The Proven Journey to Success in Anesthesia Sales
In this episode of the Medical Sales Podcast, host Samuel Adeyinka sits down with Marie Robert, a GE Healthcare product sales specialist, to break down what it’s really like selling capital medical equipment in one of the most competitive markets in the world. Marie shares how she entered the industry through GE’s Commercial Leadership Program, what a day in the life of a New York City medical sales rep looks like, and how selling anesthesia machines requires deep hospital relationships, strategic thinking, and constant collaboration with physicians, procurement teams, and biomedical engineers. She also discusses the realities of working in a large corporate environment, the future of medical sales in an AI driven world, and the mindset, discipline, and resilience needed to succeed in this fast paced and highly competitive industry.
Connect with Marie Robert: LinkedIn
Connect with Me: LinkedIn
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How »
Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcast
Transcription:
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Hello, and welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. I’m your host, Samuel, the 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.
On 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 percent 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.
So what’s it like being a rep in New York City?
Marie Robert (Guest):
It’s a lot of being agile in every way.
You’re taking the subway. You’re biking. You’re driving in New York. That alone is its own animal.
And you have so much accessibility to your hospitals because everything is close. But so does every other rep. So does every other company.
I did time in North Carolina, and customers in the rural areas were grateful when you showed up. They’d say, “Oh my God, I’m so glad you’re here. Nobody ever comes to see us.”
In New York, it’s different. They’ll tell you, “Your competitor was here this morning. Your competitor is coming an hour later. Your competitor’s manager was here last week.”
Being a rep is hard because there’s so much competition in such a condensed area. You have all the big conglomerates in med device, and a lot of startups too.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
What’s the call volume expectation for a New York rep?
Marie Robert (Guest):
For us, we’re not in SDR or BDR roles where you’re cold calling.
I work for GE Healthcare. We’re on the capital equipment side, so it’s more consulting and bigger volume, bigger dollar.
So it’s less calling and more customer visiting.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Even with GE and capital equipment, if you’re seeing one customer a day, your manager is going to say, “Marie, what exactly is going on over there.”
Marie Robert (Guest):
You’re given about four big health systems in your bucket.
Within those, the expectation is that you’re touching each of them once a week in different capacities. That could be pushing a deal along, doing a demo, a lunch meeting, just staying connected to your big hospital systems.
And there can be 30 facilities within a system. So it’s a lot of visiting, talking, and being accessible to the customer, but also empowering them to make decisions and solve their own problems.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Let’s take a step back.
Marie, tell everybody exactly what type of medical sales you do.
Marie Robert (Guest):
Hi, I’m Marie Robert. I work for GE Healthcare, and I’m a Product Sales Specialist for the anesthesia and perioperative portfolio.
In sales terms, it’s similar to an account executive role. We close deals. Sometimes we start them too, but a lot of it is inbound.
It’s an exciting role and an exciting company to be a part of right now.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
When you say inbound, break that down for people who don’t know what that means.
Marie Robert (Guest):
Most of the systems we sell to already purchase from us in some capacity.
Our role is to expand product categories, increase volume, or turn a transactional relationship into a strategic one.
A lot of my day is looking at how we can flip transactional selling into strategic agreements, long term contracts, and deeper partnerships.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
When you say anesthesia device, give us more context.
What’s your team made up of. What type of physicians are you calling on. And what exactly are you selling.
Marie Robert (Guest):
We sell the physical anesthesia machine.
The actual machine with the ventilator that breathes for the patient in the operating room and delivers the anesthetic agent.
We sell to what I think are the gods of hospitals, anesthesiologists. They keep patients in between life and death during surgery.
It’s an exciting space because there’s so much variety in surgeries you get to see and be a part of.
There are a lot of touchpoints in the hospital, but it’s mainly anesthesiologists. You get them excited about the technology and how it makes their job easier.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Give us a day in the life. What time are you waking up. What’s happening. Where do you go. Walk us through it until you take it home.
Marie Robert (Guest):
Every day changes.
The great thing about sales is you run your ship. My manager says, “Run your franchise.” These are your numbers and deliverables. How you get there and how fast you get there is up to you.
A typical day starts around 6 a.m.
I’m going to a hospital either to scrub in and watch a surgery, or to demo a machine for anesthesiologists.
The best time to do that is before 7 or 8. So I’m in the hospital around 6.
I’m looking at the board, finding call points with the anesthesia team, showing the device, seeing what’s happening in the OR, helping with setup, solving issues, and understanding what cases are happening.
That’s roughly 6 to noon, hands on in the OR with the customer.
Then noon to four is internal meetings, quoting, and finance calls.
Quoting devices. Calls with supply chain, finance, operations, and other internal teams. Sometimes conference calls with hospital leadership teams.
And the clinical end user is never the decision maker. They’re not the ones cutting the PO and finishing the process.
So in the afternoon, I’m communicating to purchasing and procurement what I saw during the day and why they should move the deal forward.
Then 4 to 6 is cleaning up everything and planning for the next day.
It’s a long day, but exciting. First half is in the field. Second half is internal meetings and deal movement.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Are those planned meetings or impromptu meetings. How are they set up?
Marie Robert (Guest):
Normally they’re planned, especially if you don’t already have a close relationship.
There are some systems where we do have a relationship, so you can call and say, “I was in the OR this morning, Doctor G liked this ventilation mode, we cut OR time by 20 percent,” and push things forward.
But it always looks different. Usually it’s planned meetings around trial results or next steps.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Explain your role in these internal meetings.
Are you driving the whole thing, facilitating, chiming in. What does noon to four really look like.
Marie Robert (Guest):
I’m driving everything.
We don’t call ourselves account executives at GE, but it’s similar. From demo to quoting to pushing finance on discounts to managing supply chain to getting the equipment implemented.
We own the lifespan of the equipment.
In internal calls, I’m advocating for my customer to my internal business.
How we cut price. How we change payment terms. If they don’t have budget this capital year, how we shift it to next year while still booking the order.
I’m meeting with supply chain to prioritize the equipment within the queue.
That noon to four window is pushing deals forward by touching all internal stakeholders.
I always joke that I work for the customer.
The first half of the day is building their trust in me.
The second half is me advocating for them to my company.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
You’ve been doing this for two years now.
Marie Robert (Guest):
Yes. I came through a leadership program GE has called CLP, the Commercial Leadership Program.
After college, I moved around a couple places in the US, learned the business inside and out, and ultimately landed in a full time role in New York.
At GE, the leadership program is how a lot of young reps get started. Without it, most reps on my team have at least ten years of experience.
So the main way to break into this type of role at GE is through a leadership program.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
How did you find out about the leadership program?
Marie Robert (Guest):
In college, I was pre med. I wanted to get my DNP. I was accepted to Northeastern and ready to go.
Then I worked as a nurse’s aide during Covid, and it changed how I looked at my future career.
I didn’t want four more years of school, especially online. I didn’t think that job was what I wanted.
So I told my parents and my school I wasn’t moving forward.
Then I started going to virtual job fairs because everything was virtual.
I sat in on a finance one, even though it wasn’t my major, just to listen. They talked about GE’s finance leadership program.
I didn’t want that one, but it led me to explore the other programs, and that’s how I found the commercial leadership program and decided to go for it.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Top three things you love about this job.
Marie Robert (Guest):
First, I love my team.
We’re collaborative, communicative, and even though we don’t have a physical office anymore, because we all sell in New York, we still see each other and work together.
A lot of my teammates have so much tenure, and it’s exciting to learn from them.
Second, I love the culture at GE.
There’s a culture of mentoring and sharing best practices. It doesn’t feel competitive. It feels like everyone wants to help.
We’re held to quota, but it’s not an intense culture of pressure. It’s not “hit this number or you’re out.” It’s trusting you to do your job and supporting you to push deals forward.
Third, I love the product space I’m in.
I love anesthesia. I love being in the OR. And I love that I own the customer relationship completely.
I drive the deal from start to finish and throughout the product’s lifespan.
There are customers who haven’t bought anything from me yet, but they bought from the previous rep years ago, and I still carry that relationship.
I love having ownership over the strategy and the relationship.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
What are the three biggest challenges with this position?
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 medical sales, 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 themselves, 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. Visit evolveyoursales.com, fill out the application, schedule time with one of our account executives, and let’s get you into the position you’ve always dreamed of.
Marie Robert (Guest):
The first challenge is navigating a big organization.
It’s very matrixed and very siloed. Different parts of the company don’t always talk to each other.
As a rep, you see everything, finance, operations, supply chain, install, project management, product management. And you can see where teams should integrate better, but the silos have been built for decades.
So navigating that and advocating for change is tough.
The second challenge is that the person using the product isn’t the final decision maker.
Procurement often makes the call. They care about dollars and cents. So you can do everything right with the clinical end user and still lose because of a higher level decision.
As hospitals standardize on vendors, it becomes harder.
The third challenge is the question of the future.
Will sales reps be replaced by Amazon or AI. We know how much we do and how much impact we have, but the question is always there.
It reminds me of how travel agents used to be essential, and now people book on their own.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
For context, I got into the industry in 2006. And in 2006, they said within ten years there would be no more reps.
We’re still here. We’ve quadrupled volume.
AI is different from anything we’ve seen, but I don’t think reps are going anywhere. Human relationships are critical.
If anything, you may see fewer reps doing more, but we’ll see. They’ve been saying this for 20 years and there are more reps than ever.
Marie Robert (Guest):
I agree. There are more reps now.
And it’s good and bad.
Customers have never been more informed. Even 20 years ago, they needed to physically see your product.
Now they can Google and say, “I’ve seen that machine. I saw the study.”
So it’s good that they’re educated, but it makes it challenging because you’re less needed for pure demos than you were years ago.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
This is why being a rep on LinkedIn and being a brand ambassador matters.
They might find you on Google, then see your content speaking their language, engage virtually, then want to see you in person. You still drive the relationship.
Marie Robert (Guest):
Yes, exactly.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
For people listening who say, “I’m going to try to get in anyway,” who should do what you’re doing, and who should stay far away from it?
Marie Robert (Guest):
Someone who will succeed has to be a self starter.
You have to be internally motivated to get up and keep doing the work.
You have to be a little crazy, in a good way. Every time someone tells you no, you pivot and say, what about this, what about that.
You don’t take no as final. You’re willing to do hard things to get results.
If that means waking up at 4 a.m. to drive two hours to Long Island and maybe not even see anyone, you still do it so they feel your presence.
You have to confidently walk up to someone who wants nothing to do with you and explain why they should talk to you.
You need confidence, strong work ethic, and the ability not to get frustrated easily.
There are so many reasons a customer can ignore you. You have to stay creative and curious. Learn their organization and find ways to help them.
Someone who wouldn’t be good is someone who doesn’t like talking to people.
If you’re not a people person, you won’t enjoy it. If you’re stubborn, hotheaded, argumentative, or easily frustrated, you’ll struggle.
You have to advocate and push back sometimes, but you can’t become argumentative.
Doctors work long hours and do life saving work. If your equipment isn’t working, they will call you and say not so great things.
You have to hold it together.
Also, someone who doesn’t like getting up early shouldn’t do this.
If you’re there first and showing up for the customer in a way competitors aren’t, that matters.
And today, every product is decent. So customers choose you because you invested in them.
You can say, I’ve been to these hospitals, I know every person who touches this equipment, I know their schedule, I know what matters to them.
Customers want you to feel like part of their team, not just someone asking for a PO.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Talk to us about the anesthesiology customer.
And is it more than just anesthesiologists you have to work with?
Marie Robert (Guest):
The anesthesia customer is definitely older.
It’s predominantly male, predominantly older, so there’s a balance because I’m younger and female.
A lot of reps look more like them and are closer to their age. So I lean on data.
I’ll reference OR downtime costs, waste, staffing trends, and why fewer residents are choosing anesthesia.
They’re very smart, methodical, and black and white because anesthesia has to be. They want a straight answer. They want you to show up. They want you to answer the call.
Besides anesthesiologists, you work closely with biomed and techs, the people who service the equipment.
They don’t care about clinical outcomes. They care that the machine works at 6 a.m. when it gets turned on. And if it doesn’t, how fast it gets fixed.
So you have to work for the customer and advocate for them across all those groups.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Define biomed.
Marie Robert (Guest):
A biomedical engineer is responsible for hospital equipment.
They oversee devices like IV pumps, baby warmers, and more. If something needs fixing, the clinician calls biomed.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Do you spend time with them?
Marie Robert (Guest):
Yes. They’re a huge call point for us.
They’re often very nice, and they want vendors to visit.
They have incredible relationships across the hospital because they touch every department and see every vendor.
They also have an install base list, so when you visit a new site, they can tell you what equipment is in the hospital and what they hate.
They’ll tell you how often they get calls for certain devices, and they can help guide you on who to talk to next.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Considering how much customer care you need to provide, what do nights and weekends look like?
Marie Robert (Guest):
It depends on how busy things are.
If we have a big install or go live, nights can get taken up by being at the facility, making sure everything’s there, sometimes helping assemble product, and quarterbacking.
Making sure the field engineer is there, the project manager, the clinical applications team, everyone.
But around 70 percent of the year, I’m done around 5 or 6 and can shut it down.
On weekends, I work maybe one weekend day a month.
I always check my phone, but I try to leave it at home and just check once Saturday and once Sunday to make sure nothing crazy happened.
And I make a big effort at night and on weekends, this is controversial, to leave the work phone at home.
No need to check it. Everything can wait.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
When your manager hears this…
Marie Robert (Guest):
I don’t know. But I think he would agree.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
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 by visiting our site.
Fill out an application, schedule time with one of our account executives, and allow us to get you where you need to be.
Stay tuned for more awesome content with amazing interviews on the Medical Sales Podcast.