Latest / AI Meets MedTech / Meet Anna Nesterova
Transcript
- Speaker 2: Right, we're here for part two where I get to talk to the incomparable Anna Nestorova. Speaker 1: Welcome. Thank you, Trump. Speaker 2: This is ⁓ this is sort of a your inaugural podcast, I understand. So I've got the pleasure of ⁓ doing a brief QA with you to to kick things off. So I'm I'm honored and privileged that I could be part of the first episode, but it's it's it's all about you. So why I'll leave it to you to give your ⁓ intro. Speaker 1: And I'm so grateful for you doing that. Thank you so much. Well, a brief intro will be that I am the founder of Medical Sales Boot Camp and I'm also launching my AI Meets MedTech podcast this month. So this is something I've been working on for the last, I would say, year or so. and my comes from medical from medical device world. and I worked through, I mean, I work with variety of companies, small, medium, large, and then different roles, but mostly on the commercial side of things. And my biggest passion is to bring new technology, medical technology to the market. ⁓ the way how I like to describe what I do right now is that I am rethinking how medical sales professionals are being trained and medical device companies are training their ⁓ salespeople. what I do because in the era of AI. curious how that will shape up the industry and how the future will look like. So that's in a nutshell how I see myself, what I do right now with with my platform and my podcast. Speaker 2: And and talking to you, I know you're you're you're very humble, but I'm going to give you permission to not be humbled now. ⁓ you have an incredibly interesting story. So how did we find ourselves sitting here in this Santa Monica studio? If you can in five minutes, give us from from your entire life story in five or six minutes to how we ended up sitting here. Speaker 1: Well, that's a tough job to do than five minutes, but I'll try. ⁓ to start? well, I have a clinical background. I grew up in Central Asia. I have to start that that I'm also an immigrant, so that's another big part of my personality, who I am and what shaped me. ⁓ grew up in Central Asia in a family of two doctors. So I think medicine and love for medicine, passion for medicine was always in my genes. And ⁓ that me a huge curiosity in i you know, in in healthcare in general. And then I immigrated with my family to Canada, where I shifted the focus from medical school, which I attended back in my home country, to more of a business, biotech, medical technique. What's Calgary. Okay. Yeah. I lived for 14 years in Calgary. So that's where my my education in biomedical technology comes from. and I shifted my view gaze from just science, medicine to Speaker 2: In Canada? Speaker 1: business side of the medical technology industry because I found it was fascinating at the time when I started it. Because I I thought I'm gonna be a doctor. Like that was my goal. I thought that's my only path. And yet I realized that I like the business aspect of it. And the clinical background gives me a different perspective because I understand how doctors and clinicians think, how they feel the pressure of being in front of the patient, how they feel pressure from the payers, from the patient, from ⁓ all kinds of stakeholders, I feel that, but I also know how companies operate. When they create something and they want to bring product to the market, I also understand that perspective and that's where I found that I was I was kind of bridging the gap between the two. Speaker 2: Let me ask you this, ⁓ because I know how immigrant parents can be. How did your mother respond when she found out that you were maybe not going to want to be a doctor? Speaker 1: Absolutely fine. Okay. Actually was absolutely fine. She's the biggest supporter. ⁓ she of course she was maybe somewhat frustrated because I was on my path to become a doctor. When we immigrated, I actually didn't know that I cannot graduate and cannot transfer anything to a Canadian system, which was very frustrating. ⁓ yeah, there was a little of a level of frustration there. but I think she also saw the potential because I'm still close to medicine, I'm still close to patient care. ⁓ But the way how I saw it, I can actually make a bigger impact. It sounds interesting. I know maybe some doctors who would be watching this like, ⁓ no, I'm a doctor. Like you cannot make bigger impact than what I do day to day to the patient. But how I see my role and what I've been doing for the last thirteen years, I could bring new technologies to the market in the right hands of right doctors for right patients, which will save life or help much more people than let's say if I were just one doctor helping let's say thousands of patients. Speaker 2: Impact more people. Speaker 1: I think I can impact much more. I already know that I've done that my work because I was commercializing, selling equipment, putting in a contract. I know that. ⁓ actually can I jump a little bit further. So ⁓ ⁓ released a book this year, ⁓ which is called Breaking In, How to Start a Successful Career in Medical Sales. And I share a personal story in that book, which I want to share right now as well. Everything I do with the medical sales bootcamp, with podcasts. With the book is has that bigger vision that the people are better trained, they can bring better technologies faster. We can also make the patient care better faster. So I have a much bigger vision when I think about all that. And medical sales training is something that I do and the book is about. And I said that I lived through that chain. went through a personal experience when my mom got diagnosed with cancer, and she was admitted to the hospital, needed a big surgery right away. ⁓ She underwent an eleven hour surgery, very complex, very technological. But what gave me peace of mind that a few years before that, I was the one who helped a small company out of US to bring in new technology to the hospital, that I knew exactly where she will be, how it will be used on her. I knew all the the research behind the technology, and I knew the chances of positive outcomes of her surgery. Actually I goosebumps right now what I'm talking about because remember how grateful I was at that time because I didn't realize that my mom or you know someone we love can be impacted by the work that I was doing. Yeah. So and I knew I told that to my mom. I said, I know you will get the best care possible because I know exactly what will be done. Because I I I brought some of that I mean not everything, but some of the equipment that was used on that highly technical Speaker 2: That's amazing. Speaker 1: surgery for me. So that was and that's what I'm trying to translate to people. That's gotcha. It's not just sales. I feel like sales profession sometimes being diminished. And I see much bigger purpose in it. Like you become the vehicle of companies bringing your technology, commercializing technology. Speaker 2: I can see it. Your why is bigger than just selling product. Yeah. All right. So continuing real quick, and then how did you end up in Southern California? Speaker 1: ⁓ sorry, ⁓ kind of shifted away from a five minute conversation about my journey. so I got a job with a startup, MetTech startup. it an interesting opportunity. I became the director of strategy for a startup ⁓ with a wearable device. Okay. And I was in charge of the western western states and my role was to find a way how to bring that novel technology wearable device to hospitals. Okay. Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay. And then Speaker 1: And then I also met my husband, I also started a family and I moved here three years ago. Speaker 2: What happened. So you can you can attribute that credit to that startup bringing you down here. Speaker 1: I would say both. Yeah, I would say my my husband in the startup it all kinda happened at the same time. So I feel like California was calling for me for whatever reason. It's just I l always loved California, always loved the South California. ⁓ I was travelling here for work, for pleasure before, and I think yeah, my husband meeting my husband was a big deal and obviously getting that job here was all kinda played out. Speaker 2: we're we're fortunate to have you here and you're exactly the type of people that we like here in California. Thank you. ⁓ so talk to me about so the work that you're doing, you're helping people break into medical sales. there a profile of person that lends itself to being successful in that space? And conversely, are there people who want to do it who maybe shouldn't do it? And and the real I I I'll preface it with I know the industry is booming now. Yeah. So people tend to gravitate to something where there's commercial opportunity. Yeah. Does that matter or does there need to be a bigger cause your why is for doing it is is amazing. Do they need a why or does it just I'm gonna break into it just because there's money there? Speaker 1: Well, I do believe you need to lead with why no matter what you do in life. Work, personal life, I think you have to know your why. But to answer your question, yes, there is a certain profile of people that companies are looking for. I also saw the gap when I was hiring for my own team because I ran my business for 10 years, where I was ⁓ my sales team and I was training them. I saw the gap. Sometimes very skilled people with great potential. They're being overlooked because maybe they don't present themselves certain way. Or maybe they get into the interview not with not knowing what to expect the interview, what to say, how what the job is about. Actually that was the biggest motivation for me when I started medical sales bootcamp in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one. I really wanna back in Canada, nobody really talked about this industry. I got into the industry just because I started networking and talking to people, but I I didn't know that that career path existed at the time. I wanted to make medical sales profession more accessible, more structured, more high impact. That's how I started it. I started my YouTube channel. I started talking to students who were approaching me. It was just my Ananistro, my name. Yes. Yes, I still have that. And I still have lots of videos. Yes, you should subscribe. And yeah, if you haven't seen it, I think it's a great starting point if you were considering medical sales as a career. Speaker 2: your two track YouTube channel called You still have that? YouTube channel. Speaker 1: Because that's how I started my career. I never thought I would be doing it. And I started and I thought it was just a you know, I'll try for a couple of years. I like the idea. Maybe I'll transition to something else. Or maybe I'll become a doctor. And my life changed and I build business out of it. I build ⁓ I met me met so many great people. I worked with startups. So like it can open so many doors for you. it could be one way to start. And that's how ⁓ that's why w I wanted to Make this career path more visible. So going back to the profile of the person, yes, there's certain characteristics that companies are looking for. And actually in my book I talk about those and I talk about the industry itself and I talk about how people can present themselves better, how they can prep for the interviews better. I see the book as of a first step into the ecosystem. If you are pondering, but you don't know what it is, read that. Think about it, because I even go through some questions. You should ask yourself a question. Is it Career path for you. Because I saw candidates who I was interviewing for my team. They were coming in just for the per like you said, it's a lucrative career path. I heard good stuff. I can drive Mercedes, I don't know, whatever. Like that that's literally what people were saying to me. And I always saw as much bigger value and mission in that. Yes, it's a lucrative career. And I want people to be successful and high impact, but you also need to understand it's a tough work. And you need to understand all the aspects of it. The rejection, the component of being ⁓ under pressure and stress in competitive competitive pressure in many ways and targets. So that's all I I'm talking about. And I also teach people who are new to this how to become more efficient, how to overcome those challenges, how to feel that yes, sometimes you have a day that is not good for you, but then you will have another day which will be much better. be able to achieve your goals. So partially what I do right now, like I'm trying to help new sales professionals to become better, more efficient, more confident in the work that they do so they can start making money and and all the benefits of the of the job faster. Speaker 2: Do you find that there's a disconnect between companies are looking for and the person's app actual capability? For example, they may have these ideas of what the person should be good at and what they're looking for, but the person can actually do the job, but they don't present ⁓ they don't interview in a way that that signals they can do the job? Do you Speaker 1: Perfect question. I think companies still cannot really understand fully what is the perfect Speaker 2: What are they missing? Like what like how would your interview process differ than the company's interview process? Assessment process Speaker 1: That's a tough one because again I I think When I when I interview a candidate, I really try to see the potential and sometimes even if that's a maybe they don't express the same level of confidence, but if they are telling me that they're ready to learn, they're ready to put themselves out there, and they give me examples of some other experiences not related to sales at all, where they really persevered and they've changed things, I think it's great sign that that person can be good at this job. do find that companies sometimes look for type A strong personality, like very I wouldn't say aggressive, but somewhat aggressive in the approach. And that's right. I think for certain extrovert ⁓ Yeah. And I think that's a good approach to have, but I also find that it also it can come with some negatives. Those people can overpower, they can get l they they make other mistakes in the job. Speaker 2: That's a Speaker 1: Where in the clinical setting, in certain settings maybe it's not the right way to do they think they know or they Speaker 2: But but in their the employer's mind they're thinking, ⁓ my gosh, if this person is so outgoing that they must Speaker 1: They go getters. Yeah. But there's no right or wrong. That's the thing. I feel like I also find it's very ⁓ company dependent. Some companies they have a culture of that type, hey, let's go no matter what. we will just destroy competition no matter what. And they attract talent of that with that personalities. But I also work with companies where they value more nurturing approach, more long-term game, and I'm a big fan of that type of mentality. ⁓ When you build relationships, when you build trust with clinicians, when you become part of the team and the team trusts you. So you don't sell anymore. You come there to help them to do their job better. That's my approach and that's how I like to think about this profession, versus just like no matter what. But it has place too. Like it all depends. Like it has its place too. I I don't want to say one is better than another. It's just they're different, different approaches. Speaker 2: Well, so what you say checks out, like there's actual debt. Like I do a lot of work in the sales manager sales management space and you know the tell and assessment space. Studies have shown that the most successful salespeople aren't the extreme type A because they talk too much and they don't listen enough. It's actually if if the extreme extrovert is a 10, what the studies have shown is that the person The ideal is more around six or seven where there's a balance between talking and listening. So for someone who's not for the uninitiated, they think just because the person is outgoing and they talk a lot that that that's the profile with that's definitely not the not not the case. Speaker 1: And in answering your question about people, maybe they're not presenting themselves properly, the interview. I've seen that. I've seen but it that's the job of the person who interviews to uncover the potential and ask the right questions. Because I gave a chance to, let's say, one person who worked for me who was denied any types of opportunities in medical sales because of the background. It was not not even close to what companies usually look for, like in terms of the educational background, the work experience. That's another part actually for people who are looking to break into medical sales. Companies want sales experience, but where do you get it? What if you want to break in but you don't have that experience? That's where you have to really come to the interview with knowledge, with confidence, with understanding of the job. Anyways, but going back to that candidate. That candidate was not an ideal candidate for, let's say, a company organization. But I gave that person a chance and he became a very effective salesperson who worked. Speaker 2: No, why'd you give that person a chance? What what Speaker 1: He was very I I could see when when he was talking to me that he is willing to put the work in. He was willing to change things around. He was flexible. Did he have I think so. I think he really wanted to move from the science academia world into business world, but nobody really gave him a chance because usually those people on the radar of companies they don't really look like good candidates. Because usually very scientific minded people, they're they're not really Speaker 2: Why? A unique why Speaker 1: Good at sales or being in front of people. But he didn't look like it. He felt very comfortable talking to me, but he he just didn't know. But he did his but he did his homework in terms of what the job is, what he needs to know. He said, I will learn, I can do this, you can give me a trial period. So he said all the right things that I think employer who is interested in hiring a good person, he's he he told me that and I gave him a chance and he became really, really successful salesperson. Okay. And I do think he's not that type a pushy person, which also helps him to do his job very well in his specific specialty, where he needs to be more of a listener, more of a consultant help a consultant and more of a I'm I'm I'm part of your team. I'm not here to tell you what to do. I'm here to help you to understand. Because you want to have people in the room, especially in surgical s environment, you want to have people that everyone feels good ⁓ being around them. Feels good to learn from them. So they have to have confidence, but it doesn't have to be s overly confident. It has to be a quiet confidence that you know what to do and there's a problem. I'm here to solve that problem. And that's what I teach people who are trying to break into the industry. You have to demonstrate that somehow in an interview process that you can be that person. You can be reliable, you can be confident, you can be resourceful. Accountable. That's something actually is very important in this job as well. And if yeah, there's a problem, you know how to address that problem. If you don't know something, say you don't know something. That's not the place where you over state ⁓ Yes, yeah, because it's very sensitive. Speaker 2: Which takes confidence to do that. Also, your educational foundation that gives you ⁓ that other people don't have, right? this is a competitive space. Do you think the person needs it? Is there an advantage to have a medical background to truly effective? Speaker 1: It's a very good question. I'd say yes and no. seen people from different backgrounds doing very well in this industry. I think clinical background definitely helps. I've seen some nurses ⁓ are doing an amazing job in medical sales because they actually know the hands-on work. They understand the clinical setting. I think the learning curve for them is much shorter than for someone, let's say, with a business background. I find that they have an advantage in that space, but ⁓ I also know people with a very different background who are very effective. And I think it's a matter of being able to learn, being able to ask right questions, being able to build rapport, understand people, listen. So I think there are other skills that can actually make a person very effective in this role. So that's why I can't really say yes or no. I think it's definitely an asset and it definitely helps you from the learning standpoint. And maybe adds a little bit of credibility, but a personality, it's it's such a complex career, I find. ⁓ that yeah, it's hard to pinpoint. And that's why I said like companies still trying to figure it out. They still trying to figure that that goal is this ⁓ Yeah, what are we really Speaker 2: What is the archetype, I should say? Okay. Speaker 1: Because just to interrupt, like very frequently they hire maybe that person looks perfect on paper, but that person is done after a year and a half because it's just that a personality that person jumps from a place to place. So how do you also retain talent? That's another big thing that they're trying to work. And that's where I also try to help them out with the educational programs that I'm building. I'm trying to give younger salespeople tools they can use, like some frameworks they can learn and they apply, they choose from so they can become Yeah. Speaker 2: If I wanted to break into the field, your program is something that I would one especially not having a medical background, something I would 100% do. That seems like you're giving them the foundation, which I'm going to ask the part B of that question is what's the blind spot, since you can see it and they may not, what's the blind spot that someone who doesn't have the educational background, what are their blind spots they might have? Or what message would you would you coming from where you are, like, what do you see that they don't know? that you would like them to know. Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. Soft skills matter more than hard skills. I I know it's not a brand new piece of information, but I do think that soft skills, transferable skills mean more in this profession. And many people don't spend time maybe on developing them or they don't know how to present them. It's very important to have Mm the ability to connect. The ability to Even sell, like sell, I feel like it's it's a it's a soft skill itself because companies train people very well on the product. Sure. Very well. So they can even provide clinical training, which is amazing. Like you can train they they they do a great job with that. But what I find they don't often do a good job with is sales training and they don't really train people on how to manage stakeholders, how to understand, how to approach Yes. Speaker 2: It's mostly about the product itself. And the people who are training them on the product aren't salespeople, right? Speaker 1: Some yeah, mo actually most of the time, correct. Most of the time they're not. So I feel like companies spend less time on the sales train, but it's as important as product training. Even for some experienced salespeople, I would love to have a continuous training, you know, once in a while. It's nice to refresh skills. But I th but it's especially valuable for younger people, younger sales reps because they go through a tough time. They have to go through not only figuring out how to manage their day to day work, how to communicate with a company, how to communicate with customers. So they go through so many different layers of complexity. think sales training can help them to ⁓ more efficient. And that's what I see myself doing. That's that's my my mission. And that comes from my own pain when I started. I feel like that's how I started. I'm like, okay, how do you manage all of that? And Speaker 2: I could Speaker 1: And it's not like you read the book and you know how to sell. doesn't work. You you read the book, you take some notes, then you go and practice, and then you take some notes and you you have to, you know, kind of you to put those components together yourself eventually. Speaker 2: It would be intimidating selling against you because your your story is so compelling, right? So the person's not going to be able to beat your your story is so interesting. You know, I'm big in the story, and you have the product knowledge and you actually care. That's a tough combination to beat. brings me back to the why thing. You know, I'm I'm big on talent assessment ⁓ figuring out what are the signals that make someone that shows someone is going to be good at this job. Which I'm gonna bring in a obscure basketball I don't know if you're a basketball fan, but you know who Kobe Bryant is. Yes, right? So Kobe Bryan would say that if he realized that hit one of his competitors, I you're in a competitive space, if he realized that they were just in it for the money and once they signed their contract that they weren't going to be as competitive, he knew in fact he was going to beat them at this point because his his why wasn't money. It makes me think of the people that that ⁓ you guys That your maybe organizations are assessing who are going in it for the money. And we know that if someone is doing something just for the money, when it gets really hard, tend to not have the resilience and they tend to want to make a move as opposed to ⁓ to break through because their why is bigger than just this money. So I don't this has got me to brainstorm. I would look if I'm assessing these people. I'm looking beyond, ⁓ I just want to get in to drive the Mercedes. Mm-hmm. Well, what happens when you have a couple back quarters? Are you gonna leave? Mm-hmm. Is what I would be concerned about. So that's more of a observation. Speaker 1: So that's a great observation. And yes, and that's what happens, I feel like. That's that's exactly what happens with some people. And that's where you need to be resilient. You need to understand that there's some hard days, some good days, and you have to go through all through those days. And that's where maybe that's where companies are looking for people who actually can sustain that stress. And by the way, and that's what I also mentioned in the books, like people with athletic background, professional athlete athletes' background, they usually being highly rated in the industry for that reason. They're not scared of hardship and they have a discipline and they are competitive. So I think they fit the profile, you know, and it checks out in many ways. Speaker 2: Checks out. From my own personal experience, athletes and actors have been some of the most culture people I've ever encountered. So I don't know if you want to add actors to your list, but yeah, athletes and actors take direction extremely well. They're used to rejection. there's a resilience component there that you have to have to be in in both of those. So you do a lot of work, and we were talking about the the work you do with employees. Let's let's switch to employers a little bit. Sure. Where where's the gap that you're seeing with employers in terms of finding good talent? Speaker 1: You probably know that better than I do, to be honest. But I can speak from how I envisioning what I'm doing right now with AI and technology and education. I do think that many companies, especially small, medium sized companies, they don't have resources to invest into sales training. And also I wonder where they are right now with AI and how they use AI for that purpose. And I want to reimagine that. And I want to help them to reimagine that. Because with the help of AI, we can achieve new I think we can we can do things faster, more efficient. But it has to be done in the right way. Because AI it's such a on such hype right now in a AI ⁓ Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: This can do that, but AI can do very minimal for sales process, but AI can help us train people faster. For example, I'll give you a good example. You would need to go and have a meeting with a very high level, let's say, I don't know, mm the business manager of a hospital or chief executive of a hospital. You have one shot with that person because you were waiting for that. meeting for I don't know months. You're finally at the point that they're willing to meet with you and you have one shot. Are the in and and and you need to be so prepped because you need to understand are they gonna like you, are they not gonna like you, are they gonna listen to you. So in the past I had to prep for those types of calls like I don't know, sitting and writing in thoughts and playing things in my head. And you still can forget and you still can blow it up sometimes. With AI now you can role play easier. You can prep for those types of conversations easier. You can you can be much more prepared and AI can s the simulation is so real right now that you can use for it. Like it's it's it's fantastic. That's what I'm trying to help companies to reimagine how we train people. Because yeah, like I said, the goal is to better train people lead to better to adoption of technologies and of course better outcomes for patients and healthcare in general. Speaker 2: So what would you like to leave the audience with? Speaker 1: ⁓ in closing. If you are interested in getting into medical sales, or you think that's one of your options, I want you to attention to my YouTube channel, to my book, and my medical sales book camp, because I think ⁓ pro will provide you with a lot of useful tools, frameworks that can help you to achieve success in this field. And also follow my podcast, AI Meets MedTech, because that has much bigger goal. that has a goal of learning, asking questions about what's happening right now in this field. And I want to make it entertaining. I want to bring people who are who have different perspectives on this subject. And I want world just to be much more aware of this space, med tech, medical devices, because something that is being overlooked or only small circle of people are talking about. And I want it to bring it to a much broader audience. So yeah, so follow me on YouTube. medical sales bootcamp is perfect for people and companies who are looking Speaker 2: And if they wanted to sign up, it'll be obvious how they do that once they connect with you. And they can connect with you on LinkedIn, YouTube, all your social Speaker 1: Yes, I will share all my socials, and in Sturova ⁓ on LinkedIn, that's probably the easiest way. And medical salesbootcamp.com. Speaker 2: And last thing, ⁓ any live events or anything that you're doing? Speaker 1: I'll think about it and I'll let everyone know. It would be perfect. Speaker 2: Okay, that was an inside joke. I'm trying to get her to do more live events because she's so amazing in person, so Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Luttrell. Thank you.