POSTED ON May 20, 2026

The Powerful Journey to Winning in Modern Medical Sales

In this episode of the Medical Sales Podcast, Samuel Adeyinka sits down with Mark Copeland to break down what today’s medical device reps need to understand about building a sustainable career in a changing medtech landscape. Mark shares lessons from decades in medical device sales, leadership, consulting, and training, with deep experience in the operating room, sterile processing, spine, perioperative sales, and small med device companies. He explains why medical sales is no longer the same career it was ten years ago, why many reps are burning out after five to eight years, and how lack of training, unclear career paths, and weak sales leadership are holding reps back. He also shares what separates average reps from those who take real ownership of their careers, including mentorship, self assessment, strategic development, and learning how to sell beyond the physician into the full hospital system. This episode is a must listen for anyone in medical device sales who wants to become more valuable, gain more control over their career, and understand what it really takes to win in today’s healthcare sales environment.

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Transcription:

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

Mark, how are we doing today?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

I am great, Samuel. How are you? What’s going on?

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

I am fantastic.

How long has it been since we’ve spoken?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

I was trying to think about that.

I think it might be close to two years, maybe somewhere in there.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

Two plus years.

You’ve been doing amazing things.

Last time we spoke, you were Vice President of Sales at 3T Medical Systems, but I know you’ve been moving up and doing your own thing.

So please tell us exactly what you’re doing now, what space you’re in now, and what you’re focused on.

Mark Copeland (Guest):

Because I’m old and I’ve taken several dozen spins around the sun, I have a lot of unique experience, most of it with smaller medical device companies.

Every sales mistake that has been made, I’ve made it.

Every bad career choice, I’ve probably done it twice.

Over the past two years, I really started posting and teaching.

I was consulting for some companies on the side, teaching them the new arena in which we sell because medical sales is different than it was ten years ago.

It’s considerably different.

I started doing a lot more of that, primarily because I started posting about my experiences and failures on LinkedIn.

Companies started reaching out to me saying, “Hey, can we hire you? Can you teach us what you’ve learned?”

I was already doing it. I just wasn’t promoting it.

So since you and I last talked, I’ve spent a lot of time doing that.

It’s great. It’s fun.

I get to teach people all the things not to do because I did them all.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

Amazing.

Let’s qualify it a little bit.

What specific medical device specialties are you training in now?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

My training in medical device was in spine for about 15 years.

Then it was really operating room and sterile processing.

I also sold a lot of things into the emergency department, NICU, ICU, so it was broad-based.

Today, I’m focused on perioperative, operating room, and sterile processing because I like it.

I think it’s fascinating. I always have and always will.

That’s my training.

I’ve spent a lot of time with surgeons in operating rooms and sterile processing departments throughout my career.

So that’s where I’m focused.

If I’m selling a product, it’s usually in that space.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

When you’re training or working with a medical device company, is it also in that space?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

Not necessarily.

It tends to be because of my historical background. People who know me know I did those things.

But I’ve been working with companies in urology, the ICU, NICU, ED, and places where I didn’t necessarily have years of experience.

But it’s cool. I like it.

I’m an old liberal arts guy, so it hits different parts of your brain.

But if you ask me where I really know what I’m talking about, it’s the operating room and central processing.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

Let’s stay there.

Let’s stay in the operating room and talk about the medical device rep specifically who is supporting procedures in the OR.

Give us the avatar of who we’re talking about.

Give us a day in the life of the average person you’re training.

When are they waking up?

Are they going from hospital to hospital?

When are they done at night?

What does it look like?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

If they’re average, they’re getting to the hospital at 7 a.m.

They’ve probably been in the business four or five years.

Maybe they were an associate, had some business ceded to them, and are turning $800,000 of business into hopefully $1.5 million or whatever that number is.

They’re in the OR at 7 a.m.

Hopefully, they spend a good bit of their day in the OR.

They make two or three sales calls a week.

They’re running around, and they are more medical device coverage than sales.

They spend time in the OR. They love wearing scrubs. They hang out in scrubs.

That’s the typical average day.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

And what is that average rep making?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

Probably $120,000 to $150,000, I would think.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

Okay.

And what’s the typical career span of the average rep we’re talking about?

How long are they doing this for?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

That’s a good question.

I think it used to be a destination job.

When I got into it, and probably until 15 years ago, once you got into it, you were in it.

That was the mission.

Today, I think it has changed.

I would say five to eight years.

But I hadn’t really thought about it until you asked me.

So that’s more something I sense than something I know.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

If we stick with that five to eight years, what do they typically go on to do?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

It’s interesting.

I’m seeing a lot of people who are hoping to be promoted and spend less time in facilities because it’s so much work these days.

Or they’re getting out of it.

I’ve seen people who I thought were going to be in it for the rest of their career go into real estate.

I’ve seen people go into small business ownership.

It’s this weird change in medical device.

I don’t know where everybody is going.

I still suspect promotion is part of it.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

So for lack of a better phrase, people are leaving.

Mark Copeland (Guest):

Yeah.

I don’t know what the percentage is.

I never used to see it.

I’m seeing it now.

It’s more than it used to be.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

Let’s talk about that.

What do you think is driving it?

The typical rep is getting to the hospital around 7 a.m., getting home around 6 p.m., supporting cases, hanging out in the OR, wearing scrubs, making around $120,000 to $150,000, and after five to eight years, more of them are leaving the industry.

Why do you think that’s happening?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

A couple things.

The job is hard.

I had a guy I worked with for a long time, Mark Randall, who I respect tremendously.

He said getting into this field is not getting a job. You’re taking on a lifestyle.

He didn’t mean sitting on a boat drinking piña coladas.

He meant this is now your life to an extent.

I think that’s hard.

I also think there’s a lack of sales training and a lack of sales leadership, generally speaking, that wears people out because they’re not seeing personal progress.

I hear that a lot more now.

Smart companies are starting to realize they need to invest more in their people.

Not necessarily compensation-wise, but developmentally.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

If this typical rep is listening right now and thinking, Mark nailed it, I’m in this right now, what would you say to that rep to help them get better control over the career they hope to have?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

I would advise somebody to think first about what gives them job satisfaction.

That doesn’t mean you love every second of it.

It means, what gets you up?

What challenges you?

What do you like accomplishing?

That’s really what job satisfaction is.

Do you still see that in your job, but you’re not getting enough of it?

You have to think that way.

Then you have to decide, can I continue doing this this way?

And it’s funny, it’s usually not money.

Everybody thinks it is, but it usually isn’t.

The vast majority of reasons people leave jobs are that they see no career path for promotion or growth, or they have a lousy boss.

It’s usually those things.

The people who really succeed, regardless of a bad boss or whatever else, are the people who take complete ownership of who they are and what they want to be.

They are the ones who have a game plan.

They have a strategy.

They’ve written it down.

They know the things they’re going to do.

They know the time and resources they’re going to invest in themselves.

Companies used to provide a lot of that years ago.

It seems to me they do less of it now.

So if you really want to get good, in some cases, you have to do it yourself.

I would ask, are you willing to do that?

If you’re not, that’s okay, but you should probably go somewhere where they’ll help you do it because you won’t do it for yourself.

These jobs are great.

They’re rewarding.

They’re difficult.

That’s why they’re great and rewarding.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

What I see is people just don’t know what they’re really getting into.

With the growth of med tech and all these new products and innovations, I think it’s getting to a place where companies need bodies.

At the end of the day, we have this new product, this new innovation, and these innovations are coming out a mile a minute.

We need bodies.

Who can we hire as fast as possible?

Let’s get this ball rolling.

They find bodies, but they don’t always want to spend the time to develop them because they want to get that product wherever they believe it’s supposed to go.

So they say, “Get out there and do your best.”

And because so many people are now aware of medical sales, the sexy jobs, the money, and what they think it is, they’re making themselves available.

Companies take advantage of that.

You’re left with a person who was never truly developed, a huge number of jobs that can be recycled quickly if the person can’t deliver, and all these people who aren’t sure what to do with their careers.

Does that sound accurate?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

I think you nailed it.

I see a lot of that.

I don’t want to say they’re throwing bodies at it, but they’re throwing bodies at it to an extent.

That’s the only way you could almost describe it.

You can either rail against that and say it’s not right, or you can accept it and say, all right, I plan on being a little bit different because the rest of these folks are not going to last.

Absolutely, that’s the case.

I got hired by Pfizer in the go-go pharma days of the late 90s.

They hired 500 of us.

They had 500 territories across the country.

They hired a whole new division.

We were going to work with three other divisions.

I remember the first day of training, which was eight weeks, like going back to college.

They said, “Every one of you sitting here, we spent $100,000 finding you and starting to train you. Understand, this is an investment in you because we’ve already spent $100,000 on you.”

I remember sitting there thinking, wow.

And they trained us so well that I left four and a half years later with nothing but good things to say about them.

I still use their training today.

They were committed to being the best trained and most competent.

I laugh when med device makes fun of pharma because half of those med device reps couldn’t handle the training we went through in pharma.

It was tremendous.

It was the best training I will ever have in my career.

So let’s hold off on making fun of something we don’t understand.

I definitely agree with you.

I don’t see that happening except for a handful of companies in med device.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

With that in mind, what is the best way someone listening right now who thinks, I need to get better control of my career, can start?

What advice would you give?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

Get mentors.

Identify someone in your company who is doing the job the way you would like to be seen doing yours.

Go find them and ask them to be a guide.

Tell them, “I’ve identified you as a mentor, and I’m going to try to wring every bit of knowledge out of you that I can.”

If you have to buy beers, chocolate chip cookies, or hug them, who cares?

Do it.

That’s number one.

Number two, self-assess yourself.

Look at yourself and ask, what do I do well?

What do I think I do well that I would like to do more of?

What do I not do well that I need to do better?

Then ask, where do I go find resources?

It might be your mentor.

It might be a book.

It might be a training you go to.

They always say LeBron James spends a million dollars a year just on training his body, trainers, and all of that.

If he’s willing to do it, you don’t need to spend a million, but you need to spend some time, money, and make some sacrifices.

If you do that, it always works.

Why would you not do it?

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

You said you train teams now.

What is the typical size of the teams you train?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

Because I tend to work with small medical device companies, it’s usually sales forces of anywhere between 15 and 50.

I’m working with one right now where they have three direct reps, but with sales agents and 1099s, they’re probably closer to 40.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

Talk to us about how sales has changed for the rep in the past five years and the biggest gaps you see when you’re training these teams now.

Mark Copeland (Guest):

I think the job has gotten harder because healthcare has changed.

Ten years ago, you and I could be out selling something, and if we learned to talk the language of the doctor, understood the procedures, anatomy, pathology, how they talk, and the Latin, we could sell products.

If surgeons, doctors, or heads of the ICU said, “I like this,” they got it because they were the doctor.

Health systems have merged.

They are massive conglomerates now.

About 75 percent of doctors are employed now, and they feel like they’ve lost some of their political clout.

It has been down-regulated.

Now, as salespeople, we don’t just sell clinicians.

It used to be that once we got the doctor interested, mission accomplished.

Now it’s, okay, cool, the job has started.

Now we have to get these new products approved inside these monstrosities, and nobody tells us how to do that.

That’s what I teach companies how to do.

I can teach people how to talk to doctors really well, but most companies are getting decent at that, or at least the reps are.

Otherwise, they won’t survive.

But I train the people who say, “I can get doctors interested. I have doctors who want this. We have no idea how to get this approved in this health system, or even down to this ambulatory surgery center.”

The change in healthcare structure now requires another set of skills.

It doesn’t replace the old skill set.

It layers on top of it.

It’s business cases.

It’s a whole new set of skills that we are required to understand.

And that’s not easy.

I think the job is harder today than it was five years ago.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

When you train these companies, is it typically all on the rep?

Does the rep have to figure out how to find these other touchpoints to get something approved so the physicians can actually use it?

Or is it a whole different department you’re also training to have that conversation?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

It goes back to your earlier question.

It’s the reps.

I had to do this because if I didn’t, nobody else would.

Now, Stryker or Medtronic is slightly different because they’re big enough.

But if you’re a rep and you want to sell and close deals, and you don’t know how to do this, you better have somebody really good you can fast rope in to do it.

The really good reps are trying to figure it out.

The mediocre ones are like, “I don’t know what to do. When is somebody going to help me?”

That’s one of the differences between the mediocre and the really good.

If you own your territory and you own your business, you make it your business.

I think everybody who calls on an operating room should know who these people are, what their training is, and what matters to them generally speaking.

And they’re not doctors, by the way.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

Let’s qualify this because people listening might not understand enough about what we’re talking about.

They want to be in medical sales. They’re trying to gather all the information they can.

Describe what it looks like to do it the old way, or the uninformed way, where you’re just going after the doctor.

Then describe who you should actually be having conversations with if you want to be effective today.

Mark Copeland (Guest):

The old way was I call on Dr. Samuel.

Dr. Samuel somehow lets me into his office.

I have something he’s interested in, and he says, “I like this.”

In 2015, he would say, “I want this. I’ll get this approved, and we’ll use it next week.”

It went through a little committee, and we were good.

Then I handed somebody a bill when we did the case in the OR.

Now Dr. Samuel says, “I like this. You have to get it approved.”

Here’s what foolish companies do.

They ask the doctor, “How do we submit new products here?”

The doctor has no idea either.

He’s an employee. Nobody explains it to him.

He says, “I think you’re supposed to submit it through some portal through supply chain.”

I’m going to urge everybody listening to this, do not do that.

What we need to do is tell doctors, “Okay, cool, you want it. Now do not submit anything, Doc, because we need to build a business case.”

These people are not going to approve any new product unless they understand clinically why it is better for patients.

And I also need a justification for why they should add it.

The people I go to in the OR are directors of perioperative services.

In the ICU, it’s the clinical director.

They are usually nurses who have a clinical background and can rapidly understand your complex technology, but they run the business of the ICU.

They carry the profit and loss.

They hold the P&L.

It’s not supply chain.

Supply chain buys things, organizes things, and manages contracts.

The person who runs the ICU is the one who says, “I understand what you mean. We have to decrease our sepsis rates. This might help us. It’s good for patients, and one of our KPIs is decreasing sepsis identification and diagnosis from 12 hours to four hours. That is a strategic win.”

Doctors will walk into value analysis meetings and say, “I want this. It’s better for patients.”

That’s not enough anymore.

The new process is finding a new champion or multiple champions who understand the clinical and the business.

If you don’t, it just dies.

It sits somewhere and nobody approves it.

The new process is that we’re selling to businesses.

This is business-to-business.

You don’t just go to Coca-Cola, talk to one person, and they say, “Yeah, let’s buy $2 million worth of your product.”

Other industries look at us and say, “What are you talking about? Doctors get to make their decisions?”

No, they don’t anymore.

How would you sell if you were selling to Home Depot?

It’s different.

And we have to do both.

That’s why it’s hard.

I train people how to sell to Home Depot inside hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

That makes sense.

For the rep listening right now who says, “Mark is right. I haven’t been able to push this product. I have the best relationship with these doctors ever, and nothing is happening.”

How do they learn how to do what you’re talking about?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

First, not to sound self-promotional, this is all I post about on LinkedIn.

I do all kinds of educational stuff for free specifically for reps in that position because their companies are generally not doing it.

I feel bad for reps.

These reps have amazing technologies.

They’ve actually done the hard part.

Doctors want it.

Then we can’t get it in the hands of doctors to help patients because we don’t know what to do next.

So I try to help reps as much as I can for free.

My DMs are full of them.

My texts are full of them.

I will always try to help them that way.

If they follow me on LinkedIn and have a question, just ping me.

I probably have something educational I can send to them so they can train themselves a little bit.

Here’s how I learned how to do it.

I went and talked to the people and said, “What is it that you need?”

Because if I don’t understand this, I don’t sell anything, and the Copelands may have to move.

I asked over 100 people on these committees, “What do you need? What are you looking for? What’s the best new product request you’ve ever seen? What are the worst ones? What do you wish everybody did better?”

They tell you everything because I’m not selling something.

I’m discovering what they need to see to approve my new product for my clinical champions.

A lot of people won’t do that.

You can do it if you want, or you can call me, and I’ll tell you what they’re going to say.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

It makes me wonder.

It seems obvious because it’s the direction of healthcare in general.

Everyone is coming together and becoming bigger players.

Why wouldn’t companies be on the forefront of this and make sure their reps have this mastered?

Why is that even a gap?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

They will be.

There are plenty of smart people.

I just happen to be ahead of it because of a couple of weird events coming together.

It’s also a relatively recent phenomenon.

In 2018, people were still saying, “Yeah, I know, but my doctor is important. He’ll get it. She’ll get it.”

And they still kind of did.

But this has hit because of all the mergers.

There were 50 to 60 healthcare systems merging every year for five straight years in the United States.

Look wherever you live.

There used to be four or five hospitals.

Now there are two health systems.

That’s entirely different.

It’s a relatively recent phenomenon, and plenty of smart people are figuring it out.

But I can’t tell you how many companies I’ve told, “Instead of hiring 20 doctors as consultants to teach you everything you need to know, hire 18 doctors and hire two of these value analysis people. Ask them what they need to see.”

So far, I’m zero for 200.

Everyone would have thought of that, right?

But there is a disconnect right now, and it’s catching up.

I’m smart now.

We’ll see how smart I am in five years.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

Last question on this topic.

Like you said, this is a recent phenomenon, and it happened pretty quickly.

From 2018 to now, that’s less than 10 years.

What is the next evolution of this?

Where do you see it headed from here?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

You and I have seen this now.

CMS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which sort of drives the way the dollar gets used in the United States for healthcare, is pushing so many procedures to outpatient settings, ambulatory surgery centers, and procedure rooms.

What they can do in cardiac alone is astounding.

They are doing these procedures in these places now because they are less invasive and less disruptive.

That’s another wave hitting at the same time.

Trying to understand how all of that is occurring is something people need to pay attention to.

You don’t have to be a PhD.

You don’t have to be an MBA.

I’m living proof you don’t have to.

But you have to pay attention to it.

That’s where the wins are.

If you at least understand those things, you are ahead of 90 percent of the people in your company and the people you compete with in the field.

That’s what makes you really good, and I think it’s what makes you great.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

I love it.

Let’s switch gears and talk about hiring people.

I want to speak specifically to hiring people with no experience in medical sales.

Give us the top five things someone has to have if they have no medical sales experience, but they’ve been working for two, five, or ten years in any industry.

What skills absolutely have to be there for them to even be considered?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

There are a couple of things I’ve seen really good people do that most people trying to get into this should think about.

Number one, you have to be coachable.

You also have to be willing to learn and know that you don’t know everything immediately.

This is complicated.

If you’re going to train me to learn the ICU and I think I’m going to learn it in 90 days, I probably shouldn’t be in the business in the first place.

It’s so complicated, technical, and deeply clinical that it’s almost insulting to think I could walk in and do it quickly.

I have to be willing to put my ego aside and learn.

I have to be willing to be coached.

If you’re not willing to be coached, you’re not going to be any good.

So number one, do you have examples of being coached?

Do you have examples of putting your ego aside and learning?

Those are important.

Next, what motivates you?

Are you motivated?

And can you prove it to me?

Everybody says they’re coachable.

Everybody says they want to learn.

Everybody says they’re motivated.

You’re all full of crap until you give me examples.

Give me examples.

Then I want to know, can you fit on my team?

Very few of us are lone wolves in this business.

We work with teams, whether in the ICU, OR, with sales partners, or whoever else.

Are you willing to work with a team?

Because I can’t spend all this time hiring you and six months later find out you’re a complete jerk and everybody hates you.

That’s awful.

You don’t have to be a people person, but you cannot be polarizing.

And the fifth one is, are you goal-oriented?

Do you have goals and do you work toward them?

Prove it to me.

Don’t just tell me because I don’t believe you.

Nobody believes you because everybody says it.

Show me.

Maybe you spent an entire summer lifting weights because you got tired of getting pushed around on the lacrosse field.

Maybe you decided you wanted to learn something, paid for a course, went through it, and earned a certification.

Okay, you’re goal-oriented.

You showed me how you did it, and you made sacrifices toward it.

Notice I didn’t say people person or effervescent personality.

Those things are nice.

But if you don’t have those other four to five things, you’re going to fail miserably and hate it.

That’s what I want to know, and I think most hiring managers want to know.

The reason people like to hire candidates with sales experience is not because they’re necessarily great at sales.

It’s because they’re used to being judged, force ranked, and having a number next to them.

They’re used to saying, “I plan on being ahead of that next year.”

If you have examples of that, that’s really what we’re looking for.

If you’ve done it for Enterprise, you’re used to being force ranked.

If you’ve done it for Cintas, you’ve been coached.

You’re proving to us you’re willing to do those things.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

That makes perfect sense.

It’s what we teach.

In our program, the Medical Sales Career Builder, we’re training people to bring that out.

Having placed hundreds of people into positions, we keep seeing over and over again that it’s not about having medical experience or even sales experience.

It’s about demonstrating what medical sales experience and sales experience gives people.

The grit to get a door slammed in your face over and over again and still get up and act like it’s your first day and you’re going to make the best impression.

The ability to develop a relationship when someone wants nothing to do with you.

The hunger to go after it at all costs.

Mark Copeland (Guest):

You just nailed it.

I’m glad you’re teaching people that because that is what we’re looking for in the business.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

Now, I think a long time ago, there weren’t programs that anyone could enroll in to learn how to get into this industry.

Now there are. We have one of them.

Maybe five, six, seven, or eight years ago, people thought about programs differently because if someone was investing in themselves to get into an industry, you weren’t sure what the intention was.

You also weren’t sure what that program was doing with that individual to prepare them.

Nowadays, I’d like to believe it’s much more common, and real talent comes out of some of these organizations, especially ours.

Without my bias, what do you think when someone comes to you and says, “I took the Medical Sales Career Builder because I want to be in this industry so badly. I took it to build these skills and showcase myself in the most powerful way”?

What are your thoughts on that effort?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

I think it’s an advantage, and I think it’s a good thing because it shows they were willing to spend somebody’s money.

It could be theirs. It could be their parents’. It could be whatever.

You made a commitment.

You made a sacrifice.

That is a good indicator.

When those programs first came up, I didn’t know how to assess them.

I have come to the conclusion that they are good for showing commitment.

When you reach into your pocket, you’re committing to an extent.

I do think sometimes people come out with false beliefs.

They think, “I went to this, so now I know sales.”

And I’m like, no.

You understand how not to be a jeopardy in the OR or ICU.

You understand maybe your product and some of this stuff.

But sales is a whole different entity.

I always tell people, don’t confuse the two.

Covering cases is not sales.

That’s service.

Sales is going and getting new business.

That’s different.

Sometimes people conflate the two.

But yes, I think these programs are a good thing.

I get a lot of people coming out of college saying, “Medical-related sales sounds cool. I want to do it.”

I tell them, all right, consider some of these things, but understand it’s a commitment.

You’re right. They didn’t exist ten years ago.

I didn’t know what to make of them at first.

Some of them just try to tell people what to say.

I think it’s more important to say, “This is what they’re looking for. If you have it, here’s how to reveal it.”

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

Right.

It’s not about telling them what to say.

It’s about telling them how to bring out what they authentically have.

Mark Copeland (Guest):

Exactly.

I think you guys do a pretty good job of that.

I’ve listened to you talk about it.

What you do is aimed in the right direction.

You have the right North Star.

That’s why I tell people they should check out Samuel.

I didn’t take it, but I think they should consider it.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

I love it.

Mark, it’s awesome spending time with you, man.

We have one last thing to do before we wrap up.

It’s called our Lightning Round.

Are you ready?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

I don’t know how fast I am, but I’ll be as fast as I can.

Let’s go.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

All right.

I’m asking four questions.

First question.

What’s the best book you’ve read in the last six months?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

I’m reading Influence right now on a recommendation from a friend, and it’s fascinating.

I wish I had read it 20 years ago.

I also still go back every two or three years and reread SPIN Selling.

I’m probably due to refresh on SPIN Selling.

Lousy name, great selling program.

Awful name, great program.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

Both of those are recommended reading in our program.

Let me pause.

Last time you recommended Destiny of the Republic.

Do you remember that?

That is now one of my top ten books.

I loved that book, man.

That book was fascinating.

So thank you again for that recommendation.

Best TV show or movie you’ve seen in the last six months?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

The Pitt.

Not even close.

The Pitt on HBO with Noah Wyle.

You have to watch it.

It’s basically a made-up level one trauma emergency department in Pittsburgh called The Pitt.

It’s two seasons now, I think 12 hours each, and it is one shift.

It is some of the most compelling TV I have ever seen since The Wire.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

The Wire is a classic.

I’ll check that out.

And it’s right up our alley.

All right.

We want the item, the restaurant, and the location.

Best meal you’ve had in the last six months.

Mark Copeland (Guest):

I was not ready for this.

The one I had at Hotel Hershey with my wife for her birthday a couple of months ago.

It’s a great place.

The best company on the planet is my wife.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

Hotel Hershey.

Where is this exactly?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

Hershey, Pennsylvania, baby.

Land of chocolate.

That’s where I live.

That’s where my wife is from.

Come visit.

You have kids. Bring the kids.

We have a great park.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

I’ll hold you to it.

Consider it done.

Last but not least, what’s the best experience you’ve had in the last six months?

Mark Copeland (Guest):

My kid graduated from college, Northeastern University, and got to walk at Fenway Park.

We just did it a couple of months ago.

It was awesome.

My kid’s graduation.

It was emotional.

Great place.

I’ll put that up there right now, and then I’ll probably forget something my wife will smack me for when she hears this.

Listen, I like what you do.

Thank you so much for inviting me and having me on.

Any reps or potential reps, feel free to come to LinkedIn.

I promise I will help you if you’re struggling with these things.

I’m here to help you guys.

I’m here to charge your companies, but not you.

If you’re a rep just trying to get better, I will help you.

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):

I love it.

Mark Copeland, everyone.

You can find him on LinkedIn.

Look up Mark Copeland, M-A-R-K C-O-P-E-L-A-N-D.

Mark, this was fantastic.

Thank you for the time.

Mark Copeland (Guest):

Samuel, thank you so much.

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 some 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.