Must-Do’s If You Want a Superior Role
Todd Crowder, a true medical sales legend, joins us, again to break down exactly how to navigate career moves with clarity and confidence. Whether you’re chasing growth or escaping a bad fit, Todd shares how to time transitions strategically, factoring in fiscal year cycles, capital equipment sales, and the difference between a smart move and a lateral mistake made out of frustration.
We take a hard look at toxic leadership and how to spot it early. Todd reveals the red flags that signal deeper company-wide issues versus isolated manager problems, and how to evaluate whether a compensation plan aligns with your goals, or sets you up for burnout. You’ll also learn how to build lateral leadership experience that prepares you for the next level.
For anyone evaluating job offers or company fit, this episode is your blueprint. We walk through the key things to investigate before you sign, from procedural mix and product pipeline to financial stability and market opportunity. Todd explains why local market dynamics often matter more than company culture, and how to use your network to gather the intel that recruiters won’t tell you.
If you’re serious about building a long-term career in medical sales, this episode gives you the mindset, metrics, and strategy to make your next move your best one yet.
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Episode Transcript:
00:05 – 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.
00:50 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
There’s a summer lag that was called drilling worth salespeople and that is sales aren’t necessarily going June and July as much as you want. You’re starting to get a little anxious, depending on how long you’ve been in a certain facility, whether it’s a major corporation or whether it’s a minor, whether you’re independent. That summer lag is a real thing and I always caution people to try to make sure you make a wise business decision if you’re going to move in the summertime, because typically hospitals run that fiscal year. Some run calendar year but, like a lot of hospitals around here, they’re just now starting in July, so their budgets are about to be released. So don’t leave before you.
01:30
If you worked on a capital deal, don’t leave before that. See whether it’s going to be approved or not. Then you’ve got your companies probably coming up either on a fiscal year or they’re in the Q4. They’re about to go into Q4. Just word of advice If you’re going to move companies, be sure that you’re moving for the right reasons and you’re just not moving because you’re frustrated and you think it’s going to be better.
02:00 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So you’re saying don’t move during the summer.
02:02 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
No, it’s a catch-22, right. You can sit there and say don’t move. But if it’s the right offer at the right time, that’s fine.
02:08 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Right right, it’s like buying a house. It just depends on the numbers. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:13 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
You might not get the right interest rate, but is the price of the house right? If the price of you moving to a new job make sure you’re moving to a job bottom line is something to improve your career and not that you’re running away from something because you’re frustrated with lack of sales, several times too slow, you’ve got an itch going on because you’re tired of doing the same routine again and again, because a lot of times, unless you’re doing something, that’s going to be radically different either call point management, different product line to different surgeons, going to office-based versus OR-based you’re just changing the routine in the sense that you’re going through training. Now you go back and you’re going to be at the same facilities doing the exact same thing with a different product.
03:09
You’re not changing your grind unless you’re changing the attitude in which you’re trying to improve yourself. Your financial aspects are going to improve greatly. Don’t Be cheerful.
03:24 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Generally speaking, though, all there are all variables the same You’re saying that several times but usually not a good time to switch companies.
03:33 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
I don’t think it is. Yeah, explain that. So let’s say, for example, you went from Working at Medtronic selling mostly disposable devices to go work into stores, capital sales equipment, big mega deals. There’s a reason why that territory is open in the summertime. You’re probably going to make the capital cycle and you’re probably going to be a year out before you can get to that capital cycle again. So unless your company has alternatives such as leasing to own one, buying some sort of disposables into having the capital done, you’re going into a capital equipment. I guess that’s really where.
04:17
But you have to make sure you’re going into the right situation, cause if you’re going to a capital equipment and you’ve missed the beginning of the fiscal year like if you were down here in Atlanta, three of the major hospitals just started their fiscal year Well, if you weren’t on those books, guess what? You’re a year out. And so now you’ve just made a move from a disposable income, working disposable, into these having a monthly portion being used and daily portion being used to have any capital which takes a long time to grind itself out. So I worry when reps get so anxious in the summertime to jump jobs unless it’s a jump to financially improve themselves and don’t take the OTE, as the recruiter or the manager is telling you, unless you ask the question. Well, how many people are there?
05:07 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
But in the same vein, if you’ve been wanting to leave and you’re saying that summertime is usually when jobs are the most open, wouldn’t that be a good time to look for an opening that you wouldn’t normally have?
05:19 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
Unless it’s an improvement. Your next job shouldn’t be a lateral move, unless you’re in a toxic situation. Your next job if you’re in medical sales, you shouldn’t go from medtronic territory manager to ethicon territory manager or to applied medical territory manager or to a whole logic territory manager. You’re just changing the hat that you just were wearing, unless it’s a financial gain, which it may have to be.
05:47
In my opinion, it’s kind of like you don’t refinance your house If you’re at 6% interest and it drops to 5.9, you don’t go. Oh, it’s below six. You don’t go refinance your house because the cost of that and the cost for a sales rep is you’re out of the territory. You now have to go to training, you have to make sure you pass training, you’re away from everything that you were building and now you’re going to come back with a different head on. So, in that same kind of a brash way of looking at it, make sure if you’re going to refinance or you’re going to retool yourself, it is to be able to be improved. So if someone say, hey, he left Medtronic but they went over to become a manager at Johnson and Johnson, or they became a manager over at Apply Medical, whatever the case might be. Don’t move just because you’re frustrated.
06:37 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So let’s, talk about let’s define it Now. I know this is your opinion. Todd no-transcript. What should the territory step into look like? What should the upward mobility be? What defines this is a worthy move?
07:20 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
So I think you have to have at least a $30,000 increase Because anything else, your tax bracket you always want your tax bracket to increase in the same size Does your upper mobility means a lot. So if you’re wanting to be able to do it you know I don’t want to pick on companies so I’m going to keep all companies’ names out of it, but I know companies that are too linear, meaning you’ve got territory manager, regional manager, adp president. So there’s no steps in between. And if your desire is to become a manager and you want to be able to, you think you have the skill sets to be able to manage a team, whether it be marketing or sales, and you don’t have that ability. I understand the move and you don’t have that ability. I understand the move, I get it, but you better be able to move for an increase in pay and the ability in writing that you would have an opportunity to interview for a manager’s job. Don’t just take the manager you’re interviewing with their word saying oh, yeah, you have a bunch of opportunities. It’s like anything else If it’s not in writing, it does not exist, because then they can turn back in time and say well, you know, we’re just not in the place where we think you should be able to do it.
08:31
You need to be able to move, knowing and letting that manager know your job. You want to have the future with this company. That company is to move up the ladder. So if you don’t have at least a $30,000 pay increase or a short trip into management, then why are you moving? If all things are equal, the grass isn’t going to be greener on the other side. The grind isn’t going to be. Yes, managers make a difference, and maybe you’re in a bad situation. That is a totally different scenario. If you’re in a bad situation, that is a totally different scenario. If you’re in a bad management situation and that manager is not going to make your life easy, I get it, I’ve done it, I’ve left because of management, but you just. That means those are far and few between, in my opinion.
09:23
I think, frustration builds too quickly.
09:25 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Sure, and you’re right. I think there’s a growing intolerance for what you’re supposed to bear in a job, and I think to your point, what a lot of people discover is they start job hopping only to realize they’re experiencing the same thing over and over and over again, and that’s just a red flag of you clearly have an intolerance to just what needs to be dealt with to get ahead. But let’s go back to the definition. So so if we have 30,000 and a defined manager tracking the contract, those warrant a move. What about defining what working for a bad manager looks like? What is someone that should really consider leaving experiencing from their manager versus someone that should really consider sticking it out experiencing from their manager?
10:14 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
I think you have to look at the tenure of the manager, how long they’ve been, how long they’ve been there. If you’ve been there at any sort of period of time frame which you’re looking to leave, you’ve probably been there at minimum at least three years before. Three years unless it’s a harassment three years you’re going to probably just now get your sea lanes underneath your really heavy territory, moving and grooving where you feel comfortable. Some days you don’t have to be an ex-hospital because you know they’re going to do the right things. So you’re going to have at least in my opinion, you need to have at least three years if you’ve started a job before you look to go do anything else. If not, you’re going to put yourself in bad jeopardy. If you have a bad manager the bad manager one after that three-year period of time, they are micromanaging you Because you need to look at yourself at the same time too. It’s not always just management. Sometimes you’re just a bad employee, and that’s the other part of this. If they are micromanaging every part of your business, if you’re constantly feeling that there is no lateral ability for you to have a, I call it lateral management grouping, that being defined, as I have the chance to be able to be a leader without being a leader. You’re giving me responsibilities. I’ve expressed to you this is what I want to do. I want to become a manager, but you refuse to allow me to take on responsibilities, to be a lateral leader. I don’t have the same title, but yet I’m given more responsibilities Because if you want to truly get into that, you won’t have a problem taking that responsibility on, regardless of not being paid for it, because those are some of the sacrifices that are needed.
11:52
If you don’t have the ability to do that, they constantly want to micromanage you. There are constantly little digs. Here and there there are. If you’d have worked harder you’d have gotten this. Or if you’d have paid attention more, there are constant. If you stop to listen to it, they’re belittling little jams at you and your performance. Those are the reasons why you turn around and look at management and you go. What is around? This is why I encourage every rep to do it. Is that a culture of their management? Because I’ve been there.
12:27
The culture of the management says this is how we manage we intimidate, we belittle and we degrade so that we seem so superior to everybody else that everybody else either leaves us or they leave us alone. If you’re in that situation after three years, you probably should take a look to see to leave, because that’s a bad manager now there’s bad management and there’s bad companies.
12:53 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I talk to a lot of reps and managers and some of them I advise them on what moves they should be making, and what I’m starting to see a lot is what move should I be making versus bad manager or bad company, In your opinion? Todd, give us what bad company leadership looks like, and then I mean, you kind of just defined bad management, but give us what bad company leadership looks like and when someone needs to. How long should someone even be waiting to make a move? When they get the sense that that’s happening, Go ahead.
13:26 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
Unless it is again harassment physical. Unless it is again harassment physical, emotional, even sexual. To me, you, you need to figure out a three-year period. Is there a magic number for three years? The reason why? Because it’s going to take you about 18 months, usually for a rep to really understand all the bounds. Things need to be done, whether it’s from a hospital standpoint, different call point, ins and outs of the company, how the company itself works, and that’s usually not unveiled until you sit in there and you really have things going. So give yourself three years when you take a job, bad company.
14:06
In my opinion, words and actions don’t line up. We tell you this is what we were. We’re about work-life balance, we’re about family, we’re about all these things, but yet we’re doing conference calls at 6 o’clock at night. We’re driving you to a point where we’re not listening to anybody’s opinions. We’re focused strictly on this thing. Listen to anybody’s opinions? We’re focused strictly on this thing. We’re seemingly watching them be a ship in the water without a rudder to be able to guide the ship.
14:37
You can’t understand the direction because this is not a hot thing. And then, all of a sudden, two months later, now this is a hot thing. We need to go sell. So there’s no clear guidance in which the direction you’re supposed to be doing and, as a sales rep, your most important thing, besides worrying about the patient or the customer is manage your business according to the cop plan they give you. If you want to earn more money, manage the cop plan and how they want to pay you. If they’re going to pay you 25% on X widget, then X widget needs to be your highest thing, compared to maybe 10% here and 12% there. So that needs to be the big whale that you have to target and figure out how to get that done while also getting the other parts done.
15:24 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
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16:20 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
So the company will tell you what is their importance by how they pay you. E-tan is continually changing, but the comp plan is not changing. That’s a bad company, that’s a bad mix, because they’re not in a clear direction on what they want to do. And in five years from now, all the questions are how do you see the company developing in five years? We all ask that question in interviews and the management comes oh, you know, we’ve got a healthy R&D, we’ve got moving things that are going, this things. And you’ve been there for three years and you’ve talked to other reps? Yeah, they’ve been telling us for the last five years that this healthy R&D, we have yet to have a new product. We’ve had demo products. They’ve had to pull back. Sure, we’ve had acquisitions of new products because we couldn’t do it on our own. The acquisition didn’t go well. We paid 10 times street value, but yet our sales do not justify the value by which the company was.
17:15
That, to me, is a bad run company and you’re going to find that out within the first three years. You’re doing it, in my opinion.
17:27 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I’ve seen it too many times. Yeah, let’s take it to the entry-level rep that’s trying to get into medical sales. What from your opinion again, what is a good time? What do you think in the year is the easiest time for that rep to get a job, and why?
17:48 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
So you need to find out the company.
17:50 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Based on the season is what I’m saying.
17:52 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
So you need to find out when their end of the year is and how they run, because what usually happens? They have their big bonuses and they get their quotas at their national meetings and then by that time, within the next three to four weeks, the people that have got their bonuses and got their projected commissions for the following year are either in or out. So if they’re running on a fiscal year and say New Year begins in October, they have their big national sales meeting. They come in there, people get their big bonus checks, they get all the prizes and all the rewards and stuff of that nature. If they didn’t make it, they’ll be on their way out real quickly because they’ll get their quotas and they’ll be like nope, I’m done If they’ve done it and they’ve blown it out.
18:40
But they know they put in a house of cards and they’re like this is going to be exposed, I’m out, I’m done, I’m out, I’m done. So find out the company you’re talking about and find out how they’re running their company on a fiscal or a calendar year, knowing that that timeframe, right after that new year starts for them, you’re going to have a big exodus. It happens every single company I’ve ever worked with, because they get their bonuses and they get their quotas and they either built it on the cards or they built it and if they’re happy or not, and if they’re not happy and a bunch of openings are going to be happening with that company, Exactly so.
19:20
It’s a roll of the dice, it’s tricky because here here is new trying to break into the industry and you just want to do something. Also, like I told them in that the interview process, sometimes when you just want to get into the industry, sometimes the industry doesn’t have a straight, linear path. Sometimes that has a curve and a jagged and a reverse around. So there was a dear, dear friend of mine and they were associate rep and the problem is they were not going to leave Atlanta that period I’m not leaving, there is no. They left to become a territory manager in a different company. Things go on about two years, three years later I think it was three years we had an opening in the territory that that individual knew so well and they came back to it. And they came back and they’re thriving in that territory. Sometimes it doesn’t always look as cookie cutter as we want to make it.
20:17 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Sure, yeah, yeah.
20:18 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
You have to be willing to say I just need to get into the game and I’ll figure some of the other stuff out, because then then you have to understand you are the brand right To the customer. You are whole logic. You are Medtronic, you are applied. You are a striker. You are the brand Right To the customer. You are Hologit. You are Medtronic, you are Applied. You are Striker, you are Storz. They don’t associate everything else. If there’s a problem, you’re the person that’s supposed to fix it.
20:42
Right If it’s going great. You’re the person that gets to have the praise.
20:46 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Right Okay. So from the outsider rep that’s listening to this right now Right Okay. So from the outsider rep that’s listening to this right now, this is great. I’m going to find out what’s the best way to find out, besides asking a rep, because maybe the reps don’t want to talk about it, maybe they don’t want to explain to an outsider when the next national sales meeting is, when they get their new goals. How do you find out, as the outside person trying to identify, if this company is a good time to try to enter it? How do you find out these things?
21:16 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
about their goals and the national team and all that. If it’s a publicly traded company, that’s public information how they? Because you’ll say we’re running our quarters and we’re having quarterly reports okay, and don’t always look for the reps that are right in your area to talk to. If, if you’re good and I had a conversation with a young individual the other day about this and I said, look, trying to get a rep to open up to you on LinkedIn, you have to treat it like dating. You’ve got to inquire about them. How did they do this?
21:46
I’m a young individual, just out of college. I just finished medical sales college. I just finished all these things. I know how to do all this stuff. I want to be able to be medical sales. That is all about you and nothing about them. They want to be some, not all. There are some that want to be treated as though we’ve broken through. Now you need our help. Also, understand some reps don’t have the capacity to be a mentor. They don’t want to do anything. They’re barely surviving themselves. So don’t necessarily pick the town until you’ve made some connections outside of the area that you want to work. So if you’re in the middle of Kansas City, go pick somebody down in Texas. It’s relatively in the straight same areas, going straight up the middle of the country. Go pick somebody in Texas, go pick somebody in Minneapolis that are in the same company, you’ll begin to understand and maneuver around.
22:49
One of my associates that came and worked with me. He did that. He was at Alaska and he talked to reps in Alaska. Then he talked to reps in Fresno, somehow or another. Somebody mentioned my name and he contacted me. Oh, he was out in California and then he contacted a rep down in Mississippi and then they finally got to meet. So I mean through different means and different connections, because then somebody, if you make a connection somewhere else and let’s say to say, joe Smith in Fresno, california, is a person you connect with. Hey, joe, you know, I’m really looking to be able to be in Kansas City. Hey, you know what.
23:22
I know, I know Mary. Mary’s over there. She’s wonderful, she’s always been great, she’s a top performer. I’ll tell you what I’ll send, because you’ve made the connection. I’ll send Mary a note and tell her hey, be on the lookout for Todd giving you a bus. He’s a good guy. I’ve had a chance to talk to him in midterm a little bit. He really wants to get with us. You guys might have an opening coming up. You might know better than me. So here you go, talk to him. Find somebody outside the arena where you want to work so you can build credibility with the individual to call that individual out in the area that you want to work.
23:54 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I love it. I love it. So, in this same vein, now you have this rep that’s listening to this right now and like, all right, cool. So I found the company I want to work for. I found out when their national meetings are and when they’re going to be announcing new goals for the upcoming fiscal year. I found out when their exodus if they have one is going to happen, so that there’s an entrance for me. I found the rep I’m going to talk to that’s going to give me that insider information. I’m all knowing what’s going on.
24:22
What about the company itself? Not the rep that’s active, that’s looking for a new job, but the outsider that wants to get into the industry. What is the simple checklist they can run through to let them know is this company someone I should consider? Let’s say, they get the interview and then they heard another podcast and they heard you just got to get in and they’re like, okay, I just got to get in. You know me, todd, I don’t really agree with you. Just got to get in. You got to get in where you fit in. So what’s the? This is a worthy company that I should consider working for. Checklist for that outsider individual that wants to be a salesman.
24:56 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
First and foremost to me, you got to understand the procedures by which they are dealing with. You can be taught the product and how the product interacts, but if you walk into an interview and you’re talking to people and you don’t even understand the first thing about how a shoulder is done or how a hysterectomy is done or how a gastric bypass ruin Y is done and that’s where their focus is then you are so far behind the rainbow. You should be able to articulate the procedures by which the company has. You’re probably going to mispronounce the name. The great thing that this generation has over everybody else is they can Google and watch.
25:37 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Two seconds. They can watch the procedure and be relatively versed in how to talk about it. You’re absolutely right, sure.
25:43 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
That’s where you’ve got to do your homework more than anything, because if you don’t understand the procedure, you don’t understand how the product interacts. The company is irrelevant.
25:55 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Let’s say you have all that and you, as the person trying to get in, is trying to vet if this company is worth the time you’re putting into it. Here’s the reality. Being on the outside, you have no idea, you’re just trying to get into medical sales. So at this point you’ll say yes to almost anything. But what if you don’t take that approach? What if you don’t say yes to anything, especially if it’s a bad situation that you don’t know? So what’s the checklist that someone can have to vet a company to make sure they’re not walking into a bad situation?
26:28 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
Well, I think, first of all, you’ve got to take a look. I will still say procedures and understanding. I think you have to take a look. If it’s a publicly treated company, where their financials sit, meaning where their quarterly reports have been, where’s their last annual reports been, what is the stock market saying about them, how they perform? I mean, what do they perform under? And all this stuff is just public knowledge. It just takes the time to go do it, of course, because if they’re not meeting their expectations and they’re falling below, or they had to adjust earnings to be able to make this, or they overperformed and their analysis came back and now they’re rated higher because their stock goes up, all these things are, to me, you have to understand. You have to understand the public persona of how the company is and how it financially sits. After that, I personally, I go talk to them, I go find one of their competitors. How do their competitors look?
27:26
And the reason why I say that is so, say, if you wanted to go to Storch was your ideal company. You want to find out in that town, kind of asking hospitals, asking doctors, I mean, I know it’s hard to get into, but sometimes you’ve got to be the investigator, reporter and find a way to do it. And you’ve got to find out, because if you can be in a town like Atlanta, georgia, you can have a hospital system like Northside Hospital System and you can have Stortz at the main hospital, stryker at a satellite campus. You have Olympus, a satellite campus. You have Olympus at another campus. You need to find out what the area and how that competition looks, make friends with the nurses. As far as LinkedIn I almost said online LinkedIn you have to do your homework. That goes beyond this.
28:18 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
When you say, find out how the competition looks, you’re saying, okay, so if you do this and you find out that huge Olympus usage and huge striker usage and all this usage, that’s not your product, you’re saying that’s like a strike against the company you’re going for. Or are you saying something else?
28:37 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
I’m saying that’s your greatest opportunity to join there and be the hero that you want to be. Right, Okay, Look, you can walk into an interview and now going. Samuel, I understand the market looks like, from the best that I can tell, looking and talking to different people, it looks like well, storage is really probably only about 15% to 20% of the market here in Atlanta. You know, I really think with my skill sets and what I’ve been able to do in the investigation I’ve been able to do, I think I can come in here and start moving that needle in our direction and taking business away from them. If you go in there and you’re in a saturated market and Stortz has 98% of the market, well, here’s the reason why that position might be open. It might the rep might feel so saturated that they have nowhere to grow.
29:22 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And you are not saying that should be a red flag for the rep trying to get in. You’re saying that should be an opportunity for the rep trying to get in to address and talk about how they can turn things around.
29:32 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
Exactly. If you walk in and you’re at a disadvantage and you want to get in there, if you want to prove yourself as a sales rep, that’s like the golden unicorn sitting in front of you Because you’re either going to perform like you want to perform and everything you said and believe about yourself to get in this job is going to be sitting right there for you and you’ll be the greatest surprise child of everybody. Everybody will love you because you’ve been able to take business from the competition. But again, it takes work. You have to be willing. This is not. It’s stuff that you can go find, but you just can’t sit back and go. I want to get into medical sales, but no one will give me an interview. I have to get into medical sales but I really don’t know what the competition outlay of this area is.
30:22
Would you walk into a hospital knowing whether or not, if you are a rep? When you were a rep, did you walk into a hospital not understanding what your competition or where you stood? It’s the practicality of what you’re going to do on a day-to-day basis. So why not understand that? Prior to the interview, do your homework and if you’ve got the opportunity to go in there. Let’s just say it’s like 50-50. And it’s just two of you guys, it’s Medtronic and it’s Epicon and they’re battling out as they’ve always done for decades and they’re 50-50.
30:55
But you’ve also taken time. You’ve gotten to know, you’ve reached out to a first assist or a nurse in that area. You’ve made some common goals and some areas to sit there and have a conversation with those individuals and you’ve played your cards right. And now all of a sudden you can walk in the area with you and you’ve made contacts. Now you can say hey, I realize this is pretty much a sweat house, especially over at XYZ Hospital. Hey, I realize this is pretty much a sweat house, especially over at XYZ Hospital. After talking to some of them over there, whoa, the manager’s going to look at you like what do you mean? You talked to them. You’re doing the extra. That is preparing you to show what you’re willing to do while you’re working. Interviews should be a reflection of how you’re going to perform. People forget. They just want to try to get through the interview to get the job. You’re setting an expectation as you’re going through interviews, saying this is how I’m going to perform for you.
31:49 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Right, right, okay, so let’s get the rest of that checklist. So we’ve looked at the financials. We’ve looked at now the competition. What else?
32:02 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
Does it meet the desire that you want to do?
32:05 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, talk to us a little bit more. What do you mean?
32:09 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
As we go through the program we have everybody produce. They talk about what is their why. If you’re not going to get excited, you’re sitting here and I don’t want to name companies. But if your main job is to do dressings for wounds, that is the definition of it. People have made great living of it. I’m not trying to disparage anybody from doing it.
32:29 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And some people find a lot of passion in doing that, by the way.
32:32 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
But if that’s not your drive desire to get out there and do it, you will probably last about 18 months. By the time you figure the business out you will have the quote unquote burnout because you’re just not into it. It doesn’t meet. You don’t wake up passionate about being able to say I want to make sure this patient feels great and the doctor has great comfort to it. So you have to understand the why about what you want to be able to do it. I know that’s a little bit further down the list than some people say. You start with your why. Your why needs to match what you want to do. But I don’t think it’s as high I really think it’s about third or fourth on the list to be able to make sure Because you can have a great passion for women’s health. But if you go and that’s your why do they drive it but everything else doesn’t?
33:22
match the financials of the company is right, terrible, yeah horrible. The management is horrible. The reps are all pissed off and ready to leave everybody you talk to. I mean, it doesn’t make a difference if your passion is women’s health, if it’s a crappy company and you think it’s going to fold. I mean think about all the people that went to E-Coil. The little sterilization portion you had down in the office Well, where’s that now? So you made good money with your other front end of it, but then all of a sudden it didn’t match everything else it needed to match and they got yanked.
33:53 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, anything else you’d add to this list. Say again Anything else you’d add to this list. Say again Anything else you’d add to this list.
34:01 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
I think that point in time, the last thing, it is important. I don’t mean to put it last, but if you’re going to rank things, some things have to be first, some things have to be fifth, fourth or whatever. I do think you need to understand the culture of the company, which is the overlying, and then you have the culture of the team. They don’t necessarily have to match. The culture of the company is we want to improve shoulders the way they’re done throughout the country. We want to be the top orthopedic company that when you think about shoulder replacement you think about body part replacements. You think of us.
34:39
That’s an umbrella. We want to be the top Sure Subset team culture. Does the team have a bunch of backstabbers? Step on your throat, step on you, push you away. You’ve got to earn every little thing. We’re going to treat you like you’re a private walking through basic training until we’ve determined that you deserve our help. I’ve seen teams treat new reps as though they were just a scum of the earth until they viewed, or the top influence in that company or that team viewed them as worthy enough to be able to have help be given.
35:30 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Now, do you believe you can find this out before working on that team?
35:35 – Todd Crowder (Guest)
I think you can in a small micro sense. That’s why it’s important to understand and have communications with other members around the country, because they will have a viewpoint of how that team is. They might say they’re all top performers, but they’re a bunch of a-holes. They’re satisfied with what they do, they like their manager and they always have fun together and they always seem to want to be around each other. They are the team that never performs. They run through people like managers, like there’s nobody’s business, and it’s always true to know there’s been one person that’s been a constant and that’s the cancer in the group. They’re never fired regardless. So you can have conversations with team members of other subset teams, other regions of the districts, and they’ll be able to kind of have that conversation. Hey, what do you know about the Atlanta group? What do you know about the Houston group? Hey, how is LA’s group really highly perceived by you guys? So I think those are conversations as you’re building your understanding of do I want to go work for this company, that you have to have an honest conversation and you’ve got to be okay to be uncomfortable with asking hey, just out of curiosity, what is y’all’s perception of the South Central team in LA. Dude, they’re rock stars. Every one of them always performs. Dude, if you’re not performing, you’re done. Like they give you a short leash. They expect everybody to be a quota by the third month. If you’re not there, they’re writing you on the pip. If you’re not off that pip in 30 days, dude, you’re done.
37:18
It is cutthroat, but they all perform top-wise. So you have to ask yourself can I be that or do I need a culture that allows me to learn, allows me to make mistakes? This kind of helps mold you around. The manager’s always there to help you. Gosh, seeing you as a manager man, he has been there for 10 years. You can’t get anybody to leave it. The fact that that position was open is unbelievable, because Samuel never loses anybody. They all stay. Or if they do leave, they’re being moved up into a group, into marketing, into management themselves. You can find that out by asking around and that does that beginning portion of it. Don’t necessarily go make friends on LinkedIn and find out about the company with those that are in your immediate area that you’re looking to go work, because then you can draw that stuff back out, because that is very important. Regional culture is greater and more essential than company culture.
38:22 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I like it. I like it, todd. This has been an enlightening conversation. We’ll be doing this again. 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.
