It takes an incredible amount of time, energy, resources, timing, and luck to successfully take a medical device product from concept through commercialization. Only 10 to 20% companies are able to complete the cycle of success of generating positive cash flow and/or getting acquired, as the research I completed last year illustrates. You can review the special report here.

On Wednesday, March 21st, I will serve as moderator of an exciting learning event, Determining Go to Market Strategy for an Early Stage Medical Device Company. This is an interactive strategic assessment between event participants and a panel of marketing and sales professionals which will make recommendations to the leadership of the subject company.

The CEO will demonstrate how new technology his company is developing has the potential to significantly accelerate the success rates of patient care in a growing healthcare epidemic. He will disclose how the evidence from the first three clinical trials shows great promise.

Attendees at this event will have the opportunity to actively participate on a team that will develop specific strategic recommendations for the subject company. Teams will strategize as to which product line should be introduced first, identify the appropriate pricing model, and recommend which sales /distribution model would be most effective.

Marketing and sales professionals, service providers to the medical device/life sciences startup community, innovators, entrepreneurs, and professionals interested in emerging companies should consider attending.

This event is being presented by the Marketing and Sales special interest group of the Medical Development Group association, and being held at the Foley Hoag Emerging Enterprise Center from 5:30-8:00pm on March 21st. More information, pre-registration, and directions to the event can be found here.

Please join us, and pass this along to someone you know who might be interested in attending.

Yes, companies that grow revenues year after year do things differently than the more than 80% of all businesses that can’t. There are simple steps to change behaviors that drive poor results, so why aren’t more businesses doing what is necessary to achieve sales growth?

The secret is, growing companies all follow a similar path of developing their most important assets to penetrate and expand market share, improve team performance, and make the necessary changes to grow.

My keynote presentation, The Secrets to Sales Growth, on 1/11/11 will illustrate what start-ups and mature companies have done differently to beat the overwhelming odds to achieve profitability and/or get acquired, and what they are doing now to increase revenues in 2011.

Attendees will learn why the vast majority of companies fail to overcome the obstacles to market penetration.

See how a medical technology company achieved exponential growth this year (150% of last year’s revenue). See how a pharmaceutical products company was created, achieved profitability, and was acquired in just three years. They followed key elements of the same path to sales growth.

More successful case histories will be revealed. Attendees will learn the secrets and take away valuable how to information by completing their individual Cycle of Success Factors worksheet during this interactive presentation.

Please join us on 1/11/11 at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Venture Forum starting at 6:00pm.

Our new national health care technology client is currently filling several positions for the challenging role of inside sales person who also provides customer support. Located just outside of Boston, they are seeking ideal candidates right now.

This position requires proven track record selling services over the telephone, working knowledge of PCs, and proficiency in using the Internet. Successful candidates will identify customer issues that are impacting value and support these clients in getting the issues resolved.

This sales and customer support role involves working with the customer support group to help grow new client base and provide telephone training and on-going customer support.

To be considered now, forward resumes to editor@getbettersales.com. Because final candidates will be required to complete our assessment, you can leap frog the competition by completing the questionnaire here.

Because the graphic designer who put together the old GBS logo was not available to enhance our brand identity, I posted an ad on Craig’s List. I was implicit in stating that this was an initial project from which I would build a long-term relationship with the right person who most closely ‘fit’ my expectations.

The variety of responses was intriguing. Everything from professionally designed resumes to formal boiler plate responses, to generic RFPs, complete with links to online samples, to some who only replied with a cryptic text E-mail message.

I took the five strongest proposals and invited each designer to complete the Talent Analytics questionnaire. Their familiarity with these important new service offerings would both help them create a truer identity for Get Better Sales, and give each of us comprehensive guides to manage our mutual expectations, as I would share mine with him/her.

Incredibly, three of the final five did not have creativity as one of their top three hidden ambitions. That suggests each of them are working in a field that is not a good fit for how they naturally align themselves with success. The two strongest remaining applicants had almost identical natural styles and hidden ambitions. The final decision was easy: our new designer showed almost a complete absence of modifications. (I’m not sure anyone in the world has a complete absence of modifications.)

This illustration shows how he modified by just -2 in three of the four different categories, and by just +1 in the other. His work as a designer was such a wonderful fit with his natural styles, it would be very difficult for him to find any other line of work that was more rewarding.

Perfect Fit

Who on your team has the performance styles that naturally fit the expectations of their current role? What changes might you make that could make them more productive and easier to manage?

Learn how you can easily reset expectations to increase team performance now by taking our powerful employee engagement tool for a free test drive here…

People who ‘love their job’ do so because their natural behavior styles fit neatly within their job requirements. They are positive contributors to their team and more easily meet their manager’s expectations; they are energized through their work.

Hiring and promoting the right people is a critical success step for every business hoping to survive and/or thrive through this economic cycle. Not only should a person be the right fit for the job; the job should be the right fit for the person. Employees who need to change their natural styles to perform their duties are rarely able hide stress levels that result in weaker performance.

I have been able to help different clients align their talent strategy with their business strategy throughout the process of achieving the Strategic Talent Advisor certification as a business partner with Talent Analytics.  Clients have used these powerful tools to make stronger hires and promotions through the ’spot on’ accuracy of these tools. The comprehensive results serve as a how-to guide to resetting mutual expectations that leads to stronger performance and greater job satisfaction.

Now managers can make immediate changes by either providing necessary support or reassigning people to a different position that is a more natural ‘fit’. The closer the job fit to the natural styles, the happier the employee, the more productive the team, the more profitable the company.

Mr. Jake Jacobs, Executive Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for ABnote North America wrote last month, “To a person these discussions were most positive and gave everyone great insight into each of our styles and ambitions and why we do the things we do…I can tell you that in my 25 years of sales management I have never known my staff and their potential better and understand what gets them motivated for the cause.”to manage?