Ep 217 Using LinkedIn for Medical Device Reps

Episode Notes:

Join me as I share some easy and important ideas around using LinkedIn to elevate your brand, increase your business and expand your network.  In today’s episode I’m sharing a portion of a recent presentation I did for our Northeast Region.  We discussed why using LinkedIn is important for your personal brand, learning more about your doctors, your competition and resources that will be helpful for you.

In This Episode:

• Core Values exercise 
• Career identity vs your job
• Physician usage of LinkedIn 
• Being a leader on LinkedIn 
• Omar Khateeb – www.khateebandco.com

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Episode Transcript: (Transcribed by OtterAi with minimal edits)

You are listening to the It’s Your Time podcast and I’m your host certified life coach Michelle Arnold Bourque and today’s episode I’m discussing using LinkedIn for your personal branding.

Welcome to the It’s Your time Podcast, the podcast, we’re busy professionals, like you get the practical solutions and support you need to gain control of your schedule. So you can strive to be the best in your career, but without the stress and overwhelm. If you’re looking to increase your energy and decrease your stress, you are in the right place.

Hello, hello, hello, welcome back to the podcast friend. How are you doing today, hopefully enjoying the holiday season, taking some time to really be present, not just running around looking for all of the presents, if you know what I mean. And because I know that you’re busy, I want to just go ahead and dive right into today’s topic. Because I was recently preparing a presentation for our Northeast team. And I thought, I think this can be super valuable to you the listener. So I’m going to go ahead and share what I presented to the team. Today I want to talk to you about the importance of using LinkedIn, your personal brand, I’m also going to be talking about connecting, engaging and posting on LinkedIn as well as how you can use it to your benefit when it comes to competition. So what I want to do is start talking first about why each little section is important for you. And then I’m going to dive in a little bit more. Now with that, it’s important to know that I am clearly not a LinkedIn expert. There are many folks who do that. And I will put a link in the notes of someone I know who specifically helps medical device reps grow their network through using LinkedIn. But for today, I really just want to kind of take a general big picture overview because what I noticed is there are not a ton of people that are consistently on LinkedIn. So let’s go ahead and dive into why it’s important for you. Number one, your personal brand recognition. Now this I want you to define as product you, your brand is based on you, right you being authentic, it’s your talent, it’s your unique qualities. And it’s what separates you from everyone else. And your brand recognition or your personal brand statement can change and grow and evolve as you move through your career. Some folks will say that they look at LinkedIn as almost similar to one of the conferences that you might attend for your organization. So really consider how it is that you want to show up. Now, it’s also important, we’ll be talking about connecting, engaging and posting. And this is a great opportunity for you to build your network. Now, especially since COVID. There are more restrictions to access to some of our accounts in our doctors. And this allows you to do your networking in a unique way. And you also can follow industry updates and engage as a thought leader, I also want to mention that there are a number of groups that you can become a member in and that can help to increase your credibility. Now regarding your physicians and your staff and your accounts, linked in again, will allow you unique opportunities for access when you’re able to stay up to date on what it is that they’re doing, and what’s important to them. And I will also say You know, there is research out there that talks about linked in being important to the providers as well, because number one, there is a restriction of access, which could ultimately mean restriction of some educational opportunities, sue the turn to LinkedIn to stay up to date. And also, with more of these larger, multi specialty practices that are coming in play, it really seems to challenge the doctors in what they want to show as their independence. So there are so many rules about what it is that they can and cannot do that are regulated by their corporations. Whereas if they turn to LinkedIn, they have a sense of independence and what it is that they’re able to display specific to them. And then lastly, when we’re talking about the competition, of course you can learn ways to either look at what it is that they are commenting, posting on perhaps it’s job openings within your territory. Maybe it’s connections with doctors that are posting In favor of them. Or if you see that the reps are posting something about the doctors performing the first insert whatever implant, right? It just allows you the opportunity to gain additional information as you move through your day. Now, I want to start with personal brand. And this is probably the one I’m going to spend the most time on, because I think you are the most important part of this equation. You are the product, right? So we’re talking about career identity versus job. What is your career identity? And I saw a post a couple of weeks ago from Adam Grant that I thought was just perfect. What do you want to be when you grew up, sends the wrong message about work, we should teach kids that who you are, is more than what job you do. Work is an activity. It doesn’t have to define your identity. And a healthy sense of self is rooted in character, not career choice. I love this work is an activity, it doesn’t have to define your identity, you know, who defines your identity? You. And the reason this is important, and this was advice that had been given to me years and years ago, is that it’s not only who you know, it’s who knows you. So when you are on LinkedIn, how is it that people know you, you are more than what you do for your job. So develop a brand statement that says that develop a brand statement based on your core values. Now, if we’re looking at career identity versus job, and you are the product, I want you to take a little bit of time and I will put this in the show notes, so that you can really get clear on what your core values are. It’s a very simple exercise, I will give you a list of core values. These are not limited for sure if you have other values that are important to you include those on your list. But what you want to do is start by checking off the words that best represent either principles or standards or qualities that you feel are important, and then narrowed them down to five. And oftentimes you can group like words and choose one that could encompass many. So for example, I have had learning knowledge, evolution, those could probably all fall under growth mindset, and then rank them in order of importance, because you need to know when you’re making your career decisions, what is most important to you. So for example, let’s say you have success, and integrity as your core values. And let’s say you receive a bribe, which could equal success, but it is not in integrity of your life, you need to know which one you are going to prioritize in that moment, right. And then integrate your values into your personal brand sentence. Now I want to just take a moment and also mention that doing this core values exercise is not only important for your personal brand statement, but it is important for any decisions that you are making along the way. Whether it be in your personal life, or in your professional life, it’s important to know what your core values are, which will help you make decisions, most likely even faster in life, when you know that it’s easy to make decisions. Now, there are a couple of examples that I did share with the group. It’s hard for you to see since you do not have the presentation in front of you, but it’s easy for me to just tell you regarding the personal brand statements. So I have an example of someone who is just listed as the Regional Business Director at their company. And then I have a doctor who is listed and this is a really excellent addition to the personal brand statement. She has her web page right on the top of her LinkedIn header. So it is still very professional as to where it is that she works. But there’s a little opportunity there for you to go and get to know her even better by clicking on that link. Now mine if you follow me on LinkedIn, which I sure hope you do, it’s under Michelle Arnold Berg. Mine says entrepreneurial minded leader and device sales mindset coach for women and device sales. Podcast hosts, it’s your time and founder of mindful waste coaching. Michelle Burke coaching, right sue that can Lend information about what is important to me. And then the last example I used, which I just love, and I may alter mine because of this, hers is listing her as a program manager of event experiences that get everyone talking a creative envelope pusher, obsessed with service work and giving back. She’s in medical education, an entrepreneur, a disc jockey, and a dog lover. Now that tells you a lot about who she is, and what is important to her. So take the time, and really look at what is important to you. And how can you frame that statement. So people get to know you a little bit better in a really quick way. Now, when we’re looking at examples to connect, or to engage, or to post, of course, you need to follow whatever the rules are, that your company has. But there are so many ways to be able to connect and grow your network and engage. So some folks will, as I mentioned earlier, post there are job opportunities. Or if there are conference appearances, I often see like meet me at booth 214, it gets the information out so that your network knows when and where it is that you will be. I love to personally use it also for professional development and recruiting. So I am part of an employee resource group that really helps to develop women leadership opportunities. And so I will always post and tag them. And then when possible, if we’re launching a new product, or if the doctor does the first implant in the state, I like to be able to post about that. With that though, you have to be really careful and sometimes work with the doctors legal and marketing team. It’s just a little extra step or two, but it’s an important one, especially if you’re showing patients in your post. Now, let’s move on to some of the examples for physician benefits. This might sound a little stalkerish, it’s really just a great way for you to be able to learn a little bit more about your doctor, either if they’re not using you, or if maybe it’s a new doctor that you’re looking to connect with. So I saw that one of our doctors who uses more of the competition, reposted something that talked about he liked it, and he reposted it. And it talked about productivity and mindset around employees. It gave me a little bit of insight as to what is important to him. We have another example of a doctor who was reposting her presentation that she did to educate doctors, right. So she’s building her thought leadership. And she is reposting mentioning some of the exciting, innovative things that are coming out from my company’s standpoint. So I don’t even have to post that she is posting what she has been able to use as increasing her thought leadership, and also helping to educate people within her network. And then there are of course, examples of when your doctor might post what their favorite procedure is. And yes, I do get a little disappointed if it is not my procedure, but it still gives me some insight as to what it is that he or she likes to do. And don’t forget the private messaging. That is an opportunity. If you do not have the doctor’s information to reach out and introduce yourself ask a question. In fact, I recently had to try to connect a couple of doctors did it through a personal message. And the doctor replied with not only his personal email, but his cell phone as well, because he said it was going to be much easier to connect with him that way. Again, think about how it is that you want to show up and begin to develop these relationships. Now. I mentioned that I was going to end with some examples for the competition and how you could also use it. I think it’s always fun to see when they are having maybe dinner programs locally. But not only when they have the dinner programs and then they post about how amazing it was. Listen, I do the same thing right we all post about how amazing our programs where but it’s fun to also look at who it was that commented on it. Who was there who liked the post and be We’ll to see like if there are shared connections of comments that are going on within those posts. And then of course, if another company is launching something, and there’s an announcement out, I like to just go take a peek and see, okay, who seemed to respond to this are the some of my doctors, is it something that I’ll have to be on the lookout for, of course, we know we should always be on the lookout for all of the Drs. But this is just a great opportunity to kind of get a quick hit and maybe prioritize when you’re looking at your strategy of how it is that you are going to combat anything that comes along the way. And then lastly, I just want to kind of bring it all together, because it’s important to know that there are also a ton of resources for you on Linked In. So I am going to post Omar’s information. And I believe it’s Omar Khateeb, he specifically helps medical device reps grow their pipeline without stepping into the hospital, which is probably a very interesting thing, because I for sure have to be in the hospital. But I like the concept of growing the network without that part of the job. Right? You’re able to do it via LinkedIn with his tips and tools. There are also opportunities to look at different groups that you can join in order to build your thought leadership, right how people are looking at you. So if you wanted to search neuromodulation, for example, that is my division, right or medical device, there are so many groups, if you want to look up pain management, whatever it is pharmaceutical sales, you have endless, endless opportunities to connect with people. And what I love also, is when I get a notification, so if I’m connected with somebody, for example, I recently received a notification that another coach was attending a conference on LinkedIn or a presentation on LinkedIn, I had no idea that the presentation was actually happening until I saw that she was attending him. So you can do the same and have the same benefit from maybe people within your network who are joining workshops, presentations, you know, something that is being delivered via LinkedIn. And we’ll offer you an opportunity not only for additional education, but maybe follow up with those doctors, or staff, whatever it is, whoever it is that you are joining the event with and have follow up conversations about what they thought seemed to stand out as important to them. It’s just such a great opportunity to be able to connect, to build your network. And to really get clear on how it is that you want to show up. I cannot say enough that your personal brand, again is not your job. And I think for so many folks, including myself, right? I really identify as my job, or I have in the past. And you are so much more than your job. Open up what is possible for you. And when you start looking at it from that filter, you will find so many more opportunities. And I found this really fun quote from John Quincy Adams. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more or become more, you are a leader. And I know if you’re listening, you are a leader. And I really want to encourage you to lead from here. So often I think people are afraid of LinkedIn and so they just don’t post. But when you lead from here, knowing that your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more or become more and not from fear so much more as possible, not only for you, but for the ones that you’re inspiring as well. Okay, friends, that’s what I have for you today. Hopefully you found some benefit in that I always say take what works leave what doesn’t if you even just implement the first part of this podcast, find your core values, you will be much further ahead than anyone around you. All right, that’s what I have for you today.
Let’s circle back next week but for now, make it a great day. Take care
Did you know you can take this work to a deeper level with me one on one. Go to Michellebourquecoaching.com and click on get started to begin