Stéphan Toupin, a standout in the medical sales industry, unveils his journey from academia to entrepreneurship, offering listeners an insider perspective on navigating career shifts with purpose and passion. Join us as Stéphan, who traded in his lab coat for a sales portfolio, shares his early realization that pursuing a PhD wasn’t his calling. He takes us through his rapid rise from a pharmaceutical sales rep to a management position and, ultimately, to establishing his own medical device distributorship. This episode is packed with insights for anyone considering a career shift within medical sales or exploring entrepreneurial ventures.
Discover the nuanced transition from pharma to the dynamic world of medical device sales, where understanding complex stakeholder landscapes is crucial. Stéphan sheds light on the challenges and rewards of this sector and how his passion for medical science and innovation fueled his leap into entrepreneurship. He shares strategies for success, including the critical importance of knowing your product and audience and the unique facets of medical device sales compared to pharmaceuticals. Listeners will gain a clearer picture of the financial and personal risks involved in this path and why freedom and self-direction can outweigh monetary gain.
Finally, Stéphan offers a masterclass on entering the U.S. market with foreign medical devices, detailing the essential steps companies often overlook. He discusses the importance of reimbursement strategies, understanding CPT codes, and the choice between different types of distributors. With a focus on education and long-term partnerships, Stéphan’s approach is both strategic and collaborative. Ending on a note of personal growth and ambition, he shares his vision of empowering his team to ensure the success of his business while pursuing new opportunities, providing a roadmap for aspiring entrepreneurs in the medical sales industry.
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http://dawamedical.com
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Episode Transcript
00:07 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Hello and welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. I’m your host, Samuel, founder of a revolutionary medical sales training and mentorship program called the Medical Sales Career Builder, and I’m also host of the Medical Sales Podcast. In this podcast, I interview top medical sales reps and leading medical sales executives across the entire world. It doesn’t matter what medical sales industry from medical device to pharmaceutical, to genetic testing and diagnostic lab you name it you will learn how to either break into the industry, be a top 10% performer within your role or climb the corporate ladder. Welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast and remember, I am a medical sales expert, sharing my own opinion about this amazing industry and how it can change your life. Hello and welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. I’m your host, Samuel, and today we have with us another special guest, and he goes by the name of Stefan Tupin. So what makes Stefan unique is that he was a sales rep once upon a time that became a pharmaceutical sales rep, that then started his own medical device distributorship and, more than 10 years later, has this thriving medical device one-stop shop that helps companies from all over the world bring their devices into the US market. Right Sales rep to pharma, to med device business owner that is now helping all kinds of companies all over the world, big and small, bring companies into the US market. He’s thriving, he has a team and he has a couple of locations. How does someone like that make that happen? How do we even process the moves he made to get to where he got to? And, of course, that’s what this episode is all about.
02:01
So, if you are someone that’s ever thought about being in a distributorship, if you’re someone that’s thinking, do I want pharma? Do I want MedDevice? So, if you’re someone that’s ever thought about being in a distributorship, if you’re someone that’s thinking, do I want pharma? Do I want med device? If you’re someone that’s in pharma or med device and you’re thinking, what other avenues are there for me to explore that, maybe utilize more of my entrepreneurial passion? This is absolutely the episode for you. As always, we do our best to bring you guests that do things differently in the medical space. So make sure you listen carefully and I really do hope you enjoy this interview. Tell us who you are, give us your name, your title, and then I want to know the story. Like what happened, and let’s just talk about it.
02:42 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Yeah, thanks. Well, thanks for having me first of all. Well, my name is Stéphane Toupin. I know it’s not easy for people here in the US to say my name. It’s not Stephen, it’s Stéphane. I’m French-Canadian, so you will see by my accent you know I’m not from the US. I grew up in Quebec, in the province of Quebec in Canada. I did my bachelor degree in medical biology, a master in experimental medicine, so my background was always very scientific, if I can say, and I started a PhD and I realized I was not a rad lab type of person.
03:28 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You’re in school, finish undergrad and you start a PhD. Yeah, and this is all in Canada.
03:34 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Yeah, and I realized that was not for me. So I started to look to get into the pharma as a sales rep. I got a job quickly, got a promotion, did sales marketing different stuff, different company almost for 17 years in pharma.
03:59 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You’re jumping ahead. So PhD, you’re like nah.
04:10 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
How did pharma? What happened? Well, and the thing is that when you do a bachelor degree in medical biology, there’s, you know, there’s tons of stuff that you can do with your bachelor degree and with the master. For example, and I had a lot of people that I knew that they went into pharma and even if I’m, you know, more background, is more medical, the sales part was always interesting for me. I thought that, you know, I had something in me that you know I couldn’t use to sales, you know, in pharma. So I just contacted a couple of my friends that were already in sales in pharma and got an interview with a small company at the time that was Zeneca. That was before the merger with Astra, so that’s a long time ago, and I got a sales rep position and that’s how I started in sales in pharma at that time.
05:09 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So MGrab, miphg, education, now a new rep. What do you see in you? What was the mindset? Like I’m just going to go in here and do what I can. I want to be a manager as soon as possible. Like what was the mindset.
05:22 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Yeah, it’s a good question because, you know, sometimes in life things happen and you’re just surprised that they are happening. I don’t know if it’s because I was looking for it or it just you’re at the right place at the right time. That’s what happened for me. I was a rep for less than two years and then my boss at the time moved to another position and his position came vacant. You know, I said, oh well, I would like to do, you know, to be a sales manager. So I apply and I got the job. So yeah, and so I was lucky.
06:01
But also that first two years I was rep of the year, you know, the rookie of the year and I guess my boss at the time saw something in me that I could do it. So for like six months I was in that temporary position. But then, you know, they gave me the full-time job. But then in a degree it gave me the full-time job and I really I think what I like at that time is for many years with a different company and I think I was a good manager, because I still have a good relationship with reps that still write to me or call me because they’re interviewing to another company. Can I give give your name? So it’s something that I discovered at the time that I like to be a manager to help people, so I stayed in that position for many years with different companies. What’s the largest team you met? I think it was 14 at that time. I think it was 14 at that time. Yeah, at AstraZeneca. When we merged with Astra, we became that huge company.
07:35 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So, before we move any further, let’s just hang out here for a little bit, because I can’t wait to hear how this went from pharmaceutical sales manager to med device man. But you’re a manager, you have a team. You enjoy being a manager. Was the thought process? I don’t know what I want to do, so I’m just going to be a manager because I like it right now. Or was the thought process? I want to continue to advance my career? I’m going to be a manager now and maybe work on becoming a regional director or something in-house. What was the mindset?
08:02 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Well, the interesting thing is, at that time I had kids, two kids, and when you look at Canada it’s a wide country, and I was in the province of Quebec, in Quebec City. It was very difficult to think to get another position without having to move to Toronto, for example, and for me that was out of the question. I was not ready to bring my family to Toronto, move everyone you know, just to get that next level position. I’m not that kind of person that needs to move up. You know, I was happy with what I was doing Good money and so I just wanted to, I think, improve my skills.
09:00
One of the good things in pharma is they train you well and especially at the manager position. Every time you want to get a new skill or improve your skill, they will give you the opportunity to do that. So at one point I got an offer to manage the training department in the province of Quebec, so I did. They sent me to San Diego for full training, you know, to get that knowledge, and so you know it was possible, you know, to grow without having you know to get a next level position, and that’s what I decided to do, you know. So now my family was important.
09:42
I wanted to stay in the in quebec city, um and um, I just, you know was. I think at that point you could also always try to uh get um, ask for more tasks. You know to. Oh, I’m ready to do this. You know, if you need somebody in marketing just to help out, I’m ready to do it. Yeah, so that’s what I was doing. It’s just, you know, getting here and there are other tasks to do, to change the routine a little bit, if I can say, Sure, so when you you know you were a rep for two years, you were the number one rep twice.
10:18 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I love it. What? What would you say are three things. And we can just speak to pharma right now. For all pharma reps hearing this, or med device reps that want to get into pharma, what are three things you say are a little bit unique? That if a pharma rep is doing this, they really increase their chances for success.
10:44 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
That’s a very good question. There’s something I learned even having you know other boss trying to tell me how to do things. One thing that I realized is that if you’re not yourself, you know it’s transparent to people. You know If you try to be something that you are not, there’s no one way to do a sales call, you know. So I think it has to start with you, how you are. There’s some people are more technical, more pushy. Whatever their style, you need to keep to be yourself. Secondly, I think you need to keep to be yourself. Secondly, I think you need to understand who you’re talking to in front of you. I think sometimes in pharma and in the med device, they try to put you in a can do this call. This is what you need to do, this is what you need to say Exactly.
11:43
But before it’s like anything else, if you’re going on a first date, you need to know the person you have in front of you. So that means that you’re not going to sell, you’re not going to get a prescription or a PO the first time you’re going to meet somebody. It takes time. You need to be patient, take the time to know the person in front of you, who they are, what type of person Is it the driver? Is it more somebody who’s more laid back? You need to learn that before doing anything else. And the third one would be well, you need to know your stuff. You need to know your product. You need to know the competition. You need to know your product. You need to know the competition. You need to know the market. I think people are expecting that and if they ask you a question you don’t know, you just say I don’t know. I will come back to you. And you asked me three things, but I need to add a fourth one.
12:41
It’s about the passion. I think people love to do business with people who are passionate about what they’re doing. Don’t be a robot. It’s not about just smiling. I think it goes back to being true to yourself. But passion goes a long way. I think in sales. People like that I do Right, right. No, I think in sales.
13:06 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
People like that. I do Right, right, no, I’m right there with you. I think when any physician or nurse or anyone that’s a healthcare provider sees that you really do care about the patient and your passion is for the success of this patient, it’s a completely different type of experience, so I couldn’t agree more. Okay, so you’re the manager. Thank you for that. Those were great and for those of you listening, please be taking notes. So what happened? You’re this manager. Life is good, you’re making good money, you’re leading teams. You’re living your best life. Where did this med device bug?
13:48
enter your life.
13:49 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Yeah, it’s interesting. I call it going on the dark side of the cell. It’s going to get med device. I think it’s usually harder. It seems harder for cells in pharma to go to med device.
14:04 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I don’t know why You’re right, but I want people to hear exactly why, from your perspective.
14:13 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
I think it’s related to the fact that you know med. I think you know in pharma you will have. You know, okay, you have like three product to detail. You know you learn your product. You have three products to detail. You learn your product. You know them inside out Med device it’s more complicated, I think, depending on the type of product.
14:43
Also, you have to deal with more different people. You will have to deal with value analysis committee in hospital, at least here in the US. You will have to deal with purchasing, the administration. There’s a lot of other people that you need to talk to. In MedDevice it’s not only the physician with Informa that you’re trying to sell, for him to prescribe your product. So I think it’s a little bit more complex and I guess for some and as you know, because I remember when I was a sales rep, you know sitting on a waiting room, you know for hours to see a physician. You know mid device, you know you could be waiting. But in the war, because for your turn you know to be there to help the physician, I think I prefer the med device because you’re closer really to help the physician. You know helping them to help their patient. I think that’s the huge difference in that sense.
15:48
But to come back to your question how did it happen that I moved to MedDevice? What happened is that at that time, a couple of years before doing that move, I hired somebody as a specialty rep in pharma and it happened that he moved in MedDevice and he started his own distribution company in Canada and we always had a good relationship. He was calling me all the time. He said, hey, you should move, you should come work with me in MedDevice. I said you know what? No way, you don’t have enough money to pay me.
16:30 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Wow. So you weren’t even looking at it like I was not Pharma versus Medivice. You were looking at it like I cannot work with you because you don’t have enough money to pay me period. Yeah, I was a manager.
16:40 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
I was in like I said, a nice position, nice job, you know, nice money. I say you know no, no, no. But I got tired of being a manager, being in pharma, you know, I grew in pharma where at the beginning it was easy to meet physician you know, to talk, you know and organize CME, to talk and organize CME. It got so restricted that it was less fun at the time. And after being a manager for 15 years I got tired of this. I needed a change in my life and I think it came to me at a good time. At that point it took me two years to say yes.
17:28 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Was it him hampering on you, or were you just getting more intrigued by MedDevice?
17:36 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
I was totally yes, because what he was asking me to do at the beginning is really to look at a new product that he wanted to bring in Canada and meet physician specialists and talk with them to see if that product will be a good fit in their practice. So I was going back to that with my background in medical science reading, because I always like to read a scientific paper, go to it, you know, analyze it and extract information. That was something I always liked to do. So it was bringing me back there to and meet specialists. You know that was more interesting also for me than just primary care, sure.
18:27
So it was a good timing where I was tired of pharma and, you know, that kind of a new job he was offering me was kind of interesting. So I said yes, it was. It was a huge. I was shaking taking that decision because it’s oh my God, what am I getting into? Actually, I lowered my you know income for the first two years, but it was okay. You know, I was enjoying that new challenge. And what happened is that also, at the same time, started my own distribution company, still working with him, but doing some stuff on the side, and that’s how it started slowly.
19:14 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I see you know you can’t. No, I’m not letting. Yes, you know I started working with him and then casually I started a whole nother. We’re not glazing over that Before we attack the details of what happened there. Yeah, you know people that are listening right now. A lot of them are either in pharma, in medical device, or want to be in either yeah, or something along the lines of medical supplies or diagnostic testing or something. Yeah, tell us money. You know, I know that it might have changed and you know even five years ago it’s different than what it was 10 years ago versus 15 years ago. But just so people have context, what kind of money were you making as a sales rep, sales manager? And then, what kind of pay cut did you take to get into that med device world? And if you’re not comfortable giving us a number, give us a range.
20:15 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Well, you know, at that time as a sales rep, depending on the commission structure, and that’s another discussion obviously. You’re good one year, the next year, you know you’re at the bottom, right right, but everybody’s used to that. You know when you’re in sales. But as a sales rep it was easy to have an entry salary at you know, 75 grand for example, and with a $20,000, $25,000 commission. You know, I think that was feasible and it’s still feasible, obviously today.
20:45 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, that’s pretty common today. Yeah, yeah, and it’s still feasible, obviously today yeah that’s pretty common today. Yeah.
20:49 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
As a sales manager obviously you start in the six-figure number. As a manager At least my guess now is people are probably higher at $150,000 as salary base plus commission. So easy to make $200,000 per year as a manager, both in pharma and in med device. I know that in med device right now, especially in spine orthopedic, it’s getting tougher. You know back a couple of years ago. People easily make half a million dollars, you know, in base salary and commission. It’s not like that anymore because the way it’s structured in the US Hold on.
21:40 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
The US said wait a minute. Wait a minute. No, You’re going to make much less.
21:52 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
At that time. You know, if I look at what I was making in pharma, I probably got, you know, $50,000, you know of my overall paycheck. Because you have to remember that when you go in med device, especially in distribution, you have to remember that when you go in med device, especially in distribution, you don’t have the same advantage that if you are in med device with Medtronic, for example, or J&J or whatever, because they have also a good benefit that you don’t get when you’re a distributor. So there’s a difference there that you need to consider. I took that road of going to the distribution pathway from the get-go. When I get a medical device, I could have just applied to Medtronic, whatever. I would have get the job and get way more money probably than I was making in pharma. But what I have to say is also at that time when I took the decision to move to MedDevice is I was never a good employee, in a sense that I don’t like to have a boss.
23:04 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
It was always difficult for me, yeah, it was always difficult for me, yeah, and so for me it was better to go on my own, if I can say, and build something from the ground up. Let’s go deeper, though. Before we do that, what were you selling? And I know you probably sold a whole suite of products but what was?
23:35 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
the most common product you were selling in your pharma career In pharma, yeah, so mostly cardiology and gastroenterology, and also in psychiatry, so there was the three big ones where I had products. Yeah, different fields.
23:52 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Gastro psych, wow Okay.
23:54 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Yeah.
23:55 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So when you transitioned to device, what field did you start into?
24:02 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
What do you mean by that?
24:03 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So when you said I’m now going to open up a med device company and work with my friend, what was the specialty?
24:11 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
At that time it was more in interventional radiology and interventional cardiology and vascular surgery, and so it’s very rare that you will move from pharma to med device and you will meet the same customer, to MedDevice and you will meet the same customer. It’s very rare because you know you sell product in cardiology but it’s the regular cardiologist, you know, the one that’s seeing the patient, not the interventional cardiologist is the one that is getting the patient from the cardiologist to intervene. So you started from almost from scratch. It’s not the same customer. So you started from almost from scratch. It’s not the same customer. You can use your relationship you had in the past to get access to those people.
25:00 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
But it’s not the same physician for sure. So you’re entertaining your friend, you’re taking a $50,000 pay cut. What gave you the comfort to say I have responsibilities, I have kids, I have all life and I’m going to make 50 grand less because of?
25:21 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
what Freedom. And I got divorced also. It was not the best situation.
25:30 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Now we’re getting to the good stuff. Okay, so the life? Okay, see, these are the details people need to hear so they can understand. You need context in this life. So okay so you got divorced and now you’re like I want to change everything. What am I going to do? I’m assuming that was a sentiment.
25:48 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Yeah, yeah it was. I want to change everything. What am I going to do? I’m assuming that was a sentiment. Yeah, yeah, it was. And you’re there at a point in your life where it’s now or never. You know, if I don’t do it now, I will stay in the same position and I will feel miserable. That was my point of view at that time. That was my point of view at that time.
26:09
I did that even knowing that obviously I had money aside that I can rely on if I need it, because you have to buy a car. You don’t have the car that the pharma company gives you, so you have to put money aside for the old days. That’s why pharma is so interesting. And even in MedDevice, if you work for Medtronic or the big company, you will get that too. That was my decision not to go that road, because I didn’t want to have this big corporation to be under. I didn’t want to be in that square box. I want to feel more freedom. It’s maybe an unusual way to switch, but that was the way that I felt that was best fit with me.
27:00 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
It’s so admirable of us to go from farming to mental health. You didn’t go to work for a company and learn the ropes. You went to go start your own distribution, and you have to have a lot of confidence in your own abilities. And of course you did because, wow, how could you be comfortable making that kind of decision?
27:22 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Well, you know, if the only thing in life for you is to make as much money as possible, you’re not going to do what I did. You know, because for me that was not important. That was not about the money, it was, like I said, about the freedom being able to decide what I want to do, what time I want to wake up in the morning and what time I want to finish working and do my own schedule, choose the product I want to, because you know, obviously if you work for the big company pharma, you don’t choose your product. They’re dumped into your desk and this is what you have to promote. So at least you know at the distribution ship you can choose what you want to do to talk about and promote. So that was part of it, for sure.
28:10 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Was it that your friend’s opportunity gave you the confidence to start this company, or you were ready, right, okay, I see. So you worked with your friend for a little bit before you ever tried to open up your own distributorship.
28:23 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Yeah, because obviously that was all new for me. I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into. You can read about it, you can listen to podcasts, whatever, but to be in it it’s obviously totally different. But it just happened that I think I was good at it, I was happy, I was passionate about it and everyone around me was supporting me in my decision, so it was making sense, because you had to leave him to go do your own.
28:54 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, well, no, I still um, I would, since couple of weeks ago I was still, you know, doing uh oh, work with him yeah, yeah, I kept that relationship until until recently, you know so the, the company you started, was not in competition with your friend, it was ancillary, completely different.
29:14 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Yeah, no, we were kind of working together in that sense. Okay, that’s cool.
29:19 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, and I’m asking this because I’m thinking was it like? I don’t want to do pharma, I want to. You know, life is going to look different now. I’m going to make some new decisions. Yes, I’ll work with you, you’re working with a friend. And then was it wow, this is a lot of legs. You know what I want? To start my own thing. Or did it kind of happen differently?
29:38 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
It was very organic, if I can say. I mean, you know, I’ve learned. It gave me opportunity to look at some product and say I’m going to help you out. So it was that partnership that was working and it worked for many years. It worked for 11 years that we were doing that kind of work. So if I was going to a convention and I was seeing some products, hey, you know what I saw? A product, maybe it’s interesting for you. So it was like that partnership and that partnership, um and and that’s partnership, who actually and I don’t want to jump too much, but that brought me to the us. So, yeah, okay.
30:20 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So now we have, now we have to go, all right. So so you’re oh so, so, okay. So pharma Days is in Canada. Yeah, you’re in Canada doing your thing. Your friend invites you to this opportunity in, I guess, let’s just say, interventional radiology. You take it, you’re working in that space, you start the lights, come on. You’re like wait a minute, I can totally do this my own way, with my own company, with my own products to choose from, and then you move to the US, or no?
30:48 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
No, Well, no, Well, yes and no. But actually what happened is that this friend with this distribution company was also manufacturing some basic product in international recordology interventional cardiology and he was asking me to train reps in Canada his team, you know to do trial with physician with that device. So I was traveling in Canada doing trial in hospital. After that he said, well, let’s look for Europe, you know. So I was traveling in Europe to find distribution in Europe and do trial in hospital. I went to Finland to do trial, for example, and then we started to look at the US market Because obviously the US market is the biggest medical device market in the world and at that time in Canada you had close to 70% of market share with that specific product. So he said, let’s look for the US. And I said, well, I think I can do it.
31:58
So I built a plan to start looking at the US market, a marketing plan, and it was making sense at the time to look on the East coast of the U? S for that specific product, because that’s where there was a lot of cat lab and Miami was, you know, Florida and especially Miami was the place where it was also making more sense to start looking, you know, for partnership with distributor and physician hospital. So that’s how it started 10 years ago looking for partnership with distributor and physician hospital. So that’s how it started 10 years ago, or even years ago, where we built that plan and said, okay, let’s go, I’m going to go six months in the US Because, as Canadian, you can be in the US for six months without a visa.
32:45
I was not technically working, but I was here to explore the market. So that’s how you know, from Canada, I came to the US to launch that product and what happened at that time is I realized that winter was not for me. So I said you know, I love the beach. You know what? I’m not going back. And that’s kind of what happened. I sold my house in Quebec City, I bought a condo in downtown Quebec City to keep a place there and I packed my car and moved out to Miami.
33:28 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I mean, I had to make this work.
33:31 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
And that’s what I did, and the reason it was also a good timing. You know, like I was saying at the beginning, sometimes it’s now or never. My mom passed away 10 years ago and my kids were old enough. You know, I have my son is 30 years old, so you know he was 20. So I’m old, uh, and so the timing was great. Um, they were on their own. Uh, my mom passed away. I said you know what it’s? I was ready again to move, to try something else. And that’s what I did. So that was a reason where I accepted that project. And when I realized that, you know, after six months here, I said you know what? There’s something here in the US that the market is an unmet need here and I wanted to explore that. And without jumping too far, that’s how I started the company here in the US.
34:37 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
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35:34
Normally we say well, you know, if you’re committed and you’re quick enough to learn what needs to be learned to make that effective and amazing developing relationships can help you do that, but most times it’s. Why don’t you get some experience, understand the market, understand how it works, develop those relationships and then explore that opportunity Considering, you jumped in. You just jumped almost right in. You know why you mentioned freedom as a reason to go distributorship route. I know a number of people in distributorships, but I want to hear from you besides freedom, why would someone make that decision? And then I do want to hear if somebody’s listening to this right now and think to themselves whether they’re a medical device rep, even in interventional radiology, or a pharma rep or somebody that wants to get in, and they’ve already heard and been exposed to the distributorship route what are the benefits to doing it that way and what is the financial expectation. What can you look to hopefully make one day that’s going to sustain you?
36:38 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Yeah, well, obviously you, you need to be very, very comfortable with the risk and the unknown, and I think that’s what defined a little bit my pathway is. At one point I need to take risk. I’m not comfortable in the status quo. It needs to move, something needs to change. That’s very personal. I think that you need to.
37:16
Yeah, obviously, freedom is the big part, but also I was looking at what’s the potential here, and the potential is unlimited. It depends what you want to do with it. You know, and that was very interesting for me to say okay, I will take all the decisions, almost all the decisions. Like I said, I will choose a product and I will find a way to be successful because I knew I could. And especially when you look at, when people look at, the US market and that American dream, it’s not easy. Everybody says it’s not easy, especially when you’re an immigrant and you arrive here. You start from scratch. It’s tough. I can speak for hours about how difficult it is, but that was the risk I was taking and I went to a steady, more job in the distribution in Canada. To now, we have a business where we serve more than 100 foreign companies to enter the US market. It’s going like this Every day.
38:38
Today I had four conference calls before this one, four conference calls with foreign companies. I was able I think I was in the right place again at the right time, or maybe it’s just I have that sense, feeling what’s needed. I think it goes back to what I was telling you about you need to know your customer, you need to know who you have in front of you. And after six months here in the US, I had that feeling that something was missing. I was talking with a foreign company and I was listening to them, their difficulty, what they were looking for, and I was like, wow, I’m so surprised that they cannot find everything in one roof.
39:19
And that’s how I decided to start what we have right now to being that one stop shop for medical device who wants to enter the US market. So the profit, the money I can make here, there’s no limit, absolutely no limit. You know, let’s say no to that. Yeah, it’s my own decision, but obviously it’s not a nine to four job. You know, if people think that you know that’s how it’s going to, it’s not, it’s not. And I think that’s one of the big differences between pharma and med device. In pharma you can have a 9-to-4 job, if I can say Working when the offices are open.
40:03
Yeah, or you do CME at night, but that’s not every night and it depends on the budget that you have. But in med device, depending on the field of expertise, but in Spire, autopedic and a lot of others, you know, if you work in a war, it could be, we can, it could be. You know, we, I still have a distribution company in Canada and we take contracts with international companies who are looking for French speaking for the province of Quebec. It’s something unique, but so we get some contract just because of that. And the product that we do in the province of Quebec it’s a thrombectomy device, you know, for DVT and PE. Well, you get called, you know, at night weekend, so sometimes, so you have to be ready. That’s a huge difference between pharma, yeah, and I don’t know where I was going with that.
41:03 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
But it’s you kind of concluded it already and you were just highlighting the biggest differences and you were speaking to the financial opportunity and that it’s literally unlimited and, at the end of the day, you have to work for that, whatever your number is you got to work for it.
41:21 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Yeah, you know I leave my home, you know, at 6.30, 7 in the morning to come into the office and I’m always the last one, you know, to leave, because that’s my own business. I have employees but you know obviously it’s my own business. So it’s long hours. But the thing, what I have to say, and even in pharma, when I was a pharma, I always took proud of not working in the weekend. So for me it was family, my kids, my partner. Now you know it’s just. You know I’m not saying that I don’t open my computer to quickly answer. You know a quick email, but I try not to work on the weekend. I work hard during the week but not during the weekend.
42:05 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You have to manage your own you time and family time. You know you have to manage that and create your own.
42:12 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
You’re going insane, you know, and. If not, you’re going insane. Yeah, you’re right and you lose the passion that’s real.
42:20 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So tell us in as much detail as you can for an audience that might not know what you’re talking about.
42:32 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
What exactly does your company do? So at that One Medical, we specialize in helping foreign manufacturing companies of medical devices to enter the US market. The US market is every country has their own approval system, their own way for hospitals to buy. If you’re in Canada, it’s a public system. In the US, you have a mix of public and private systems, so those are complicated for a foreign company to understand exactly how it works.
43:05
So and we serve, you know, the small startup, small to medium-sized company, not the big one, the big one. Usually they will have an office in the US already, they have their footprint. But all those small ones and there’s tons. I’m grateful to be in this industry because you see so many young small companies launching products. You say, wow, it’s crazy, especially with AI now, where there’s no limit what people can do and bring onto the market. So there’s tons of those small companies. They want to try with the US. They say, you know they look at the big market and most of the time what they think they understand of the US market is here. But you know, actually actually they’re way off. And that’s what we’re doing we’re trying to help them to enter the US market and being a one-stop shop. It sounds cheesy. However, that’s really what we’ve built and we get the feedback from customers. That’s what we are now meaning that we will manage the importation because we are registered with the FDA as an importer of medical devices.
44:19
We added warehouse incapacity. Again, they’re a small company. They want to keep a small inventory of their product in the US because international shipping costs, custom issues prevent that. So we keep an inventory of their product and we can do the domestic shipping to hospital distributor. Whoever they need a reimbursement strategy, they need product registration with the FDA distribution. So really we try to say okay, sit down, relax, tell me what you need and we’re going to help you out. So that’s what Dawa Medical is really helping those foreign companies and, like I said, we serve over 100 foreign medical device companies right now to help them to enter the US market. And it goes from basic products like glasses. Glasses and toothbrushes are medical devices. People don’t know that glasses and toothbrush are medical devices. People don’t know that. You know, condoms are medical devices, you know.
45:19 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Wow, I didn’t know, but okay.
45:21 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Yeah, it’s actually a class two, so up to C-arms. You know big, big devices. You know for international radiology, international cardiology, spine product, orthopedic product, so everything in between. That’s what we do, helping those companies to bring their product in the market here in the US.
45:45 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So that’s amazing. Let’s talk about it. When you say helping to bring their products, are we talking a marketing effort? Are we talking a marketing effort? Are we talking a compliance effort? Are we talking how the market receives the product and actually wants to utilize it? With physicians, I mean? When we say help them, what are we talking about?
46:07 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
I think the first step is usually when a company reach out to us because they saw a Google ad that we do outside the US or a reference from another customer. We get that a lot. Now. The first conversation that we have in a Zoom meeting is usually more question and answer, where we all there’s a lot of education to be made, you know, with them. Well, there’s a lot of education to be made with them. Sometimes it’s not because you have a product and that you look at the US market. Then you say, okay, I’m going to launch it and in six months we’re going to make millions of dollars. That’s how it works. So a lot of time. We have to do a lot of education and teaching to bring them down to the reality. That is reality check is the first thing. Try to understand. Do they understand the US market or not? Because here in the US, if you said to a hospital and you bring a product that nothing is available like this in the US nothing, it’s a new, new, new product, what? My first question to them is that how is it going to get reimbursed? And they’re like what? Well, somebody has to pay for the product, so how is it going to be reimbursed. What’s a CPT code? You know, I don’t want to be too technical, but so people’s like oh, I don’t know, okay, first I don’t know. Okay, first of all, you need to know that so we can help you. We have a lot of different consultants that we work with that are more specialized, for example, in reimbursement. So we’re going to work with them to try to understand what will be the reimbursement, because you cannot start selling and the hospital will say well, how am I going to get paid? So you need to know that, so we do that. And then, when they know how to do it, they have a sales strategy. Because we ask them so how are you going to sell it? Well, we’re going to find a distributor. Have you started to find a distributor? Well, not really. Okay, what kind of distributor? Are you going to look for a stocking distributor, or are you going to look for 1099? So those people are based on commission. They don’t know. So we do that a lot. You know those education, talking a lot with them. We don’t get paid All that time. We don’t get paid. You know, we’re not a consultant in that sense that they pay us per hour for what we’re doing. I wanted to do things differently and I think it works in that sense and people appreciate that. So when they understand everything they need to do, sometimes they will come back to us six months, a year after this morning. I had a conference call with a company a year ago. We started a discussion. So when they feel that now they’re ready, I said okay, now we can help you. We can help you to find a distributor. We can help you with the importation Because the FDA has a regulation where if you’re a foreign company and you want to ship product in the US, the buyer mostly the distributor needs to be registered with the FDA as an importer of medical devices.
49:18
95% of domestic distributors. They’re not registered with the FDA because it’s too expensive for them. They prefer to wait that the product is already in the US and just buy it here in the US. That doesn’t mean it’s a US product, but product already in the US, so they don’t have to deal with the importation part. So because of that foreign companies they have difficulty to find distributors. So we act as their importer of their medical device. They go through us to sell to a distributor or to an hospital, to Amazon. Amazon won’t do the initial importer part. They say we don’t touch that. So if you sell your medical device to Amazon, you need an importer who’s registered with the FDA, so we do that for them. Then, like I said, the warehousing, the distribution. So that’s usually the three big pillars really importation, warehousing and distribution of their product and everything else they need like a reimbursement strategy, marketing strategy. Other type of consultant they need custom broker.
50:25
We can help out because we have a lot of consultants that we work with we are, and I’m pleased to say that we are, because we get that feedback from our customer. That’s what we are.
50:36 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So okay, now is all of the revenue your company generates provided by the client, or are you getting revenue from the client, revenue from the other side of what the client needs and making that connection. Revenue from the other piece of client needs, and making that connection. And revenue from the other piece of client needs and make them? And if you’re making that connection, how did it work?
50:59 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
So I started to build the companies essentially at the beginning with the importation part. So I registered that woman to call with the FDA and started to get customer. Now you know it’s. You know, every week we have a new customer for that. That goes quite well. Now the next phase was the warehousing, because we were getting requests for that. Now we have two warehouses. We need to maximize that and the distribution is the new thing that we’re offering using our sub-distributor or 1099. So what I did? I hired a sales and marketing person. So his role is mainly to manage that, make sure that the warehouse is full of customers and initiate those relationships with matchmaking between manufacturing companies and potential distributors in the US.
52:00
I will say, outside of that, if we refer a customer for reimbursement strategy or a custom broker or whatever, we try to do it in a way where it’s more an exchange of services. So we send customer to them, they send customer to us, because if you are a consultant in reimbursement strategy, I’m pretty sure that you’re going to have a customer that at one point will need an initial importer or warehouse incapacity or distribution. I, that was my decision to work with bringing more clients. Yeah, instead of asking for okay, you know, if I refer you a customer and you know they give me, I just keep it clean. It’s easier that way and and and it’s working for us. You know, we that exchange of people sending us customers, we send customers to them. And also, in my mindset is to keep the costs as low as possible for my customer, because if I get money in between, that means that my customer is paying more for the services he’s getting from the consultant. So I just prefer to keep it more clean like this. How?
53:17 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
big is your team.
53:19 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
So we have here in the office we have five people. It’s a small team, but that’s what we need. And in Canada we have two people in Canada, so because we have a distribution company there and have somebody in Canada who does data entry, so overall it’s like eight people, including me, for Canada and the US.
53:49 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I got the million dollar question Do you reach it? It’s like life should look like this Whatever is up there is up there For Stefan. What’s the big dream, man? When this happens, you’re going to say you know what, I made it, I did this thing and I freaking made it. What is that for you?
54:07 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
It’s funny that you ask that, because way before I decided to come to the US, way before I decided to come to the US, I remember having lunch with a friend in Canada, in Quebec, and I was telling her, I said one day, you know, I can see myself having an apartment with a big counter and I see the ocean. I’m telling you, this is true, you know. I say it’s like I don’t know, maybe 15 years ago and we were laughing about it. But God, right now, the apartment I have, okay, I have to go in my balcony to see the ocean, but still, you know, the vision is the same. You know, I can see outside, I see the palm tree, I see almost the ocean. So I guess dreams they do come true.
54:53
It was probably in the back of my mind, but my dream right now is really to solidify what we have, and I want to. I’m trying to empower people here in the office that they can run that business without me. That’s my goal. So I can just do whatever I want Maybe take a consultant job or travel, explore, starting a business in South America or Europe, whatever, or just grow the business in Canada. But that’s what I’m trying to do to empower people here, so I can go on vacation and they don’t call me so that put it out there, Stefan, I love your, your the whole plan there.
55:43 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That’s awesome, man, you know.
55:44 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
I’m almost there because I was two weeks in vacation in Europe two weeks ago and it was the first time in 10 years where I did some work.
55:57 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
you know, in the morning it wasn’t like you had to be.
55:58 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
you know it felt pretty good because, wow, they have it, they don’t need me that much.
56:04 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Hey, you built a true business. That means you built a true business. That’s amazing. That is amazing. So you know we’re going to bring this to a close. So you know we’re going to bring this to a close.
56:16
But for those listening right now, the people that are med device reps right now, in a specialty like ortho where, or spine where it’s, it’s a little more straightforward as to how to open up a distributorship and get going, yeah, and even for those that want to do that one day and don’t have any experience. And then for the, of course, for the pharma reps that want to become med device reps one day and don’t have any experience. And then for the, of course, for the pharma reps that want to become med device reps, for all those individuals that want to do what you did and haven’t done any of it yet. What’s the advice you would tell them? You know, what should they be mindful of as they align their steps to go your direction? What should they keep in account? What should they be mindful of? What should be in their planning? Anything that you can offer.
56:54 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Obviously, it’s very difficult to jump into the distribution ship, you know, and start buying product and stocking product. So that road, you know it’s very, very difficult. The 1099 road is feasible, I think, because you know you don’t have to do all this. Your network have to do all this, your network. That’s really one thing I did when I arrived here in Miami networking, networking, networking, you know. Got to the Chamber of Commerce, you know a different group being super active on LinkedIn, for example, reaching out to people. I grew my LinkedIn number of followers to like 500 to now 18,000 followers on LinkedIn. So you need to be very, very active.
57:41
And there’s always smaller distributors that are looking to hire young people who have no experience. But they’re going to mold them and they’re going to pay you on commission with probably a base salary, and I think that’s a good way to start, you know, especially in spinal to pedic or if you want to try to get to the big one, to the striker in this world. You know, I think it’s feasible because they do hire young people. But I guess you know, the first thing is always to get some sales experience, no matter what it is, and to show success and passion about what you did, I don’t think it matters.
58:25
I remember when I was in pharma people were saying, oh, do you just hire people with a medical, scientific background? No, I hired people who had a bachelor degree in music when I was a lawyer. So it doesn’t really matter. It matters what you did with your experience. You know that’s what matters. So I think, yeah, looking at you, know a smaller distributor who could be looking to hire a new rep as a 10 out of 9, or just an employee or that distributor. But be very active in networking and if you’re already talking to a physician, ask them who they will be working with, who they like to work with. They can help you out sometime. Put you in contact with different people. Obviously, headhunter could be useful. I never really worked myself with HeadHunter. I did use them when I was in pharma to look for a rep. But I think you have to. There’s no one way to do it. You have to explore every opportunity you could have to get what you want.
59:36 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
One last thing to do, Stefan. Stefan, are you ready for this?
59:43 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
uh, of course, yeah, I mean, this is called the lightning ring.
59:48 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I’m gonna ask you four questions and you have less than 10 seconds to answer each question okay, you know I have add, so it’s for me it’s hard to focus I’ll go slow, okay. First question what is the best book you’ve read in the last six months?
01:00:07 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Oh, that’s so funny. So I just went to Europe and Canadian you know, french-canadian I was exposed when I was very young to a comic book like Tintin, you know, for example. I don’t have it here, so I bought one of the ones that I like, you know, tintin in America. That’s what I’m reading and I love it, it brings me back to my childhood.
01:00:33 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Say it one more time Tintin in America. How do you spell that?
01:00:38 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
T-I-N-T-I-N. So it’s, yeah, it’s a Belgium writer and I went to Belgium, you know, two weeks ago. So I was like, oh my God, you know, bring me my childhood. I bought this, you know original new version of that and I’m reading that right now.
01:00:58 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Oh, that is awesome. I’m going to have to check that out. That’s Tin Tin by who. Who’s the author?
01:01:03 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Herge, so H-E-R-G-E Herge.
01:01:09 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Herge, everyone that will be in the show notes. That is amazing, okay, second question what’s the best TV show slash movie you’ve seen in the last six months?
01:01:22 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Okay, it’s going to sound so cheesy, she’s cussing.
01:01:26 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
No, there’s no judge right here. This is a safe space. Go ahead.
01:01:30 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Okay, I’m a big Netflix guy and I was just laughing a lot, you know watching Emily in Paris.
01:01:44 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I don’t even know what that is. What is that? Emily in Paris, Amy?
01:01:46 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
I don’t even know what that is. What is that? Emily in Paris you know that’s an American woman, you know in marketing goes to Paris to work with a French company and you feel that difference in culture. It just makes me laugh, and maybe because I’m French-Canadian and the French part and I understand how the French could be. Sometimes A lot of it Parisian how they could be. But I’m also a big sci-fi guy, so everything that’s on Netflix, I will watch all of that.
01:02:25 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
We’ll take it Amy-Lien, Fierce. I’ll take it Amy Lee and Paris. I’ll have to check it out. Okay, and then what is the best meal you’ve had in the last six months? We want the restaurant and the item, I’m sorry, and the location.
01:02:40 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Okay, well, it’s going to be a tough one for people to go there, because it was Le Petit Oignons in Belgium, in Brussels, during my vacation. It’s a French you gotta tell us.
01:02:53
Well, you know, every time we go on vacation we try at least once to have a very nice meal. Doesn’t matter the price, but at least a very nice meal. So that was the one. It was not far from our hotel Les Petits Oignons. So a was the one. It was not far from our hotel Les petits oignons. So a small onion Kind of weird in English and everything was just perfect. You know the service, the way they treat you, the wine, the fish, Everything was just fantastic. I think everything in the menu and we took like that, and we took four or five services that they bring you, it was just fantastic.
01:03:34 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Say the name one more time.
01:03:35 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Les Petits Oignons.
01:03:37 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Les Petits Oignons In Belgium.
01:03:41 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
In Belgium. Yeah, Anything on the menu is a winner. Oh yeah.
01:03:46 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That will also be in the show notes, folks. And the last question, Stéphane, last but not least what is the best experience you’ve had the last six months?
01:03:58 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
The best experience the last six months. Well, like I said, you know the reason I work so hard I like to take vacation and when I take vacation it’s the time of the year where I can relax. So I will say that my last vacation, because one of my friends, she got married in Prague in a castle, fancy stuff. You know that was fabulous. So beautiful pictures. You know, like it was the first time in my life that I was buying a tuxedo because it was black and white. So I just enjoyed that time so much so I would say that’s it, yeah.
01:04:50 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Thank you so much for sharing with us. Thank you for the time today. You dropped so many pearls of wisdom. We can’t wait to see what you continue to do with your fantastic company. And thank you again for being on the Medical Sales Podcast.
01:04:59 – Stéphane Toupin (Guest)
Thank you, Samuel, for having me Take care.
01:05:02 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And that was Stefan Tupin. Wow, what a journey. You know I love guests that have experiences as diverse as his. I mean, gosh, to go from pharma and then to manager, and then to opportunity and then med device and then to entrepreneur, and now sky’s the limit and he’s living his best life. It’s fascinating. I love learning about these stories because they inspire all of us, right? I mean, how do you not hear that and think to yourself whatever I’m trying to do, there’s a chance I can make it happen, and that’s why we share these stories.
01:05:38
So if you’re someone that wants to get into the industry, you already know what I’m going to say Visit EvolveSuccesscom. If you’re someone that wants to get better in the industry, you already know what I’m going to say visit VarvisSuccesscom. And if you’re someone like him that maybe you’re in the industry or maybe you’re not, but you know that at some point, at some time in the future, you want to have your own distributorship. You want to have your pick of the litter, of what devices you get to sell or, yes, what’s the right thing to sell to whoever you like and get the devices whatever you like, and that’s the business you want to be in, or maybe you’ve heard about it and you’re thinking, gosh, that’d be really cool. You already know what I’m going to say Visit, evolve your Success. Fill out an application, schedule some time with one of our specialists, and this is what’s going to happen. If you want to get into one of our programs, like the Career Builder, where you can get into the job of your dreams in medical sales and we go as far as to literally help you find what specialty you should be in and why, and then don’t stop working with you until you’re actually in it, you’re going to talk to one of our enrollment managers and they’re going to discuss with you that program. If you’re someone that wants to make good on the job you have in medical device or pharmaceutical or any kind of medical sales and you want to get to Winner’s Circle or President’s Club or just get your numbers up, you’re going to talk to another one of our managers and they’re going to talk about the sales builder. And if you’re someone that heard this episode and you’re thinking to yourself, how do I talk about that? Who do I talk to about that? Again, fill out an application. You’ll talk to again another one of our enrollment managers and they will route you straight to me if necessary, if this is a passion you truly want to pursue and you have the means to at least get started, so listen.
01:07:24
The Medical Sales Podcast is here for you. We create these episodes so you can learn everything there possibly is to learn about in medical sales and you can navigate whether you want to be a part of this community or whether you want to make new moves within the community that you’re in with medical sales. That’s why we do this, so this doesn’t just exist for you to listen and learn. This exists for you to interact, meaning we are your resource. If you got questions and you’re ready to get started on something, don’t hesitate. Go to the website, fill out an application and have a discussion. Let’s get you to where you want to go.
01:08:00
As always, we do our best to bring you guests and do things differently in the medical sales space, so make sure you tune in next week for another episode of the Medical Sales Podcast. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and remember I have a customized and personalized program that gets you into the medical technology industry as a sales professional, or any type of role for that matter. Become a top performer in your position and masterfully navigate your career to executive level leadership. Check out these programs and learn more at EvolvesAssesscom by visiting our site, filling out an application schedule, some time with one of our account executives and allowing us to get you where you need to be. Stay tuned for more awesome content with amazing interviews on the Medical Sales Podcast.
Medical Territory Manager!
I was a Regional Sales Representative for Long-Term Care pharmacy services. I had dreamed of getting into the med sales industry when I went into my career as a nurse, but the pharmacy sales job came to me, and I had just settled. Fortunately, I had a job shakeup that allowed me to determine that now was the time to pursue my original vision.
I absolutely would not have this position without Samuel and the Evolve Your Success community. A lot of people my age would just stop trying, but EYS believed in me.
EYS allowed me to break into the industry in 90-Days after I had been trying on my own for over two years! I had lots of recruiter screenings, and a few interviews with hiring managers, but I was never offered a position.
Before EYS, I didn’t realize I was doing the bare minimum to get hired. I was applying everywhere, hoping to get noticed and waiting. It just wasn’t working! I didn’t know that that was not enough to compete in an industry this sought after, and against people who knew what I didn’t know about the process.
Of course, I had to think hard before making a financial investment that’s reasonably substantial. But when I read the testimonials of real med sales reps on the site and learned that I wasn’t the only one taking a chance on my success, that EYS was sharing that risk also, I knew I had to do it. Though you might be able to cobble together some of the steps of getting a role in med sales from online research on your own, you just can’t know what you don’t know!
The process of going through EYS presents this insider knowledge to the student, as well as giving you a progression of difficulty as you obtain the information, and you begin to master it. Not only that, but they give you access to amazing mentors and instructors, allow you to practice your interview skills, and teach you how to market yourself through social media and your own website! I cannot stress enough that EYS was the factor that made the difference in my successfully landing my dream job! The support, structure, and knowledge gained was invaluable!
I would recommend this course to ANYONE looking to break into medical sales
Thank you so much, EYS! This journey has been life changing and has resulted in the successful culmination of my 18-Year ambition! 
Sports Medicine in Phoenix! I extend so much gratitude to the Evolve Your Success group as I land this role and get ready to pursue my dream job. I am a Physical Therapist who became a little stuck in the profession due to issues with reimbursement and the difficulty for continued growth upwards. I turned to EYS to assist me in learning about the medical sales industry and gain knowledgable mentors who were able to help coach me in this process. I am a strong believer in surrounding yourself with the best and good things will happen. I did work hard, but with the support of my mentors and other colleagues going through a career change, I felt a sense of community and it confirmed my drive to get into this industry. I have already learned so much through the interview process, and feel very blessed to have had the resources this group provided. I have made lifelong friends and I cannot wait to continue to follow others’ journeys to pursue this incredible field. I urge you to give Evolve Your Success a try to gain mentorship, guidance, and support through any career transition.
and am excited to make a difference in patients’ lives as a Pharmaceutical Sales Specialist.
! Though I truly enjoyed working as a physical therapist, I can’t wait to start my career in the sales world as a Clinical Account Executive.
. I owe this opportunity to Samuel, the program, and the incredible mentors at EYS.
