How to Avoid the "Blame Game" Between Medtech Sales and Marketing with Danielle D'Amico, Regional Manager at Stryker

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket and so excited to be doing this series

[00:00:07] on Mettech, Sales Excellence. Today I have the pleasure of having Danielle D'Amico on the

[00:00:15] podcast. She is a Mettech sales and marketing leader and she serves as an accomplished regional

[00:00:21] manager at Striker with experience leading both sales and marketing teams to deliver

[00:00:26] market leading growth. She's known for her intense focus on finding and developing talent

[00:00:32] as well as challenging her high performing teams to take roads less traveled. She is an

[00:00:37] incredible leader in this space and I'm excited to have her here Danielle, welcome to the

[00:00:41] podcast.

[00:00:42] Thanks so much for having me Saul looking forward to being here. It's a true pleasure.

[00:00:46] So Danielle you have an interesting perspective first starting out and marketing then moving

[00:00:50] into sales. Tell me about that. First of all I'm so appreciative that I've gotten the

[00:00:54] opportunity to do both and I'd recommend anybody listening that is interested to be a

[00:00:58] commercial leader in their organization to take advantage of putting yourself in the

[00:01:03] situation to do a sales and marketing role at some point in your career. Marketing, you

[00:01:07] know if I can be really short suite about it, marketing gave me the breath and I think

[00:01:12] sales provides the depth and what I mean by that Saul and I'm curious because I know

[00:01:16] you've been involved as well. You're great but marketing I think it really facilitates a global

[00:01:22] perspective of the industry, the who, the what, the where, the how and as well as obviously

[00:01:28] understanding everything and every one that goes into bringing a product to market which

[00:01:34] gosh there is a lot that goes into it. And then sales really afford the opportunity

[00:01:39] to run your own business finding talent, growing different markets, managing health systems,

[00:01:46] relationships and contracts and you know the intimacy that you get with your customers

[00:01:50] in the trenches. I think there's just you know like I said both roles provide such a unique

[00:01:54] perspective that really help influence kind of how you navigate and lead within whichever

[00:02:00] function it's worth doing both. Love it. I couldn't agree with you more Danel

[00:02:04] I love the way you summarize it so well. There's a common like misunderstanding between

[00:02:10] the two sometimes friction what are some of the challenges you've seen with marketing

[00:02:14] and sales working together. Yeah it's a good question for slow one can't happen, one can be

[00:02:20] successful yeah the other one right so the goal with any relationship both personally and professionally

[00:02:27] to me is communication and trust it really comes down to those things and in marketing a great way

[00:02:33] to build trust especially with sales people is by adding value and oftentimes that comes via data

[00:02:40] so data integrity becomes really an absolute necessity and as I think back on my years

[00:02:47] in marketing I think anybody that has been in marketing long enough has the example or experience

[00:02:54] of sitting down with sales leaders so excited to add value to a business review or present targets

[00:03:00] for a new product and they throw off the data. And the first thing we do is sales leaders

[00:03:05] say well that's wrong and here's one very very critical data and in that point in the relationship

[00:03:13] it can either really build trust and credibility or take steps backwards so it's absolutely critical

[00:03:18] in the process of building trust and communication to kind of be founded on strong data.

[00:03:23] Yeah for sure and so this relationship between the two functions is really key how would you

[00:03:30] what advice would you give for folks on how to create a collaborative culture between both

[00:03:35] sales and marketing. I hate to be repetitive with the trusted communication but it really goes

[00:03:39] back to that doesn't it I mean it does one it's it's important to recognize that we'll work

[00:03:45] towards the same goals right you mentioned the friction that can happen with the groups we're all

[00:03:49] doing it really trying to achieve the same goal and we're also here to provide resources to help

[00:03:54] each other be successful so when I think about marketing that is what is that it's communicating

[00:04:00] market movement reporting targeting lead generation helping us continue to gain perspective

[00:04:06] nationally globally because you are so hyper focused in a sales role and then for sales that's

[00:04:12] communicating grow strategies back into the organization for your markets to help inform things

[00:04:18] like demand planning. Game faster ROI is on new product launches and ultimately I know I might come

[00:04:24] maybe we do a big part in helping identify portfolio gaps from the field so there's a lot of

[00:04:30] resources that both organizations can help bring each other that will continue to build that trust

[00:04:35] and communication beams we're talking about here so I think people focus on that it's a really great

[00:04:40] kind of starting spot. Yeah no I love that and there's different functions and I gotta tell you

[00:04:45] I've been you know in sales my entire career marketing probably the last seven years

[00:04:52] and I at one point kind of made the realization that I honestly think both of them are really important

[00:04:59] but I'd say marketing is more important. Nice contribution. What would you say marketing

[00:05:07] or sales which one's more important? In a sales ring now so I can argue both I'll be honest

[00:05:14] and I know that's a cop out but it could totally argue both. I'm just saying it to stir the pot Daniel

[00:05:19] but both of them are critical and it's about finding that balance and having worn the hat on both

[00:05:24] you really provide some great perspective so how does data really help solve some of the

[00:05:29] challenges that exist between the two. Yeah I know I mentioned data integrity before

[00:05:35] and I mean that's a general challenge across health care nonetheless medical tech right so

[00:05:40] it's something we're all trying to wrap our arms around but it is absolutely critical and it can

[00:05:46] propel business plans nonetheless cross-evisional partnerships forward or it can stop you in your

[00:05:52] track so I think the need for that and utilizing platforms frankly like a Q&D really helps kind of set

[00:05:59] the standard for a common language and common platform to be able to build upon. Well that

[00:06:04] no I appreciate that very much and it is right the data that helps you make insights to target the

[00:06:09] right physicians right hospitals couldn't agree with you more and as you think about ways that sales

[00:06:16] and marketing leaders can partner better for faster growth what takeaways would you share with

[00:06:21] them here. So I would say to grow faster it would be identifying and communicating that common goal

[00:06:28] because you are working towards the same thing so I think being intentional about defining what

[00:06:33] that goal is and then how you're planning to achieve it together is important there are roles

[00:06:39] you know and different responsibilities for sales and marketing there's a place for every I

[00:06:44] can find it and we need everybody to help so I think just kind of setting those not necessarily

[00:06:48] boundaries but communicating the intent upfront really really helps and then from there it's building

[00:06:54] a common language it's mean we talked a little bit about data here today to me it's leveraging data

[00:07:00] really from a common platform that you can both both parties can bless and appreciate

[00:07:05] and then move forward so it's not the data war of well I got this from this source and you've got

[00:07:10] this from this and the numbers are off for the whatever right so I think if you can kind of build

[00:07:15] a common playbook together it's going to just help drive collaboration upfront and then ultimately

[00:07:20] accelerate your growth in the marketplace. That's fantastic now I really couldn't agree with you

[00:07:25] more as folks listening today are looking for ways to make that collaboration stronger let's take a

[00:07:31] note from Danielle today let's look at the data and let's look at the commonalities that we have in our

[00:07:38] mission as a team in both sales and marketing and it's just the beginning right start there

[00:07:44] and skies limit if people wanted to reach out to you Danielle and learn more about what you're doing

[00:07:50] how you're doing it where can they connect with you to learn more. Yeah LinkedIn it's probably

[00:07:54] in this place in lieu of providing my cell phone. I'm happy to you know connect with anyone that's

[00:08:03] whether struggling to kind of make that collaborative partnership happen within your organization

[00:08:08] or has tips that they wouldn't mind sharing with me I'd love to listen. Well folks we will leave

[00:08:14] Danielle's LinkedIn information in the show notes as well as the highlights of our conversation today

[00:08:20] Danielle really appreciate you jumping on the podcast with us so grateful you made the time.

[00:08:24] Yeah thanks so much for having me.