Increase your Visibility and Personal Brand
AI-Generated Transcript below. There may be errors.
Claire Davis 0:03
Okay, welcome back to another episode of today's medical sales leader. I'm your host, Claire Davis. And today I have someone phenomenal with me. I'm so looking forward. This has been in the works for a while. And if you haven't met him already, it's the one and only Omar khateeb. Omar, how are you doing today in that beautiful library of yours?
Omar Khateeb 0:24
I'm talking to Claire Davis. I mean, I couldn't be doing better. What a great intro. I appreciate it.
Claire Davis 0:29
Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited to have you on today. I absolutely love how you've just exploded onto the scene here in the last couple of years, specifically on social media, really trying to make an incredible dent in med tech. And you already are in record time. So if you don't mind, I'll introduce you. And then we can get into really a little bit of your journey and what you're up to today. Does that sound good?
Omar Khateeb 0:50
Yeah. Sounds good to me.
Claire Davis 0:53
All right. So Omar is the founder of khateeb. And Co, a company that helps med tech startups attract investors and grow sales pipelines using social media, and the state of med tech, the number one podcast in med tech. This is true based off a number of reviews, of course, and his incredible following and loyal fans on multiple social channels. And I'm absolutely thrilled. Because not only does he have this incredible mission of making this med tech splash. But Omar has actually made an incredible transition in his career, starting with medical school to what he's doing now. So Omar, can you give for those who haven't met you yet? Can you give him just a little bit of a background on where you were initially planning on starting your career and sort of the journey to how you've gotten here today?
Omar Khateeb 1:40
Yeah, no, absolutely. So I was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. And you know, I have a father who's a who's a general surgeon, private practice, I really looked up and admired my father. And, you know, I grew up at a time where like, being a surgeon was like a big deal, right? And so I wanted to be a surgeon did all the things. And just to be clear, like, I literally went to medical school, some people will say I was in medical school, and then you find it like, No, you're just pre med in college. But I went to medical school in Texas at Texas Tech University, I was on a full scholarship, academic scholarship. And about halfway through, I just realized it was not for me. And I think this is the one thing I tell people in their careers is that, you know, here in the West, we get too hooked up on like, objectivity and data and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, which is fine. But I think we've gotten farther away from like, listening to our gut, or intuition, which is very subtle. It's not driven by ego never gives you the details. It's very scary to follow it. Right. And so when I was in medical school, like, I just got this feeling like, it was like a very subtle nudge, like, You shouldn't be here. And I remember I would bury that voice under like, no, no, no, no, no, because we get scared when we hear that, right. And, and so, you know, long story short, I sat down with my Father one night, and, you know, it was it was a multiple conversation, I talked to him. And I was like, this is how I'm feeling. And I, you know, it was a dream, like, you know, just to just to put people in perspective of how hard you know, first to get into med school, it's like, point 5% of people get in, I struggled with the MCAT. But because of my schoolwork of research, a variety of things, not only did I get in, I got pre accepted, I got full squat. So it's like almost like a rags to riches story. I did all this, and then like, a couple years, and it's like, oh, no, this, this may not be for me. So my father told me, you know, like, look, it's only gonna get more difficult if you feel like this now, like, you're gonna be miserable, and you're gonna make a terrible, terrible physician, you're not gonna help anybody. And so, I left medical school without a plan. That's number one, which I want to tell people, which is sometimes, you know, it's, it's sometimes it's better to have a plan. Like if you're in a lousy job, it's always better to go job searching and transition when you have the job. But you know what life is short. And sometimes, sometimes the best way to learn how to swim is to just jump in the water, and you'll figure it out on the way. And it's very scary to say that, but, you know, when I left, it was like a huge weight lifted off my chest, like huge weight. I mean, I was, you know, I was depressed when I left because I didn't know what to do. I had some anxiety because like, I hate using the word anxiety, but like, my whole identity was built around. I'm going to be a doctor for like, 10 years. That's like, built in my head. And now it's like that, that identity is gone. Right? So it's so so I had no idea. But this idea of the new thing was very liberating is very empowering. Right? And I'd say I went through the exact same process, although I was much more prepared. A year and a half ago when I decided, yeah, you know what, I think I'm done working for other people. And I'm, I feel ready to become an entrepreneur, even though I just like back 1015 years ago, I didn't know, you know what to do when I left school, when I left the corporate world, I had no idea how to make money. I had no idea what my business is gonna be. I just said one day, okay, I'm going to be an entrepreneur. How am I going to make money? Because rents rents do an excellent I live in Southern California and cheap here had a pregnant wife at the time. Anyway, I kind of you know, told that whole thing just to say that, to really encourage people to get in touch and pay attention to their intuition. And the best way to practice your intuition is every single week with little things like, you know, maybe walk into a store and just say like, which way should I go and just kind of fill your fill that out? Or if somebody says, Hey, you want to do this, you want to come to this party? Just answer based on how you feel. Don't even think about it. So that way, you practice things that don't matter. So that when the big things come up, then you make the right decision.
Claire Davis 6:07
I love that this conversation is going this way. Honestly, Omar
Omar Khateeb 6:10
Yeah, most people don't expect that kind of answer when they asked me this question, but I spent almost 10 years really studying and reflecting and analyzing what happened.
Claire Davis 6:20
Right? Well, and you know, probably there was a bit of pressure from you not wanting to disappoint your family like your dad was the surgeon and I mean, there's some pride and was their pride there to where you Yeah, carry on the tradition.
Omar Khateeb 6:33
Yeah, there I had in my mind that we kind of talked like I would you know, become a surgeon Navy flowers and Jen sirs, maybe we we practice together like do surgery because there's like some father son, Duo's like in practice, you know, there's like this whole thing built up, not to mention, like, the community pressure, like I wasn't even vocal paper there, like all, all the all the persuasion needed to prevent me from making that decision. And I think that's the most important thing about, I think, being in business or so the more you understand persuasion, or psychology, the more you understand why you make decisions, why you don't make it, and then at that point, anything's possible in this world. You know, I'm
Claire Davis 7:14
so glad you mentioned that. And it's true. And what I find, at least from the career space, is that often we don't give ourselves that credit of trusting our intuition. Even when things go really bad. I was just sharing a story today on LinkedIn, where there was a there was a company, unfortunately, that had cut commission and also had essentially de incentivize, you know, dissent, advise their their workers, and then said, Oh, nope, in six months, you'll get a raise, but then also took away any overtime pay. So in the end, it was a pay cut. Yet, a lot of these folks don't feel comfortable to make a move. Because in their mind, it's, I've prepared for this, I've studied for this, I'm practicing. Finally, right, I've got my own practice. And they, they took a while to really get comfortable with the idea that they deserve more, and that it is scary, but absolutely worth following your gut. So I really like what you're saying about this. So you know, for for so walking into the grocery store, right? Do I turn right? Do I turn left saying which which party? Do we want to go to? Maybe we're not feeling it that night? What are some? Do you see any other sort of tangible ways that people can evaluate what that next step is going to look? Like? I feel like most people probably result to a like a pros and cons kind of list.
Omar Khateeb 8:40
Yeah. And I know, I don't like pros and cons. Because you're you're you're still biasing yourself. Right? You know, what I? I think that, you know, the whole idea of intuition is getting is and this is like part of sales, which is like, really developing the skill of curiosity, right? And really digging in to get to the source of truth. You know, sometimes when it comes to following your intuition, like, I'll have conversations with people, and sometimes you need somebody to tell you like, Oh, this is exactly what you should do. Great. But a lot of times when you're in the in a in a moment of discovery, all you're just trying to do is get exposure to ideas. And sometimes when I tell and I got to credit him because I've been using a lot, Todd Zog who's really well known sales, sales trainer and in our industry and everything. When I first reached out to him, I was getting some advice from him. And he and he told me something great. He's like, look, I have no advice to give you but I have a lot of ideas. And I think that's, I think, yeah, I think that's what people should be looking for sometimes is that sometimes the best person to decide what you should do is you right, and especially in the world today, like soft like 1020 years ago, like the world in the market is changing so fast. It's it's tough to actually know what's going on happens sometimes, like, getting the ideas of what direction you should go like, you're better off going in the right direction really slowly then in the wrong direction fast.
Claire Davis 10:10
Yeah, brilliantly said and you know, it's funny because often when someone comes to attraction resume so you guys out there you know we have we write resumes for medical sales professionals. Usually the conversation goes something like this. Hey, Claire, what do I have to do on my resume to get this job that I want?
Omar Khateeb 10:28
Yeah, you're looking for like a little shortcut? Like the one thing? Yeah. And it just, that's just not the world we live in?
Claire Davis 10:34
No, it there's no tip or trick. It's specific to what you want. Next, it's specific to your individual path and what you're bringing forward. So I always surprise, I think I surprise a lot of people when my first reaction is, well, what is it you want to do? Because sometimes they don't even believe that that is what we can go after. They think like, well, what who would settle for me? Who, yeah, who would take a chance on me right now? But I'm like, no, no, no, let's back up. Because you have a ton to offer. It's what you want. And that intention is incredibly powerful, toward getting what you do what?
Omar Khateeb 11:12
Absolutely. And like, yeah, you know, I'll say something like, I'm a big proponent, I learned this, fortunately. I mean, I feel like I've learned or too late, but not too I learned it later than I should have, but early enough that I benefited so but I really encourage people like work with professionals, like you and your in your company are professionals that packaging individuals essentially, right? Yeah. And like between the resume the interview and everything, like you're essentially creating a package like a wrapper for the product. And so I think that's really important, just like, Who do you want to be? Because that's the package we have to create. And again, like, could someone go and figure this out on their own? Probably the problem with that is that when you're doing this on your own, even myself, as much as I meditate, I do mindset stuff, obviously, I still spend money on coaches or surgeon, everything because I need somebody objectively to help me manage my own personal biases, and helped me figure out the direction I need to go. Like, even now I'm an entrepreneur, there is a service I pay where every week, I'm reporting to somebody that my projects for the week, and we talk about why am I doing those things, because when you just sit and try and do it yourself, like, you know, all kinds of things come up, you bias yourself the wrong way. And so you need somebody to kind of objectively stand back and kind of help you create that wrapper of who you want to be, and then say, Great, this is how you go sell that, that product to all these other people. Right?
Claire Davis 12:40
You know, exactly, that's such a perfect way to put it. The I love that packaging piece, it is about creating the brand, right. And I think that something that's been, at least in the last five years and incredible shift in the medical sales industry. And I'm sure everybody listening here, especially if you're on LinkedIn today, you are definitely seeing this in the marketplace is that it's becoming more important than ever to have a personal brand. And that's one thing I do I think that you do exceptionally well. So can you talk a little bit about from your perspective, how the market has evolved, and now required people to become greater than a commodity in this business? Because as we'd like to say, you know, you are a category of one, all it takes is great branding. But otherwise, you know, I think the moniker is if you can sell one thing, you can sell anything. But the thing is, actually, when you're known for something specific, like the incredible brand that you've built, Omar, it's it's like it'll catch fire for you. So can you talk on what you've seen?
Omar Khateeb 13:47
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And just to kind of prep prime this because, you know, people hear about the importance of having, let's say, an online presence and all this. I'm going to take it from a literally a page from this book that I'm going through. If you're interested in venture capital, there's one book you should get, and it's more of a textbook, but it's Hendre, Rama Ram Singh, or I'm seeing harneys, which is the business of venture capital, and so on getting into venture capital, right, there's Who is David Cowen, who is one of the VCs out of Silicon Valley, so we're talking about getting into venture capital, right? He even says, I'm reading from here during the Cold calling a venture capital firm rarely works, especially in the modern day. I don't think that approach will work today, the business is much more complex and competitive, warns David, what might work is a web print presence. And then they go on to explain that like Union Square Ventures and a few others, like they don't even take resumes. Their thing is just like have a web presence, meaning anything we can go visit via URL, LinkedIn, profile, blog, etc. Right? So like, if that's what it takes to become a venture capitalist, like, it's going to be the same for so many other things. Right. You know, and so, I think You know, the human brain was never designed to separate things, right? Like the human brain hasn't evolved in 1000s and 1000s of years. So like the digital world that we communicate and work through versus the physical, it's all the same thing. Similarly, all of us have been influenced by by Amazon and COPPA, specifically Amazon. So if we're going to buy something, let's say like, for me, I bought a lint actually is a great extent, I bought a lint roller a few months ago, like lint roller, it's just a lint roller, Claire. But when I went on Amazon, here's what when it's my decision. I'm like, how many reviews? Does a top lint roller have? How many like what pictures are there, like media, because different things of persuasion that persuade me so for me, I just want to see lots of reviews. And like a few pictures, some people want to see like videos of P other people using it at cetera. But all of those points of persuasion are on one page. And people make those kinds of decisions 235 10 times a day, as consumers, do you really think that that let's say hiring manager becomes a completely different person consciously when they start evaluating people via resumes or LinkedIn, it's the same thing, which means if they land on your LinkedIn profile, right, is like nothing there. That's not persuasive. Right? On, you know, on the on the other side of it, like, Okay, why is it that we put we want to have like, you know, big numbers, this is all points of persuasion. Right. And so I think the importance of having a web presence is that why not have that persuasion done? Right? The moment somebody goes, visits, your LinkedIn profile versus you having to apply, you send in the resume, hopefully, they look at it, right. And again, like, those things are, are the same, right? So a lot of people, what they'll do is like, they'll spend money to get, you know, help with a resume. And that's not think about how do you translate that onto LinkedIn, I'm like, Well, you have to do all this work, still to get this thing that you paid money for on somebody's desk that needs to be translated online. That's right. You know, and again, like, you know, I feel like, the time that most people put a resume together is when they're looking for the job, which is the wrong time to do but if you do it at that point, you shouldn't be doing it on your own, you should be hiring somebody to help you with it. Because, you know, you can spend a lot of time figuring that on your own, but who, how long is that going to take you? Are you going to do the right things?
Claire Davis 17:32
You know, there reminds me of Batman
Omar Khateeb 17:34
I may have like, not answered your question directly. I think I want a tangent there. But you know, that's okay.
Claire Davis 17:38
That's how I love talking to you, you have a ton of insight here. And it's clear, because you become the king of visibility on LinkedIn in a field that
Omar Khateeb 17:48
I own that algorithm.
Claire Davis 17:50
I love it. And that's, that's so it's, it's, it's, it's an art. But you know, like any great marketing strategy, we can't go in it with just one tool in the toolbox. It can't just be your resume. Oh, yeah. It's got to be your networking, your LinkedIn, your cover letter, your outreach, it can't just be going into a physician's office to sell a product. And just hoping you're there on the clinic. Yeah.
Omar Khateeb 18:16
I mean, yeah, exactly. Look, I mean, I tell people, people don't want to hear this, but it's the truth. Like, look, if if XYZ random, like there's a there, what did I buy recently from Instagram, something from from my gym? It was like a $20 decision. Okay, that 20 Does dollar decision involved, like a lot of content, this company retargeted me with different ads, like it was a social proof ad showing like some fitness influencer using it, then there was like some other and finally about that's to make a $20 decision. Do you really think that you need just just a like a basic resume for $100,000 decision, which over the span of like three to five years? That's like a three to $500,000 decision. Right, right. Not to mention the impact on the business. So it's like the buying cycle is so much more complex. People have changed, the markets have changed, right? It's more, it's just more, everything's more competitive. You know?
Claire Davis 19:11
Yeah, so true. Okay. So speaking of that, something that's, you know, emerged now and is just still barely comforting to people who are trying to add these different things into their arsenal when they're looking and trying to get more visible for their career. Podcasting, podcast guesting. So can you talk a little bit about sort of how you have found this to be a really great, maybe visibility multiplier, or maybe if there is a threshold that you should reach before even going on a podcast? Can you talk to us a little bit about that?
Omar Khateeb 19:47
Yeah, no, definitely like what I would say, I'll use my like mentor from afar as advice, Seth Godin, which is like, pick yourself, like don't wait for other people pick yourself. And so I don't think There's, you know, some people, they have this like imposter syndrome, which is like, oh, I need to do a certain amount of things before I can go on a podcast, if somebody thinks you're good enough to be on their show, that's enough, right. And I would say also that you should, you should find ways to just, if you have a great story, if you think you can help people, you should find ways to make your way onto a podcast and share that story. I mean, believe it or not, like, on my own show, I'm more interested in interviewing, like younger reps who've, let's say, want a President's Club, or they, you know, they've hit their quota achiever for like, a couple years in a row. I'm more interested in interviewing those people than a lot of CEOs of companies, because those people have like, new and very tangible and practical advice. And I think that you never, we always take for granted the things that we know. And then we, you know, we don't think about how valuable it is like there's people who would pay money for that. Yes. That's, that's, that's the crazy thing. Right?
Claire Davis 21:01
Well, you mentioned earlier that the coaching that really has helped you, everyone, I think that was one of the most startling pieces of advice that I got early in my business was get a coach and I thought a coach like, Well, what exactly for and like, Will that really generate results. And by the way, these coaches are expensive, but every single time that I've hired somebody to coach me, in a certain area of my business for life, I've had 10x results. I know that's overused, but like, incredibly, incredible traction wherever I was trying to get it, because I had that sort of spearfishing mentality. Like, let's, let's, let's execute that thing. And the one that you reminded me of was, I hired a coach for video, and she was, I'm gonna guess, 10 years younger than I was. And it was so refreshing because her approach was, like, none other that I had ever heard. And it was so fresh, and she was up to date on all these things I was missing. So I love that you're, you're highlighting these people who are early in their career, because often, they haven't had the chance to go to their 20, you know, NSM and learn sales strategy that they will only use and it's just baked in. And that's how they'll always do it. They're still creating and in and creating their own way. I think that's really powerful.
Omar Khateeb 22:27
Yeah, and I think I mean, I hate to say so our industry, like every industry takes on the psychology of their customer. And the psychology of our customer in this industry, let's just say specifically surgeons that most surgeons have pretty big egos. They think they know everything. Right? And understandably. So, I mean, if I have somebody operating on me, I don't want a surgeon who doesn't have confidence I want like, in some ways, I want a surgeon with a god complex. Yeah. Cuz like, I don't want them second guessing themselves. But then our industry kind of takes that on. And I see too often where like, it's usually senior leaders, where because of somebody's age, or experience or whatever, they they devalue that advice, you know, or they're like, Oh, what am I going to learn? Right? And I think it's just such a mistake. And it's funny, because like, I've dealt with senior leaders like that. And on the on the same token, I have leaders like, like Joseph Othman, who is a legend coming out of Intuitive Surgical. I mean, I The list goes on of like high caliber individuals who have sought me out for advice and paid me for engagements, because they're like, you like, this is something I don't know. And you're good at this. I need help. Right? I think, you know, the age thing, the experience, all the matters is results. All the matters are so like, I'll give you a great example. Since when is it? I hope you can you hear my kid in the background? I hope you can't hear?
Claire Davis 23:57
I can't now. Okay, great, right? Oh, perfect.
Omar Khateeb 24:01
Yeah, I have my I have Yeah, as long as you can hear this. So I'll give you an example. Just again, because I like to use these examples with people can really have tangible things. Since August of last year, I pay $1,500 a month for this group that I'm a part of the group gives me access to this library of content that I rarely use a telegram messaging app where we're all in there in a group. Every Saturday, we have a call and there's a certain topic covered and then there's one on ones with the main guy and then we have a quarterly mastermind, okay, okay. The only thing I use this group for is those Saturday calls, which a lot of them are just like, questions to the main guy and then I go I fly to Miami for the in person event. The guy who runs this is 28 years old. He's almost 10 years younger than me. Okay? But you know what? Very simply put, he's made more money than me. And he's been doing it for a lot longer. Yeah, that's that that's enough for me like, yeah, I should listen to this guy. And a lot of times people are like, man, you're paying 1500 bucks a month is like, what do you get out of it? A lot of times, some there's some some very tangible things I've been able to apply to my business. A lot of times it's, it's the energy. Sometimes it's worth paying money. I think actually, oftentimes, it's worth paying money to get your mindset and energy changed. So you can take radical bold action, confidently. Right. Right. That's, that's the thing. It's like, if you're gonna go fight, like if you're gonna physically fight somebody, right? And you keep getting your butt whooped. Right to take a turn. Yeah. Like, wouldn't you? I mean, aside from learning, let's say the tactics and strategies of how to fight the stance, everything. Don't you also want a coach who's going to kind of instill some confidence in you, and kind of like hype you up. Like, if you think about the great coaches in football and sports, everything. Yeah, it's their strategy and tactics. But a lot of those they instill this level cops like custom motto with Mike Tyson from the time that like he was super, if anything, the thing that costed for for for Mike wasn't just a strategy and coaching he was a boxer is that he literally instilled in us that he's like, You are a world champion from the age of age of 16. And by the time he's 18 years old, he's world champion, youngest world champion ever. Right? That's worth money. Yeah, a lot of times, you know, and I'll just say this one analogy, and I'll, we'll kind of move on. But I tell people, whether it's whether I'm getting coached, or I'm helping somebody right coaching, advising, where you want to call, it's kind of like you're in in your mind, there's a dark room, you're trying to find a light switch, you cannot find it, the coach is going to help guide you, right? To flip on that light switch. And the sooner you find that switch, you're gonna flip it on your car, you're gonna see books, you're gonna see all these things that have always been there. Maybe you'll find that light switch. But because you're distracted by all these different things in your life, like it might take you years, decades, right? That's how I like to think about coaching and advising.
Claire Davis 27:11
Yeah, well, I know. I can't I can't stop thinking now about like the Elan and Zuckerberg match coming up. I'm wondering what George St. Pierre has,
Omar Khateeb 27:21
I hope that I hope that actually happens seriously, like at this, there's so much hype. Now that has to happen.
Claire Davis 27:28
I think it's a it's now movement, we're all going to demand it. So I think that's a really great point about the the guide, right? So if you I know one of the things that you're passionate about, that I really like is that you're helping people in med tech to leverage social media to really make inroads with their customer and do it in this new and fresh and approachable way. So when it comes to selling with technology, or social media, there are a lot of different kinds of coaches and different kinds of areas for growth there. So if somebody is ground floor, they've just, you know, say they're say they're a rep, and they've been coached through consultative selling, hopefully, maybe even challenger selling, who knows. And they're like, Okay, Omar, but where do I start? Like, who was the coach that I need? First? Where would you send them? Well,
Omar Khateeb 28:22
I mean, I'm biased, I would send it to myself. So and here's, here's the, I'll tell you, I'll tell you the reason why. I wish I wish there's other people that I could recommend, but I can at the end, the reason why is that this is such a new thing that most people haven't spent the years that I've put in and the gotten the data quantitative and qualitative, to understand what works and what doesn't, right. You know, but I think like, you know, the probably the easiest place to start, I mean, if people go to my LinkedIn profile, there's a, there's a mini course that I have. And it's, I think it's discount if they just click the link that's on the top of my profile, they can they can get access to it. But, you know, I would, I would, personally, I would start there. And if anything, like, you know, there, there are ways to I think that every rep it's to their benefit to say, to try and understand what is it take to get a project implemented in my organization, and to get buy in and everything, you know, because those are other ways that I'm able to engage with people. You know, that being said, you know, outside of that, like you know, there's there's a lot of content like I on my own podcast or even on my on my instagram handle, which is a medical sales was called All hail medical sales. You know, you can get a lot of ideas from there. But what I would say is like, at the very least you can, you got to ask yourself, Okay, do I have access to my customers on a daily basis? No, weekly, maybe. Okay, where are they spending most of their time? A lot of them are spending more and more time on LinkedIn and Twitter is every physician on there absolutely not. But even if you don't have any of your customers, let's say on LinkedIn, there's still a significant amount of physicians in every single category, spending time on LinkedIn posting content cetera, use LinkedIn as a way to digest clinical content, learn about the latest things that are going on technologies, procedures, approaches, because then when you talk to your physicians, you have something else to talk about than just pitching your product. You have to think you know, that's the thing that people have to they, they there's an art and science behind getting meetings and doing demos. And it shouldn't be just be about your product. We talked about consultative selling nobody, very few people actually do consultative selling in our, in our industry, it's more just pitching products. And so you have to think about it and say, well, this package of me Jane Doe, or Johnny doe, or whoever, how do I make this appealing enough that that surgeon even if they're happy with their product, they're like, Yeah, I'm going to spend 30 minutes with this person, because I know it'd be a good use of my time, because they're entertaining. The eye education, I'm gonna get something out of it, or they I know, they're gonna pitch my product, but I just want like, I think that'd be good use of my 30 minutes. That's what you have to get to. Because like, it's on rare occasion that you have just a killer app, a killer product that like people are just like, you know, dying to get a meeting with you. It's rare for that to happen. You know what I mean?
Claire Davis 31:26
Yep. I was talking to Rebecca Kenny, on a previous episode, if you guys want to check it out, I'll put it in the show notes. But I think it's in the teens. And, you know, she mentioned that there aren't a lot of fresh products being created, not as many as there could, but there are, there is a large number of MI two products. And I mean, for good reason and understanding the enterprise sale and how that works. That's great. But you're right. Sometimes it's really not enough to sell on product alone, it's got to either be a really deep understanding of what the pain points are out there. What is there a pain quotient big enough to make someone turn their head to what we have in our bag? Or are they going to want to do business with Omar? Because it's Omar? And of course they are? Because you put a time in there, you know?
Omar Khateeb 32:18
Yeah. And again, like, you know, you talked about the pain cushion, like to figure out the paints are dealing, you have to have a conversation with them. You have to and so like if they're not interesting, your products, how are you gonna have a conversation and like, you know, this is where these like, really cringy tactic comes up of like, stalking them in the cafeteria, or like, let me go talk to us. Like, you know, there was a time where selling it, the scrub sink would work. Because the doctor had enough leverage. So yeah, like, I'll let me use your stuff. Next case like it. Sometimes that works, but it really does. And so you got to think like, a little a lot more creatively of like, Where can I create those opportunities for discussion? And then again, what I tell reps all the time, like, okay, let's imagine you're you walk in the elevator, and the surgeon you're trying to sell to is there, the elevator gets stuck? Neither of you have Wi Fi? And so like, you're stuck together for like, three hours? Like, if they just start talking, are you going to just start talking about your product? No. So you got to think of something else interesting to talk about, to demonstrate your knowledge base, et cetera. And a lot of is like, like, there's no magic formula. Like I have people who's who apply for my course. And they want to like for my larger course, the medical sales narrative effects program, because they're thinking it's gonna be like this panacea, magic bullet? And I'm like, No, this is there's like, no magic bullet here. It's just, it's, it's a discipline of how do you keep yourself educated and enough, you know, knowledgeable enough that a surgeon looks at you as close to appear as possible. And they're willing to talk and open up and say, Yeah, you know, these are the pain points I have, this is what I want to do with my practice. And now you actually have some to sell through and now you know, like, how to actually convert them and change their behavior, you know, versus, you know, what does every rep do? They they finally get a meeting, mainly because the surgeon is just like, fed up was like, let me just take this meeting to get them, like, away from me. Yeah, they're gonna, they're gonna watch you pitch your product, you're gonna throw a bunch of stuff up on a slide, hope that something sticks, and then like, you're gonna keep pestering them afterwards, and they're gonna go Stu. Like, it doesn't work. So why why keep doing it? You know?
Claire Davis 34:29
Yeah, that's such a painful way to go. And, you know, in the end, people are people and they want to work with people they like and some of my favorites. Some of the favorite things I've heard from my reps, who, especially those who've gotten up to regional VP level, is that they'll say something like, you know, I've gotten to the point in my career where the surgeon is looking to me for answers in that moment, because we can all only know so much and so they trust when you When they've built that relationship enough, through being invested in these people as people, right, it takes taking people off a pedestal, investing enough and doing the research and getting to understand the clinical nature of what you're doing to a point where you can be an incredible asset in that or, and you can break out of this sort of, you know, slimy feel like I think, I think the the whole idea of the scrub sink, pouncing on people in the locker room, so on and so forth. I mean, it's a big transition, but it's a really important one. So, okay, so tell me this, if someone wants to find out about one of or all of your incredible programs, you mentioned a few of them today. Where should they go first?
Omar Khateeb 35:50
Yeah, and I actually just updated this. So used to be that you have to apply talk to me or one of one of my sales reps. And then you get into my program, I gotten to a point where I've kind of decided to sort of open up. And so if you go to my website, khateeb, and CO, that's kh ATEP is boy, a n d co.com. And look under the webinars, you know, you'll be able to watch a webinar and you're gonna learn a lot from the webinar. But right there, you can actually purchase, purchase a course. And for people who watch that webinar, I incentivize the behavior. So I actually have a discount add on there, just FYI. So that's one place, just go to my course, to my website, I think that's like the number one place to go and check it out. And then other than that, like, what would I really recommend to people to do is like, follow my podcast, the state of medtech. I mean, you there's, there's categories on there from venture capital investing, to leadership to sales. And then if you're a rep, and I just found a recently, a lot of VPS, follow me, which I was kind of surprised to hear, but like on my instagram handle all hell medical sales, which is really just sales, tips, and motivation and memes. So like a lot of memes. I post a lot of the stories there, I take questions, go follow me on there, you know, and I interact with people a lot, you know, awesome. So like, it's not, it's not hard to find me on the internet, you know?
Claire Davis 37:14
Good. And we in a way guys will for everybody listening today and watching. Thank you so much for joining us. I'll make sure that we link to everything Omar mentioned in the show notes to this episode that you could find those super easy because if there's one person to follow, to use as a in person or a foreign mentor, is that where you want a mentor? Mentor? Yeah, mentor from afar? Yeah, far. I like that. You know, it's definitely Omar. He's doing big things in this industry guys, and making it a lot of fun, too. I'm sure you can tell. So Omar, I'm so appreciative of the time. And hopefully we can do a round two here in the future. I know you have a ton to share, and new stuff coming out all the time. But we really appreciate you being with here being with us here today.
Omar Khateeb 37:57
Absolutely. Claire was such it's such a blast. I'd love to come back. And yeah, always appreciate what you're doing. And again, if your audience isn't doing already, like I do recommend that they follow your stuff, too. Because your content is great. I always learn from it. So I hope they're doing the same thing.
Claire Davis 38:11
Thank you so much. Hey, we've got to stick. We've got to stick together in this crazy industry. So thanks. Thank you so much. Thank you everybody for being here today. We so appreciate every single one of you who joined us for this episode. And if you have any questions, feel free to hit us up in the DMS and until next week, have a wonderful one. Thanks Omar.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai