How to Break Into Medical Device Sales Through Endoscopy

POSTED ON December 3, 2025

How to Break Into Medical Device Sales Through Endoscopy

In this episode of the Medical Sales Podcast, Samuel sits down with endoscopy leader and author Jon Alwinson to break down what makes GI and ASC sales one of the most predictable, high-impact spaces in medical devices while unpacking Jon’s journey from failed entrepreneur to Stryker associate, rookie-of-the-year rep, and now ASC leader at Boston Scientific. Jon shares the systems that drive top-tier performance—true pre-call planning, zoning a territory with precision, and running each week with a focused attack list—while also exposing the pitfalls that hold reps back, from fear and negative self-talk to time-wasting habits and hiding in comfortable accounts. Samuel and Jon dive deep into identity, mindset, and mentorship, exploring how the best reps stay confident, stay disciplined, and stay out of their own heads. If you want a tactical, honest look at what it takes to thrive in medical sales and lead with excellence, this episode delivers it.

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Transcription:

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. Okay, so let’s get into it then. So endo, a lot of people are learning. What does it mean to have an elective space? What does it mean to not even be in the hospital or in any of our room? What does it mean to have trauma? Talk to us about endo. Is it elective? How does it work? What’s best? Go ahead.

01:06 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, in my space in particular it’s all elective. So I call on outpatient surgery centers. So I have 10 people on my team. I cover eight states in the Southeast and so we are all outpatient elective based GI procedures. Now there are occasions with our hospital counterparts where something comes up you have jaundice, you have some kind of issue where you need to go in for an emergency GI case or there’s some kind of bleeding. Those would be more urgent cases, more hospital-based cases. Mine are, the procedures that we cover are all elective.

01:38 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, now patient impact is so critical, right, and every different type of medical sales has a different type of patient impact. Yes, and you’re not supposed to be spaced. Do you get to know what happens to the patient? Is it more so? You’re removed, but you get to learn through the provider or through the physician. Talk to us.

01:53 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, we learn post-procedure through the provider primarily. Most of these cases are very predictable, so that outcome is usually a very, very good outcome and a favorable outcome. However, there are those cases where you text the doctors hey, checking in on that case from the other day how that patient end up, and I think that’s just a good, good tip for whenever industry and whether you’re an ortho neuro spine falling up with your surgeon or GI and just say, hey, how’d that case go? Checking on that patient is a feather in a cap, awesome how’d that case go?

02:28 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
checking on that patient is a is a feather in a cap, awesome. So you know I love asking this question because you just made a bold claim, sir, okay, you just said that you have the best space and you even called out the other ones, which is all fair. Yeah, I’ve done it. What’s the moment where you know take us back to that procedure and what was happening. Paint the picture where you said okay, this is it, this is the coolest space.

02:51 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, what I love about GI is unlike these orthopedic procedures, these neuro procedures where you wake up at 4 am, you drive an hour. You get there, you get the trays ready. The doctor shows up two hours late, you’re sitting in a freezing cold. Shows up two hours late, you’re sitting in a freezing cold, or for two hours, right, the real talk. This is a very predictable 15 to 30 minute procedure, right, where you know if cases start at 7am, you know they’re starting at 7am. You can walk in to a procedure. That’s not. You know people aren’t overly tense, it’s hey, we’ve been here before. This is, we know what we’re doing here. This is not highly urgent and it is a more relaxed environment to where you can think, you can learn, you can ask very thought provoking questions and you can. It’s a worry-free zone for the most part.

03:42 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I like it. I like it. Yeah. What’s the sales cycle for endoscopy?

03:47 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
It depends, right, we sell everything. We sell primarily disposables or single use items. In our space. We do sell some capital, and so it depends on what items you’re selling. We sell services and solutions as well, so depends on what you sell. But they are, I mean, and again, even within the disposable items, you might sell a higher ticket disposable that takes six to 12 months and you might sell one that’s a single call close, and so it’s hard for me to give you an exact example I would give you, I would say, two to three months probably is a fair cycle.

04:21 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, that’s fair. And then, when it comes to the money, you know people are starting to realize. It’s fascinating how educated the public has become about what medical sales is, because I remember what 10 years ago nope, it was like the secret industry. Now you’ve got kids coming out of college giving you a dissertation on what it means to be in spine sales. But what is the money? What’s the money range for someone that wants endoscopy from the beginning of the career to max it out and be top 10%?

04:48 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
That’s a great question, I think, fair. You know if you’re coming in as a associate sales rep in that range you know just sub six figure range probably to you know you can kind of double that two and a half X that you know for those you know higher end users, not higher end users but those individuals. So I think I think that’s a fair range.

05:11 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Nice, so really well. Endoscopy makes sense why it’s one of the best spaces. You got the time, you’re quick in and out, your time is valued and you can get compensated well where you’re making a whole bunch of patient impact.

05:27 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, yeah, and that’s that’s the main thing it’s all about really, you know, and you know this being as successful as you are I mean, when you put the patient first, that’s everything and everything flows from that If you do have that patient first mindset.

05:37 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Love it. So what is the team buildup of an endoscopy team, you know, is it a solo rep with an associate? Is it a clinical specialist associate and a solo rep? How does it all work?

05:47 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, so let’s let’s break our division into two different divisions. So we’ve got our hospital core team. That really were they founded the company, right that our company was built off our hospital reps. So we have those hospital reps. They usually have an associate, divided between two or three different reps, and then the ambulatory surgery center team, or ASC team, that I lead and cover. We primarily just have territory managers with no direct associate at this time. So they have a defined geography, call it. I have two in Atlanta. I have an East and a West and no associates, so that’s a good way of describing it. Very cool.

06:24 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So ASCs is that relatively new, the team that’s specifically on ASCs, or has that been around for a while?

06:31 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
You know it’s funny, boston Scientific we’ve been kind of a leader in the space where we saw procedure volume going there years ago and I was part of an acquisition a small company called EndoChoice and I was a rep at that time and we came over with the acquisition and at that time, seven years ago, we started this new, brand new channel dedicated to serving our ASC customers, because we know their needs are different. We know price sensitivity is higher in ASCs versus hospitals and so what was cool was I got to come in at the founding level of this new channel and be a part of this great organization.

07:07 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, I remember right before COVID, ascs just seemed to be exploding and so many companies were creating ASC-specific dedicated teams, and so now to hear that it’s just so commonplace, it’s pretty cool.

07:23 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, striker and our organization were the two that really got on it early. We both saw the market moving to outpatient and again getting both organizations credit. That’s fantastic.

07:36 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So let’s go back. Let’s find out what and how you had all the experience to finally conclude on endo and be the rock star that you are. So going back to college yeah, senior year. Are we thinking I’m about to be the best rep you’ve ever seen, or are we clueless and we’re doing something else?

07:53 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
man, being honest with you, senior year of college, I, I knew, knew nothing of what I wanted to do with my life, and I’m more or less you that my whole life. My parents, I think they’re like what are we going to do with? Like we don’t know what to do with him. Like my parents had no idea how to guide me, and at that time, my brother and I were starting an entrepreneurial venture. We started a footwear manufacturing company.

08:15
So my senior year of college, we raised capital, okay, and we started manufacturing shoes in East Asia and we’re selling to. You know, the first four or five years of my career, we were selling private label and also our own brand shoes across the U? S, which was crazy.

08:33 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Wow, so let me tell us a little bit more. You know what kind of shoes were these?

08:37 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, so like sandals, boat shoes kind of camp shoes, more of an outdoor, almost like a Bass Pro type feel and look. So we were selling that type of product and we had a good run and talk about it a little bit in Relentless Sales. But we failed ultimately and made every mistake in the book two young guys and luckily we paid back most of our investment initially to our investors and did the best we could there. But we learned a lot and transferred that into becoming an associate with Striker after five years. What division? So navigation? So computer-assisted surgery.

09:17 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah. So hold on. You know why that you meet someone. You went to a doctor’s office. You had friends. Why that you meet someone? You went to a doctor’s office. You had friends. What inspired you? You had your entrepreneurial experience. And then you said you know what, I’m going to switch gears. What led you in that direction?

09:34 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
It’s funny two things. One I knew a guy walking around in scrubs I thought he was a physician and he was with J&J and I had a conversation with him and then another mentor of mine named John Riley. He sat me down and he’s like dude, you need to get into medical device.

09:51
and you need to get into selling capital and those were the two directives he gave me and he was very successful and I I applied to a company called Striker, went through that whole process and I remember your audience will probably appreciate this I remember being on a field ride with one of the reps and not knowing where I stood and said I looked at him and I remember being bold. After I was like I can’t believe I said that to him. I said, hey, man, I’m going to break in, whether it’s with you guys or not. I was like I hope it’s with you guys. I really want to work with you, I really want to learn from you. And then afterwards I can’t believe I just said that to him. But he told me later that’s why he pushed me along to his hiring manager to give me the nod.

10:27 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
He said he stopped a commitment early on, so computer-assisted, so lightly. Tell us about that and then tell us about why you transitioned out of that and what was your next type of adductor.

10:39 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Absolutely Great company, awesome company, nothing but respect. There it’s a big picture, gps for the anatomy, so little trackers with sub-millimeter accuracy, and so we put these little trackers if it was a spine procedure on a vertebrae and then we brought in this big computer with wheels with a camera on it and this boom looked down and it could tell the physicians where to where to place their pedicle screws right or for knees and hips, how to manipulate the cut, the distal femoral cut or or what have you. So basically it’s just gps in its simplest form, gps for the anatomy, and it was a very good initial job for me as an associate. But what I found out quickly was I came in and had a really good rep that I worked under. He was tenured about 16 years in the territory but I was only about eight months in and they brought in another rep to backfill him. So I saw the writing on the wall. From that perspective, I wanted to stay in.

11:37
Atlanta and I knew there wasn’t any more room for me in that particular division and so guy in my church came up to me he’s like, dude, you need to check out this small company called endo choice. And the rest is history. That was rookie of the year there, rep of the year, and then had the best two years combined at endo choice and that allowed me to come over to Boston.

11:59 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Wow, that, that’s quite the experience allowed me to come over to Boston. Wow, that’s quite the experience. So I still want to know, as all this is happening, when did it even occur to you to start to write a book? Was it an end of choice? Was it just four years ago? When did you say I’m going to at least start writing some of these things down and I’m going to put this into a book eventually?

12:20 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, and in 2019 range is where I know I’m kind of a nerd. Just like you have books. I have a whole closet full of books right over here. It’s shut.

12:28 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Proud, nerd. Yes, I am, yeah, yeah.

12:30 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
I wasn’t calling you a nerd. I was saying I’m a book nerd, but, but, but, but, man, I’m with you, man I’m. I tried to consume everything I can. When we failed our company, I committed to myself I’m never going to fail again. So this thing of failure to me was like, of course, I’m going to pick up a $20 book to learn everything I can about sales, and just trickled. And so I think that my dad, being an author, writing a book between those two things and getting my thoughts on paper was very therapeutic. And so, after a couple of years writing, a good friend of mine named Joe came along. I was like, dude, you need to tell yourself you’re writing a book. This is good stuff. He’s like yes, you have a third or fourth grade writing level, that’s okay. Most salespeople will appreciate that and encourage me to kind of get it done, and so didn’t launch until the end of last year, 2020.

13:20 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Wow, this is very recent. What type of author is your father?

13:25 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
My dad is a communicator. He is actually a Presbyterian minister of all things down in Orlando, I would say religious author, but wrote a father-son book called Like Father and Like Son, which is really cool, that’s amazing.

13:42 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Why should everybody listening right now, whether they want to get into medical sales, whether they’re in medical sales or whether they’re leading the way, or even as, or even a physician? Why should they start to read your book and get into it?

13:55 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, I break down what I think are the three most important elements the skills, the mentality and faith that’s a subtitle of the book need to be great in sales, and so it’s relentless sales. If anything, if nothing else about the book, it’s that relentless mentality that you need to be successful in in whatever you choose to do with your career. So I break down the last 15 years of successes and failures I’ve had, from failing that, that, that small business venture, to becoming rep of the year, president’s club, leading teams to victory. I think I give all the tips and tricks of that book and chapter six. I talk about sales process, I talk about learning how to run a territory like a professional, and I’ve just consumed books, just like you have, for the last 20 years, and I consolidate what I think makes the most sense. I love it, so let’s dig in.

14:47 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So you can go back to that experience, the entrepreneurial one. You know what would you say?

14:52 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
your top three learnings from that experience were yeah, the one that jumps out to me right away is overlapping job responsibilities.

15:01
There were things that my brother, who is our CEO, a couple of years older than me. He and I would overlap where honestly I should. As a sales guy, I should have got in a van and started driving and not turn it off my focus from sales. I was distracted from operations, work, ceo work, wasting my time with websites. There’s so many things that took my focus off what it needed to be, and so I would start with not overlapping your job responsibilities.

15:31 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Our job in sales is to sell, we should just sell. So that’s one. I like that. That’s number one, yeah.

15:37 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
So that’s one. There were so many lessons that we learned. I’m trying to think that’s the one that jumped out initially to me. Let me see if I can give you a couple other ones here on the fly. You know there were, there were, you know, I think, fear. I talk about that in in my book, conquering fear, chapter nine. There were so many times where I was fearful, fearful and calling the buyer there’s, there should have been. I should have done way more work with the big accounts. The 80 20 rule is real in every industry, and so I should have been working closer with bass pro cabela’s, gander mountain, you name it were some of those big buyers that I was hesitant and, honestly, as a young guy out of college, I didn’t know what I was doing, and so so you would say, the fear that you experienced was just the not knowing how to do it and the fear of looking silly or the fear of doing it wrong, or what was propagating that fear?

16:30
I think all of the above. I think all of the above. You know, I think self-doubt too, when you’re trying to do something. I think a lot of times in sales we are too hesitant, we’re too gun shy, if you will, and we need to be more aggressive. Worst comes to worst, you make a friend through that engagement if you approach it the right way. So don’t be afraid. As baseball players say, like let the bat off your shoulder swing, like you’re not going to hit a home run unless you swing. And so fear is crippling. And so that’s why I talked about faith in the book a little bit, because I found that as an element to really help with fear.

17:04 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, and the third one. 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 navigate 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 Strykertronic, merc, abbott, you name it. Would you run an iron man race without training in 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 evolveyoursuccesscom, 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.

18:03 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
I think the habits right. Owning your morning routine I think habits can be a big yeah. Having that consistent approach and creating the systems. There should have been more systems created that would help us allow to have a more successful approach.

18:19 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, Sure. So you know, what’s so cool about your story, John, is that you you did not start in medical sales. You became a success in the medical sales and now you’re leading other successful individuals in coaching success. Yeah, Talk to us about and I always like to do things in terms of three, so talk to us about?

18:39
what are the three things that reps listen to this right now. If they want to be rock stars, they want to be the top 10%, top 1%, even. What do they absolutely have to be doing? Give us three things, yeah.

18:55 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Pre-call planning and really doing pre-call planning number one.

19:00 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, so define what people think it is and define what it is All right.

19:03 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
So pre-call planning is taking anywhere from five to 30 minutes before you’re meeting the next day, making sure you’re prepped with the numbers for you know, if you’re having a numbers discussion, an economic numbers discussion, hopefully you’ve spent time preparing in advance that. But reviewing the numbers at least 30 minutes before the next day, knowing what cadence you want to have with that customer as you walk in there, kind of walk through that, what you think that, because it’s not going to go exactly how you think it’s going to go, never does Right. But at least plan and think through what you know about the account and have your stuff together. Look at the website, figure out what’s important to them. Do you know? Have you looked up your customers on social? Look at the website, figure out what’s important to them. Do you know? Have you looked up your customers on social media? You know? Do you know you might find some invaluable information that will really help that either rapport building phase of that conversation go well or you might find some commonality that you didn’t know existed by not doing your research on social media.

19:59
So welcome up on Facebook, instagram, doing your research on social media. So I’ll come up on Facebook, instagram, linkedin, et cetera. So pretty call plan. I do think that I talk about zoning geographically, zoning your territory, and really being tight. I have like a template on my website to help reps with zoning their territory and I think that’s so critical, especially if you have a big geographical area that you cover, clumping your accounts in certain geographies. So if you know you have five accounts in the northeast corner of the state that you cover accounts, key contacts, they’re rolling 12 sales versus prior understanding. All the account information outside of a CRM.

20:38 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So are you saying okay, so that sounds like two different things. Are you saying routing and knowing your customer, or are you speaking to something else completely?

20:47 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, so it’s not routing. What it is is a geographic clumping of your account with all the pertinent information you need. So I have an Excel. It’s a picture in Excel document. I can send you one after this. But picture, you know, you have five, you know five, you All the accounts you can hit in one day basically clump together in its geography, so north, south, central, you name it. Break them out into where you can hit them all in one day and have the important information. Because what I teach a lot of my reps is, as you’re calling on one zone, why not prep your next two weeks out in advance If you know you’re going to be in the northeast corner of your account or in a different state, sure?

21:29
plan ahead and, as you’re driving, use that time wisely. And so I call it geographic zoning of your territory, like yeah okay, so pre-call planning geographic zoning.

21:40 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
What’s the third?

21:42 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
attack list. You’ve got to have a weekly attack list so when your feet hit the floor monday morning you have to act like an invader versus on the defense right. I like offense is always better than defense in my mind. So you know, I don’t care if my team does their prep friday and they’re they’re carving out that time before the end of the day on friday or they’re doing it sunday night, but before they hit the ground running on Monday I want to make sure they’re tight and I want them to know what their top five opportunities that week that they can drive new revenue from. So teaching that discipline of consistently getting your attack list and then they should really prioritize those best opportunity to last right, if you can. It’s just like a snowball. If you can get one deal moving early in the week, that gives you confidence for the second, third opportunities.

22:33 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I love it. I love it. Now, in the same vein, there are things that not not not necessarily negative things that people do, but just things that are pitfalls for sales reps that they should be very mindful of. What three things would you say are just common pitfalls for sales reps that they should be very mindful of? What three things would you say are just common pitfalls that reps fall into that gets in the way of becoming that top performer in that top 10 or 1%?

22:56 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, I talk about this too and I’m trying to think which chapter I talk about in my book. I’m having a blank. But basically reps that call just to vent about whatever that waste your time throughout the day. Don’t get caught up in the gossip game with your fellow reps that just want to vent. I saw a pattern with one of the organizations I used to work for where, come 12 o’clock 1 o’clock, reps would start calling each other and just venting and you look down at your phone and you’re like dude, you just wasted 45 minutes of my time just venting, adding no value. Like dude, you just wasted 45 minutes of my time just venting, adding no value. And so what I would do is, unless I knew a teammate was in an important case or something like that, I would screen calls until 4 o’clock.

23:36 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Wow, you did allow for venting, but only after 4.

23:40 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah right, when the day is almost over, I’ll allow a little bit of venting to collaborate, but think about it. Right, you’ve been there, samuel. I mean think about all the the time wasted from teammates that aren’t helping you drive what you need to do in your territory and they just want to vent. So be careful who you associate with you know, and be careful how you spend your time.

24:00 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Time’s so precious and to add to that, you know for, for, for. For me it’s you got to stay solution oriented. I mean, if you’ve got an event, you’re right. Don’t do it during the busiest time of the day, when you can actually be getting things done. Save it, but, more importantly, get that out and then go right to the solutions. How do we come up with a solution? Solution, solution, solution.

24:24 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
So I get that All right. Here’s another one Number two social solution solution. So I think I get that all right. All right, here’s another one number two social media. While it’s a very good tool, man is so dangerous. You could waste a lot of time scrolling on social media, right. So use it kind of like a navy seal get in, get out, do what you need to and don’t don’t get caught up in the wheel.

24:44 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Let’s’s stop there for just a moment. I would say that COVID kind of kicked off this gosh I don’t even know how you call it, but kicked off this movement of how to use social media as a sales professional to do business. How to develop a brand, how to get in contact with customers you never could have before. How to develop a brand. How to get in contact with customers you never could have before. How to do no matter what’s going on in the world, whether it be a pandemic or anything else, get access. How do you feel about the sales rep utilizing social media to do business?

25:20 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
I think it’s a valuable tool. You just have to put it in its perspective place. I mean, it doesn’t be picking up the phone and calling, it doesn’t be having really well-scripted, thought-through emails. It’s a piece of the puzzle. I think you have to be wise with it. You can waste so much time getting sucked into the vortex that is social media. But an appropriate LinkedIn post, an appropriate you know? I’ve listened to some of your other podcasts with some other social media experts and they’re great. I think they’re using it the right way. Just try not to get overly consumed with it. It’s a piece of the puzzle.

25:57 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So Banting mindless social media. What’s the third?

26:01 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, spending their time with either their best customer, because that best customer makes them comfortable oh, this is good, you know, and on that and not and not you know, putting them in the appropriate place and going out and doing the appropriate hunting, prospecting, etc.

26:21
I think a lot of times you know we’re emotional creatures, right, like you know it’s like eating good, good soul food, right, like you go into an account where they’re like john, what’s up, where you been. You know we’re emotional creatures, right Like you know it’s like eating good, good soul food, right Like you go into an account where they’re like John, what’s up, where you been, you know, and they give you hugs and you know you’re like you’re the man you’re walking in and or you’re you know your family, right, there’s those accounts that make you feel good. But are you creating, advancing and closing appropriate opportunities? And, as my friend Mike Weinberg would say, create, advance and close? And I think you have to just make sure you monitor. You know your. Our job is to be value creators, to drive revenue for our organizations, and so spend time with your best customers. Yes, the 80 20 rule is real. 80% of your revenue does come from the top 20% of your customers, but you can’t spend all your time there.

27:10 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
No, I love it. I love it, you know. Let’s go back to your book. Yeah, who is it best for? I mean, if you had to just pick an audience, I would say is it best for the beginner rep, the pre-rep, the mid-career rep, the tail end of the career rep? Who would you say that your book is designed best for?

27:28 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
You know it’s funny. I’ve gotten messages from people at all levels and said hey, I loved your book, right, this stood out to me. But I would say, if I could give this book to myself 15 years ago, when I was just becoming a sales rep, this book kind of outlines the things that I wish I would have known 15 years ago. So there was an ideal prospect for this book. I would say it’s the early rep, and then obviously I got a huge medical device tilt. So those medical device reps are my audience.

27:57 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Hey come on, it is what it is. Yeah, yeah, fantastic. All right, I want to get into a little bit more about John. So, john, you know what are we doing here? We family man, or we making things happen with life?

28:09 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, let me, let me let me show you after I, after I clear my my messages up. But that’s life right there, man, I have a seven-year-old, five-year-old and a brand new little girl. So, girl boy, girl man you, you make things happen. Okay.

28:24 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, so, so what? What is your? Give us your personal routine, then you know you’re waking up, at what time You’re doing what to get into your day. I mean, you’re an author, so you probably had good time to consider how you want to do your morning and night routines. Talk to us.

28:39 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, and I actually again not selling a book. Here I outline it in the book perfectly on what I do. But here I outline it in the book perfectly on what I do. But but I think that 5 am club is is where I’m most productive. It’s tough. I’ve gone and now, with the new baby, have fallen off a little bit of the schedule, if I’m being completely honest. Right, you know, but, but when I’m waking up at 5 am I’m I’m on and you know I have my water, my coffee. I’m more of an espresso person now and you know what I have found is like getting on the Peloton for 30 minutes or getting in reading some good books. You know, for me it’s the Bible and also good business books those are. You know, the Proverbs in the Bible is like, chock full of wisdom.

29:20
So, everything is salespeople, If you want, like a just a silver bullet for how to approach your day. Like read a proverb a day, Like to me it’s gold man, it’s gold. It says things like don’t talk too much, Right? That’s good advice. I need to be reminded of that today. Right, Listen, right, and victory comes with abundance of counselors. So like there’s a lot of good stuff in there. But I but I read a little bit of the Bible and then I read some good business books John Maxwell’s books, sales books, Jeffrey Gittimer, Mike Weinberg, you name it. There’s a lot of good people I get, get wisdoms, do that. So either exercise before, exercise after kind of depends on how my body’s feeling I’m getting up there now and so but get a little exercise in and then I’m out the door, usually by like 745, eight.

30:09 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, okay. And and how about, when you take it all in, what happened? What’s the night routine?

30:15 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, kind of the shutdown routine is hopefully I’m, I’m back by the house by 5 PM, 5, 30, you know, depending on how busy that day is, depending on travel, you know I have eight states that I cover, cover, so I’m sometimes I’m getting in way later than that yeah and and so if I am home, say it’s a perfect day.

30:32
I’m home by 5, 5, 30, I’m trying to shelve the phone for a couple hours trying to spend time with the family and and then, you know, get back after it, after I get them down to bed.

30:43 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, okay when you say so, get back after you go to bed, meaning you get back to work after you get them.

30:48 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, you know, you’re checking, you’re checking that yeah, so I mean, my kids go to bed by eight every night. They’re still on the younger side, so so I’m, once I get them down, I’m looking at my phone, I’m looking at my emails and then back to that pre-call plan that we talked about. You know, looking at my schedule for the next day. What do I need to do to get ahead of those early meetings in the morning and really stay sharp for the next day?

31:13 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Fantastic. You know earlier you said one of the reasons what the best audience for your book is. Who you were, you know, 15 years ago and you literally wrote a whole book. But I’m going to ask you the question anyway. All right, let’s say you did go back to the beginning of being a rep. You know what? What would you tell yourself?

31:37 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Number one is going to be okay. Calm down a little bit. You know, I think I think some of us, I run hot and so you know I think that those unnecessary nights of worrying, they don’t do you any good. So I think I would tell myself, like keep preparing. Our one word for our team this year is excellence. Try to shoot for excellence in all we do, and that should be my goal. Aim for excellence, try to be sharp and excellent in all you do and success will come. Don’t stress about the unimportant.

32:08 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I like it. I like it. You’re a leader of many now, and I’m sure there was a transitional period where you went from individual contributor to a leader and you had to adjust your perspective. For those listening that have the same sort of ambition, what would you share with them?

32:28 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, again, there’s different leaders, like Mike Weinberg, who talks about this not being the super rep. It is so important, so many. I think I’m fortunate during my time in medical device to have really good managers, and I had one that was really bad, and I learned more from the bad manager than I did from the good, and I promised myself when I became a manager I would never act the way that the bad manager acted, and so I look at that as a blessing to have a bad manager to where I. I didn’t want to do that. So when I came in I I knew I was mature enough to know I need to win through my people, and that’s how we win. So when you give everything to your people and pour everything into them and you make them the heroes not yourself you’re golden. Don’t be the hero.

33:17 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Give us a little bit more, though. What does that mean?

33:21 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Show us what that means.

33:23
Yeah. So, for instance, I had a manager who took credit behind closed doors for a lot of stuff that me and another rep would do, and we knew because other people told us that were in that room told us that he was taking credit for our work. That is the worst thing you can do as a leader is to point back to yourself. For me, any and every chance, I try to catch my team in the act of doing something good, and so we are just like sales reps should make their customers the heroes, or certain stakeholders within that account the heroes we should make like my customers are my sales reps now, and so my job is really. I think leadership’s redefined now. It’s different than how it used to be, and we’ve got to make our people the heroes. So I go out of my way to try to point out where they’re doing good things to my director.

34:17 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
What’s the hardest part about being a medical sales rep?

34:23 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
A sales rep or sales manager.

34:25 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Well, let’s start with sales rep, then we’re going to go to sales manager.

34:28 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Cool, Cool Sales rep. I think one of the hardest things is is probably understanding where to spend your time. If I were to say, you know, there’s so much thrown at you, there’s that fear of not hitting your number. That’s what we talk about Like identity kind of. When we check our identity, it helps us sell more freely. And so I think the pressure of having a number and not for those early in their career not having the experience of knowing where to go to win, I think that’s the hardest thing and that’s why I teach the attack list and that’s why I teach this on territory is because I think those two things help. But yeah, that’s where they get lost.

35:08 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Gotcha, and then for a sales manager.

35:10 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
The hardest thing for a sales manager, let’s say, is hiring and recruiting and developing. I think, again going back to that bad manager mindset, a lot of managers like to hire people who aren’t as good as them because they feed an ego of being able to tell them what to do. Wow, that’s deep Okay. But I think what I’ve really tried to do is hire people who are way better than me. And you look at my team and I have people that are like who’s the boss here? Like cause, my team is stacked and and so that’s something I’m very, very proud of is I want people who are smarter, better, stronger and and and every category than me, and that’s just something I’ve learned over time is like, man, hire as good as you can because it’ll help you as a manager.

35:58 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, fantastic. Well, there’s one more thing I want to address and do your best, all right. So, being a medical sales rep, you’re by yourself a lot, a lot of times. You’re strictly solo and you’re out in the territory and, like you said earlier, trying to figure out where you’re supposed to be. Would you agree that there are times when you just get in your own head and you kind of I don’t know, for lack of a better way of saying it come up with these self-defeating thoughts that prevent you from being at your best as you’re seeing customers, absolutely For those reps listening, what are some things that maybe you’ve done or you’ve seen your reps do that has done a great job thwarting those thoughts or just confronting them and removing them. You know getting around that.

36:49 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
So chapter one of my book is mentors, and who starts a sales book out with mentors? Right, this guy, you know.

36:57
And so it’s because I learned like there’s a reason, like people ahead of us can help us prevent self-defeating actions and thoughts and stuff like that. So if you don’t have a big network, start finding one person who’s ahead of you in your career and reach out to them and start learning from people who are two, three stages ahead of you. I’m telling you that’s one of the biggest. I saw some video on on social media of this guy, this little kid, trying to learn how to surf.

37:26 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah.

37:27 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
This guy came up right next to him on his knees and helped the little kid. He stood him up on the surfboard and the instructor was on his knees and just held the little guy and he just skid down the the the wave Right. And that’s what mentors are to us is. They are like that guy helping us learn to surf, coming right next to us, lifting us up on the surfboard and propelling us faster. So that’s one of a few things I would recommend.

37:52 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
What’s what’s another.

37:54 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Well, I think chapter two I talked about identity, right, Understanding who we are Like. A lot of times those self-defeating thoughts come from poor identity and lack of confidence. And so start building our self-talk, start checking your self-talk. I think there’s a lot of reps who are really, really good but have negative thinking and speak negatively to himself. So, as crazy as that may sound, work on affirmations that are positive right, so you can start the day off on a right foot and you catch yourself when you’re saying something negative. I’m as far as I get on myself, yeah.

38:29
And sounds like you can certainly relate, and you are too, samuel. We can be our biggest critic, can’t we?

38:35 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Those are the facts. You know. You’ve mentioned identity a couple of times. Give us a little bit more. When you say identity, what are you talking about exactly?

38:44 – Jon Alwinson (Guest)
Yeah, good question and that can mean some different things to different people. But there was a time when I went from striker two and a half years as an associate. So I went from failed venture, right called five years of starting entrepreneurial venture, to two and a half years as an associate for Stryker, which if you know much about Stryker, that’s that’s not an easy gig, right. There’s there’s days where you’re called and you’re like hey, I need you in Miami the next day at 7am and I’m in Atlanta and you know you’re like all right, I got to figure that out.

39:13
So Stryker and then failed venture, stryker and then, and then I got to a spot, when I became a full line territory manager with endo choice, that I was just going crazy, going all out, and my dad came alongside me and said hey, man, like be excellent, go for excellence, but like remember, your identity is not an achieving rookie of the year or rep of the year, like, you’re an Allenson, you’re God’s kid. So live from your identity, not for your identity. Yeah, and for me that was the. The phrase that changed my life is like man, I don’t have to.

39:48
What people will find is like, if you’re going for rep of the year right now, you’re going to find that like, when you get rep of the year, it it’s empty. Right, it’s cool for a little while and you should still go for it. So don’t let up, still go for it. But you are who you are. So live from your identity, not for your identity, and that’s kind of what I would encourage your listeners. It’s like man, you’re way more than just a number on a page and what that does is it frees you up to sell authentically to your customers.

40:19 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I love it. 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.