patient care outcomes.

That is the pinnacle of success.

You’ve got this.
Stay in action (the right ones),
-Steve Sapot