Latest / Zero Friction / Medical Equipment Sales: The $1M Deal Closed Without a Demo | Jason Velick, CMIA

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Medical Equipment Sales: The $1M Deal Closed Without a Demo | Jason Velick, CMIA · Zero Friction

• speaker-0: I got a call one day, they requested a quote for 10 of my premium systems. I felt that my chances of getting the deal were probably pretty low since I never really had a chance to do a demo. And about 30 days later I got a purchase order for seven figures that I was not expecting. speaker-1: What would be that one piece of advice that you would offer yourself that would have saved you a lot of headaches in the you know in the future? speaker-0: CMIA is something that I do for fun. I enjoy doing it. I don't get paid to do it. After being a a vendor, selling or taking money out of hospitals for my entire career, I feel like it's my way of actually giving back to the healthcare world. speaker-1: Hey there, I'm Terry Cucholuches, founder of RevRXAI. We remove friction and architect revenue for med tech and consumer health practices. Welcome to Zero Friction. Terry Cucheluchis here. We have a great guest today, and his name is Jason Vielik. Jason is currently the president of CMIA, which is the California Medical Instrumentation Association. Jason's had a storied career in the imaging space working for All the big ones, Phillips, Siemens, and GE Healthcare. And he heads up this organization in California that helps really drive decisions around the biomedical space. And he's also working for a company called Cure as well. So Jason, love to have you on the program today. Let's talk about like healthcare imaging, biomedical. Let's let's talk about the things that are broken and what we can do to remove friction from the system. So welcome to the program. speaker-0: Thank you, let's do it. speaker-1: So, Jason, give us a little background. Just a little personal background about your career and then, what kind of led you to C MIA and knowing that that's probably, it's a great organization you're heading up, but I'm I'm guessing a lot of that's volunteerism. So tell me about that and what you do there. Yeah. speaker-0: So I graduated with a degree in molecular biology and I had a family of healthcare people. My dad was a physician, my aunt was a nurse, my grandma was a nurse, my sisters in public health. and I wanted to get into a field that allowed me to leverage the the the learning that I got with my degree. And one of the first jobs I got was in sales. I'm like, okay, sales and kind of Started with molecular biology and genetic research equipment and then moved down to pharmaceutical and then got an opportunity to work for GE selling ultrasound equipment. And I had no idea what that was that was like twenty seven years ago. Is GE they make medical equipment? Is that like refrigerators? How you know, can make any money in that? but I as you mentioned, I've worked for all the big imaging companies, GE, Phillips, Siemens, and Samsung. And I've worked in multiple capacities from sales to sales management, global sales development, finance and service. when I moved from Minnesota to California, I job and Got on board with a company that serviced ultrasound equipment called Conquest Imaging. Okay. And the president of that company told me to get involved with this organization called the CMIA, the California Medical Instrumentation Association. I'm like, why should I do that? And he said, it'd be good for business. okay, that's a good reason. So I got involved and I was elected as the treasurer for the capital region, which is Sacramento. and I really enjoyed doing it. it was really fun to be able to meet these biomed biomedical equipment technicians, BMET, clinical engineering, biomeds, whatever you want to call them. They're the people who fix medical equipment when it breaks in the hospital. That's anything from IV, you know, infusion pumps to CTMR, nuke med ultrasound, you name it. Right. I stuck with CMIA. even when it really didn't benefit my business, just because I was new to California, I met some people and it was fun. so for probably 10 years, it really did nothing for my business. I was calling on private offices, but I still attended the meetings and supported their events because it was fun and I got to meet a lot of people from across the state that are involved in healthcare. so that's kind of how I got involved. I held numerous positions within the organization. I was the vice president and the president of the LA chapter. I was the president of the San Diego chapter. and then at the beginning of this year, I was elected as the chairman of the state board. the organization's been around for 52 years. We've got about a thousand active members throughout the state of California in nine chapters. throughout the state. Each chapter has their own president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, two board members. And they meet every other month. So nine chapters, six meetings a year is fifty-four meetings a year. the primary purpose is sharing education. all of the meetings are accredited with continuing education credit. we do a lot of networking and we have a good time. Last night was Tacos and tequila in Pasadena with the Los Angeles chapter at the oldest Mexican restaurant in Pasadena and it was a conversation regarding real time location services, tracking medical devices, R T L S. speaker-1: That's pretty cool, And so I'm sure it's a great networking opportunity, a great learning opportunity. I'm sure there's lots of vendor support too that allows you to understand latest and greatest and keeps you up to speed with what's happening in the marketplace. so I'm probably a really good avenue for a lot of different you know, categories. speaker-0: Yeah, we get representation from not only the biomedical equipment technicians, but also the OEMs, the original ma equipment manufacturers, and then the independent service organizations. And all of them have been sponsors at one time or another. right now I think we have around forty active sponsors of the organization that help with our costs. speaker-1: So each chapter has a local mission. and then you have a bigger, broader mission with the state organization as well. Okay. speaker-0: That's correct. speaker-1: And what's what's sort of like, you know, when look at the biomedical team, what type of, you know, friction do they end up dealing with in healthcare? Since, you know, they're they're like infrastructure support. Like they are, you know, when things aren't, you know I'm sure they're the they're the front door when new technology comes into the system. So they gotta check it when it comes in and it gets installed. And then they're there to monitor and maintain in some situations, I'm sure as well. Right. So like w what are the big things that like a biomedical engineer deals with in hospital? speaker-0: Biggest thing I would say is they don't generate revenue. And so anything that doesn't generate revenue in the healthcare system, they want to minimize the cost. And so I believe that one of the common themes that I hear is that they're being asked to do more with less amount of resources, which is common in healthcare. the other major challenge that I see is that. There are not enough people who are trained to actually service medical equipment. So there's a workforce shortage that's become a major issue throughout the country. It's not just limited to California. and the third issue is there's not really enough professors that are teaching in the schools the these types of programs. So That opened the door for us to do a lot of work at the state level to try to change that. speaker-1: you talk about not enough workers. And I was just thinking through, a few years back, which was HM Health back in North Carolina, and they they were actually talking about the same challenge around biomedical space and supporting the hospital system and trying to figure out ways to create apprenticeships and alternative learning channels from, you know, going from high school in directly into a biomedical engineering kind of program apprenticeship. what what does that look like in today's marketplace? speaker-0: So that's actually one of my primary initiatives currently is to set up apprenticeships throughout the state. we're working with an organization called American Healthcare Apprenticeships and then the College of Biomedical Equipment Technology. I'm also working with the California Department of Apprenticeship Standards. We just got our signed first signed memorandum of understanding with the Pleasanton Unified School District. to be able to work towards an apprenticeship program within that school district. we're also in talks currently with a community college consortium in Orange County that represents 10 community colleges to set up a similar pathway for apprenticeships, getting people involved in that field right away out of school. speaker-1: What does that pathway look like? So say you're you're eighteen, I I've just graduated from high school, I've opted not to go to college and I'm gonna go more technical route and I'm gonna go into a hospital apprenticeship program that focuses on biomedical engineering. Can you take me through what that that that pathway looks like? Yeah. speaker-0: So there's a couple of different pathways. One is certification. Certificate certification is not a degree program. can be usually done be done in a couple months, two to three months. Okay. they tend to get basic electronics experience so that they, you know, can do the basics, electrical safety testing. and so that's kind of like how a lot of people enter the field. They graduate from high school. They're looking for a job and they want something that's easy with low path of resistance. There's not a lot of cost associated with it. A lot of these programs are covered through federal grants. so that's one route. The other route is the actual associate's degree, which is, you know, a two-year degree, where they learn a little bit more in depth about healthcare technology management and kind of the full scope of services that are provided through the equipment tech team it within a hospital. that one requires more of an investment. speaker-1: The sure. speaker-0: it's a two year window before you're gonna be making some money. unless you get a paid apprenticeship while you're in the program. speaker-1: So you could go through, get certified, and then go into even work part time and go through a an associate's degree program as well. Are are any of the healthcare systems like doing paid apprenticeship programs? Do they pay for school once you're in the door? Do they do anything interesting like that that might make it a little easier for somebody to say, does it this make sense for me? speaker-0: Yes. a lot of the larger health healthcare systems are doing some type of an apprenticeship program, like Kaiser has a more formal apprenticeship program. they are in a lot of places a union based organization. So there's some issues around that. But so yeah, we we we see a a lot of different paths for people to get. into the field. Also, College of Biomedical Equipment Technology, they have a completely online program which will get people trained so that they can go out into the field. the work workforce shortage is it's it it it affects more than just the providers, the hospitals, the OEMs also deal with this issue. You know, when when I sell a piece of medical equipment, it goes into the hospital if there's any issue, a field engineer is gonna be dispatched. And one of the ways that they are looking at our company is how quickly can you get me back up and running so I can start jev generating revenue again? Right. If you send somebody out that doesn't know what they're doing or you don't have the personnel to to send out, then it's more likely that it's gonna take longer before they're able to get that equipment up and serve up and running. Right. the independent service organizations, they also deal with a shortage. So it affects the entire industry as a whole on all three sides, the the providers, the manufacturers, and the service providers. speaker-1: I I know and with previous companies that I've worked for in the past, I do know that there's this aging population of technical service providers and technical service engineers where there's a real gap out there. There's there's there's a big exit that's happening right now that didn't have that pipeline to get filled. So it's it puts more stress on the system. I guess the other side of it would be, you know, with less fingers and toes in the marketplace to do the jobs, does AI play a role in the biomedical space? And is there ways to leverage AI for maybe more efficiency, more planned proactive servicing that, you're not reacting to things that are broken, but you can predict when things are going to fail before they fail. And then it allows you to take more of a a service oriented maintenance program versus a reactive break and fix program. speaker-0: Yes, absolutely. AI is having a tremendous impact on healthcare technology management currently. the biggest impact that we're seeing is what you talked about, where it's predictive analytics, where they can actually predict when a piece of medical equipment is gonna be most likely to fail. And then they can build equipment planning strategies around that. So I I think that's the first point that you're seeing AI affect routinely healthcare technology management, but it's gonna expand. we see it affecting a lot of different areas. we're not seeing it in terms of robotics yet, where robots are gonna come in and fix your medical equipment. Yeah. It's still a very tactile modality and it requires you to deal in interact with not only patients at times but also the healthcare providers themselves. So it requires a certain level of customer service, the ability to communicate and the ability to document things really, really well. So a lot of those things are areas where AI could have an impact eventually. but right now the biggest impact we're seeing is the predictive analytics. speaker-1: How about remote facilitation, remote maintenance, I guess, you know, other, you know, that way people don't actually have to get in trucks and drive and you know, cause that's time too, right? That creates efficiency that if there are certain things that can be triaged in a remote basis with camera systems, virtual systems, connecting into systems, I'm sure that all plays a role in trying to bring some efficiency to the model. speaker-0: Yeah, everybody likes billing for travel time. and so it'd be great if we could eliminate or reduce that. And so I think that's ultimately something that's on the horizon. Right now, as far as remote di is remote diagnostics, where they can troubleshoot a piece of equipment remotely and then proactively order any spare pro any parts that are needed so they can go in there and resolve the issue y in one time rather than going diagnosing ordering and then speaker-1: Forth. Back and forth. Back back. speaker-0: I think as technology evolves, you'll see more remote service. there's some interesting coup companies out there that have developed remote training platforms so that they can teach people how to service a piece of medical equipment remotely. speaker-1: think that's, one of the things that when I remember working when we both worked at Siemens, that was sort of some of the pathways that was going down from our service organization was trying to be, you know, more efficient. And at the end of the day, I do understand that like everybody likes to bill for things. But, you know, we also have to think about our customers and we have to think about uptime and downtime and What's really the best thing. And there are certain situations where if you can do it remotely or if you can do it proactively, then it should be done that way versus, creating emergencies for everybody and, days or things stop. When things break in a hospital and things like large imaging systems go down, things stop happening. And and then then there's another game plan that has to be implemented in the system. well do We're as we're talking about not being somewhere, right? I think you and I, when we had our original conversation that you were actually able to sell a large imaging imaging contract in your career and, you know, didn't even do a demo. And talk to me about like like what kind of trust you had to build in order to do that without, you know, going through the the entire circus and drill of demos and multiple demos, when you when you pulled that contract. speaker-0: Yeah, that was a turning point in my career where I really recognized how much my reputation and what I do on a daily basis makes an impact on the work that I'm doing. I got a call one day from an account and they requested a quote for 10 of my premium systems and It was in a market where we didn't have the majority market share. In fact, we had not the majority by far. our competitor had like 80% of that market. So I felt that my chances of getting the deal were probably pretty low since I never really had a chance to do a demo. I never interacted with the department. my thought was that this call from Biomed. was really just to benchmark my quote so that they could get a better price from my competitor. Okay. So I I told them that too. I said, I think you're just benchmarking me. And they said, Well, can you provide the quote? I said, Yes, I can provide the quote for you. And about 30 days later, I got a purchase order for seven figures that I was not expecting. And it actually happened twice that year. what was surprising to me, you know, I I When it happened, I th felt like, wow, I got lucky. I I didn't really question it too much. but a couple of years after that, I went back to the individuals who had actually called me and they had moved on to different organizations. And I asked them, I said, Hey, how did that all go down? I, you know, I really was not the favorite vendor in that situation. And they said, Jason, we were looking to standardize and we had experience with your manufacturer in the past and other departments. But frankly, we saw your involvement with this organization, the CMIA, and we knew that if there were any issues after the sale, that you were going to be there to support us. And also frankly, Jason, we're big fans of you. Yeah. And when they said that, I it hit me in a way where I just I it c totally caught me blindside because I didn't know these people. I didn't know their names. They called me up out of the blue, but they had been following me. They had been seeing the posts that I actually that I do on LinkedIn or you know, through word of mouth, talking with other people, they had heard about my reputation and they trusted me. speaker-1: that's a great story in a couple of different ways. Just I think number one, just having that trusted perspective is always a good thing. But the other side of it is is that, you help build your authority and your trust on LinkedIn, which is a digital channel. And and in our current day marketplace, most of our customers have done their buying without the seller eighty percent of their journey. So they they tend to take an asynchronous approach to buying things. And by the time the seller is actually in front of them, most of the time they've already gone through their activities in motion of what do I need to acqu inquire or acquire in order to make a sound decision, a a seven figure decision, a big decision. that's a that's a big decision for anybody to make. And the fact that you're using and have been using LinkedIn effectively for a long time. goes to say, so I'll just out there into the marketplace, if you're watching or listening to the podcast, is that, don't overlook, what your LinkedIn profile can do for you. don't overlook what your LinkedIn profile can build from a networking perspective. Don't overlook what, when people are in a marketplace and they see your business card, then they're gonna go back as they're checking the equipment, they're gonna go back and check on you too. So not only have to trust the company, but they have to trust the person that they're buying the product from. And you you really brought that full circle for me a little bit that I didn't quite catch on the front end of our discussion around this a couple of weeks ago, but it was something I really wanted to bring up today because trust is a big, big thing in today's marketplace. Any whether you're selling capital, whether you're selling razor blades, a razor blade model into a healthcare system or disposables, building authority and building trust are two very, very important things to do. And you can do it both really well with LinkedIn and to a certain extent. But then, just the way you handled the conversation authentically when you were there. And you're like, Hey guys, you're just, I know that I'm the the low market share player here. You got an eighty percent player here. And we've all dealt with procurement and biomedical in the past anyhow. And we know that they bring a low ball player in to suck everybody down into the to the low end, right? And and but but they bought from you because they trusted you. And that's that's a that's a really cool thing. So I think that's one thing I all all our audience should just never lose the fact that, that LinkedIn piece is a big part of who you are in the marketplace. And and, keep it updated, have a nice smiling professional face, have a good professional look on it. And and post every now and then, right? Like throw something out there every now and then. It's a decent thing to do. speaker-0: Absolutely. I I I've been doing healthcare for a long time. Yeah. And when I started in healthcare, working for in the pharma industry, it was before the Sunshine Act and Sure. we could do dinner events very freely. we could speaker-1: sporting events, golfing, and do all kinds of things, right? speaker-0: Absolutely. And that's changed a lot. because of the Sunshine Act, we can no longer get do a lot of those types of events which are really important to establish trust. You know, breaking bread with somebody is a great way to get to know them, get them out of their element and to be able to understand a little bit more about what motivates them. And when you take that away, then You're left with yeah, a lot of digital ways that people can be found. I find that when I've talked to people, the first thing that they're doing when they get a when they start working with a new vendor is they Google who they're working with or they Google the technology. And whatever comes up is really important. Because that's the first thing that they're gonna see that's gonna be form their impression of that individual or that product or that service. And so I believe that it's extremely important in today's age, more so than ever, to make sure that you have a strong online presence. And I see, especially in med tech where that's not the case, a lot of med tech founders, you go to their LinkedIn. They haven't posted in eight months. What they've got on there is very limited. They may not even have a picture of themselves. And so when a buyer is doing their research and they go to that LinkedIn page and there's nothing there, it leaves a lot of questions. Whereas other med tech founders and people who are in the business of selling medical equipment. When you go to their page and it tells a cohesive story and it spells out how they their approach to doing business, you really get to develop a a digital rapport with somebody that is something that is very hard to get. this digital rapport trust, it it's never come quickly. something that's built over time and it it's not something you can get overnight. It sometimes takes more than a year to get. It's not a fast equation. but I find that if you're consistent with it and you have a really strong story to tell, if your online presence reflects that, it makes it much easier for buyers to understand your motivation for doing what you're doing and to help them make decisions as far as purchasing a new piece of technology. speaker-1: Well, and again, it goes back to that whole digital trust piece again. I think it's just a a wonderful thing that we have in front of us today. And and the other side of it is the buyers are preferring the digital first aspect too in a lot of ways. So we as providers and services into the healthcare space have to you know, we I've always said, you know, today's a really tough marketplace and we have to figure out where our customers want us to be, when they want us to be there and how they want us to be there. And so It's our job to be where they want us to be. And if they want us there digitally, then we've got to be there digitally. If they want us there in purpose person, then we need to be there in person. If they want us on a Zoom meeting, then we do Zoom meetings. And so, it's it's a tough place to be in today's marketplace because the preferences are so wide and diverse. How do you deal with that like in today's marketplace with your current job working for Cure? And how do you how do you pivot from This guy wants it this way and this woman wants it this way and this system wants it this way. how do you how do you how do you get you and your team bent around how to do it differently that for the for your customer speaker-0: I think COVID really forced the issue because during COVID, everything was virtual. what was interesting is that when COVID restrictions were lifted, one of the first things that my customers were requesting was get back in here. We want to see you in person. so I would say now it's a mix. it was great when when we were doing COVID, I could do three demos in a day. Right. You know. That that's really impossible when you're shipping medical equipment to be able to do that and the distances that could be involved. So and for me with my current role, I do cover a large geography. So it is challenging sometimes to get from one place to the next to be there in person. So I think the online meeting is definitely it definitely has a a really good purpose in today's environment. But i in my world it has not replaced in person meetings. it's just made it easier to be able to meet with people when in person is not not feasible. speaker-1: Feasible, not convenient. Well, cool. well, what other things do you have? Like, you know, you've got trust, you've got purpose, you've got a bigger mission. tell me a little bit about what's the long game for you and CMIA and like let's let's finish the conversation wrapped around where we started. Like, what is your goal for the CMIA organization today and what do you see it providing back to the the healthcare community in the future? speaker-0: Well, CMIA is something that I do for fun. I enjoy doing it. I don't get paid to do it. It's a volunteer position. So you could say that I'm passionate about it. after being a a vendor selling or taking money out of hospitals for my entire career, I feel like it's my way of actually giving back to the healthcare world. and for me, My goal and our goal for the CMIA over the next two years is really to solve this workforce shortage, to to solve this gap and to be able to create new jobs, get people interested in in the field of healthcare technology management. And that's what drives me, Terry, is is really being able to solve a problem that other people have not been able to solve for a long time. And I believe through partnership, working with organizations that have a s a similar shared view, and working with people who are passionate about doing what they're doing, we're gonna be able to get it done. speaker-1: I do too. And it's really promising. And the purpose and the mission, just as you've wrapped that up, is helping to fill that service gap and and get the right people in the right place from a health management technology perspective. One more question for you. And I tend to ask this to all my guests, but if if current day Jason can go back to Jason, when he's coming out of school and you were able to offer yourself one piece of advice, just one piece of advice. It could be personal, it could be professional, it could be financial, it could be whatever, but one piece of advice only. What would that one thing that you would go get knowing that what you know now versus back then? What would be that one piece of advice that you would offer yourself that would have saved you a lot of headaches in the you know, in the future? This one. Okay, I'll give you two if you want to, but like speaker-0: Thank you. The the first one is to just breathe and everything's gonna be all right. Okay. No, I I feel like a lot of times when we get in tense situations, we forget to actually take care of ourselves first. And breathing is central to that. when I have a a call with a manager and they're going over my Salesforce forecast and asking me difficult questions, I notice my breath and A lot of times it's short or I'm holding my breath. to just relax, take that full breath and know that everything's gonna be okay. Second of all, as it pertains to me personally, I would have got involved with these healthcare technology management associations when I started my career. I think it would have made things a lot easier. but you live and learn and things happen for a reason. Power of networking is so critical. And these types of organizations are a great way to network, meet people, find jobs when you need a job, find people to hire when you need to hire people, and just really ha have a good time enjoying being with other people who have a similar mission in their in their daily lives. speaker-1: Yeah, and as you put it earlier, find a way to give back to. And I think that was a really, very telling tale on who you are as Jason Vielick. So Jason Vielik, thank you so much for being here today. What a great program. And we wish you, Cure, and the CMIA, the best of luck in the future. Good luck trying to get those jobs filled and those people trained because that is a big mission. speaker-0: You Terry. Appreciate it and appreciate your time. speaker-1: So let's connect. Let's find where your revenue is getting stuck. Book a call at RevRXAI and build your revenue engine.