Whatever the market conditions, Midmark’s Adam Toney is committed to delivering value to today’s U.S. healthcare providers.
By Jenna Hughes
In an increasingly dynamic healthcare marketplace, connecting with clients is a key to success for both manufacturer and distributor sales reps. When making purchasing decisions, hospitals and health systems must feel as though their rep understands their needs and supports them throughout the buying and product use experience, said Midmark Territory Portfolio Manager Adam Toney.
Many aspects of the medical sales industry changed because of the pandemic, and Midmark sales reps are no strangers to experiencing the ongoing impacts of COVID-19. Toney started his role with Midmark in December of 2018, with enough time to “get his feet wet” in his position before the industry came to a halt in early 2020 due to the pandemic.
“Very quickly, meetings turned to Zoom, Teams, and Webex, and the way sales reps interacted with customers changed dramatically,” said Toney. “Our sales team traditionally engaged our customers and prospects through impactful in-person demonstrations, collaborative workshops, and voice-of-customer exercises, so we had to adapt existing and new capabilities to meet our customers and distributors where, and how, they prefer to learn.”
In his role as a sales representative, Toney is given great autonomy to be able to take ownership of both his own daily and weekly responsibilities.
Midmark Corporate Headquarters is located in a quaint midwestern town in Ohio, characterized by its small-town authenticity and close-knit community. The work that Toney does at Midmark in sales requires a substantial commitment, and “Midmark provides a valuable support system and creates an environment that goes beyond the professional realm to provide a sense of unity and collaboration among team members,” he said. Company-wide support assists sales reps in performing their best within the workplace.
For a sales rep, catering to a customer’s needs is the ultimate goal of an individual in the role. According to Toney, “Then, now, and moving forward – whether virtually, in-person or in a hybrid environment, medical sales reps must remain extremely effective in delivering value to customers despite industry changes.”
Staying ahead in sales post-COVID
Toney was led to a career at Midmark after his work experience as a local business owner. From there, Toney decided to explore opportunities beyond the local community, so that he could get a better experience of team culture, impact more people, and develop selling skills at a higher level.
“When I first started, my primary focus was to gain trust with our customers and distributor reps,” he said. “As simple as it sounds, my guiding philosophy was, ‘Do what you say you’re going to do.’ I had to build equity in a new industry, and I knew it was going to take repeated opportunities to go above and beyond to make sure customers and partners felt supported.”
New entrants seeking jobs in the healthcare industry have entered an entirely different market than their coworkers did just 10 years before. Remote work, changing healthcare demands from customers, the pandemic, and more, have altered many aspects of healthcare industry operations.
Thus, new entrants must change their sales tactics to stay ahead of competitors. Staying ahead for Toney means “starting my day with 30 minutes of reading on personal development, sales, or psychology. I’m committed to writing down my daily plan to make sure the most important items are completed, or else they’ll be crowded out by emails and calls.”
There are many challenges that healthcare sales reps may face throughout a career, but what is important is how they choose to leverage those obstacles.
“Staff shortages, declining reimbursements, changes in payment models, and maintaining patient satisfaction are all ways the market has become more complex in recent years,” according to Toney. “Our customers are leaning on vendors to help navigate the disruption in the post-COVID era, and so it’s important for us to understand our customers’ challenges and deliver value by helping them solve their root cause problems.”
Advice and collaboration is key
For sales specific activities, Midmark has adopted a methodology called “The Challenger Sale,” in which guided workbooks and tools allow salespeople at the company to continually improve their tactics. Also, sales reps within the company can lean on one another by leveraging each other’s advice, or discussing selling experiences with other team members.
“It’s extremely helpful to seek advice, whether for territory sales strategies or tactically advancing specific sales opportunities. Having multiple mentors within the organization has been vital to my growth as a sales professional because of the perspective they can provide,” said Toney.
A mentor can help guide an emerging healthcare sales rep through the first few years of their career, until they are well versed in the industry and ready to start giving advice themselves.
As for advice for sales reps thinking about seeking employment in the industry, Toney says, “It’s important for today’s business professional to consider company culture, because corporate climate shapes how engaged and happy employees are, and this directly impacts workplace productivity and the overall success of the individual and organization.”