Latest / Selling AI / Selling Into Domains Where You're Not the Expert, Yet
Transcript
- Warren Kucker: Hey there and welcome to another episode of Selling AI. Today I'm talking with Cash Monasteyn, Enterprise Account Executive at AcuityMD. AcuityMD is an intelligence platform built specifically for medtech commercial teams. Cash has been selling complex data and AI software for several years now across companies like Domo, Taxbit, and now Acuity, where he recently made the jump from mid-market to enterprise, which is a big, leap. What pumps me up about this conversation is that Cash isn't really a generic SaaS seller. He's one. selling into a very specialized domain expert buyer base out there. MedTech commercial leaders really know their space and they know their world cold. It's hard to sell to them. today we're gonna get into how he builds credibility with those buyers, how he runs complex deals, and what he's actually doing with AI in his own process and how he's selling his AI tools. All right, Cash, let's get into it. Thanks so much for being on the show. Cash Monestine: Yeah, I'm excited to be here, Warren. been good. Warren Kucker: Awesome, Well, listen, let's walk us through your background. As I mentioned, you sold data platforms, don't know tax bit, now you're at Acuity, went from mid-market to enterprise. Tell us about your career arc a bit. Cash Monestine: Yeah, yeah, mean my career arc, mean... I don't know a lot of people that decide in college, we're going to sell software and we're going to crush it. Right. I mean, maybe that's the case now, but I started off in finance. ⁓ I got my, I got my degree in finance, went to Goldman Sachs for a little over a year. And then I kind of realized it wasn't really the thing for me. And then from there, I jumped into tech. ⁓ and tax bit was like my first real opportunity. I actually started there as an enterprise sales development rep. So I wasn't actually a seller there. ⁓ and then from there, I made the jump from, ⁓ SDR. to mid-market economy executive at Domo and then I made the jump to here at QDMD and I've been here for a few years now. Warren Kucker: That's awesome man. Yeah, I totally agree. Most people, there's no sales degree, right? So like most people are doing something else and find themselves in sales, which is a feature and a bug in some aspects. So that's really cool. Well listen, why don't you tell us a little bit about what you're selling into now. I know MedTech, it's really specialized. Salespeople always talk about how like you have to talk the talk. I imagine you really have to talk the talk when you're selling medical device there, right? You can't sound like you don't know what you're talking about. Tell us about what that sales process is like and how you really kind of establish that credibility with your buyers. Cash Monestine: Yeah, I will say this, right? It's been interesting because my background not being in Meddevice, I started off with the mid-market team where you see a lot more software sellers jump into a QDMD as a mid-market rep, but you don't see it as often on the enterprise side. On the enterprise side, they're looking for that unicorn, someone that sold Meddevice and someone that sold software, and they want that marriage to come in and be like, hey, you're going to be our enterprise guy. And so for me, it's been a unique experience because jumping in, I do have I do raise a couple of eyebrows when I tell them my background and I'm like, you know, I'm here to help solve your problems. But I think what gives me a little bit of credibility is I've already found success working with a lot of other companies at AcuityMD and I've helped them build out their go-to-market strategies. And on top of that, ⁓ even the company itself now, I mean, we just publicly announced this, we closed the Series C and we're backed by pretty powerful people and we have a lot of really great customers, like nine out of the top 10 med device companies partner with us. as well. so things like that, the company I'm with, the background I have now at AcuityMD, and then also the success we've found has really helped us to build more credibility and makes it easier for me to go into a conversation as well. Warren Kucker: Yeah, mean, like if you think about it, like, on the enterprise side, mid-market, you may not be in a competitive environment every time, right? You also may be dealing with buyers that don't buy software all the time. So they're not running you through like a regimented process. They're not analyzing you compared to your competitors in the same way they do at the enterprise side, right? You could be selling against 30-year med tech, med device sales folks that like have deep networks, understand the market. and you're coming in comparatively like early on, it's important to have that credibility. How are you leveraging the fact that Acuity has these like existing customers, you've worked with these customers, how are you leveraging that in practice to establish that credibility? Cash Monestine: I mean, that's a great question. I mean, just even taking a step back, right? You mentioned that ⁓ pretty much the buyer is different in mid-market and enterprise. You're right. In mid-market, the question was, do you have data today? And then from there, we figured out, OK, they don't have data. How can you use it? On the enterprise side, it's more, who's your data provider? And then from there, we figured out, OK, what's the gaps and how do we go around that? ⁓ I'd say the way I build credibility right now is there's a few things I do. For one, ⁓ we have special specialties that we focus on and I try to become an expert in that right and so that's where I'm leveraging Claude or chat gbt or insert AI platform here to really understand the industry as a whole and the fact that I have the background I do with AcuteMD now since I've been here for a couple years now it really helps ⁓ bring a little more legitimacy to what I'm saying because I understand a lot more of the pain I have teammates that have been med device reps and I'll fall back on their experiences their stories I know for a fact that they're usually on the road or they walk into a case or whatever's happening, right? I use their language, their vernacular. ⁓ And SAS, that's a very big thing, right? You have to be chameleon. You have to be able to understand not only who they are, but also live in their world. And so I've been really good at figuring that out over time and starting to use their language and focusing more on their problems. And I think that's helped me build credibility because once I go in and I start talking about CPT codes, DRG codes, walking into cases, ⁓ running into a doc, things like that, When I speak that way, it gives me lot more credibility as opposed to saying things like, I don't know, HCP or whatever, right? Whatever the normal term is now. Warren Kucker: That's awesome. I definitely touched on something there. So I actually often use Acuity MD as an example of like, where I think AI is going to take the market. Not that I acuity started in AI, but as software proliferates, then what should happen is there should be more and more software out there and it should get more and more specialized. And the example I use is like, great, you have a CRM and Salesforce, right? Salesforce is the king of the CRMs. works for everybody across the board, right? But you know, now we live in a world that software is better, easier, more targeted, we should have a CRM for med device sales folks, right? Cool. But not just med device sales folks, like knee replacement folks, and again, I'm speaking out of place of ignorance, right? But it could be drastically different, one vertical within another, and then there's a different world where like maybe the maximum revenue you can get into space is 10 million in revenue, is the available market, but like you have to be, you specialize in tech for that, folks. And so my question is like, Do you see like market difference in how people sell in different med device areas and who you sold to? I'm sure you have like more than one persona you're chasing right now. What, like give me an example of like a difference there in terms of sales process, but also why their tech needs are different. Cash Monestine: I mean, there's two deals I'm working right now. I'm not gonna say the names of the companies, but they play in different roles. One's like really big in the HA injection space, and the other one's really big in the diagnostic space. The HA injection space, we have different billing codes. You have J codes, A codes, all that other stuff, right? And that allows us to see down to the name of the competitor that they have in the space and where they are, right? So if I put in, let's say, J code 1234, and my competitor is company ABC, I will see company Warren Kucker: Yeah, of course. Cash Monestine: the ABC in the QDMD platform and see where they are, who they're selling to, what their volumes look like. You can't see that anywhere else, right? And so that gives them like way more insight than you'd ever imagine. But then on the flip side, the diagnostics company that I'm working with, they have a huge problem where they have these bundle codes that they're working on and these bundle codes. And they also still have like normal ⁓ CPT codes as well and Q codes and such. But we can't see the full volume of market because of the bundling and because it's part of like maybe a panel or whatever and so with that we don't have quite as much visibility so it's a very different conversation where it's like one deal like yeah we're very precise this is exactly what's open happening in your market and this is what you need to do and then there's another deal where it's like hey the data is directional you understand that this is a common problem in your space but here's how we can use the data that we have to really help you find more success and the buying process is just so different. Warren Kucker: Yeah, it's again, just a phenomenal example of how we're gonna continue to niche down into specific areas. There could be a future where QDMD is unable to service everyone that they're trying to service mainly because competitors come in and get super niche on an area that maybe you're a little bit weaker on, right? So like in terms of data. like niching is just a great example of niching down that I really kind of like thoroughly enjoy. ⁓ Let's pivot a little bit, right? ⁓ So your main persona is you're selling value. ⁓ What are those personas like and how has maybe the buying process changed over the past even like 12 to 18 months? Have you seen a shift in how buyers buy? Are they coming to the calls more educated? And again, give us some more details about what that process is. Cash Monestine: I think my answer is going to be a little different than most people because yes, I have seen a change, that's primarily because I've changed segments, right? And the buyer changes quite a bit when you're going to different segments. Whereas before when I was in the mid market segment, it was more focused again, like I said, on, you have data? And then from there, we kind of walk them through. It was very much a price sensitive conversation. Like this is really like the bare bottom. This is what we can do. And a lot of times we try to sell on value, but let's be honest, right? What rep out there hasn't discounted to get a deal in the door. ⁓ Whereas now on the enterprise side, it's not so much about the price. It's like, are you solving the problem? How big is the problem? And then from there, we need to understand how much pain there is and how quickly we can get that pain to stop. And so it really, so I feel like it's not a fair question for me because of what's happened in the past 18 months, but yeah. Warren Kucker: Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, it's a common through line, right? Like it's just the core of sales. It's just like how much pain are you in? How fast do you need it to stop? And is it worth investing in something to make it stop now? Right? So like that's your job as a salesperson. So, and it's just like kind of a common through line. You just, in the past like six to 12 months, released Acuity AI. How is selling that like AI feature land differently than selling maybe the core of what Acuity MD has always been? Cash Monestine: you So I think what's cool about a QD AI is it simplifies access to the data. And what I mean by that, right, is I mean, even now with the QDMD data is just data. Data doesn't matter if you can't do anything good with it. And the QDMD is really good at getting that data and making it actionable for the VP of sales, for the rep on the ground, for the VP of marketing, for whoever has that data. It's really going to make it actionable for them in the platform. But here's the thing, a QDMD is still a platform and sometimes it be little difficult to understand where to go, where to navigate and what to do. What we've done with Acute AI is we've made it so let's say you Warren, you walk into, I don't know, J &J and you're like I'm a brand new rep and they just throw Acute EMD in your lap. Yes, you're gonna need training to know how to use it but before you even get into that training you'll see a little search bar on the top left and you can just type in a question like where are the top doctors that are performing these procedures that have that care about this type of billing and you have your list right then and there. You don't have to worry about clicking around, understanding the platform, all you have to do is type in a prompt and you know exactly what's going on because our AI is really fueled and built on the foundation of all of our data that we so meticulously curated. Warren Kucker: Yeah. So do you feel like, are you leading with this during the sales process? Have you felt like it's helped you like ⁓ close opportunities faster? The simplicity has helped. Cash Monestine: It helps with the change management side of it, right? Because there's a lot of companies that really get nervous about implementation and training reps and the adoption and all of that stuff. And when we say, Hey, it's as simple as just typing in a question and you get the answer. I mean, I saw my SC the other day type. ⁓ she typed in, you know, I'm going to Miami for this conference. Find me the top docs in this area and, ⁓ build out a, ⁓ essentially a map of where, where I can go. That's most effective. And it did it. It was amazing. Warren Kucker: Yeah, right, right, Yeah. Cash Monestine: And so seeing that just makes it easier for them to say, OK, our reps can figure this out. Warren Kucker: Gotcha, gotcha. So that simplicity is kind of like getting you over the line. some, a lot of people have like fear of implementation in terms of like actual getting the value drive out of it. Seems like that might be softening up that part of the buying journey there where it's like great, like there's quicker time to value and it's less risk that there's gonna be a huge learning curve to actually extracting what you expected out of a QoD MD. Cool. Cash Monestine: Exactly. Warren Kucker: Alright, cool man. Well, how are you using AI in your own sales process? Let's dive into sales tactics here. How are you using it best? Cash Monestine: What was it? What did I hear the other day? AI isn't going to take my job, but a rep that's using AI will. Warren Kucker: ⁓ yeah. Yeah, yeah. Cash Monestine: So I use AI in every single facet, right? For instance, now when I before I'd have to dig into financial documents and all this other stuff to really understand what's happening with the company, what are the problems they care about. But now I can use cloud to go in and type and I can type in a quick prompt to give me a full on breakdown of what's happening in that account. And so no longer to have to like sift through 10, 20, 30 pages of docs trying to figure out like what's that one thing that matters to them or what's being that core problem. ⁓ And so I'm using it for that. mean, everyone is. I'm using other tools to help me with building presentations. I'm using tools to really help me with just anything that really before took hours of research, now takes minutes, and now it's more on me. I have the onus now to really understand the research that's going on. And if something's a little too complicated, I'll tell Claude to dumb it down for me. Warren Kucker: Right. Yeah, it's like a good, I think like one of the core spaces, especially for like reps is there's a lot of stuff during a sales process that reps simply just haven't had time for in the past. Right. So like, great. Like you should go into a meeting, read 10 K's to find like core executive quotes. Right. Most reps aren't doing this. Right. Like it just, it takes way too much time to do it. And it's a time to value scenario when you're in a sales process. Right. I I tell like my reps that you have to close about $5,000 a day. Right? So like, do it 10 hours in a day, $500 an hour. So if you spend two hours reading a 10K, was that a thousand dollar activity? Most reps, one, don't want to read a 10K and two, like, don't think it's a thousand dollar activity, which I'd agree. But now you're collapsing that time, right? Like there's now it's become table stakes. There's really, the mindset has got to be like, great, it's much faster to do this. Now most reps should be doing it. And either I'm going to be the rep that does it, nobody else does it. I'm going to look better during a sales process or everyone's doing it. I'm going be the one that's up behind. So it's really kind of compressing that journey to make sure, yeah, we're actually have the time to do everything we should be. It's not like eliminating the job and just making it easier to do everything at this point. Cash Monestine: Exactly. And then you find more important things to fill time with, whether it be prospecting or whatever's going on. But yeah, exactly. Warren Kucker: exactly right. Is there anything in particular like that from like seller skills or seller behavior that you feel like you haven't like mastered yet that you think is really important? Like if you're like great in 2026 sales enablement I'm gonna enable myself what skill or behavior are you kind of trying to drive there? Cash Monestine: I'm You can't really master anything in sales entirely, right? Because there's so much, like for instance, I think I have a lot of, I thought I had a lot of things on automatic when I was in the mid market space. ⁓ literally to like, it was down to a T where it's just like, Hey, cash is going to close X amount of dollars by this day because he brings in everything at the end of the quarter. And I come into this space now and I'm like, crap, I don't know what I'm doing. And I've been selling for years. And so I think it really, for me, right. now it's more of going back to basics and seeing what matters. a few things I'm focusing on right now is really making sure that I sell based on value because Acuity MD as a platform is so easy to demo. when you, when it's that easy to demo, like as soon as you hop on with somebody like, yeah, I want it. But then when you have to go to an executive and defend why they want to spend their money on this, we don't have any, any pain that we've anchored on. haven't really figured out the value. We just saw a cool platform that they want. So that's a big thing for me, anchoring on value. The other thing I'm really trying to master is making sure I understand the best way to build a buying committee, especially in the enterprise space, right? Because I can't just have one person I'm selling to. I need to have a group of people that can go to the executive team and say, hey, this is what we want. Here's why we want it. Here's the ROI. And here's how we're going to pay for it. Warren Kucker: Yeah, is there anything you're doing? How are you planning on tackling the buying committee aspect to it? Cash Monestine: The buying committee aspect to it is, so my company's invested in P-Club. I use that a lot for a ton of research, really like watch the videos, understand like different strategies. I mean, I'm my manager and then I am constantly reading. The book I'm reading right now is Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play. And that one, I don't know if you've read that before, but. Warren Kucker: Now, now give us some more on it. Cash Monestine: a great book on enterprise sales, but it's just talking a lot about the psychology of it. It's talking like, mean, the part I'm on right now is talking about red lights, yellow lights, and green lights, right? And a big focus there is if a lot of reps, when they see a yellow light or a red light, something that's gonna slow down the deal or possibly stop the deal, they try to go around it, they try to avoid it, but you need to make sure that you actually stop, address it, talk about it, figure out way to solve that problem, and then you can continue because those red lights and yellow lights, if you don't address them now, you'll have to address them when it comes time and that deal and sometimes they can become a bigger thing and cause a deal. And so that's something I'm constantly doing is reading books and making sure I can understand things. As far as the buyer committee thing, that's something I've just learned over time through research and coming into enterprise is that it's very important to have ⁓ a team, not just a person, but a team that's willing to go to the executives and say, we want to buy this platform. Warren Kucker: No, I totally agree. mean, so much about sales is, as a salesperson, trying to fight against your better base instincts on how to behave as a human being. So a good example is when you're cold calling, objections are painful in theory, but the objections are just an objection to the interruption and not the pitch. So no matter what, whoever's telling you something on a cold call or they're objecting to the call, whatever they say does not matter. They're just trying to get you off the call. They'll say anything to not further the call. And then on top of it, you gotta run towards those objections. Very few cold calls are objectionless, right? You need to get through one, two, three objections to get to a point where you're getting to meetings, right? On the sales standpoint, ⁓ stakeholder management, developing a buying committee, it's more advanced techniques, right? Like you don't spend your first year or two as an AE working on doing this. But again, it's hard in terms of like red light, green light, yellow light. What's kind of interesting and different paradigm is like, how effective can you work around your initial contact and potentially your champion to get to the other buyers? I've gotten slapped pretty hard for trying to multi-thread to the COO, right? Like where like the CEO of a big company emailed my CEO to complain about my rep doing this, right? We still won the deal because obviously there was something there, right? Like the CEO doesn't take any, write an email on something he's not going to buy. But like that type of friction is hard, hard to run into. Is there anything, anything on like a day to day, week to week, month to month that you tactically like work on to kind of like solve for some of those problems? How do you continue like, do continuous improvement in that space? Cash Monestine: I think a big thing is if you're going through a process with the prospect and they're the only person you ever talk to and they know person you ever see or on calls with then there's a problem, right? And so what I try to do with these is I try to get other people involved early and often ⁓ and so every call I try to get at least another stakeholder involved that way I have a reason to be reaching out to that person so it's not like I can't get my hand slapped that way, right? Like talking to, I don't know, John over here. Warren Kucker: Yeah. Cash Monestine: And I'm like, hey John, love that you're so into the platform. Usually when we talk to companies like yours, they try to bring in marketing as well. And sometimes they'll even bring in a few other sales reps or a couple other sales leaders so we can really understand what matters to the whole. ⁓ Are there any people in your organization that you think fit that script that you'd like to bring onto this call? ⁓ yeah, this person makes sense. And then from there, as they bring them on, I have introductions and reasons to reach out to these people that won't seem suspect if I'm just cold outreaching. you Warren Kucker: Yeah, you know, and again, it's the hardest part. it's the part that reps are really most reluctant to is multi-threading. doesn't, you wouldn't do this in real life, right? Like you wouldn't throw a party, maybe invite your friends and your friends have some friends that you've hung out with in the past. And then you kind of like invite them to, or even in a scenario you would have never hung out with them, right? Like, hey, listen, I invited your other friends, just a heads up, right? No one does this in real life. But on the flip, you do it early is absolutely correct, right? Like you, the way I look at it is one, I actually try to go negative with this. If you're on one person, and you're doing that, the chances of getting ghosted just like skyrocket, right? One, they might just leave the company, right? So, but two, you have no other outs. It's the biggest risk you have. So, how do you get around that? Generally, I've been prospecting multiple people at that company. As soon as I book a meeting and shoot an email to those other people, hey, book a meeting with your finance team if it's someone high level or, you know, Jim, your accountant on Thursday. No need to follow up. I just wanted to let you know. I'll drop you a note as to how it goes. and gives you kind of some authority to get around it. So building that buying committee becomes a little bit easier. Getting on multiple trains, Skip Miller calls it, right? If you do it early, do it late and you're screwed, right? You have six meetings with one person and then you try to go around them, it doesn't work. I'm doing it early as Kate. So that's interesting. ⁓ Cool, cool, great. ⁓ Well listen, how do you feel like sales have evolved over the next couple years? How do you think? major changes, minor changes, what's kind of one of the bigger items that you think might shift in how sellers sell and buyers. Cash Monestine: I think we're starting to see it already. think like... Over the past few years, sales has gotten less and less transactional. And obviously, the higher up you get, the less transactional it already is. But I think what's going to happen is we're going to be expected to be just downright exceptional in our knowledge of the space that we're in, just experts, SMEs, subject matter experts to the nth degree, right? ⁓ Obviously, there's still going to be a place for SEs and everything. But I don't see there being a world where I don't understand the industry as a whole and really all the militia involved in it. And I think those are the reps that are really going succeed the ones that not only know the industry but they have a passion for it right like you have to think about books like the Challenger sale what do they talk about the reps that found the most success were the ones that were the ones that like were more consultative they understood the industry they really specialized they also were able to kind of take their customer the prospects through this journey to help them understand exactly how bad things got engaged in that ray of light and the only way you can really have that methodology and mentality at hand is if you know the space and you're an expert in every single detail of that And so I think there's going to be more of a spotlight on those reps that are becoming those experts. those, mean, right now we can see those reps are the ones that rise to the top. And I can see that continue to happen, but on a grander scale. Warren Kucker: Yeah, it's like a good point. It's something I've circled around with a decent amount in these conversations. There's something to like stick in an industry, right? How do you feel like obviously you can be acuity until you retire, but let's say for, let's pretend for a second you're not going to be. Do you think you'd say in this space, what would it take for you to switch to a pretty drastically different industry to sell into? Cash Monestine: I haven't really thought about that. I think for me to switch industries, it would have to be something that I'm also equally as passionate about. mean, the medical space is just amazing. love, I think being here has been great because it's not just about the money, it's also about changing lives, right? Let's say, God forbid, Warren, you find out you have something wrong with your heart, like I did when I was in my 20s. What do you think they're gonna do? They're gonna need some kind of medical device to figure out what's wrong with you. So a lot of these companies, they're trying to not only solve problems, but they're trying to save lives and change the world and I love that mission. And so I'd need to be somewhere where the mission is equally as powerful and the opportunity and growth is also there as well. I I love what I do, but I wouldn't do it for free, right? And so I need to have that opportunity as well. Warren Kucker: Yeah. Yeah, I'd say like if I went back and I started out as a rep, you have to like, it takes a little while to find it, but once you find an industry that you're passionate about, but you also think there's an opportunity in, you kind of have to gut it out for a few years, right? One of the best sellers I know, she would say that she's not a traditional seller, which I used to counter that no one goes to college for this, so no one's a traditional seller, so don't stop saying that. But she's been in same industry for 15 years, and like she knows everybody in it. She can get a job in tech in the industry at any company. and you couldn't pry her away from it, right? Because she just knows it. It would be hard. She'd start from scratch, and she's been a network seller for 15 years. I used to think that that was the worst scenario out of the two, where you're great at sales but don't understand the industry. You're mediocre at sales but really know the industry. I've swung. Once you have a good industry, stick with it as a seller, and really you'll end up with a built-in floor in terms of success, right? But it's a hard choice because sometimes you're at a company where the product's little bit weak and you're trying to figure it out, right? It's a tough one. Cool man, Cash, well listen, really appreciate this conversation. ⁓ Where could our listeners find you? You post on LinkedIn, you go to conferences, where do they find your best? Cash Monestine: Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn. Just look me up Cashmonesty and I think I'm the only one on there. Outside of that, yeah, I'm always at conferences, right? Like if you connect with me on LinkedIn and I'm going to your state, your city or something, please feel free to reach out. I'm happy to grab a coffee or something, catch up. I'm always happy to meet new people. Warren Kucker: Yeah, good for you. Awesome. Well, Cash, really appreciate the insight. Really looking forward to continuing to follow your journey. Cash Monestine: Appreciate it. Thanks for having me on Warren. Really excited to see kind of what continues to happen, especially with you and what's happening with opportunistic. I mean with, yeah. Warren Kucker: topic here rebrand that's okay that we'll go with both I appreciate it cash you have a good rest of your day Cash Monestine: You too.