Success in medical sales is not only about knowledge, but also about the application of that knowledge, adapting proactively, and being aware of your impact in the room. In this episode, we have Rob Bahna discuss what truly makes a good medical sales rep. From his early beginnings to climbing the ladder of success, Rob provides a firsthand account of his journey through various leadership positions in medical sales. He shares the key attributes that define a successful candidate aiming for a career in medical sales. Rob’s advice is crystal clear: it’s not just about having the knowledge; it’s about demonstrating a track record of success, even if it’s not directly related to the field. His emphasis on giving a hundred percent in everything you do becomes a guiding principle for aspirants. Tune in now and elevate your understanding of what it takes to thrive in medical sales!
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What Makes A Good Medical Sales Rep With Rob Bahna
We have with us another special guest. He goes by the name of Rob Bahna. Rob has had a very long and extensive career in medical sales. As always, we do our best to bring you guests who are doing things differently in the medical sales space. I do hope you enjoy this interview.
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Transcription:
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Rob, how are we doing?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
I’m great, Samuel. How are you?
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
No complaints. Just making it happen in 2023.
Why don’t you tell the audience who you are and what you do?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
My name is Rob Bahna.
But before I do that, I want to say congratulations on the 153 or so episodes.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Thank you. I appreciate that, Rob.
We’ve come a long way. We’re very proud of it. Thank you.
Rob Bahna (Guest):
You should be.
I can remember when I first got my start in medical sales. I would have loved to have had a resource like Evolve Your Success, giving advice to people about breaking into medical sales.
Obviously, I know it also goes to people who have been around a while, like me, trying to remain at the top or advance their careers.
I think that’s fantastic, and I’m honored to be talking here.
I personally have been in the medical sales field for over 30 years. I’m a legacy. My dad was also in medical sales for 30 years, so it’s been part of my life for my whole life.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
That’s a first. Your dad was a medical sales professional for 30 years.
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Yes.
I’m very passionate about selling. I’m proud to be a professional medical salesperson. I’m the first to tell everybody that.
I believe I’m a student of selling.
The minute I think I know too much is the minute I lose my value to my company.
It’s always growing and learning.
I’ve had the pleasure of hiring over 1,000 salespeople in the medical field.
I’ve had the opportunity to train over 1,500 in a variety of different training programs.
I’ve done over 3,000 coaching sessions, ride-alongs, or whatever you want to call them, with a lot of salespeople.
I’ve learned a lot from each of those.
Some of it was good, and some of it was stuff I hope I never did.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
You’re almost at 60 years of experience because there’s your 30, and then there’s your dad’s 30 that I’m assuming was passed on to you.
Is that the case, or not quite?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Some of it was.
We never sat down and talked about sales strategies until I got into sales.
When I did, we started to talk about that.
I was very fortunate that I left a company to go spend the last ten years of his career with him before he retired.
We worked at the same organization for close to ten years.
That was a blast.
I got to see him win awards. He got to see me win awards.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
This gets better and better.
What position did you have?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
I was a Director of Sales, and he was a Regional Manager.
He didn’t work for me, but I outranked him.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
I don’t even know how to take that.
How did he take that?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
He was great with it.
He was very proud of what I was able to accomplish.
I also have the unique experience of starting four inside sales programs for four different medical companies.
Way before inside sales was what it is now, that’s how I got my start.
Back then, we still called it telemarketing.
Things were different back then, especially with startups.
A lot of my career has been with companies under $1 billion, and a lot of it has been with startups.
Whether it was starting a new division of an existing company or a complete startup, that’s where I’ve spent quite a bit of my time.
It’s been a lot of fun.
It’s a great way to make a living if you’re selling something you’re passionate about, believe in, and know makes a difference for people.
I would never do it any other way.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Did he report to you?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
He did not.
We wouldn’t have done that. That wouldn’t have worked well.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
That would have been pretty tough.
Rob Bahna (Guest):
We both played baseball in college.
We’re pretty competitive, to the point where my mom has forbidden us to even play baseball together.
That wouldn’t have worked well.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Do you have siblings, or is it just you?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Two older sisters.
One is an attorney, and one is a teacher.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
So it’s you and Dad going back and forth. That’s the only way.
You have so much experience. I’d venture to say you’ve probably seen almost everything.
Rob Bahna (Guest):
I’ve seen a lot.
But I think there’s an opportunity to grow all the time.
As I alluded to, I’m a big believer, and I’m going to throw a few sayings out at you.
I’m a sayings guy because I’m a storyteller when I sell.
I believe what was good enough to get you there isn’t good enough to keep you there or get you to the next level.
I’m always looking at how we do things.
One of the companies I worked for had a great motto.
The motto was, “We don’t do things the best way. We just do things the best way we know how.”
When we bring you in, we want you to teach us a better way.
If there is a better way, I’m open to that.
It would be hard for a salesperson to give me an excuse that I haven’t heard at least a few times.
At the same time, it’s a very different world than it was 33 years ago when I started calling on physician offices.
HMOs and PPOs didn’t even exist. Nobody even knew what those were.
There were no cell phones. There was no email.
When you went in for an appointment, they would shut the door and they wouldn’t answer the phone.
The selling environment is very different.
In acute care, purchasing didn’t exist the way it does now, or they didn’t have the authority they have now.
There were no GPOs and no IDNs.
It’s a very different world.
But to me, the fundamentals of selling don’t change.
The tools you use, the availability of information, the expectations of customers, and your preparedness are all different.
The buyer is more educated now because there is so much more information available. They can do their own research more than ever before.
Back then, we were the information.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
I did a talk about the power of social media.
There’s research we pulled from Gartner showing how decision makers now, many of them millennials, don’t even want to deal with the sales rep in any way, shape, or form.
They want to do their own research, and then they only want a sales rep if they have questions about that research.
They prefer to make decisions from their own research.
Rob Bahna (Guest):
You obviously have to adjust to that as an organization and as a salesperson.
You have to be more prepared because they’re better educated when you get in front of them, especially at the higher levels.
That dictates a lot of what your pre-call planning and preparation need to be.
It also depends on the education level required for the product you’re selling and who you’re calling on.
My preparation is very different if I’m dealing with someone in frontline patient care compared to dealing with the CFO or the C-suite.
I’m not going to ask them the same questions, and they don’t expect me to ask the same questions.
That’s where it’s different.
But the fundamentals of understanding the customer, uncovering their needs, and presenting in a way that focuses on how you solve their issues and problems versus your features will never change for the best salespeople.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Did your experience consist of both inside and outside sales?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Correct.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Let’s jump into what makes a good sales professional.
Thinking about the individual contributor, what are the top three things someone needs to bring every single day if they’re serious about being successful in medical sales?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Attitude, work ethic, and good judgment.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Straight-laced.
Rob Bahna (Guest):
That’s not always easy to uncover.
But when I sit down and talk to people, that’s what I look for.
That’s what I try to uncover.
Where do they fall in those three?
There are other intangibles. You have to be able to communicate and all of those things.
But those are the three I look for the most.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
I love that you’ve had so many interviews in your career.
Think about a candidate interviewing with you.
How do you assess their work ethic, attitude, and judgment?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
You have to ask good questions.
You have to look at their track record and their experience.
I’ve hired a lot of kids right out of school, and I’ve also hired people with 15, 20, or 25 years of experience.
You have to adjust your questions based on who is in front of you and their experience level.
If it’s someone like Joe Testa, who I hired right out of college, he was an athlete.
So you look at what he’s done so far and what he’s done to show work ethic and drive.
Good judgment is the hardest part to find.
That’s the one that is not easy.
If I’m dealing with someone who has experience, I want to know what they’ve done with hitting quota.
Where do they rank in their sales organization?
Talk to me about the sale you’re most proud of.
It doesn’t have to be the biggest dollar amount.
Walk me through what happened.
Tell me about the hardest sale you ever made, whether because of length of sale or complexity, and walk me through it.
What I’m trying to uncover is their drive.
I tell my people all the time, I’m not worried about what happens when we’re there.
I’m worried about whether we’re giving the customer what they need when we’re not there, when they have to fight the internal battle and someone is telling them no.
From a hiring standpoint, I’m trying to uncover what they’re going to do.
Are they self-motivated enough to get up in the morning and do what they need to do without someone looking over their shoulder?
That’s where you have to ask good questions and have them tell you about their past successes.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Let’s dig into this a little bit more, especially around these questions.
Good judgment is a challenging thing to assess properly in a stranger.
Considering your experience, how are you able to sift through the fluff?
Give us an example of what it looks like when someone is pretending to showcase good judgment versus someone who actually has good judgment.
Rob Bahna (Guest):
If I look at a resume and there are three or four job changes in three or four years, we’re all naturally going to dig into that during an interview.
I usually ask two or three questions that go deeper once they give me an answer.
If they say, “There was a layoff and I was the last one hired,” I’m going to dig into that.
I might say, “We’ve all experienced that. That’s tough. Tell me more about the layoff. How many people were in the salesforce? How many were affected?”
Depending on where they were and how long they were there, I want to see if they take any ownership of it or if it really was the case.
It could go either way.
One of the things I love to do is take people out to dinner during the interview process.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
What?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
I almost always take people out to dinner.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
That’s new.
Do they interview with you during the day, or does the actual interview happen over dinner?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Usually the interview is first, or even after.
If I was flying into town and they weren’t available that next night, I’d go to dinner with them first, then do the interview the next day.
The reason is we’re all different in an interview.
I want to see how they treat the waiter.
I want to see how they treat people in the restaurant.
I want to see how they interact with people when they’re on their best behavior.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
I’ve seen this before, but it’s not common.
If dinner is before the actual interview, I’m assuming you’re trying not to ask interview questions for the next day.
Outside of seeing how they treat other people, what does the conversation revolve around?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Usually by then we’ve at least done an initial interview.
I won’t go into anything new, but I’ll ask more about what they already told me.
Some of it is I’m trying to see if they lead and steer the conversation.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Do you like that when a candidate tries to lead and steer the conversation?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Yes, in that situation.
I’m a big believer in the steps of a sales call, and an interview is nothing other than a sales call.
You’re selling yourself, not a product.
When I sell and when I work with salespeople, I believe in engineering agreement to move the ball forward.
I like customers to feel like they’re in control while we are still guiding the process.
If they say, “You have 30 minutes,” and I look at my watch and say, “When we sat down, you mentioned you had something else, and we’re at 30 minutes. The conversation is going well, but I want to be sensitive to your time. Do you want to keep going, or should we schedule another time?”
A lot of the time, they’ll say, “Let’s keep going.”
It depends on how you control the conversation.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t be in it as a profession.
I believe people love to buy, but they hate to be sold.
Is it a conversation?
Is somebody leading me somewhere?
Is somebody presenting before they even know I have a need?
In that kind of situation, I’d love to see the candidate ask me questions about the organization.
Usually when I start the dinner, I say, “I don’t want this to be an interview. I’m not going to ask you anything inappropriate, but ask me whatever you want.”
Then I see what they say.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
How many times were you certain, or thought you wanted to hire someone, and then the dinner ruled them out?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Probably 15 to 20 percent of the time.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
What is that like?
Without naming names, give us the scenario.
I’m sure the audience is thinking, I want to know what those stories sound like.
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Some of it is amazing.
We had a candidate once, and I had our regional manager with us, who had already interviewed this person three times.
We got done with dinner, and this candidate went off on the waiter because the drink was wrong.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
In front of everybody?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
We were all sitting there in suits at a chain restaurant, and he went off because it was a Diet Coke versus a regular Coke.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
What happens?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
We knew right then.
We finished the dinner, but he was done.
If that’s how he reacted to something as benign as a drink order being wrong, how will he react with your customer service team?
Even when we do that, I’m almost looking more at how they would interact with your internal team and internal customers versus external customers.
We all know that when we deal with external customers, whether we’re introverts or extroverts, we’re on stage. We know that.
But how do they interact with the internal team that is instrumental in helping us get our job done?
That made me pause.
I remember the regional manager and I got back out to the car, and he said, “I don’t know who the heck that person was, but that was not the guy I spent three days interviewing.”
There are all kinds of little things like that.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
In addition to that story, what was the situation with the candidate who impressed you the most?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
The ones who impress you the most, although it’s different now, are the ones who have done their homework.
They come in with a presentation prepared.
They come in ready to do a role play without you even asking them.
They differentiate themselves from all the other candidates.
That’s what you’re trying to do.
That’s what your resume is designed to do.
In 15 seconds, your resume should get someone to say, “Let’s talk to this person,” or at least give them a phone screen.
What you’re looking for is how this person is going to be different.
What is their preparation level like for this interview?
If you haven’t done your planning or pre-call planning for an interview, what are you going to do when you have five calls?
It’s very telling, especially depending on the level you’re hiring for.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
I want to get into your history, but before we do that, I want to talk more about your experience with sales professionals.
We’ve talked about individual contributors and candidates.
Now I want to move to sales leaders.
Because of your position, you’ve managed multiple sales leaders.
In your opinion, what are the top three things a sales team leader needs to have?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
A psychology degree.
That’s actually what my degree is in.
In all seriousness, I would say they need great communication skills.
They need the ability to teach.
And they need patience.
When I first got promoted, I worked for an incredible mentor who was an incredible salesperson.
I got promoted very quickly, six months into my career, and I was managing people twice my age.
He sat me down and said, “The hardest thing you are going to run into, and any manager does when they get promoted, is that not everyone is going to have the same work ethic you do. Not everyone is going to care as much as you do. You can’t expect that. If we had a room full of you, we wouldn’t even need a manager.”
Lead from the front and have high expectations, but don’t put your expectations so high that you get overly frustrated in your role.
The toughest thing for a new manager, in my experience, is learning to be quiet.
You go on a ride-along and see someone struggling, and one of the first things you want to do is jump in.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Jump in and say, “This is how you do it.”
You’re restraining yourself with all your might.
I know exactly what you’re talking about.
Rob Bahna (Guest):
That is a skill, and you have to work at it.
Teach a person to fish, or hand them a fish.
If it was a large IDN that meant millions, I’m not going to let them crash and burn on that.
But in the right situation, you have to be willing to let them make mistakes and learn from them.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
You started with Sage Products back in 1998, correct?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
That’s when I started with Sage, yes.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Before that, was it college and you knew you wanted this role?
Or was this an opportunity you decided to take after college?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
I actually thought I was going to be a clinical psychologist.
I did some work with paranoid schizophrenics.
I had known one patient for over two years, and he saw something on a bus sign that sent him completely back into not even knowing who I was anymore.
I’m such a goal-oriented person.
I understand that’s the extreme, but it’s part of the reason I work out pretty much every day.
It’s one of those things I can control.
I do it, I’m done, I check that box, and I move to the next thing.
There are so many things in sales that we can’t control.
Knowing I was a goal-oriented person, I decided, I don’t think clinical psychology is going to fit for me.
I turned to what my dad was doing and said, it’s given us a good life, and he seems to enjoy it.
I sat down and talked to him about it.
He said, “If that’s what you want to do, I’ll let you talk to a couple of recruiters I use, and they’ll give you advice.”
That’s kind of how I got into it.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
You’ve been a sales manager, national director, VP, executive VP.
You’ve consistently made headway into the role you’re in now.
Give us your philosophy on what drives you to take your career success to where it is.
Is it something you say to yourself every day?
Is it a mantra?
Is it spiritual?
What life philosophy drives you?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
I think it’s helping people achieve what they want to achieve and being a conduit for them to do that.
Obviously, there’s some self-centeredness in there because it helps me get where I want to go.
But you get to a level where hopefully you’re looking outward and not always inward.
Whether it’s Maslow’s hierarchy of needs or however you want to look at it, there are stages to your career.
Once you have a certain level of income and accomplishment, it becomes much easier to look outward.
I’ve been the team captain of every team I was ever on.
I was student class president.
I’ve always been a leader.
I haven’t always been a vocal leader, but I’ve been someone who, if we were going to do a run, I would finish first or second every time.
If we were going to do a workout after practice and none of us felt like doing it, I was going to do it.
I have high expectations of myself, and I have expectations of others.
That’s the kind of person I want to work for.
But I don’t expect anybody to work harder than me.
That will never happen.
I don’t ever ask someone to do something I’m not willing to do in front of them.
If I say, “Why don’t you try this?” and they ask, “Can you give me an example?” Absolutely. I’d be happy to give you an example.
If you want me to handle this one in front of the customer, I’d be happy to.
That goes beyond selling. It goes into management and every facet of business, trying to help people.
I’ve been very blessed with the mentors I’ve had.
I take mentoring very seriously, and I pay it forward.
That motivates me.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
It’s funny you say work ethic.
I’ve interviewed hundreds of VPs, CEOs, and you name it.
What I consistently hear from VP-level professionals is, “No one is going to outwork me.”
I’m not making this up.
It’s clicking right now.
That is the most consistent thing I hear from VP-level professionals.
No one is going to outwork me.
You just reinforced that.
Everybody tuning in, especially candidates, I hope you’re taking notes because Rob is dropping knowledge.
Rob Bahna (Guest):
When you become introspective, work with people, and give them the opportunity to give you feedback, whether they’re your superior, colleague, or someone who works for you, I try to invite that feedback all the time.
The goal is for all of us to get better.
I know there are things I’m good at, and I know there are things other people do a lot better than I do.
That whole thing of, you’re not going to outwork me, I’m not going to lose because I got outworked.
One of the owners of one of our companies said, “There are no unrealistic expectations. There are only unrealistic timeframes.”
He also used to say, “We’ve never lost a game yet. We may have run out of time, but we’re not giving up yet. We haven’t lost the game yet.”
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Whoever created that, tell him I’m stealing it as of now.
I’ll be using those terms.
Let’s get back to you.
You’ve worked for all these different companies, all in leadership positions, all in the VP space.
Here you are now with another one.
How do you make it work with your social life?
Are you a family man?
Do you have kids?
A wife?
How do you make it all work?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
I’m blessed.
My wife, Jenny, and I just celebrated our 30th anniversary in Iceland a few weeks ago.
She’s been the rock and the support.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
I’m going to call you the man of 30.
Your dad gave 30.
You put in 30.
You’ve been married for 30 years.
You’re setting records over here.
That’s wonderful.
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Unfortunately, we were not blessed with kids.
We met in college at a camp. That was always part of the plan, but it didn’t happen.
Outside of work, we fill our time volunteering at animal shelters and things like that.
You can probably see the pictures of the dog behind me.
A lot of family, nieces and nephews, and all of that.
I’m a sports fanatic.
I’m an avid reader.
I read probably two books a week. One business book and one bestseller.
Stephen King’s book Holly came out and I finished it.
I would much rather sit down with a book than watch TV.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
I thought I was doing something with my two to three books a month.
Two books a week?
I’ve got to step my game up.
Do you travel a lot?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
I do.
I’m on the road for the next five weeks.
We’re in trade show season, so that doesn’t happen all the time.
I believe training is an ongoing thing. It’s not an event.
Too many companies treat training as an event.
They’ll have a two-day training program and pretend that’s going to change habits.
It’s not.
If you’re going to help people grow and change habits, you have to be consistent with what you’re trying to show them and the feedback you’re giving them.
Part of it is being consistently out there.
Also, the value I can bring to my organization is providing customer feedback and what we’re hearing in the marketplace.
If you do it well, some people respond to titles.
They’ll often share things with me that they won’t share with one of the account managers.
That’s where I can come in and ask a question, ask for an opinion, or ask for feedback in a way that doesn’t potentially impede the direct relationship with our business.
When I go out and work with the salesperson, I ask them what they want me to do.
I’m not there to say, “You did this well.”
We go in and say, “What’s our plan? What’s our goal? What do you want me to do? Let’s get this done.”
We’re hiring good people.
I’m not there to babysit anybody.
We’re there to have fun, number one.
My favorite saying in life is, “Life is too short to dance with ugly men.”
That’s a Mae West saying.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
I’ve never heard that in my life.
Say that one more time.
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Life is too short to dance with ugly men.
And looking at me, I’m obviously not talking about looks.
I’m talking about attitude and having fun.
That’s the way I try to approach it.
Let’s have a good time while we’re doing this.
Why not?
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
On that note, we’re going to bring this to a close.
I want you to drop some knowledge for each segment I mention.
First, what’s one thing you would tell candidates who are looking to get into medical sales right now?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Whatever you’re doing, give it 100 percent and be successful at it.
Even if it’s not what you want to be doing yet, you have to show a track record of success however you can, because that helps differentiate you from other candidates.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
For medical sales professionals already in the field, what would you share with them?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
I think we’ve gotten too reactive.
In many cases, we are not as proactive anymore as we used to be with good territory management and customer planning.
What’s our strategy there?
The way I look at sales training is that it’s a playbook, if we use the sports analogy.
A playbook is not where you stop.
Before you go into an account or a game, you create a game plan.
You have your playbook, then you have your game plan.
Then, when I’m in front of the defense and they change, I call an audible.
There are three levels.
In many cases now, we stop at one level instead of looking longer term.
Especially in capital sales, which is what I’m in now.
If I miss out, I might be looking at two, three, or four years down the road.
But I still need a plan, and I still need to be proactive so I don’t miss that chance.
Make sure you are looking at your territory proactively.
Make sure you have a plan and you’re working that plan.
There are too many things we react to, and a lot of it is necessary.
But if you continue to let the shiny object take you away from what’s urgent and important, you’re never going to get where you want to go.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
You’ll never hit the goal.
You nailed it.
You have to have that plan.
There’s that saying, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Tyson said it.
That goes back to what you’re saying.
It’s one thing to be in the field with no plan and just react to customers.
But if you have a plan, even if it can’t be executed exactly the way you thought, you’re still going to move farther and faster because you had that original plan.
You had a baseline to come back to and operate from, even if the environment didn’t support the original plan.
I completely agree with that.
When I say the phrase self-aware, what does that mean to you?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Self-aware is the awareness of how you are perceived by the people around you.
That is a fundamental characteristic of most successful people.
It is something a lot of people are missing.
If you don’t have that, it is a big detriment in selling.
If you’re not conscious of the room and how people are reacting to what you’re saying, that hurts you.
In order to do that, you have to have practiced.
You have to know your stuff so well that you can be aware of the environment and be self-aware.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
I think your definition was great.
That’s where I see the difference between people who are good and people who are struggling.
There’s a big difference in their self-awareness.
This has been fantastic.
We have one more thing to do called the Lightning Round.
Are you ready?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
As ready as I’ll ever be.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
You have four questions and less than ten seconds to answer each one.
First question, what is the best book you’ve read in the last six months?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
I went back and reread Wooden on Leadership and Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success.
Those two are classics, but they’re great reminders of what it takes to be an elite performer and an elite leader, and how striving for those things is an ongoing project for life.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
I read both of those books, and I couldn’t agree more.
Best movie or TV show you’ve seen in the last six months?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
I don’t watch a lot of TV or movies.
But I guess the best one, tied back to reading, would be A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks, based on the book A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.
I watched that on a plane.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
I’ve seen the advertising but never watched or read the book.
It’s good stuff?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
It’s good stuff.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
How about food?
Best meal you’ve had in the last six months?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Being in Chicago, if I don’t say pizza, I’m probably going to get hit.
As much as I travel, we have a tradition that usually on a Thursday or Friday when I come home, we have a good Chicago deep dish pizza waiting.
Other than that, I’m a big fan of Eddie V’s and their filet.
We were at one last weekend, so I’d probably say that one.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Last question.
What is the best experience you’ve had in the last six months?
Rob Bahna (Guest):
I would go back to Iceland.
My wife and I were celebrating our anniversary and my birthday, all two days apart.
We had the pleasure of being in Iceland for that.
It was everything we thought it would be.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Iceland was never on my radar, but I’ve met a few people who have come from Iceland, and they all say the same thing.
It’s something else.
It’s making its way onto my list as well.
Rob, it was wonderful hearing from you, learning from you, and having you on the show.
I know the audience is grateful.
Thank you for being on the show, and we look forward to seeing all the wonderful things you continue to do in medical sales.
Rob Bahna (Guest):
Thank you for the opportunity.
It’s my pleasure.
I appreciate what you guys are doing.
I think you’re helping out an awful lot of people, and that’s something to be proud of.
Thanks.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
Thank you.
Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
That was Rob Bahna.
What is cool about medical sales is it doesn’t matter where you start.
Whether you started off as an orthopedics rep, trauma, ENT, endoscopy, OB-GYN, pharmaceutical, or diagnostic testing.
Once you’re in this space, you have the opportunity to move into other spaces.
The number of people I’ve spoken to with careers as short as five years who are doing amazing and cool things now, it’s a beautiful thing to see.
This is the industry where you can start off as a sales rep in any of these fields I mentioned, perform for two, three, four, or five years, join a startup, and have the opportunity to do something like what Rob Bahna is doing.
Or you can be on the cutting edge of a supply that changes how hospitals operate.
Or a device that changes how an entire procedure is done.
Or a drug that literally revolutionizes a condition or disease state.
It’s in this industry that you can have those types of experiences.
In this industry, you can spend years in one space and move all that experience and value into another space within medical sales.
For those of you tuning in to Rob Bahna’s episode and thinking, “I loved what I heard. Give me the chance to sell what he’s talking about. I would love the opportunity to be connected to something like that.”
That’s why we have the Medical Sales Career Builder program.
Evolve Your Success is all about helping you evolve your success.
There are levels of success.
Once you hit one, it’s time to step it up to the next one, and you continue to evolve.
That can look like many different things.
But when it comes to your career trajectory, if you’re not in this industry and you know you want to be, why not take advantage of what can help you get there?
One of the biggest things the Medical Sales Career Builder offers is the level of support you need to get into one of these positions.
First and foremost, we help you find out where you want to be.
Then you work with someone in that field who has 10 to 15 plus years of experience and can give you all the ins and outs.
Someone works with you to teach you what you need to know about interviewing, the process, how many interviews you might have, and what to say to each type of individual.
You also work with someone to develop a personal story that actually communicates your value.
When you have that kind of support, you show up differently.
When you have that kind of support, you do things you’ve never done before.
That’s what we’re all about.
You are literally evolving into the person you need to be to get this job.
And when you get the job, the journey has just started.
Then you have to continue evolving to become a performer, maintain that success, and take it to whatever level you want after that, including joining a startup and doing something like what Rob Bahna is doing.
This is the opportunity you have, and this is what I believe in.
Medical sales has created such a life for me that I’ve made it my mission to invite as many people as possible into this space.
Not just invite them, but show them how to actually get in and succeed.
If this is you, if you’re listening to this episode right now and thinking, “Yes, Samuel, you’re speaking my language. I still absolutely want to be in a medical sales position. Help me.”
Then go to EvolveYourSuccess.com.
Fill out the application.
Schedule some time with one of our account executives.
Let’s have a conversation and get you where you need to be.
As always, we do our best to bring you guests who are doing things differently in the medical sales space.
I hope you come back next time for another episode.
Important Links
- Rob Bahna
- Holly
- Wooden on Leadership
- Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success
- A Man Called Ove
- Medical Sales Career Builder
- EvolveYourSuccess.com
About Rob Bahna
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Medical Territory Manager!
I was a Regional Sales Representative for Long-Term Care pharmacy services. I had dreamed of getting into the med sales industry when I went into my career as a nurse, but the pharmacy sales job came to me, and I had just settled. Fortunately, I had a job shakeup that allowed me to determine that now was the time to pursue my original vision.
I absolutely would not have this position without Samuel and the Evolve Your Success community. A lot of people my age would just stop trying, but EYS believed in me.
EYS allowed me to break into the industry in 90-Days after I had been trying on my own for over two years! I had lots of recruiter screenings, and a few interviews with hiring managers, but I was never offered a position.
Before EYS, I didn’t realize I was doing the bare minimum to get hired. I was applying everywhere, hoping to get noticed and waiting. It just wasn’t working! I didn’t know that that was not enough to compete in an industry this sought after, and against people who knew what I didn’t know about the process.
Of course, I had to think hard before making a financial investment that’s reasonably substantial. But when I read the testimonials of real med sales reps on the site and learned that I wasn’t the only one taking a chance on my success, that EYS was sharing that risk also, I knew I had to do it. Though you might be able to cobble together some of the steps of getting a role in med sales from online research on your own, you just can’t know what you don’t know!
The process of going through EYS presents this insider knowledge to the student, as well as giving you a progression of difficulty as you obtain the information, and you begin to master it. Not only that, but they give you access to amazing mentors and instructors, allow you to practice your interview skills, and teach you how to market yourself through social media and your own website! I cannot stress enough that EYS was the factor that made the difference in my successfully landing my dream job! The support, structure, and knowledge gained was invaluable!
I would recommend this course to ANYONE looking to break into medical sales
Thank you so much, EYS! This journey has been life changing and has resulted in the successful culmination of my 18-Year ambition! 
Sports Medicine in Phoenix! I extend so much gratitude to the Evolve Your Success group as I land this role and get ready to pursue my dream job. I am a Physical Therapist who became a little stuck in the profession due to issues with reimbursement and the difficulty for continued growth upwards. I turned to EYS to assist me in learning about the medical sales industry and gain knowledgable mentors who were able to help coach me in this process. I am a strong believer in surrounding yourself with the best and good things will happen. I did work hard, but with the support of my mentors and other colleagues going through a career change, I felt a sense of community and it confirmed my drive to get into this industry. I have already learned so much through the interview process, and feel very blessed to have had the resources this group provided. I have made lifelong friends and I cannot wait to continue to follow others’ journeys to pursue this incredible field. I urge you to give Evolve Your Success a try to gain mentorship, guidance, and support through any career transition.
and am excited to make a difference in patients’ lives as a Pharmaceutical Sales Specialist.
! Though I truly enjoyed working as a physical therapist, I can’t wait to start my career in the sales world as a Clinical Account Executive.
. I owe this opportunity to Samuel, the program, and the incredible mentors at EYS.
