Dukal’s Peter Isaac took a few unexpected twists and turns on his career path before landing in med/surg sales.
By Pete Mercer
Finding a professional path you truly care about can be a challenging process. Many people who are in careers that they love didn’t start out there – it often requires a sort of trial period to find what your purpose is and what you are passionate about.
Peter Isaac understands this. His journey to a career in med/surg sales is a fascinating representation of what it can look like when you haven’t quite found the right niche yet – there might be places where you are satisfied and enjoying the work, but it’s not always the exact fit that you are looking for.
Repertoire Magazine recently spoke with Isaac, now a strategic account manager at Dukal, about his journey to the med/surg sales space, the importance of company culture, and his career aspirations. He covers the Northeast region, including all of New England, the state of New York, and Pennsylvania, providing what he refers to as “healthcare solutions.”
He described the mission of Dukal, saying, “We actively work with our partners to gain market share, help them build their book of business, establish contracts, and develop supply chain solutions for them and their customers. It’s not just within acute care, physician offices, or long-term care facilities. Sometimes there’s state and municipal government offices that are involved with that, which is why I like to lump it all into healthcare solutions.”
Primed for success
Medicine has always been a big part of Isaac’s life. He grew up the son of a physician and even studied science at James Madison University in Viriginia but didn’t necessarily feel drawn to make it his career. It was always more of an area of interest, not a career aspiration.
Isaac has worked in higher education, real estate procurement for the federal government, and even served as a Peace Corps volunteer twice. In 2017, he said that he “tripped and fell” into a med/surg sales opportunity at a company selling instruments in the laboratory space in Rhode Island. This role put him in conversations with key decision makers and end users, not just the purchasing department of an organization.
With that experience and exposure to the medical field, he was primed to succeed at Dukal. He joined the organization in February 2021, where he had to get up to speed with Dukal’s portfolio in the middle of a pandemic. He said, “I feel like Dukal takes pride in bringing in the right type of people. People that can be taught, coached, and understand the organization’s goals and objectives and match those goals to their own.”
Isaac spent time training with his supervisor to learn about his client base and portfolio for the first couple of months. More than anything, Isaac said that his training helped him to better understand who to reach out to about different aspects of the business – he feels comfortable having conversations with the vice president of sales, vice president of supply chain, vice president of marketing, the director of purchasing, and the senior director of product development.
Why culture matters
Company culture matters. As a hot button issue over the last few years, it’s more important than ever for companies to establish a healthy company culture that is designed to take care of its employees. The earlier that starts, the better off your employees will be in the long run.
According to Isaac, the company culture at Dukal is collaborative and celebratory. He said, “They celebrate everyone’s successes. If someone gets recognition from a partner, they celebrate that. If someone runs a marathon, they celebrate that. It’s not just a professional milestone that they celebrate, they just genuinely enjoy celebrating each other.”
That healthy culture was present even during training. He said that Dukal actively works to ensure that their team members are successful, giving them the foundation and information they need to perform, while allowing the team the freedom to achieve the goal in the best way that works for them.
Isaac recognizes the strong leadership at Dukal for what it is. “You know the true sign of a strong organization when someone goes and thanks literally every department that helped them get there. The success of strategic account managers or account executives is based on contributions from the whole Dukal team. Our successes don’t happen if we don’t have the support from our executive team, an amazing product development team, if we don’t have an amazing marketing team, if we don’t have a global sourcing and supply chain team that is world class, if we don’t have a sales support team that helps compile information, coordinate contracts, or help get samples out. It really is a team effort.”
Resolving pain points in 2024
One of the biggest points for healthcare organizations today is pricing for supplies and products. Isaac said, “We always need to remain price conscious, but we live in a world where prices are going to continue to increase,” Isaac said.
Reps can’t let pricing get in the way of the product itself and how it can help providers improve patient outcomes. At the end of the day, they need to be able to treat their patients – when you can leverage the value that your product provides, it should ideally be easier for the customer to make the purchase.
“I do feel that you want to be able to maintain a high-quality product and provide high-quality services that our and partners expect and deserve, but you always need to be aware of pricing. I do think there is some common ground where everyone can be happy with the result,” Isaac said.
That’s what makes building these relationships so critical to the success of your organization and your performance as a sales rep. Even with the challenge of meeting customers where they are in relation to the price of the product and their need for the product to treat patients, it’s important to establish a relationship and a sense of trust with partners to facilitate some of these conversations that may be difficult to have.
“Maintaining strong relationships with our partners is extremely important,” he said. “Sometimes I have to deliver news that might not be ideal, but we are actively working towards a solution, and we may have a temporary fix that’s available. I am always in the mindset that if I am trying to establish such a relationship, I need to be timely in my communications. I need to be able to effectively identify the problem and provide a solution.”