Key Traits for the Healthcare Sales Rep

Ashleigh Kirsten is the CEO and founder of AK Consultants & Healthcare, LLC, the nation’s only full-service growth management company for post-acute care healthcare businesses. Called to bring together healthcare talent and harness their collective insight and perspective, Ashleigh started the consultancy in 2017 and has expanded its service offerings to include business development, recruitment, marketing, operations, and acquisition management.

Leveraging her signature approach to optimizing people, process, and execution, AK Consultants & Healthcare has expanded its portfolio of healthcare clients by 300 percent and its team of exceptional talent to more than 70 contractors offering consulting and fractional support. Meanwhile, the firm’s strategic leadership in growth, sales, marketing, and sales operations has helped clients enter new markets and grow from the ground up to seven-figure revenue. With a passion for differentiating clients and assessing salability, Ashleigh has steered more than ten M&A negotiations.

Between 2018 and 2021, Ashleigh led business development and sales efforts for home health and hospice care organizations. Most recently, as Regional Director of Sales and Business Development for Pinnacle Home Care, the largest in Florida, she transformed the company’s lowest-performing region into the top in the state, exceeding revenue goals by 200 percent and delivering 70 percent of the company’s growth. She forged strategic partnerships and diversified revenue streams through a transitional care management program and remote patient monitoring technology. She more than doubled the sales force during this time and increased their overall performance by 66 percent through improved training and onboarding.

Ashleigh came to Pinnacle from Seasons Hospice and Palliative Care, where she oversaw three counties in Tampa, increased patient volume by 400 percent in Pinellas County and 150 percent in Hillsborough County, and launched an innovative inpatient hospice care unit at Baycare Health System. She was previously a sales representative for Chapters Health System, where she increased her territory by 33 percent.

She began her career in clinical sales and business development at iProcedures, the first cloud-based anesthesia EMR company, where a former colleague recruited her to translate clinical needs into product development insight. Soon, her drive and clinical acumen led her to take account management, where her sales model supported the start-up to scale forty-fold to $20 million in revenue. The company became a Black Book Leader and was named the Best in KLAS #1 anesthesia vendor.

Ashleigh brings to her never-lose growth mindset a wealth of clinical knowledge honed from fourteen years as a registered nurse. Encouraged to keep learning by a mentor, her bedside experience spanned pediatric, neurologic, critical care, anesthesia, perioperative, OR and hospice care. Working at hospitals including St. Joseph’s Hospital, Edward White Hospital, All Children’s Hospital, Bayfront Medical Center, and University Community Hospital, she became a charge nurse only three years into her career.

Ashleigh has served as a board member for the Senior Living Developers Council since 2022, where she advises investors, developers, operators and brokers on growth and sales strategies. She became a healthcare business broker, licensed real estate agent and REALTOR in 2023.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from St. Petersburg College, an Associate of Science in Nursing from Hillsborough Community College, and Associate of Arts in General Studies from Florida State University.

Ashleigh singlehandedly raised her three children in the Tampa Bay area and is proud they are all competitive athletes. She loves her 6-year-old French bulldog, Rocky, playing tennis and watching any Tampa Bay pro sport.