Sean Moore went from medical device sales rep to VP of Sales for one of the largest medtech companies in less than 10 years.

Pretty impressive, right?

Just like me, you might be thinking, “How did he do it? Killer sales results year after year? Right place at the right time?”

In this interview with Sean Moore, VP of Sales and Marketing for ConMed, you’ll learn the keys to his rapid career advancement within the medical device space. Better yet, you’ll walk away with some fantastic insights from one of the rising stars throughout all of medtech.

Sean Moore: Thank you, Scott, for inviting me. I've been looking forward to this conversation.

Scott Nelson: Exactly. So, let's start here. So, you've had a pretty rapid career advancement, or you followed a really rapid career advancement path, both within ConMed as well as a short stent outside of ConMed. What are the two or three keys to the rapid career advancement that you've experienced?

Sean Moore: Well, I mean, Scott, one of the things that I think really helps people to advance in their career is you always have to be out learning and looking for opportunities to grow. Not only that, but I think it's also important that when you're working for an organization is that you're always looking for additional projects and additional opportunities within the company to take advantage of. So often I observe people in the organization that doesn't take those additional opportunities to take on those extra projects in order to bring exposure to them, in order to get recognized by upper management and then to get those opportunities. 

So, with that also, always going above and beyond expectations. I mean, any organization that you work for everybody has a certain expectation of what they're expecting to deliver. If you set your expectations higher than that and deliver on your own highest expectations, you're really going to give yourself an opportunity to take those next opportunities. When it comes to knowing management positions or that next position, it's always good to be able to be flexible when it comes to relocation. One of the things in my career, I've always been very flexible to relocate. I mean, I relocated from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Washington DC in order to take that next step in my career. I moved from Washington DC to Denver to take that next step. 

So, if people are really flexible in a relocation that could really accelerate their path and the advancement of their career. Obviously, if you take the basic stuff to mean always delivering on results, and then I guess finally I think the most important thing is that especially if you're entering a leadership role, is you've always got to be developing your people. Once you develop your people, you're preparing your replacement in order to take your position. It's so much easier for companies to promote someone if they feel comfortable that the person following in their footsteps is prepared to take on that responsibility.

Scott Nelson: Got it? So those are really great points. I'm going to ask you a couple of follow up items. So, I think especially, I mean, you're sort of a sales guy by nature. You came up through the sales ranks. I think there's sort of general understanding that you've got to make presidents club and you've got to make it not just for one year, but multiple years in order to get promoted, etc. As you said, certainly that helps but it sounds like that's not the only thing that person's got. That person has got to look for additional opportunities besides just hitting their sales number or exceeding their sales number. Is that the case? Am I correct in that?

Sean Moore: Yeah, you definitely are. One of the things that as a leader when I'm looking to promote a sales rep into a management role definitely hitting president's clubs, being able to demonstrate that you can sell new products. At the end of the day, you have to be able to demonstrate that you can do those things because you're going to be teaching people how to do that. Then you also want to have the respect of the team that you're leading. But you know, there are other qualities that are really important when you're looking to promote a sales rep into maybe a sales manager and one of those things is really having a servant leadership perspective on your new role. 

Just because you're a great salesperson doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be a great sales manager. I mean, when you become a sales manager, you're really stepping up out of the limelight and it really becomes about your people that you're leading and it's no longer about you. I have seen some managers that struggle with that. When they have been a superstar sales rep, they get into that management role, they have a hard time making that transition, hey, this is no longer about me and this is about my people that I'm leading, and really removing themselves out of the line life really embracing the whole servant leadership. I often talk to my sales leadership. Remember when you were a salesperson, the most important party to you was your end customer. 

Well, now that you've become a sales manager your customers are now your salespeople. That's how you have to look at leading them. Then probably the second thing I look for in promoting somebody is candor. I want someone to have the emotional fortitude to be able to tell me what they really think and what they really believe. At the end of the day, the greatest enemy of the leader is groupthink and the last thing you want to have happen is your people just telling you what you think you want to hear.

Scott Nelson: I wouldn't have expected you to point out those two topics servant leadership and then candor in an effort to avoid groupthink. I really like that concept. Can you speak a little bit more especially in regards to servant leadership?  I also want to ask you a follow-up question about candor, but really on the servant leadership aspect. Are there things that a successful sales rep can-do sort of personally toe to become more of a servant because you're dealing typically with alpha dogs. Those sales reps that have done really well in terms of exceeding their numbers and well beyond their numbers. Is there a couple of things that come to mind when making that transition to more of a servant leader?

Sean Moore: Well, yeah. I mean, definitely. I mean, one of the things I talked about, things you can do to get promoted is taking on those extra opportunities and so forth. One of the things that you can do to help develop those types of things or to be identified as a servant leader is just to take those opportunities to help develop your colleagues. I mean, we have several opportunities in ConMed where you're not making extra money, but it gives you an opportunity to become like a sales trainer, where you're actually taking time out of your field to go work with the new hire to help develop them. By demonstrating that you're willing to do those things and that you and that you're capable of doing those things really illustrates that you have the capabilities have become of being a servant leader.

Scott Nelson: Got it. Okay. Then on the topic of candor, that's really interesting because I think especially in large companies like ConMed, for example, the easy thing is sort of to be a yes man for fear of maybe getting on the wrong side of your boss or your senior leadership. But instead, you're saying that you actually look for people that don't necessarily say no, but are more transparent and authentic and aren't afraid to disagree with you. What would you say to maybe folks that are listening to this call and sort of having that fear right now that if they'd like to maybe step out of their comfort zone and maybe disagree sometimes, but they've got sort of that underlying fear?

Sean Moore: So, how to step out of the fear of going potentially to your manager and expressing a different point of view. Is that what you are...?

Scott Nelson: Yeah, exactly.

Sean Moore: I mean, really, that's a tough one Scott, because really, that type of environment has to be created from that manager. If the manager doesn't create an environment where they allow candor, then it's hard for that person to step outside the box and to feel comfortable doing that. I guess the best advice I could have is to really go and have that type of conversation with your manager and say, "Hey, you know, this is what's been happening.  I'm committed to the company and committed team the overall vision and what we're trying to do. But, you know, this is what I'm seeing," and trying to facilitate that type of environment. But, I mean, the question you're asking me it's a tough question because that really can't come from the bottom up. That type of environment really has to be pushed from the top down. 

One of the things that I always do with my executive leadership team or the leadership team was from my sales directors to my directors is we conduct a director meeting once a quarter and one of the things we really work on is developing a real trust tree. One of the things we really subscribe to is the five dysfunctions of the team. At first, it's kind of tough to know when you think of the five dysfunctions of the team one of the most important things is trust. But as you keep working at it and you keep developing, you're doing team building and you create an open environment where there's trust, then you can have conflict and where there is trust and then you can have conflict, that's where the candor comes from. I'm not sure if I gave you the answer that you're looking for. But I hope that makes sense.

Scott Nelson: No, it does and to your point, it certainly makes it a lot easier if the culture is there where you know someone in an executive leadership role like yourself is trying to create that sort of environment. I think you hit it on the head with, you know, maybe that person that has that fear of disagreeing, of voicing their disagreement on a decision with their manager. They just need to have a candid conversation in a respectful way and move on. So, I don't want to focus too much on that but I'm just curious to get your thought because I wasn't expecting candor to be on the two points that you mentioned. I love the fact that you brought it up. 

So, let's move on to a recent sort of blog series and you've become quite a notorious blogger in your own right. You recently finished up a series on what makes the attributes or characteristics of both successful medical device reps and managers. So, I'd like to first ask you where can people read more of your content or find your blog and then two, what are some of the key learnings that you noticed throughout that series?

Sean Moore: Well, one of the things that we decided to do, by blogging it's a great opportunity for a couple of things. One is that our current structure right now, we have sales reps who report to directors who report to the sales director that reporting to me. There's a bigger gap than there used to be between myself and the sales force. So, it allows me to communicate with the sales force on a regular basis. There's a benefit of that helps promote the culture we're trying to promote but it also in a way helps develop a relationship between them and myself because they hear my thoughts every week and what it takes to be successful and what I've observed when I'm traveling in the field. That's part of it. 

The other part of it is it allows the need to communicate with the other social networks. Recruiting is a very important part of what we do. Developing our people and then recruiting the right people and you're quite aware of the power of social media now and LinkedIn and blogging and so forth. It really allows an opportunity for me to communicate with potential candidates who are more of a passive candidate who maybe isn't necessarily looking for a new opportunity but sees my blog and says, hey, you know what, that might be a company I might want to work for. Then they start investing in doing more research, start going on LinkedIn, and looking at other profiles of people that work for our company. So, those are the two reasons why I've got a blog. 

But your second part of your question was what makes a successful territory manager. That series really started, wow, it's probably about 6 to 9 months ago and really, what it was hey, let's identify our top 20% of our sales force. Let's really dig in and find out what makes them successful. What are the tricks of the trade and what was unique about the whole experience was that I would periodically post an interview once every few weeks? But then over the course of six or nine months, we ended up taking them all and collecting them. There were some common threads of what made a successful rep. One of the things that really came to light was the most successful reps and I guess this would be with a lot of other companies, especially companies that are going through a new product launch, startups, and so forth like we're doing is exhibit rugged and fierce perseverance. 

I mean, you're trying to sell a new product and you've been in this position. It's not easy. You have to be able to handle the rejection and the issues that come with launching a new product and just be able to persevere, get through that wall. So, I was one of them. The other thing that came out of the interviews was that these people were committed, lifetime loners. In other words, they're always looking for opportunities to learn. Learn a new procedure, learn why a doctor was using our products in that specific procedure, and then sharing it with their colleagues. The third was relentless goal setters. They were constantly setting goals. I mean, not only just like yearly goals but quarterly goals, weekly goals, daily goals, and then the other thing that I was surprised to find in these interviews is that they had a global mindset. 

They really saw the big picture of what we were trying to do with the corporation, and they really set to focus on the overall big picture and where we were going as a company. I think that also kind of help with the whole person. Then I guess finally and it's kind of basic skill, I guess in sales and management is they're good listeners. They really were looking, listening to their customers. We did a couple of interviews with the managers that were successful and what came out of that is that they were always listening to their territory managers and what they need in order to be successful. So, it was a pretty enlightening experiment, that experience that we participated in and it really actually helped us with our recruiting process because those are the skills that we looked through throughout the recruiting process. 

Scott Nelson: Got it. That's great stuff and just to review and I personally when I listen to interviews, I actually take notes typically, like an Evernote or something like that, just from learning. I feel like it helps me from learning perspective but if anyone's taking notes, those five that Sean mentioned rugged perseverance, lifetime learners, relentless goal-setters, having a global mindset, and then lastly the ability to listen well, good listeners. Those were kind of the five years that you mentioned. All great, and a couple of them are kind of surprising me, maybe perseverance and goal setting, it's fairly common but lifetime learning the global mindset, those are really interesting qualities that you notice. 

I love the fact that when I read your blog, it doesn't have the typical corporate spin that you'd get maybe from reading some other sort of executive leader that would write down something. You'd have the corporate mark on people get involved and it would turn into a piece that wasn't enjoyable to read. Actually, you're writing is very engaging and very good. I would encourage anyone listening to go check out Sean's blog for sure 

Sean Moore: Appreciate that. Thanks, Scott. 

Scott Nelson: No, I mean that. I mean that. It's uncommon in the medical device space so it's definitely appreciated. We need more of it in my opinion. So, let’s use this as sort of a transition point. I introduced you as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing. I'm not sure exactly how recent this but I think you did combine the sales and marketing departments under one umbrella. I'm curious to get your thoughts on how that went and maybe some of the biggest surprises, not necessarily surprises but the biggest sort of takeaways that you got from combining both of those departments.

Sean Moore: Yeah. Probably two years ago we combined sales and marketing. For us it makes sense and I'm not saying that it makes sense for every organization to do that but for us, it seemed to make sense. I mean, one of the observations that I've made throughout my career was that I carried a bag. I was a salesperson and I was an Area Director or Sales Manager. I often found that there was this disjointing between sales and marketing. It was kind of like two trains running in opposite directions in the middle of the night. I just found that there was so much opportunity if there was better collaboration between both departments that there could be a tremendous opportunity for an organization. So, the observation that we've learned over the past couple of years is that for one there are no silos. I mean, I have basically reporting to me. I have three directors. I have two Directors of Sales and a Director of Marketing. 

We are always communicating. Once a quarter we're always getting together. I have my Directors of Sales presenting numbers. I've got my marketing department presenting their NDOs for the quarter, and we're always updating each other. What happens is that you have salespeople who are saying, hey, we really need this in order to help sell this particular product or something like that, then you have marketing in the same room and then they're creating these tools in order to support the sales force. Instead of running both in different silos and having marketing saying, here's a sales tool to help you sell this product when it was never asked for in the first place. 

So, one of the things, the biggest against take away for me was that when you combine sales and marketing, whether you're doing a product launch or you're releasing new supporting material, anything like that is that you're learning then you launch versus when you have sales and marketing separated, you launch, then you learn after. So, if you think of where the industry's going right now, so many companies are launching new products so much faster than they were before. It's so important that we're much more efficient with our resources. I really do believe that at least for us any way you see tremendous benefits from combining both sales and marketing. Really, it all comes down to this is better collaboration between the two departments.

Scott Nelson: Got it and you said that because you cut out for a little bit and I didn't quite catch the verbiage that you used. But did you say that in essence, especially specific to a product launch? It allows you to learn before you launch versus just simply launching a product and then learning after. 

Sean Moore: Exactly. 

Scott Nelson: Got it. Got it. Okay, I think that's really valuable especially when the consumer tech companies get a lot of hype, the drop boxes of the world, and the Air B&B’s of the world. They're known for iterating extremely quickly and so I think that speaks to your point of being able to, especially with an imminent product launch to be able to learn and iterate very quickly rather than just dump a product and sort of learning after the fact.

Sean Moore: The other thing is, I was thinking you would be more effective with your resources, because what ends up happening is that the marketing people are creating tools that the sales organization said they needed to use and because they all report to one person, myself there's a high level of accountability where if you say you need this we're going to develop it for you and then you better use it.

Scott Nelson: Got it. That's good stuff. I've got quite a few of the questions that I want to get to, but for the sake of time, I may skip a couple of these. But I am interested in the concept of direct sales versus distribution and I'd like to get your thoughts on that. I think that you spent a short time at Neovast which was, I think, a sort of a distribution model. Do you think that in the medical device space because SGNA costs are so high that we may get to a point where the distribution becomes more normal than it is today?

Sean Moore: Yeah, well, at least in our space and it really depends where distribution makes sense, right. When you're dealing with a commodity item that is mass-produced distribution is a good model for that especially if you have a smaller sales force. You have your distribution channels; you can reach so many more people and obviously, with hospitals trying to contain costs it’s much more effective for them to deal with distribution in which all the products are being funneled through versus ordering from each individual company that they need a product from. However, with that said, the direct model really works well when you have a product that's a proprietary product, a new product, a product that requires a real clinical sales process to it. Keeping that direct at least for us, make sense. 

There are a couple of reasons why that makes sense is if you're launching a new product, that is a real clinical sales process you want to be able to get your feedback really quickly. A lot of times if you go through a distribution model or distribution chain that feedback from the customer is delayed. The other thing too is when you're doing direct it really allows you to monitor and be aware of where your sales are going. I mean with the distribution model you usually ship one order to a distributor. That product gets filtered out to different customers, and then they eventually will report back to you where those sales went but there's a real delay in getting feedback as to where those sales are going. So, when it comes to the commodity-based items, a product that's been around, that's in the later growth stages so to speak or in the mature stages, it might make sense to do a distribution model. But when it comes to new products, startups, I think the direct model is going to stay. 

Scott Nelson: Got it. Okay. Let's segue into a point that you mentioned earlier in talking about successful reps having a kind of a global mindset. Obviously in your role, as the VP of Sales and Marketing for ConMed you've got to definitely have a global mindset and you're thinking about the changes that we're seeing in the healthcare environment now, where is this going? So, having said that or on that note what sort of concerns you the most about the disruption that's going on within health care right now? Then on the other hand, what are you really excited about?

Sean Moore: Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, with the whole health care reform I have many concerns, just like many other medical device executives do. One of my biggest concerns is that if you think of the medical device tax, at the end of the day, we're increasing the cost of our products. My biggest concern is that one of the great things about the medical device industry is the innovation within the industry. What my concern is that if you look back 10 years ago, it wasn't unheard of. It was pretty much the norm where medical device companies who are showing growth rates of 10,12% percent if you look at the overall growth of the medical device industry companies across the board in single digits right now. 

So, as growth slows you can only, and obviously we have to provide a return to our investors. You eventually have to start cutting costs. But then when you throw the medical device tax on top of that, really my concern is all that innovation, the R&D efforts, and so forth are really going to be focused on driving costs down instead of driving innovation of new products and so forth and industry. So, that would be one of my concerns with some of these new health care reforms. I have an interesting perspective. The second concern is that I'm originally from Canada so, I've been living in the US for about 10 years. I actually started my medical device sales career in Canada and was a patient within the health care system within Canada. That is not the perfect system. Having a government make health care decisions for you instead of being in a position to make your own decisions. I don't think that's the solution that we're looking for. So, does that answer your question?

Scott Nelson: It does and I'm glad you brought that up. The fact that you're originally from Canada, so you definitely do have a unique perspective that you can offer, considering the position you're in now. There's certainly a lot of doom and gloom. You mentioned a lot of those concerning points to you, namely, the focus on almost increasing operational efficiency versus product innovation or top-line growth. I mean, when you look at the environment we're in right now are there a few things that we could be optimistic about then?

Sean Moore: Oh, yes, most definitely. Everybody is afraid of change. People that have a hard time dealing with change because they focus on the exit of change. First, it's the entrance of change. With change springs opportunity. With that opportunity, if you go to different healthcare systems within the country, there's so much opportunity to find efficiencies. There hasn't been a better time where you have hospitals who are willing to listen and are willing to think outside the box and are willing to talk to different companies who are bringing innovative solutions in order to help them with their current challenges that they're having.

Scott Nelson: Yeah. It almost comes down to almost a mindset. I'm not sure if you would agree with this. But those folks that look that truly look and believe or view change as a chance for opportunity those are the folks that are going to make a difference and succeed in the future versus if you view changes as just disruptive and you're pessimistic about it. Well, then you'll probably see the fruits of that. Would you agree? 

Sean Moore: I agree. Completely.

Scott Nelson: It sounds cliché and it sounds simple but it almost in a sense comes down to just basic mindset. Okay, we're back. Had a slight technical difficulty there. In referencing the current change that we're experiencing within the healthcare environment and then looking at your current product portfolio as well as maybe what's in your pipeline. How important it is to be able to incorporate and communicate the economic value of a medical device today?

Sean Moore: Well, today, even more so than ever before that is imperative for a company marketing and sales department to be able to clearly communicate the economic value of a medical device that you're promoting. We're living in a day and age now where hospitals are looking at clinical based medicine, and they want supporting data to weigh into the economic benefit. There are continuing debates that happen. We're in the value analysis communities and hospitals and the administrations are talking with their physicians. 

Does the clinical benefit outweigh the cost? That's the biggest challenge. If I was a patient, I want the very best kind of outcome possible. So, how much of the clinical benefit outweighs a certain cost? I think what's happening right now is the debate within the industry trying to figure that out. As a medical device company, we have to be able to clearly demonstrate and provide the supporting data that clearly communicates the economic benefit of your product.

Scott Nelson: You mentioned the value analysis team. I think you hit it on the nose in that yes the clinical data may be superior, but is it worth the price uptick? That's what it comes down to.  It's interesting. I did an interview recently with a consultant from L. E. K. He hit it on the nose in that we all know that physicians are becoming less and less of a decision-maker. But he referenced the fact that hospital administrators and these value analysis teams are becoming the new thought leaders or the new KOLs and I thought it was a great point. 

Sean Moore: Tradition nowadays. At one point in time if a surgeon wanted something they got it. Ten years ago, I want this product, they would ship it in for that doctor. Nowadays, to your point, there's so much power. We call it political capital. Surgeons are having less and less political capital. As a company, you have to be able, and this is on the surgeons' side, be able to clearly demonstrate that your product is that much superior to what they're using and what are issues they're currently having so that they're willing to, you know, expend what little political capital they have in order get your product in. That's what is the real transition in the whole sales process amongst medical device companies now. 

Scott Nelson: Yeah, I love that terminology. Political capital. I always sort of refer to it as they've got less arrows in the quiver but less political capital, which sounds a little bit more professional. So, let's reach towards sort of a conclusion here. I mentioned earlier you've had a rapid sort of ascent within your medical device career. Are there are a few things that that you really wish or let me rephrase that, that you know now that you really wish you understood back when you first started as a medical device rep?

Sean Moore: Yeah. That's a tough question. But, I do have some thoughts on that. One of the things when I first started my career, being in sales. We talked about alphas and type-A personalities; I had my defeats. I didn't get every deal that I was out there trying to close, and I beat myself up all the time if I would lose a deal. Yet, at the same time, there's a lot of deals I was closing. I closed like 10 deals, but lose one and harp on the one deal that I lost yet didn't spend enough time, taking time to smell the roses and enjoying the ride. I guess it goes back to the global mindset. If you're out there and you're working hard every day, you're going to create your opportunity. You're going to create luck for yourself, and good things are going to happen. You've just got to persevere, keep going and just enjoy the ride.

Scott Nelson: Yeah. 

Sean Moore: Selling medical devices is such a great job. I just enjoy selling medical devices. Where do you have an opportunity just obviously to sell a product? There's a lot of people in sales and they enjoy the whole sales process and the hunt, the successes. But here we are. We're in an opportunity where we're actually selling products that makes people's lives better, have clinical benefits to people. They're really making a difference. I think early in my career I was so focused on achieving the overall goal, the overall sales number and that's obviously important. I've been enjoying the ride along the way.

Scott Nelson: Yeah. I love that you brought that up. In fact, I'm reminded of an article that I recently read by Ryan Holiday. He wrote the I think it's first best. He's famous for working with Tim Ferriss and Tucker Max and Robert Greene through his books. But Ryan recently released a book called "Confessions of a Media Manipulator" which is fascinating reading. The title is obviously pretty provocative. But he also released another book called "Growth Hacker Marketing," something along those lines but a great writer. He recently wrote a piece about it; it was almost a letter to himself early on in his career. 

The thing that stood out to me most was I think, I'm paraphrasing here but he said, "Make sure you breathe and enjoy the journey and not just what achievement lies beyond the journey." Just that idea of really enjoying that process, taking a step back, taking a breath, and enjoying the process I think is huge. So, I'm really glad you brought that up. That's good stuff. So, Sean, we're reaching a conclusion. I want to make sure that we state the actual URL of your blog. But why don't you go ahead and provide the actual website address for your blog right now?

Sean Moore: Sure. It's www.medexec.org. 

Scott Nelson: It's m-e-d-e-x-e-c.org.

Sean Moore: That's correct. 

Scott Nelson: Got it. Okay. Okay, very good.

Sean Moore: The other thing I would encourage people to do is if you get a moment on LinkedIn to follow our company web page. I mean, that's what we're often giving updates about new opportunities that we have throughout the country not only in sales but other divisions as well as in marketing. So, I encourage people to do that as well.

Scott Nelson: To check out the ConMed LinkedIn page. We didn't really get a chance to touch on this earlier, but I love the fact that you brought up when we brought up the subject of why you're blogging so much. You mentioned the idea of passive recruiting and I love that aspect because I got to think that there's a lot of people, a lot of sales reps out there that maybe are in a culture that isn't very compelling or doesn't foster growth both on a professional and personal level. They see the sort of stuff that you're writing, and they see your leadership and the culture you try and create. I've got to think that that's caused a lot of folks to reach out to you directly or reach out to the ConMed team to see what they can do to get involved in what you're doing. 

Sean Moore: Exactly. 

Scott Nelson: Yeah, so all right, cool. Well, for those listening, thanks so much for listening here.