How to Create and Support Ecosystems
AI-Generated Transcript below. There may be errors.
Claire Davis 0:20
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of today's medical sales leader. And I am absolutely thrilled to bring you my guest today because she and I recently met on LinkedIn. And Jessica here is one of the foremost leaders in the med tech space and her way of thinking about the future of healthcare, and the passion that she brings behind it. So, Jessica, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm so glad to have you on the show.
Jessica Zampedri 0:47
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I'm so happy to be here.
Claire Davis 0:50
Awesome. So Jessica Zampedri, she is a passionate leader with a medical sales background. And she is looking to apply her expertise in multiple ways to get her impact. She's passionate about figuring out how to help surgeons thrive on multiple levels, which is wonderful, because so often we think about health care in itself and selling products and hitting quota. And we can forget about the real true needs of our customer, the surgeon right and so many other people surrounding that circle of care. And she is led by curiosity and his work in a various in various different sectors of healthcare surrounding surgeons in the LR out of the O R, which gives her an incredibly unique perspective. She's a mom, she's a boy mom, which I am super passionate about, as well as I am a boy Mom, it's a special club we're in. And she's also in, right. And she's also interested in helping medtech companies create new categories that will lead to greater patient impact. So I don't know if there is a better description of somebody who should be who is meant to be in this business. But I'm so glad that you're here. And if for anybody who's not already following just like make sure that you do that today. So the first thing I want to jump into here is can you tell us a little bit about your story? And what drove the passion that you have for what you're doing? Yeah, so
Jessica Zampedri 2:15
I think part of it, it's like the double edged sword. So I have been a patient in many facets of healthcare over the years. So I was a teenage mom at 16, my son almost died in like childbirth. So like we were in that NICU for about eight to 12 weeks on the patient end. And then a car accident that led to a spine surgeon and a surgery were three years I mean, I was going through a system on a spine surgery and and working in that industry as well. And you see both sides of the coin so much differently, where when you're in a patient, and as well as looking at it from a sales and you really see all of these things that are dysfunctional and not working, and how all of those things at the end of the day affect the surgeon where we like to sometimes put them on a pedestal like they're this insanely, or super intelligent individual, and they are but they're just as human as everyone else, if not, like more pressure than everyone else in the world. So when you look at all of these things, and then you have like something like COVID happen where you just at least for me, like you want to help fix it in some way. And you realize that, like you can have so much impact on sales and far more than you can on other ends. Like when I was in college, I thought I was going to be pre med. I was pre med I thought I was gonna go to med school. Oh, totally wanted to do surgery, I was an EMT, like throughout those years had all the patient care hours. I wanted to divorce my ex more than I wanted to medical school when I graduated, and so then fell into medical sales. I think you choose your heart and at that point, like single mom of two kids, figuring out how to be in an office at nine and then leaving at five and doing like sick days and snow days. Like that just boggles my mind where the medical sales was this kind of this perfect arena where I got to still satisfy like the passion that I had for health care even then, but also, it at least seemed a lot more flexible.
Claire Davis 4:35
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Jessica Zampedri 4:37
And, and it's funny because talking to friends, like they look at my jobs and they don't see flexibility and they see like Insanity. And I'm like you choose your heart. It seems so much better when you've kind of got a little bit more control of your day.
Claire Davis 4:53
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think it's interesting because depending on what kind of sale you're in, so if you're in med tech or you're in something where you're in the O R, and you've got to be on call that can seem really restrictive. But there are all kinds of there's a, there's a huge spectrum of different kinds of medical sales. So like diagnostic, for example, sometimes I need to be in the ER, but a lot of times, we were out of the office. So, but it's still I see choosing your heart as something very self aware. To do. So when you were if we could go back a little bit to when you were, you know, going through the ICU experience, the NICU experience, you know, what was it about that time that or maybe what were you noticing about the providers there that made you say, this could be done better?
Jessica Zampedri 5:45
You realize, like I said, all the time, it's like good apple, bad system, good apple, bad barrel, and eventually good apples turn brought, and they turn bad. And you see that a lot within healthcare, where you have surgeons and practitioners and health care workers, they become jaded. And we like to say the term cheated, when in reality, like on the inside, like, you know, it means like, little bit like shark or all of these things. But it's, it's really, because a lot of the time, it's it's a system issue, where you and I have surgeons who I love dearly. And they know that if they can go into a hospital and raise their voice and demand things that are done in a certain way, like there's better, there's a better chance that that patient will be safer in their surgery. Yeah. Does it make it right? No. Does it make it the most optimal for patient outcomes on an entirety and team communication? No. But if that's the system that they're putting in, that's the situation that gets them results, it then becomes more of this pattern. And you do you get jaded physicians that have always, especially highly in the past, like three or four years when I've been working exclusively with surgeons is like, I just want to do everything in my power to be able to fix that to make it easier because when I was in the NICU, you saw the such a difference on like a patient and have the care that you experience when you've got a surgeon that's still not jaded, they're compassionate, they're caring they're engaged, versus the one that's checked out. Right.
Claire Davis 7:31
Right. And the sad thing that I see as well, is that, you know, the ones who generally aren't jaded, right, they're new. Right. And that's not that that's the sad part, but but that they have more to learn more to grow. And oftentimes, you know, the folks who are jaded are the ones who've got 2030 years of practice under their belt, they've got things down to a very exact procedural science. And it was really sad to see hospital systems after COVID not able to support those surgeons who had delivered so many decades of exceptional experience, and thus lose them. So and then there was this great hemorrhage of wonderful, incredible talented people, surgeons who had had it, you know, so So I see that, and I wish there was more support there.
Jessica Zampedri 8:31
Yeah, there is. And that's like, probably about two years ago, I can't believe we're like three years out of COVID. And one of my favorite surgeons like this guy, just he The epitome is like everything you could think of like a great individual, compassionate, caring, he spends time with his patients, and like, his surgical skill is impeccable. And after getting a product in and selling, we were just talking, I was talking to one of the executives who loved me, and we were just figuring out some flows in the practice. And he was we were talking about how good of a surgeon this guy was. And then this executive was like, Yeah, we love him. Too bad. He's going to be just like the rest of them in five years. Meaning like, he's was like five years out of fellowship, or five years out of the things just got out of like his second fellowship, where they loved him, but it was like, we're gonna bank on the system to break him and like, we're just gonna let that be the thing. And he is one of those individuals that like kind of just represents like, all of those surgeons were like, it was like a hit to my gut where I'm like, if I don't figure out like how to be valuable to help that. If this guy really did become that jaded, it would be like a little bit of a knock on my faith and you Humanity because he is just totally the opposite of that right now. And I think to what I tend to see, especially in the spine surgeon arena is that they'll get burnt out, but they're not usually the ones leaving health care, like you have a lot of physicians that are leaving healthcare. And then surgeons, it's, it's scarier like their whole identity is around doing the surgeries and the surgeries and how they are on this hierarchy scale that I think it's a lot harder to just walk away from that, versus some of the primary cares and things like that. And so they stay in, and then they get jaded, and they stay in. Mm hmm.
Jessica Zampedri 10:49
Where do you think that someone? Oh, well, do you think that it would need to be something where the surgeons are able to be supported individually? Or do you think that it would need to start with the actual health care program that are part of first, I think it's
Jessica Zampedri 11:07
various, I think part of the frustrations within the healthcare arena is that we've put all of the burden on the individual to kind of like fix it, or to fix burnout, and all of these things, when, in reality, if we don't look at the other pieces, and truly try to transform them, like there's only so much that can go there. Coupled with I think we tend to do more like self care, burnout, where if we really kind of supported that physician in a leadership way, we're we're teaching him leadership and everything that goes under there, as well as like he business and like, the information about healthcare where like, they tend to practice medicine, but not really know much about the business of medicine. And so part of the like, reason we're kind of in a crap show with healthcare is because they haven't had seats at the table, where the solutions that physicians come up with, are so much astronomically better than anyone with just an MBA comes up with.
Claire Davis 12:17
I think it's interesting, it's like a, it's a real fine balance. Because the providers I know who stay in it for the long haul, they are wired differently than folks who are really focused in business minded. And the solution almost, you know, back in the 90s, in the early 2000s, when managed care really became the way that healthcare was done, you know, they, they were a part of the conversation, but not enough. And instead of it being this cohesive, you know, yin and yang, right provider and administrator together, a lot of times, I do see that it's so much more heavily based on the administration, and the business minded decision making, that the true essence of health care, and managing and creating the flow of health care from a provider standpoint, gets really diluted. And I really hate to see it. So you know, you, you and I were talking about ecosystems a little bit before we started. And one of the things that I think for everybody here watching many of you are in medical sales, right, or in health care of some kind. And I think that there is a shift, business wise, of course, where when we go to sell our product, we're trying to sell the enterprise system, like we're trying to sell and get capture the entire hospital with all of our goods, which I think from a sales standpoint, that makes sense from a business standpoint, that makes sense. But it's not always with the providers best interests at heart, it's truly, you know, for capturing the business of the health of the the health system. So do you think that there is a different way that ecosystems should be implemented with medtech? Maybe if we get specific about this, and what that look like?
Jessica Zampedri 14:19
Yeah, so I think part, there's a real opportunity to now because you have so many more independent distributors that are at play. And I think that if you do it, right, like definitely don't side non competes. You can negotiate your way out of those. You can carry various things that a surgeon needs and help build their kind of ecosystem that way, as well as like New Jersey, for example. For that ecosystem to really work, you have all of these various components of healthcare, you've got workman's comp, PII attorneys, you have referral sources and all of these and if you can It actually truly help a surgeon build business that not only helps your hardware and med tech sales because you're increasing surgical value, but you're bringing value in a different way because they don't have the time. And so if you're just playing in this hardware space, it's it's not as lucrative long term or as valuable. But it also like not for nothing gets a little bit boring, you're siloed, you're in this ultra competitive field, where if you start playing in an ecosystem game, and you start looking at RCM, or like ASC management, like or radiology, like all of these different players that are all part of this continuum of care, you get to broaden the scope and bring so much more value into the physician's office, which makes you astronomically less indispensable. One of the top complaints that I've got from the guys that have been in the industry for years is they now have kids, they have kids, they can't go out partying or two dinners every night. And they're constantly getting overturned by a new rep who can. And so single mamas two kids, I never wanted my relationships, all banked on how many times I can go out drinking or taking a surgeon out. Because you realize that when your product is negligibly different, that relationship capital is huge. But it can be easily overturned.
Claire Davis 16:38
Ooh, you've hit one of my very favorite topics, which is, you know, introducing products that matter? Because I think we're both very in tune with the fact that there are a million iterations of essentially the same software's hardware and services out there. And while I, I see why it's done, you know, back to the enterprise model we were talking about, you know, you've you say you've captured Cedar Sinai, and you need to offer something your competitor doesn't? Or does, because you've just got to have it. And then you've put your stamp on the exact same product. Who does it really serve? And so I really appreciate your more global thinking about this, because I think it's where healthcare has to go. And if not, we're all going to keep banging our heads against the wall, on why there are massive layoffs for companies who are trying to bring people aboard to sell the same iteration of a project to the same customer. And we're, we're in this hamster wheel. Yeah. So what do you think the first step is for people to one may? Well, let's start with supporting physicians with what they really need. But how does somebody find that out?
Jessica Zampedri 18:01
What do you suggest curiosity and actually listening where I mean, I have one individual that she sells hardware, she's incredible, she has made it a point to be curiosity, like insane eyes and ears open in that or to identify exactly when they're complaining about a product or complaining about the delivery of something that's not her bag to figure that out. So she can bring it in. So like, that's how she's bringing value. I've got another distributor who I work with and grow with. And their huge model is essentially like how can we increase their relationship capital with other key referral partners that they need, but don't necessarily have the time to do themselves. So they go out and get those relationships for the attorneys and the Cairo's and the physical therapies, and they bring together like dinners that actually help all of this flow more so that they're bringing value on a business. And I think, especially if you have a pool of customers, it's truly listening past just your product. And then if you are a direct rep, like your hands are a little bit tied to and what you can actually benefit financially from that. But it's, you can still make ecosystem merger relationships with the other key reps within there. And you realize, too, that when you do that when you're there catalyst and connector for introducing them to these other relationships, it in turn makes you more valuable.
Claire Davis 19:40
Oh my gosh. Yes, sir does and and people in your physicians will thrive? It will mean physicians, administrators, people working in that or everybody involved. It means that they don't have they have someone to rely on that's a greater resource than Even what they're expecting, I was just working with a gentleman last month, and he was in hot water with his boss, because his numbers went down for the quarter. But the reason being was his major accounts out in LA, were having trouble with their EMR, I, I forget what JMR it was maybe epic or something. But anyway, there was something where the information that they were putting in didn't translate to what they needed to get to identify which, which, which implant to use. And so he said, You know what, I'm, okay, I'm going to come in, I'm going to, I'm going to take the latter half of every day for three weeks, and I'm going to come in, we're going to go through this together, because I'm rather tech savvy, and I'm going to help you. And we'll just figure it out together. And they're like, well, oh, are you with the epic? Rep? No, no, I just see that there's a need. And I really do care about you and what we're doing here. So like, why wouldn't I help you. And, you know, he got in hot water, because it wasn't directly related to his sale, right. And it wasn't him achieving the number for the month. But I mean, sure, shooting, that guy is going to be a memorable resource for everybody, he touched there. And, you know, I think that is something that we can be blinded by sometimes when we feel so pressured with quotas with getting on that stage every January. And, and forgetting what this is all about in the first place.
Jessica Zampedri 21:41
And I think coupled with that, like I see it all the time, the managers that are in that situation, they're also the ones that are a very old school, they got to walk into offices, like they could just walk in and talk to the office manager. And it's detrimental to the new individuals coming in, because the industry was built on what I call stalking, and access. Like when I first started, like, my manager is on like, distributors were like to us just sneak into the or, like, just sneak into the hospital, like just stand by there and like just essentially like wait for this surgeon or like stand outside by the parking lot. Yeah, and it, it just seems like a horrible way to do sales, like your your entire sales is gonna be like around stalking, right. And then I realized too, that like, not only was that their furlough in, they could really walk into offices, because that was the time. But it was also coupled with the fact that a lot of them got into the business, and we're giving a book of business, they were given these surgeons, and you had to grow those surgeons. But if you ask them to sell from a completely an utterly new, clean state of territory, many of them couldn't. And so then you get into like, issues because you're like, Well, how do I sell new because if your methods aren't working, and you've never really even newly sold, then you also don't see the incredible value of someone doing like the individual that you just talked about, like there's a huge value in that for future sales. But if it's almost like that, like healthcare so bad, because we love the saying it like we've always done it this way. Right? I think that saying is very huge in med tech as well.
Claire Davis 23:46
Yeah. So if you had to say, Okay, we're going to try this fresh sale, we're going to we're going to freshen up the approach, we're no longer going to rely on poaching, talk to yourself inside those swinging doors, right? And listen, I remember those days, and oh my gosh, it was before they implemented like rap tracks and VCs and all those programs to kind of see where everybody was at. And it was sort of like a, you know, you just you just find any opportunity that there was in fact, I remember a gentleman I worked with at one point and he would join the gyms where he knew his physicians worked out I was like, a famous nothing crazier approach guy. But listen, I mean, that was That's the deal. It's it's extremely competitive. You know, things that are high ticket often are and it can get in the way of making smart decisions, balanced decision, fresh approaches, using fresh approaches, that really would make you more successful long term. You know, so, so what's the first thing people should do? You know, anybody listening here who's thinking Okay, I'm going to try this ecosystem approach. They can go in and be an incredible listener, right? Like your your friend who is becoming an incredible observer and the or What's something else that you'd recommend people try?
Jessica Zampedri 25:15
I think we have such an opportunity with like LinkedIn, LinkedIn has been a huge thing like digital sales process. Absolutely. It should be on the back of skills that you learn LinkedIn, like Omar has got a great great program for like LinkedIn Sales networking effect, Matthew has an amazing program for video email sales.
Claire Davis 25:33
So Jess, we were talking about the the other things people can do to tap into the kinds of selling you're talking about. So we started with listening and observing. And then you mentioned, Matthew Ray Scott, who's got his incredible video program, Omar with his sales programs as well. So what what other things should people be looking at?
Jessica Zampedri 25:55
I think the huge thing too, is as you grow linked, and you're gonna find these other key ecosystem partners that you can work with that are like 16 degrees to what everyone else is doing. And as you do that, you will realize that, like you have the influence to get those relationships and talk because you have the relationship capital. And so when you have the relationship capital, and then you're doing it on a value based thing, that opens the door, to then get either a referral partner or just like another key in this ecosystem, have someone that you trust to then bring into the surgeon's office to Claire Davis 26:41 what are some partnerships that you've seen work really well for you?
Jessica Zampedri 26:46
Over the years, I'm so used to be like biologics. Now, the hardware guys that I have also have biologics DME is a huge one, like racing bone stems, or all other key components, our CM, so revenue cycle management company is law firms, because if you're in a state that has personal injury, or workman's comp, they're gonna be using attorneys. And so helping broad that revenue, revenue or referral source is also huge. And then you get like these out of the box solutions, you have so many things that are trying to make healthcare better. So like, I've just partnered with provato health. So they're a smart ASE management company, where they're completely kind of changing that space, or marketing. physicians offices usually are awful at marketing and this kind of new way. And it's interesting, because I think it's twofold. We had an industry that kind of, like, they would just upgrade someone from the office to handle marketing. So like if skills weren't there, and then they kind of just had a bunch of outside marketers kind of sell them this huge bill of lies or like marketing lingo, it's never actually revenue generated, coupled with you've actually have federal laws that make it so that you can't just give a commission based on the patients that come in. And so like you have this landscape, so also, like marketing partners that actually specialize in physicians offices are huge. And just all of those key components are so much like key to the, to the whole playing field.
Claire Davis 28:36
I, you know, I was just talking to Seth turned off about that. And, you know, one of the things we always joked about was when I was in marketing for health care, it's exactly as you described, okay. And it's not that we were trying to be slimy and unreal about expectations, but there was really not a way that you were able to track the billboard on i 80, East to how many people walked in the door.
Jessica Zampedri 29:07
So I really got into SEOs. And like I joke now where I know just enough to be dangerous about it. And everyone is going to be using this same SEO. So it's really a who's paying more money that month for it, because it's not like we have 50 variations of the word orthopedic or a certain surgery that patients are actually going to find and look for where it's it's similar or they don't even know that they're all of these clicks from their website. 90% of them are from India, and they don't do international surgeries. So there's so many things there that when you spend time in the practice and the O R, you will naturally find issues and problems and then the then next step should be like you figuring out if there's already a solution for it, because a lot of the times, there could be, they just don't know about it, or they
Claire Davis 30:09
they just don't know about it, or they don't have time to go explore modern marketing methods, you know, we, we were very close to the heart practices out here in in the Spokane area. And oftentimes when we see, you know, transplants, they were flying all the way from Montana, to Washington, you way out, you know, they were going all the way out to Seattle, we have a transplant program right here in town, which is would literally cut that lifeline in half, you know, but the marketing isn't there. And so the referring physicians don't know. And the physicians who do the transplants aren't able, with the time that they're allotted with the massive influx of people right now, coming to the hospital for them to go build those referring relationships. So I love the I love how you're empowering people who are in the situation with their providers, to be observers, and to get curious, because I don't think and you know, if you're listening, and you're, you're like, Claire, you're crazy, like, yes, we already do this, let me know. But I didn't feel when I was in the field in or that it was my place to support the health system or the business of my physicians, I was focused on my number, because that's where I was making my paycheck to pay my mortgage. So I love that you're empowering people to have this broader effect in business. Yeah.
Jessica Zampedri 31:41
And I think like, it gets a lot easier when you're independent. Like, it's scary. But you're you had to, there's so much more leeway, and you being able to really do what's right for your surgeon versus what's good on a piece of paper for corporate.
Claire Davis 32:00
Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's powerful. And it's, you know, it's it's refreshing to, because I think what you're doing is bringing the future of healthcare to now. And I'm excited to see some of these partnerships forming in what you're doing. So tell us a little bit about, you know, if someone wants to get in touch with you today, or if they want to want to hear more about I know, you've got your podcast with Becky Wolf, who's also an amazing powerhouse woman in this space. So what else are you working on? And where can people connect with you?
Jessica Zampedri 32:33
Yeah, so one of the huge things that I'm doing with Calgary law is we're trying to figure out like how we bring influence mastery into surgeons. So we're building out things in that arena, and just looking at like leadership, and surgeons and communication and all of these things. So that's something that I'm working on, just looking at how to support the surgeon, past just pieces that like you can financially benefit on, but like truly solving a system because I think they are in the best position to change healthcare if we actually gave them the skills that they need. And so that's a huge one. And then as far as contacting me, LinkedIn is probably the best and easiest source.
Claire Davis 33:16
Awesome, well dressed. I can't thank you enough for being here with me today. I love what you're doing in this space. And I think that, you know, when you meet when when I first met you on LinkedIn, I thought there's a woman who's starting a movement, and I'm so thrilled to see where it takes you and where it takes the rest of healthcare. So this is awesome. Thank you for spending time with us today. If you guys haven't yet, please follow connect with Jess, check out what she's doing online. Help her help us be a part of the movement of changing and fixing health care for good. And until next time. Have a wonderful day. Thanks for joining us.
Jessica Zampedri 33:53
Thank you Claire.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
