POSTED ON May 27, 2026

The Proven Journey to a Lasting Medical Sales Career

In this solo episode of the Medical Sales Podcast, Samuel Adeyinka breaks down why medical sales should be treated as a career, not just a job. Drawing from years of helping hundreds of professionals break into the industry through Evolve Your Success, Samuel explains what nurses, clinicians, recent graduates, and career changers need to understand before choosing medical sales as their next path. He unpacks why this industry sits at the center of medical innovation, patient impact, and long term career opportunity, while also challenging listeners to approach it with grit, intention, and mentorship. Samuel also explains how to avoid getting stuck in the wrong role, why performers are never truly trapped by “golden handcuffs,” and how intentional career building can lead to stronger income, better relationships, and greater control over your future. This episode is a must listen for anyone considering medical sales or already in the industry who wants to build a real career instead of simply chasing the next job.

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Transcription:

Samuel Adeyinka (Host):
If you’re choosing medical sales to be the thing that takes up all of your time, why wouldn’t you take it incredibly seriously?

Hello and welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast.

I’m your host, Samuel, founder of a revolutionary medical sales training and mentorship program called the Medical Sales Career Builder.

And I’m also host of the Medical Sales Podcast.

In this podcast, I interview top medical sales reps and leading medical sales executives across the entire world.

It doesn’t matter what medical sales industry, from medical device to pharmaceutical, to genetic testing and diagnostic lab, you name it.

You will learn how to either break into the industry, be a top 10 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.

All right, hello and welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast.

I’m your host, Samuel, and today we’re doing something a little different.

Normally, I have a guest and we talk about one aspect of medical sales, whether it’s pharmaceutical or medical device, non-invasive or invasive, medical supplies, healthcare tech, dental, diagnostic, you name it.

But today we’re doing something a little different.

We’re going to have a series of these episodes where I’m going to have more discussions around things I now understand people absolutely have to hear.

I do have solo episodes.

I love to interview.

It’s one of the things I just love to do.

I love to get into the mind of people who are doing amazing things and share with you all what’s really going on in these spaces.

But you guys also know that I have a company called Evolve Your Success.

I’m the founder of this company.

We’ve been around for six plus years now.

Every year, hundreds of people come into our program.

Hundreds graduate.

And year after year after year, we all get more insight into what people think medical sales is, why people do it, and what they hope to get out of it.

Let me just speak frankly.

Medical sales attracts all kinds of people.

I personally believe it’s an amazing career.

But again, it’s a career.

I’m one of the people who doesn’t look at medical sales as a job.

Every job is a job.

But for me, medical sales is not just a job.

I truly believe it is a career.

And it attracts all kinds of people.

You have nurses and physical therapists who have spent years, some of them years, at the bedside helping patients.

They’re just tired of it.

They’re like, “Look, I’ve been doing this for years. I’m not making the money I want to make. I appreciate what I do. I’m helping people, but I want more. I want more money. I want more impact. I thought this would give me more, and I’m ready to do something different.”

Or they’re just ready to do something different.

Then you have young people, graduates who, in 2026, can be sophomores in college, learn all about medical sales, and know exactly what they want to get into by the time they’re seniors.

But even then, they’ve been on some ride-alongs, maybe an internship, but they only know so much.

They don’t understand the true career trajectory of it all.

It’s sexy because they’re going to make some money.

They’re going to be dealing with doctors.

And that’s kind of it.

We’ll see what happens next.

Then you have career changers.

You’re approaching 40, or you’re approaching 50.

Heck, you’re approaching 60.

And you’re like, “Look, I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I want to do something else. Maybe medical sales is the answer.”

And you’re looking at medical sales thinking, “I’m going to make good money and maybe get some benefits that I haven’t really been able to have before. I’ll talk to doctors and work with nurses and staff at the same time. How cool can that be?”

And all these people come to medical sales.

But as I just said, I don’t think medical sales is a job.

And I think what’s missing, hundreds and hundreds of people later, years later, is that people don’t understand that for me, medical sales is a career.

And it can be an amazing career if you start correctly.

Think about what medical sales is.

Medical sales is the gap that, in my opinion, is the lifeblood of human existence.

You have doctors, and you have patients.

Go back to the beginning of mankind and look at our lifespan then versus our lifespan today.

In the grand scheme of things, it has been increasing.

And that’s because of medical technology.

A doctor and a patient can only go so far.

This doctor takes all this time to learn all these things about the body.

This patient experiences the spectrum of illnesses that can exist for a human being.

And the doctor puts their wits and ends together to do what they can for this patient.

But that can only go so far.

At some point, you need something else to step in and do much, much more.

And that’s where medical sales comes into play.

From the drugs, to the devices, to the tests, to the devices slash drugs, these have closed the gap so that the relationship between a doctor and a patient is defying things we didn’t even know we could do 50 years ago.

A quadriplegic, an 18-year-old man who got into a car accident and couldn’t move a muscle, is running miles now because of medical innovation.

Someone who had late-stage cancer is in full-blown remission because of medical innovation.

A baby who had no chance of survival because of a certain disease is now 25 years old and having babies themselves because of medical innovation.

So for me, medical sales is beautiful and critically important, and it needs to be treated with the utmost importance.

And if people are taking their time to do it, they need to take it seriously.

So let’s talk about work.

Work, let’s be honest.

If you’re a working person in this world, it takes up most of your time.

Every day, you’re technically supposed to give at least eight hours.

Many of you listening to this right now are like, “I give more than eight hours.”

Every single day, until you’re 70 or 80 years old, and for some, until you’re dead.

As soon as you’re as young as 16 years old and you’re doing this, or 20 when you’re an adult, and you’re doing it from 20 to 80, that’s 60 years, eight hours a day.

There’s nothing else you’re going to do in life that takes up more of your time.

So if you’re choosing medical sales to be the thing that takes up all of your time, why wouldn’t you take it incredibly seriously?

And this is what I want to talk about today.

I want to talk about the truth about choosing medical sales.

So let’s get into it.

Medical sales, for me, is significant because there’s so much money in this space.

These pharmaceutical companies, these medical device companies, it’s ridiculous the amount of money they have.

And yeah, we can talk about tech and be like, “Well, what about Google? What about Apple?”

Of course, they have money too.

But for the thousands of companies that are in medicine and contribute to the innovation of medicine, the money is endless.

And what that allows is for someone like you listening right now to truly create the most amazing career you can give yourself.

So let’s take it to this.

If you want to be in medical sales, and you truly want this, like this is where you want to be, you’ve thought about it, you’ve looked into it, you’ve listened to these podcasts, you’ve listened to these episodes, you’ve talked to people from all these big companies, and you’re like, “I want this. I want this. I want this,” then let this episode today be the one that helps you understand that if you want this, let’s do it intelligently.

Let’s truly build a career.

Medical sales, in my opinion, is not a job.

It is a career.

So what does that mean?

And why is that so important?

The reason why I want you to treat it like a career is because if you’re young enough to get in, if you’re lucky enough to get into it young enough, you can be whatever you want.

I was blessed to find medical sales when I was in my mid-twenties.

Even then, I didn’t know what I was doing.

I learned along the way.

But now, in 2026, if you’re lucky enough to get into medical sales in your mid-twenties, if you want to be CEO of a biotech company one day or CEO of a small med tech company one day, it’s yours.

You just have to set it up.

If you’re in your early thirties and you want to be on the board of a pharmaceutical company or a medical device company, it’s yours.

You just have to set it up.

And if you’re in your forties and you want to have millions in the bank 15 or 20 years later from working at one of these med tech companies, while having this history of making impact on patients and developing amazing relationships, it is 100 percent yours.

But in order for you to have that kind of life, that sexy life you hear about that only some folks are fortunate enough to have, you have to start properly.

You have to start by treating this like the actual career it is.

So if we’re going to treat this like a career, then when we’re thinking about getting into medical sales, where should we put our attention?

Number one, we have to be real about what we actually want to be doing.

Most starts in medical sales are either as an associate or as a sales rep of some sort.

By associate, I mean you’re a junior sales rep.

You’re working for a sales rep.

Or you’re an actual sales rep.

One or the other.

That’s most of it.

Then we do have this other caveat that’s more for clinicians.

That’s the clinical specialist piece, where you’re more of a consultative advisor.

You’re not solely responsible for selling, but you’re driving the utilization of the products that are being sold so that this provider can use it maximally for that company.

Those are your three spaces to start typically in medical sales.

So if you want to be in medical sales and you’re listening to this right now, you need to take the time, spend the money or the energy, to understand where your skill set lies.

What I hear when I talk to the people we work with every single year is, “Samuel, they told me I had no experience.”

Of course you don’t.

I still can’t believe companies, hiring managers, or recruiters tell people, “Well, you have no experience.”

They might as well just say, “We don’t want you because we want someone who has experience doing this. We don’t want someone who is green, so try somewhere else.”

That’s way more of an honest answer than, “You don’t have experience.”

Another thing I hear is, “Well, you’ve got to have sales experience.”

And you don’t.

I don’t care what anyone tells me.

Hundreds of people every year.

You can’t tell me any differently.

Our testimonials alone prove that is not true.

But the reason why people with sales experience often have an easier time, especially when they have absolutely no guidance, is because sales proves one thing.

That you can handle grit.

So let’s talk about it.

Number one, you’ve got to have grit if you want to be in medical sales.

I think that if you’re someone who does not like grit, and grit and grind are two different things.

Some jobs will be a grind.

Some careers will be a grind.

But this career requires grit.

Grit doesn’t mean that every day is going to be a grind.

Grit means that if, for some reason, it becomes a grind, it ain’t nothing to you.

You can handle it like the best of them.

For those people thinking about medical sales, if you know that grit is not in you, you just know it.

And I’m going to say it.

Some of you know it.

This is not the space for you.

Don’t look for a school to help you.

Don’t come to our program to help you.

Just leave it alone.

Because once you’re in medical sales, getting in is half the battle.

We have a program that helps you get in, and we work with all these people.

We have these coaches and trainers, and it’s so awesome and it’s so great.

Then we get these people in.

And that’s half.

That’s the easy part.

I hope you’re enjoying today’s episode.

And I want to let you know our programs cover the entire career of a medical sales professional, from getting into the medical sales industry, to training on how to be a top performer in the medical sales industry, to masterfully navigating your career to executive-level leadership.

These programs are personalized and customized for your specific career and background, and trained by over 50 experts, including surgeons.

Our results speak for ourselves, and we’re landing positions for our candidates in less than 120 days in top medical technology companies like Stryker, Medtronic, Merck, Abbott, you name it.

Would you run an Ironman race without training and a strategy?

You wouldn’t.

So why are you trying to do the same with a medical sales position?

You need training.

You need a strategy.

And you need to visit EvolveYourSuccess.com, fill out the application, schedule some time with one of our account executives, and let’s get you into the position you’ve always dreamed of.

You still have to deliver daily.

And in sales, often you’re going to have a quota.

So you have to meet that quota.

And it’s a company.

They love you.

They want to love you.

They want to be your friend.

But they’re not really your friends.

You’re colleagues.

You’re running a business.

That’s why they say, “I’m sorry, man. I know it sucks, but it’s business.”

Those phrases exist because at the end of the day, this outcome needs to be met.

And if you can’t help me meet this outcome, I need to find someone who can, regardless of how much I love you.

So that grit absolutely has to be there.

And if you want to be in this space, you have to have that grit.

That’s number one.

Number two, I think for someone to truly get the most out of medical sales as a career, they have to be intentional.

Don’t be the random guy.

If you’re the random person, girl or guy, who got into this, now be intentional.

Because the difference between not being intentional and being intentional is having worked for 25 different companies and never making more than $200,000 a year, versus having worked for the same amount of time and having millions in the bank, having amazing relationships with the people at the highest corporate ladders, and knowing that you could pretty much jump into any company you want, if you choose to.

That’s a beautiful place in life to be.

And that’s what’s so cool about medical sales.

If you set it up right, that can be you.

Every one of you listening to this right now, if you’re young enough and you set it up right, that can be you.

And again, when I say young enough, I’m not talking 20.

I’m talking 30s.

Heck, early 40s if you’re a sharp one.

So you have to have that grit, and you have to be intentional.

Those are number one and number two.

Number three.

And I know, I know.

We’re a business.

We’re a company.

I’m a coach.

I have coaches who work for me.

I have trainers.

I have a whole business, a whole company.

But you have to have some guidance.

Look, mentorship is real.

Heck, me as a business owner, I need mentors.

I regret not having more mentors when I first started.

I have some now, but how amazing would it have been if I found the right mentor early on?

The mistakes it saves you are ridiculous.

And you know this.

If you’re a reader, any readers out there listening to this, you know this.

Reading gives you that edge because you get to learn from the people before you.

And the mistakes they made, you can completely avoid.

You don’t even have to think about them.

What you don’t know will slow you up.

So you have to have grit.

You have to be intentional.

And you have to seek guidance.

And when I say guidance, find someone you can ultimately trust.

Yes, it’s good to have many different people in many different pockets, but you need someone who is going to give it to you straight.

Someone who is going to give it to you unfiltered.

Someone who is going to tell you how it is.

Someone who will say, “Look, you are way too cocky. Calm it down.”

Or, “Look, that is not good enough. If anybody sees that, they’re going to shut you down the moment you set it on their table.”

Or, “I love your passion, and I think you’re coming from a good place. But everyone is saying that. We need something that pulls out what is really going on inside of you, because any senior leader you say that to is going to call you on it.”

You have to have that person in your corner, or that team in your corner, or that entity in your corner.

The mentorship has to be there.

So what did we just identify?

Notice, I’m not talking about you having to be smart, clinical, or anything like that.

I’m not even talking about that stuff.

I’m talking about these other foundational skills that are, in my opinion, way more important.

Grit.

It’s hard to teach grit.

I’ve tried.

We have an amazing program with the Medical Sales Career Builder.

And we even have tests and things that people go through to test the level of their grit.

But I think what I’ve learned six years later is that it’s hard to teach grit.

And it’s so much better when you’re working with people who naturally have it.

Be intentional.

Intentionality, you can kind of teach.

But the person still has to want to be intentional.

One of the keys to knowing someone is intentional is that they pay attention to detail.

That’s someone who is pretty intentional.

It’s hard to be intentional and not pay attention to detail.

When you’re paying attention to details, it’s because you’re trying to develop an intention around what you’re doing.

So intentionality can be improved.

But it’s awesome when someone already has that.

And then, like I said, mentorship is real.

If you don’t have guidance right now, go get some.

This podcast is a form of guidance.

For those of you who are subscribed and listen to every single episode, great.

Take it a step further.

Join a program.

But if you don’t have guidance, get some.

So I don’t want to ramble on today’s episode.

I just wanted to highlight these three themes that I think are critical.

And now let me talk just a little bit about why I think they’re so critical.

So number one, grit.

I think what people don’t talk about enough in medical sales, and let’s not even talk about getting in, let’s talk about people who are already in, is that there’s a phrase in medical sales called the golden handcuffs.

What do you think that means?

Golden handcuffs.

What that means is you work for an organization that pays you well.

You get good money.

Maybe even a company car.

Benefits to the nth degree.

But the job itself is not what you thought it was going to be.

Maybe it’s the drug you sell or the device you sell.

Maybe it’s just the over and over and over of the staff that doesn’t want you there.

Or the surgeon who just gives you attitude all the time.

And you’re like, “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

But you can’t leave because the money’s too good and the benefits are too great.

And your entire lifestyle, family, or whatever you have going on is built on this.

So they call them the golden handcuffs.

This is why I talk about the grit.

I personally don’t believe in golden handcuffs.

I think it’s a fallacy.

Because if you’re a performer, then you are not going to find yourself in a golden handcuff situation.

If you’re a true performer, and I know people are listening to this right now thinking, “What is he saying?”

I can hear you guys talking right now.

But just hear me out.

If you’re a true performer, you are not going to claim golden handcuffs.

Because if you don’t like the company you’re working for, and you don’t like the drug or device you’re selling, or you don’t like the leadership, or you don’t like the pay structure, or you don’t like the sales process, or you don’t like your manager, your second-line leader, your CEO, whatever the situation is, if you are a performer, you can find another company.

There are thousands of companies out there.

Thousands of companies just in the United States that you can go and work for.

If you are a performer, they will be glad to have you.

They will go out of their way to pay to have you.

But if you don’t have grit, you won’t even see it.

You won’t even notice it.

And you’ll subscribe to getting less than for yourself and claim things like, “Well, you know what it is. It’s just the golden handcuffs.”

So number one, you have to have grit.

This is why it’s so important to have grit.

It’s going to save you so much pain in the actual industry.

Another reason why grit is critical is your boss.

It’s real, guys.

Your boss determines your success in any company, especially in a medical sales career.

If you and your boss just don’t get along, figure it out.

Learn to get along.

Understand what makes them tick.

Get on that level.

And if you can’t, then you need to find a way to get into a place where you can.

Because if your boss does not like you or appreciate what you bring to the table, just forget it.

Forget about getting anywhere.

And watch yourself saying golden handcuffs in the next five or 10 years.

For those of you who are medical sales professionals right now, watch.

Another reason why grit is critical is because grit is going to make sure you’re never working for less than what you believe you deserve.

It breaks my heart when I see, especially really accomplished people.

I know people who were engineers, nurses, people with master’s degrees, and they can’t get over a certain income threshold that is on the lower end of medical sales because they just won’t push themselves out of the comfort zone of where they are.

And it breaks my heart.

I’m not knocking anyone.

I respect everybody’s reasons for doing what they’re doing.

But grit is going to help you see past that and say, “I am not earning my keep. I am going to go do that, period, and go get it.”

So that’s grit.

Now, what about intentionality?

Intentionality is serious.

If you’re in a company right now, you should know who your senior leaders are.

If you’re joining a company and you’re in the interview process, and you’re pretty confident you’re going to get this job, as soon as you get this job, you need to figure out who your senior leaders are.

And if you’re in the interview process and you don’t have the job, then guess what?

Learn the people closest to the people interviewing you and who the senior leaders are.

I think being intentional means going out of your way to develop mentors, sponsors, and basically a network of advocates in the organization you work for who will be there to sing your praises every step you take.

If you’re messing up, they’re the first ones to call you out.

If you’re doing things right, they’re the first ones to celebrate you.

And let me tell you right now, when you are truly intentional with your career and you have this network of advisors supporting you, it’s amazing.

It’s night and day in the medical sales experience.

We have to be intentional.

We have to be intentional about the company.

Find out what the company is doing.

What does their layoff structure look like?

How much money are they actually earning?

If they’re a public company, what has been going on with their stock?

What is the pipeline?

What are they really trying to do?

If they’re a private company, what can you find out about the culture?

What can you find out about the leadership and how they make decisions?

These are things that in 2026, we have no excuse not to know.

With Gemini and ChatGPT and Claude and Perplexity and OpenAI and all these different platforms, and Google still being there with AI too, you have so much access to so much information.

There is no excuse not to know what is going on with an organization to the best of your ability.

That’s what I mean by being intentional.

The space itself.

If you’re in any medical sales space, know what’s going on in your space.

Know who your competitors are.

Know what the latest development is.

Know what your surgeons, physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, or physician assistants are paying attention to.

Who are they listening to?

What is guiding their decisions?

Don’t slack on this stuff.

Take the time to sit down and say, “What the heck is going on?”

And it’s so cool because there has never been a time in society where we can get information so readily available.

So you really have to be intentional.

If you’re intentional, you’ll never be singing the golden handcuffs.

If you’re intentional and you want to be the CEO one day, you will.

If you’re intentional and you want to have millions in the bank as a sales rep, you will.

If you’re intentional and you want to be a manager or a second-line leader or whatever it is you want to be, you can do it.

Especially if you start early.

Forget early.

If you start right now, be intentional right now.

And then the last thing I’m going to go on about, and then I’ll wrap it up, is mentorship.

Please, mentorship is no joke.

I think what’s cool in this day and age is you can buy mentorship.

Programs, outside mentors, coaches, it’s cool.

Every one of you needs a mentor.

If you’re in a medical sales company right now and you do not have a mentor, I want you to make that the first order of business.

Whether it’s someone in your company, whether it’s a coach you love and follow, whether it’s the Medical Sales Podcast or what we do, it doesn’t matter.

Get yourself a mentor.

You need to understand what you can’t see.

And that’s where I think the crux of mentorship is.

Mentors provide what you can’t see.

Programs, the Medical Sales Podcast, our goal is to provide you with all this knowledge about what’s going on because you guys cannot see it.

Period.

If you get into our program and you’re trying to get into the industry, we’re giving you what you cannot see.

If you’re in the industry and you’re trying to level up, we’re giving you what you cannot see.

Mentorship is real, and it gives you what you cannot see.

Another reason why mentorship is so important is because medical sales is corporate.

I’m sure you’ve heard of career-limiting moves.

There’s a book actually called Career-Limiting Moves.

It’s an okay book, but it’s a real phenomenon.

There are mistakes you can make that are so detrimental that they literally stop you in your tracks as far as career progress.

Now, my company is named Evolve Your Success, so I personally don’t believe in anything that can stop you.

But why make the road harder for yourself?

If you can make the moves that advance you faster versus making moves that slow you down and make it feel like you’re trudging through quicksand, mentorship is what helps you prevent that.

Mentorship is the bridge to avoid all those potholes that many people fall into.

And also, mentorship will help you with your dollar.

Just because medical sales makes a lot of money doesn’t mean you’re going to make a lot of money if you just get into it.

You have to have grit, be intentional, and have mentors who can guide you so you can earn what you should be earning.

But if you don’t have any kind of mentorship going on, you’re just going to discover that you’re behind.

And sometimes it’s way later in your career, and you’re like, “Wait a minute. What? How did I not know that?”

This is why.

So this is something that has been on my mind that I had to share.

As always, I love sharing information with my audience.

You guys are amazing.

You guys are why I do this.

Don’t stop listening.

We’re going to bring you more episodes like this that get into the heart of a medical sales career because our mission is to level up healthcare.

And the way we contribute to doing that is by making sure the best people are getting into this space and are fully equipped to do their best work.

By doing that, we know we’re leveling up healthcare.

And this podcast is serving to arm you with the things you don’t know so that you now can live with grit, be intentional, and truly allow mentorship to guide you.

As always, this is the Medical Sales Podcast.

Make sure you tune in for another episode next week.

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.