Break Into Medical Sales: How to Choose the Right Specialty
Choosing the wrong medical sales role is one of the biggest reasons professionals burn out or walk away from the industry. In this episode, Samuel Adeyinka breaks down exactly how to avoid that mistake — and how to find the medical sales specialty that actually fits your personality, lifestyle, and long-term goals.
Medical sales isn’t one-size-fits-all. From trauma reps in the OR at 3 a.m. to pharmaceutical reps building slow-burning relationships, this episode unpacks the real differences between specialties — and how those differences directly impact your happiness and success.
Samuel shares four powerful questions to ask before applying to any role, helping you get clear on your ideal lifestyle, how you like to build relationships, your appetite for clinical depth, and whether you’re built for building new business or growing existing accounts.
You’ll also learn what hiring managers are really looking for, why desperation kills your chances, and how the wrong fit leads to fast burnout and industry ghosting. This episode is packed with real talk, strategic insight, and a roadmap to make smarter career decisions from the start.
If you’re serious about getting into medical sales, stop guessing. Message Samuel on LinkedIn with the word podcast to get access to MedSales Match — the free tool that helps you find the specialty made for you and unlock your next move.
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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. Hello and welcome back to the Medical Sales Podcast. I’m your host, samuel, and today we’re going to be diving into one of the biggest reasons why people fail in medical sales Choosing the wrong role, choosing the wrong specialty, the wrong sales cycle and, ultimately, the wrong lifestyle. And the truth is that can be avoided if you make the right decisions up front. So today I want to walk through how to choose the right medical sales role for you, how to choose that right specialty that’s tailored for you so that you can have a long career in medical sales instead of burying out in six months. Okay, so let’s get something straight. Medical sales is not a one-size-fits-all. There’s all types of medical sales. You have trauma, where you might be in the OR at 3 am. You have elective medical sales, where you’re often in a space of 9 to 5. You have pharmaceutical, where you have long relationships and you’re doing a lot of waiting. You have SaaS, where you might have remote work and you’re focused on closing deals, and even medical science liaisons unique roles like that, where it’s all about the clinical education and it’s not about the selling Point is, if you’re someone that wants structure and predictability, the last thing you want is a trauma role. If you’re someone that loves not knowing what’s going to happen and watching the spur of a moment, you’ll never want to go to work again if you’re in a pharmaceutical role after week one. So how do we do it right? Medical sales is not a one-size-fits-all type of career. For example, in trauma medical device, you might be in the OR at 3 am. In elective medical device, you at least get to have a little bit more control about when these procedures happen because they need to be scheduled. In pharmaceutical sales, you’re not even in the OR You’re waiting in offices. And if you don’t like that, then in SaaS sales, you might be doing a lot of remote work and you’re really focused on closing the deal. And in other roles, like medical science liaison, you’re not even selling. You’re talking more clinical education that supports the sales.
02:49
The point is you don’t want to pick trauma. If you want predictability and you want to know where you’re going each and every day, and if you love the adventure of a day and you don’t want to know what’s happening, the last thing you want to choose is pharmaceutical sales, where it’s really the same thing, same customers, day in, day out. So how do you do this the right way so you don’t experience burnout? Here are four questions I want you to ask before you apply to a single role. Question number one what type of lifestyle do you want? Do you want structure, where you wake up and you know exactly where you’re going to go, what you’re going to do, what you’re going to say and how you’re going to make it happen? Maybe even not just for the day, but for the entire week? Or do you want to wake up and sort of not know what’s going to happen, but be told what to do. You wake up and you’re answering a page, or you’re answering a phone call and you’re jumping into action, and the rest of your day is decided for you by randomness that you are ready and excited to be a part of. Or do you want flexibility? Maybe you want to have a little bit of unpredictability, you want to have a little bit of predictability and you want to have a lot more choosing in your day. Or do you want something that’s really separate from a work structure and gives you a lot of autonomy and you want to do a lot of remote work? You want to choose when you come in and out of the office or when you come in and out of an account.
04:09
The point is, you need to ask yourself what type of lifestyle do I want to have? And this is critical. Your lifestyle is yours and you need to be real and be honest with yourself. Don’t just say, well, I should have this lifestyle or maybe I should have that lifestyle. Think about who you are, how you show up, how do you truly treat your day? Are you the person that likes to wake up, crack a dawn and get after it, or are you the person that needs to take a lot of time to get into the groove of a thing and you’re not truly operating by 10 am. Be sincere with who you are and how you choose to show up. Question number two you are and how you choose to show up. Question number two are you driven by long development of relationships where you really got to build and earn and, over time, soften a customer to want to utilize your solution or motivate and incentivize the customer to want to utilize your solution? Or are you all about getting in there, doing your thing, getting that quick win and jumping to the next? This is something you want to be very serious about understanding about yourself. Win and jump into the next this is something you want to be very serious about understanding about yourself. Some people love to take their time, find every angle, develop and cultivate long relationships, really earn the business and have a customer for life. Other people want to get in, get out.
05:15
Now the reality of medical sales is no matter whether you’re about the quick win and closing deals every day or the long-term sale with a long sales cycle as a big payoff after three to six months. You are gonna have to be good at developing relationships in general, the quick-win reps still have to develop long-term relationships for a peak business and the long-term reps, they still have to develop long-term relationships because they have to develop long-term relationships, but there’s a difference. Which one are you? And that’s something that you can answer and you want to know that before you throw yourself into a role. Question number three truthfully, how big are you on clinical depth and how deep do you want to go into that? Now, every medical sales role is going to require a level of clinical depth. You learn anatomy and physiology and the procedures of what you’re doing will always benefit you, regardless what you sell and regardless what space you’re in.
06:12
However, there are some roles that are really big on clinical data and going deep into a white paper to make the case to your customer, and there are other roles that are much less on clinical data and more about knowing what needs to be done at the moment. Again, you got to be honest with yourself. What do you resonate most with? Who are you really? Are you the person that likes to stay up and go deep into data and you can understand that clinical data and you want to go to town on that data and showcase whatever it is you’re talking to a provider about, or are you someone that’s more about? Look, I understand what’s going on. I know the anatomy and physiology and what we need to do here, and I’m ready to jump into the action and make things happen when they need to Figure that out. Which one are you? And that’s going to get you that much closer to knowing the right role for you.
06:56
And question number four do you want to build a new book of business or do you want to grow an existing book of business? Now, what does that mean? That means there are roles out there where it’s almost like the wild, wild west and you got to have a lot of autonomy. You got to know exactly what you want and how you want to do it, and you got to be ready to build a structure for yourself, jump in there and make things happen. Now, in general, medical sales is somewhat autonomous, but there are other roles that are very, very structured and it’s pretty much been spelled out what happens when you get up and get out, and really the focus is sales interactions and what you do in those day-to-day interactions.
07:35
I hope you’re enjoying today’s episode and I want to let you know our programs cover the entire career of a medical sales professional, from getting into the medical sales industry to training on how to be a top performer in the medical sales industry, to masterfully navigating your career to executive level leadership. These programs are personalized and customized for your specific career and background and trained by over 50 experts, including surgeons. Our results speak for ourselves and we’re landing positions for our candidates in less than 120 days in top medical technology companies like Stryker, medtronic, merck, abbott you name it. Would you run an Ironman race without training and a strategy? You wouldn’t. So why are you trying to do the same with the medical sales position? You need training, you need a strategy and you need to visit evolveyourassetscom, fill out the application schedule some time with one of our account executives and let’s get you into the position that you’ve always dreamed of.
08:31
So which one are you? Are you the entrepreneurial one that kind of wants to own everything they do and make it happen, or are you the type of person that wants to fit into something that’s well-defined and simply execute? By being honest and answering these questions, you’re going to discover whether you belong in medical device trauma, medical device, elective pharmaceutical sales, biotech sales, saas sales or maybe even something like medical supplies. But you got to be honest. One thing I see a lot is people aren’t honest with themselves. They almost think that they’re supposed to show up a certain way. The beauty of medical sales is there’s so many different spaces and it’s so vast that you don’t have to supposed to do anything. You’re supposed to be who you are and be honest with yourself, especially when you answer these four questions. So here’s something I regularly deal with.
09:22
All the time Most people just say look, I want to get into medical sales. Give me anything and everything, I’ll figure it out. Throw me into a role, let’s go and I get it right. Especially if you’ve been going after this for a little while. You really want this job. Maybe you’ve seen other people make it and you’re thinking to yourself I need to be there. Give me something.
09:41
Here’s the challenge with that. Hiring managers are trained to tease out who’s serious about the role they want to get into and who’s fluffing it. And no matter how you try to deliver, if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing or if you don’t clearly understand what you’re doing, it’s going to show. And one of two things are going to happen. Number one you’re not going to get the job in the first place because the hiring manager is going to see it, they’re going to smell it, they’re going to know that you either don’t care about what you’re doing, you don’t know about what you’re doing, or you’re just not serious in general. Number two somehow you get the job within three to six months and I’m dead serious six months max. You’re burnt out and you’re turned off, not just from medical sales, you’re turned off from the entire medical industry altogether. And then you’re burning bridges because now the hiring manager is like I’ll never hire someone green again. The company is like how did this happen? And we still have to cover this space? And just taints the industry. And this leads to more ghosting and more I need to find the right fit and less and less people getting chances to get in.
10:40
You can avoid all of this by being serious from the jump. Take the time to answer those questions, be honest with yourself and be disciplined enough to say if you’re going to say, just give me anything, give me everything, I’ll do whatever it takes, then you better learn what is in that role and find how you’re going to show up and be truly passionate about what’s being asked. And if you know you can’t do that or that’s not for you, then be disciplined enough to find the one that is, and double down and show people that you’re the right person for the role, getting the job. And then, of course, after you have it and this is why we created MedSales Match, our free resource that literally breaks down every single specialty in medical sales what you sell, who you work with, how ideas are structured, the compensation, the lifestyle, the challenges you name it. You can explore all that right now for free. If you’re ready to go all in, we offer a full assessment and one-on-one support inside the Medical Sales Career Builder. We don’t guess. We help you find the right specialty, we build you an amazing story and we get you hired. And you can explore all that now for free. And if you’re ready to go all in, then we offer a full assessment and one-on-one support inside the Medical Sales Career Builder program. We don’t guess. We find the right specialty. That’s custom for you. We help you build an amazing story and all the tools that come with it, and we get you hired.
12:12
If this episode helped you see medical sales more clearly, then stop guessing.
12:18
Go to linkedin right now, find samuel de yuca and message me the word podcast.
12:23
This will be your key word to allow us to let you in to our school community and get access to the medical sales match tool that I just described above.
12:32
This is the number one resource that will help you find the right specialty that was made for you. Again, stop guessing. You wanna get the dream job, this amazing career that you’ve been thinking about each and every day. Now it’s time to make it happen. So, again, visit LinkedIn, go to Samuel DeYinka, message me the word podcast and let’s get you into our school community so you can finally get in front of the career that you love. 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 EvolvingSuccesscom by visiting our site, filling out an application, scheduling 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.