The Proven Strategies Driving Success in Endoscopy Sales
In this episode of the Medical Sales Podcast, Samuel sits down with endoscopy leader and author Jon Alwinson. John shares insights from his bestselling books on sales, faith, and leadership, and explains the role of endoscopy in modern medicine. He discusses the daily life of an endoscopy sales rep, the importance of building strong relationships with physicians, and key strategies for sales success—such as territory planning, speed, time management, and developing winning systems. The episode offers practical advice for both aspiring and experienced medical sales professionals.
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Samuel Adeyinka 00:00:04 Hello and welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. I’m your host, Samuel, the founder of a revolutionary medical sales training and mentorship program called the Medical Sales Career Builder. And I’m also host of the Medical Sales podcast. In this podcast, I interviewed top medical sales reps and leading medical sales executives across the entire world. It doesn’t matter what medical sales industry, from medical device to pharmaceutical to genetic testing and diagnostic lab, you name it, you will learn how to either break into the industry, be a top 10% performer within your role, or climb the corporate ladder. Welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. And remember, I am a medical sales expert sharing my own opinion about this amazing industry and how it can change your life.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:00:50 John, what is going on?
Jon Alwinson 00:00:53 Part two. Man, good to be back with you.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:00:55 I love it man, I love it. Okay, so you know you got a lot going on. You’re an author. You’re a team leader. You’re you’re you’re killing at a huge company.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:01:03 You know, today I want to get into a couple of things. Talk about the things you’re working on. We got to talk about your books because that’s that’s fantastic. And then being in the endoscopy space, I want to say, since your last episode, has this been a lot of interest in endoscopy? And it got me thinking. People need to really understand what it is day in the life, what’s hot about it, what’s not about it. And I think no one’s better than you to talk about it. And then we’ll get into some other things to to dominate the year in 2026. Does that sound.
Jon Alwinson 00:01:31 That sounds awesome, man. I’m I’m pumped.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:01:34 All right, all right. So talk to us about these books. What’s going on with Facebook.
Jon Alwinson 00:01:36 Oh, man. It was it’s it continues to be a bestseller on Amazon honor and grateful to have this book out there. So if if you are looking for an edge I mean, it’s, I mean, like if you if anything’s a problem to you don’t buy the book.
Jon Alwinson 00:01:51 Right. Because I talk about faith in it, but I also talk about the skills and the mentality to be great And and sales in particular. Medical device. Right. That’s my background. And Amanda Buxton. Awesome. It’s been a top 200 seller top 100 seller on Amazon. So it’s just been cool man.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:02:08 So fantastic. Yeah. And I know you’re working on something else too. Yeah, yeah.
Jon Alwinson 00:02:14 All of this is a passion for me. I didn’t realize kind of toward towards this mid part of life. But writing is a passion. And so I’m working on a leadership book, working on a mentorship book as well. And so in between the busyness, those late hours of the night and then early morning is where I get my writing in.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:02:31 I love it. When are these books expected to be coming out?
Jon Alwinson 00:02:34 Hopefully the leadership book next year, early 2027.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:02:38 Okay I love it. Yeah. All right. Yeah man John, talk to us about endoscopy. You know what exactly is endoscopy.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:02:45 What’s being sold, who’s being serviced. What’s the patient outcome and what’s the day in the life.
Jon Alwinson 00:02:51 Yeah. Well in what is a minimally invasive procedure right. Where they use a flexible scope to evaluate the internal organs, right? So they have an upper scope, an EEG scope and a lower scope. Colonoscopy, right, is a big part of it. So that’s the basics. But we also do highly therapeutic procedures as well. You know people come in, they’re jaundice. They’re really, yellow skin you know, not doing well. We do things through the biliary ducts to, to really ultimately help people live healthier lives. And colon cancer, as you may know, is the second leading cause of cancer death in America. And it’s the most preventable form when properly diagnosed. And so I do think, Samuel, that that endoscopy is one of the best kept secrets in medical device I love it.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:03:39 Wow, wow. Give us a day in the life endoscopy room.
Jon Alwinson 00:03:43 Yeah. First off, the doctors are super cool, right? And I worked in with Stryker years ago.
Jon Alwinson 00:03:49 I worked for their their navigation team, so I, I used to call on neuro spine. ENT orthopedics. So I have a vast background with different specialties and they’re all great. And the doctors are all real cool. But GI doctors in particular are special breed. They’re smart and they’re humble right there. They’re pulling the skull where the sun don’t shine. Right. And, and and so a lot of them, just a lot of them are just down to earth, just really intelligent, great human beings. So the first off, the doctors are amazing and only my life can, can take different forms. Right. And it depends if you’re calling more on surgery centers, right outpatient, those procedures can be a little bit more repetitive in nature. Upper scope, lower scope. Right. Rinse repeat. And then the hospital is where kind of more of the funner therapeutic procedures take place. And and so being alive could for could look like going from an ambulatory surgery center first thing in the morning. to working in IRC case or working some advanced procedure later that evening.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:04:59 Okay. Now?
Jon Alwinson 00:05:00 Yeah.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:05:02 How do you how did the position see the reps in endoscopy? Is it, you know, the reps the ultimate knowledge provider in the room because the rep understands that product. Or do guys tend to just kind of default to the rep only if they run into an issue. What’s the general attitude.
Jon Alwinson 00:05:23 Yeah. So therapeutically and in the hospitals we are a very aligned strategic partner. We help the technicians understand the products that they hand the physicians. And we actually what’s so cool about this is we we become the product expert and help physicians through these advanced procedures that that really we can have a true impact in the hospital space and the agency space as well, but it’s just very more palatable and noticeable when you’re in those, you know, ERC advanced stage biliary cases.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:06:00 What makes the difference between, you know, speaking to what you just mentioned? Yeah, there that difference between the hospitals and the surgery centers.
Jon Alwinson 00:06:09 Yeah, I’d say the surgery centers can be a little bit more.
Jon Alwinson 00:06:12 Rinse, repeat the same procedure. There’s typically not that significant of a case. Now there can be those cases that do arise where our help is needed and guidance is needed during the procedure. But in the hospital, because we we carry such a big bag of products. We, you know, the physicians have so many things on their mind, you know, going into that patient. Patient health number one. Right. But how do we best take care of that patient. How do we serve them. And so when we come in, we really help put the staff at ease, put the doctor at ease, and then help navigate our solutions to their their workflow and what’s needed right there on the spot.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:06:51 Okay, now endoscopy is elective, right? So are you working from 8 to 5 or is it from 7 to 6 or is it a little different or how does it work?
Jon Alwinson 00:07:02 Yeah, it’s kind of cool to have both the, the again, the ambulatory surgery center side and the hospital side.
Jon Alwinson 00:07:08 I’ve got experience in both. And when it comes to the the ambulatory ASC side it is more of a you’re there by 7 a.m. you’re probably done by 2 or 3 p.m..
Samuel Adeyinka 00:07:18 Gotcha.
Jon Alwinson 00:07:19 You’re not getting called back. If something advance happens or a patient has a bad outcome or something, then they may go to the hospital. Or if you’re working in a hospital case, those are the sickly patients, right? Those are the patients that that need a lot of care. And so those procedures can kind of maybe be more of a later start in the morning and then maybe a later evening type procedure on occasion, depending on how busy the hospital is.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:07:44 Okay.
Jon Alwinson 00:07:45 So.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:07:46 So it’s 7 to 3.
Jon Alwinson 00:07:48 I mean on on the AFC side you know you’re usually you’re you’re finishing up those the doctors want to get out right. A lot of times they’re going over to the hospital afterwards too.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:07:58 So what’s the like on the hospital side with the hours.
Jon Alwinson 00:08:02 Yeah, I would say, you know, again, it can be early starts mornings.
Jon Alwinson 00:08:06 A lot of times they are. But I would say it’s, it’s a little bit the those IRC procedures, the therapeutic procedures, they typically start a little bit later in the day because they need or later in the morning because they need the, the nurses to all be ready, everyone from the hospital staff to be there. And so those procedures are probably late morning to kind of evening type work.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:08:29 I see.
Jon Alwinson 00:08:30 I see, yeah.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:08:31 As far as work life, family balance, it’s there in endoscopy. You get that work life balance.
Jon Alwinson 00:08:38 It is it absolutely is. Work life balance is there. You know it’s work hard. Play hard. It is my my. My boss and mentor loves to say it’s a lifestyle and it really is. Right, right. Yeah.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:08:49 Gotcha. And then with endoscopy, are you getting really close to your physicians? And, you know, your life is kind of intertwined with their lives, or is it mostly just professional. And it’s very separate, you know, different, different specialties.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:09:06 It looks different. What is it like for you?
Jon Alwinson 00:09:08 Yeah, I would say we become part of the family in endoscopy. Yeah. So we’re we’re, you know, the reps that I work with and we’re as tight as it gets with physicians and and so they become, you know, family friends all all the above. And when you help them during a procedure, they may not mention it, but a lot of times they’ll give you that fist bump afterwards and say, hey, thank you. Right. And when we’re the when we’re the guide and make the physicians and the patient, you know, the hero, like that’s that’s our job. So our job is not for shine. It’s the it’s to be the guide and help where we can. But it’s it’s really fun, man. It’s it’s a special industry.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:09:45 I love it. And then for those that want to get into endoscopy, what scent, what you know, what type of person usually performs the best in endoscopy.
Jon Alwinson 00:09:53 So I would say from one number one that there’s truly care.
Jon Alwinson 00:09:57 A lot of people say this, but they don’t mean it. I actually mean it. Samuel patient first you you really do have to have that desire to help others and you have to check yourself each week. So when we get off course and we start getting overly money driven or these other things which are important, we got to pull it back to to patient number one. So I would say like check your mirror and check your heart going in like we’ve got to really put patient first. And when we do everything else flows from that. But but someone who cares about patient wants to win, cares about the science a little bit as well. Like it’s you’re we’re always learning. And so that’s what I love about this job and why I’ve been in it so long. It’s it’s you’re always learning. And so someone who cares about learning and then, you know, like I said, wants to help advance, you know, their company’s products to best serve patients. So.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:10:51 Okay. Okay.
Jon Alwinson 00:10:52 Yeah.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:10:53 Endoscopy. All right. Well, thank you very much. All right. So it’s 2026. As an endoscopy sales leader and someone that has a team. Let’s let’s get into maybe six things that you better be doing in 2026. If you’re going to be successful. Talk to us.
Jon Alwinson 00:11:12 Yeah, man. Well, what got us here won’t get us there, right? So we’ve got to continue to evolve. And so one of the things I love doing this time of year, where it’s the end of the year, beginning of a new I love to create kind of a one word theme to really guide me that year. So I create a personal theme and I also create a theme for my team. And so, you know, constantly reinventing ourselves is so important. And, you know, one of my one of my mentors and friends, Mike Weinberg, wrote the book New Sales Simplified, which is a great read. He really highlights, you know, that being a hunter, a true sales hunter, right? And there’s he says, there’s zookeepers and there’s hunters.
Jon Alwinson 00:11:54 And I think we’ve got to create new business for our organizations. Like, that’s why we all have a job, right? Patient oh, they don’t come first. But but we’re in business to help, you know, advance our company’s goals as well. And so my my one word for the year is hunt. That’s where my mindset is. Just has come to.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:12:14 Talk to us a little bit about what. So what does that mean exactly. You know if I have a rep right now to this and I’m like, you know what? I’m showing up bigger and better this year. And I hear that John is just advised me to be a hunter. Yeah. What specifically are you having me do?
Jon Alwinson 00:12:28 Man. Well organized. Right? We don’t we don’t hunt where the deer are. We hunt where the deer are. Right? If you’re if you’re a hunter or turkey hunter or whatever you’re hunting, right? So you got to go where the business is. And so organization really is a key.
Jon Alwinson 00:12:42 And I love this time of year, because this is the time of year where any good organization is having those beginning of the year summits, as some people might call them, beginning. This is the most important part of the year because everything else flows from this time. So organize is is the first thing I would say.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:13:01 Okay. So so to be a true hunter got to be organized. And you got to be clear on where to get your business in your territory.
Jon Alwinson 00:13:08 Totally, totally. And in the book, we talk about what I like to call managing our territory. So if you imagine, you know, someone with a squeegee on a window or cleaning a window, if you don’t know every opportunity in what it’s worth in your territory, you’re doing it wrong. And here, here’s the check, Samuel. Most people know that that’s the truth, but most people aren’t willing to do the pre-work and hard work to go through every single account and look at every single opportunity. So that’s a little gut check for everybody.
Jon Alwinson 00:13:42 A lot of people I know that, but the question is how well are you doing it?
Samuel Adeyinka 00:13:47 Okay. So let’s talk about it. Why you’re not why are people not actually taking the time?
Jon Alwinson 00:13:54 Well, my theory and I know from experience because I, you know, I’m test dummy number one on my side is is it’s hard. Right? We get busy the first of the year. Jitters start. We want to get going. We want to start running and then we fall back in. We’re creatures of habit. We fall into the same patterns over and over and over again, and we don’t break those habits. So a lot of times we’re like, I’m busy. You know, I’ll get a little dinner. I got to take care of my kitchen. I got to take care of my wife. Like you want me to stop and organize my territory and quantify every opportunity in my territory? Yeah, I think that’s what the best of the best salespeople do. And so I call it Operation Squeegee.
Jon Alwinson 00:14:36 And that stemmed from a conversation I had with one of my top producers years ago where he came to me like John, I swung everything. Like I got nothing else to sell. Like, what do you expect from me? And I told him, let’s take the weekend, let’s relax and come back on Monday. And when we we circled back up on Monday, this was formed. I went to I was squeegee my windows over the week and that’s where it came from. And and I said, we need to quantify and make sure every opportunity is accounted for. And when we did, we found out he had a whole heck of a lot more opportunity than he thought.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:15:09 I hope you’re enjoying today’s episode, and I want to let you know our programs cover the entire career of a medical sales professional, from getting into the medical sales industry to training on how to be a top performer in the medical sales industry to masterfully navigate in 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.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:15:36 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 in a strategy? You wouldn’t. So why are you trying to do the same with the medical sales position? You need training. You need a strategy, and you need to visit. Evolve your success. Fill out the application. Schedule some time with one of our account executives, and let’s get you into the position that you’ve always dreamed of.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:16:06 So okay, so this this brings all my attention to one part of this. And you have a team and you’ve had teams, you’ve had a few teams, John. So you could really speak to this. What if. Do you see a difference between reps knowing how to do that and not knowing how to do that?
Jon Alwinson 00:16:25 It’s a little bit of both, right? It’s it’s there. It is probably a coaching lack thereof coaching piece I would say.
Jon Alwinson 00:16:32 But then a lot of them know that they kind of sort of need to do more. That’s why I wrote the book to kind of show people the the way, but a lot of them don’t know how to do it. And so I, I that’s my passion, man, is to show them the way. And, and so once we, once we squeegee, then we organize we organize and create an effective I call it the zone territory. It’s an Excel document. I’ve got a free download on my website. And you get in a zone, and then you narrow that down to a weekly attack list. It’s kind of a one, two, three mentality.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:17:06 Give us, give us, just give us one.
Jon Alwinson 00:17:09 Yeah.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:17:10 Memorable success story of a rep that was not doing this years own approach and experienced significant success.
Jon Alwinson 00:17:21 So just one.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:17:24 I love.
Jon Alwinson 00:17:25 It.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:17:25 Yeah Okay, fine. Yeah. You want me?
Jon Alwinson 00:17:28 Yeah, yeah.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:17:30 Come off the top of your head. No.
Jon Alwinson 00:17:32 This seems a little more.
Jon Alwinson 00:17:33 I don’t want to sound arrogant in any way, shape or form. This is one that I like. It’s proven. It’s proven. It’s proven as proven, right? Like, every single rep that I’ve been fortunate to work with that has implemented this has been successful. That’s right. It’s just it’s just it’s just all of them from top to bottom. And it makes intuitive sense. Right. If, you know, same for example, if you know there’s $4 million of opportunity in your territory on the high end and you say, that’s pie in the sky, hope. And you, you near that down to this kind of these products at these accounts is probably like a little bit of a stretch. But my quota is half a million this year. And I know that these 20 opportunities are worth $800,000. The level of confidence that you would have to go out at those opportunities to crush your plan for the year. It’s the clarity is just there. And so when you know what you’re hunting and going after, you’re way more prepared to go out and accomplish and then do that rinse, repeat successfully each year.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:18:43 Okay, okay, I’ll take it. I’ll take it. All right. Bye. Okay.
Jon Alwinson 00:18:47 That makes sense. Or is that is that is that confusing at all?
Samuel Adeyinka 00:18:50 No, I know it makes total sense. I mean, you didn’t you didn’t really give us a story of a rep that did this, but yeah, that does make sense.
Speaker 5 00:18:56 I mean.
Jon Alwinson 00:18:57 Because quite honestly, all of them have been successful with this, you know, year in, year out. It’s more of a system, right, than it is. But, you know, names keep people’s names, you know, you know, respected. But every, every territory I’ve had.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:19:13 Like, you know, and I guess the question I have is reps that have adopted this were they they’ve been in the game for years and they adopted this and saw something different. Or is this worked more for reps that were kind of fresh and they they didn’t really know where to go. They adopted this and then they found success. You know what’s familiar?
Jon Alwinson 00:19:33 Here’s here’s an example for you.
Jon Alwinson 00:19:35 You ready. Who is very new ten year two year farmer up that went into medical. I hired this individual because I was covering a state where I needed someone. That’s not an area of the state where people wanted to live, but we had a massive opportunity for this individual here. She she graduates sales training. And I remember this all goes yesterday. She looked at me like because I’m, I’m, I’m a very involved manager. Right. And she’s like, hey John. Like just to be honest with you two years pharma like I don’t know how to get into the economic conversation with my customer. Like almost with tears in her eyes, like, dude, I don’t I don’t know how to do this. So we we created a plan for her. But she did this. She squeegee at her territory, right? We it was somewhere in the range of, like, 3.4 million that she found on the high end. She needed about 3 to 400,000 to hit plan for the year. Wow.
Jon Alwinson 00:20:35 We we put her strategically in the market near the account. We needed her ass. So she was always in there. So weekly. Weekly weekly. Right. She finished the year in P club. So she was a top five rep that year. And she won President’s Club that year. And she was like three, like three years, three and a half years out of school. So we’re very new rock. And so as you can imagine, man, the excitement I had for her was through the roof.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:21:03 Yeah. That’s it. Thank you for that. Okay. Yeah. All right, all right, give us number two. All right.
Jon Alwinson 00:21:09 So what we want is speed, speed, speed, speed. Right. We see entrepreneurs talk about this. We see business people talk about this. A lot of times what I see is, you know, what’s the saying? Like imperfect action beats perfect inaction.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:21:25 All right. Right.
Jon Alwinson 00:21:27 Yeah. So my theory and my thought is most people wait till all the lights are green before they hit go, before they want to back out of their driveway and go in every opportunity as an excuse.
Jon Alwinson 00:21:39 Right. Like, oh, I can’t because of this. I can’t because of that. And it’s kind of like, you gotta have a mentality of imperfect action in speed is now clinically. That’s not the case. Right? Clinically taking care, making sure you know yourself and that patient is served so well. And those physicians are served well. That means having your backup rep on speed down. And you’re like, hey, I’m going into this case. I need you, you know, be ready for me. That’s a different story. But from a business perspective, speed. I think speed is an X factor this year that most people aren’t working on. And so if I do, if I have ten opportunities to move and I’m moving those forward and you have two. I feel more confident. All things considered, that if I’m actively working those opportunities and inching those up, I’m going to be be more effective by year’s end than you are because of the speed and breadth of of attack.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:22:34 So okay, again, let’s be let’s, let’s dig in a little deeper.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:22:38 So yeah. Speed okay. A rep that’s not utilizing speed. What are they doing?
Jon Alwinson 00:22:46 I think they a lot of them are spending time with their comfortable accounts. They’re going to the same accounts that they walk in and they’re like saying look how are you doing? And they’re they’re friendly house accounts. But the reality is they probably already have the business there or they probably already have the majority business. And so we want to realize it’s humans. We’re emotional creatures, right. Like we want to go where we where we’re like. And my theory, in my experience has shown that a lot of reps want to go where they’re liked and where they can get that emotional dopamine hit, rather than go into the spots that are not as comfortable.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:23:24 So speed to new business.
Jon Alwinson 00:23:28 Speed and everything. Speed and everything in 2026. Like if our speed is at a level that beats 2025, as long as we’re moving towards the right things, we’re we’re going to be more successful if we’ve organized first, right and and know the opportunities and then we’re taking massive action.
Jon Alwinson 00:23:47 We’re going to be more successful than those that are taking massive action. So I would say speed macro. Well how fast are you going this year. And do you think you can speed it up, or are you waiting for all the lights to be green, i.e. I need this guy to say yes before. Are we just making excuses for ourselves?
Samuel Adeyinka 00:24:07 Okay, okay, so I guess I can look at it like number one, find out where the business is. Once you’ve identified that, if you find out that a lot of them are not your top accounts and you’re uncomfortable because they’re new to you, you need to get there anyway and do what needs to be done.
Jon Alwinson 00:24:23 Yeah, I think it’s a good, good recap.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:24:25 Okay. Okay. Okay. Number three.
Jon Alwinson 00:24:29 To protect your time.
Jon Alwinson 00:24:31 Protect protect your time, man. How many? I guarantee everyone’s got hopefully ten and two right now. Those are driving right. So I want to keep everybody on the road. But how many how many wrecks are driving right now.
Jon Alwinson 00:24:43 And looking back on 2025 in in in a key objective for me in 2026 is I’m going to be as open to my personal team and customers as possible this year. But how many racing hours we’re on a call should have been an email or a rest. I wanted to call you in that Samuel from nowhere. Whatever state that’s not even in your region. And you took an hour out of your day to vent about an opportunity that doesn’t affect you at all. So my number one three piece of encouragement would be protect your time. And I guarantee you there’s people right now shaking their head saying Amen. Hallelujah. I need to do that.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:25:26 So okay, so as a rep, don’t get caught up in the gossip. Don’t get caught up in the vent magnets. Protect your time.
Jon Alwinson 00:25:36 Revenue generating activity. Is this a good use of my time? Is this advancing my goals this year? Is this advancing the company’s goals? Is this advancing our patients goals? Probably not. If we did not self audit and we looked at 2025 and we just came up short in quota for 2025, I guarantee it’s because people didn’t protect their time enough.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:26:01 So considering your manager, would you say that your team is very reluctant to vent to you like they, they, they rarely do it because they know that one of your memos is. No, no.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:26:15 No, I think this is I think my team.
Jon Alwinson 00:26:17 We’ve got a family environment. I think after after a little bit a while, I get there playing a victim card continually, continually with me. I’ll be like, hey, I’m not the person for that, right? Like, I love you, but I’m not the person for that. I think there’s when you have a healthy and high performing team, there’s totally there’s totally room I’m going to be protecting. My time is for anybody outside of my team and my direct supervisor, right? My team gets all my time. And so if they want to call and talk about whatever their time is, my time, my most important asset is my team, because they’re out there serving the patients and serving our customers. So the only person that’s going to get on the mount, like unlimited amount of time in my world is my immediate sales team now, right.
Jon Alwinson 00:27:05 Internal teams. I love that meeting. 15 minutes or less. Like, what do you need? Be brief. Be bright and be gone. Right?
Samuel Adeyinka 00:27:13 Sure.
Jon Alwinson 00:27:13 You know what I mean?
Samuel Adeyinka 00:27:15 I do, I know exactly what you mean. All right. Number four.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:27:20 I think this one.
Jon Alwinson 00:27:21 Saying I’ve been thinking about quite a bit is winning Systems. James Klinger gonna talk atomic habits, talks about systems. Right? When we create a new system. Like how just one small system can change our lives. So for me and my wife, we got a sauna this year for our garage, right? We got one of those, like, we invested in a sauna. And so for us, from a health life perspective, like when the kids go down like sauna, right? Or, you know, before the day for me, like, I’m gonna get in the sauna before I work out and I’ve added that system to my routine to hopefully live a healthier life. Right. And so what can we do in our work to create winning systems.
Jon Alwinson 00:28:07 There’s a lot of internal work that our organizations give us, right? Busy works on my say or admin work, and so can we. Can we create a system to where we’re opening our computer before we hit the ground running and spending 30 minutes knocking out follow ups, emails, whatever, and call it 630 or 7 a.m. every day before we hit the road at seven, you know, and rinse, repeat that. And I think what happens is systems, good systems, they compound and they lead to better working conditions. And so that’s what I would challenge everybody with is like what winning systems can you add, you know to your your routine this year to to be more successful.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:28:48 Gotcha gotcha. Are there any universal systems that you would advise anyone to just definitely add if they’re not doing it already?
Jon Alwinson 00:28:59 Yeah, I mean, what we talked about earlier in the year of of taking a yearly deep dive into their their planning. Right. That’s a that’s a system I have that’s more of an annual system that leads to more of a daily, weekly activity system in our zoning, our territory and creating weekly attack lists of what they’re going to do.
Jon Alwinson 00:29:22 So for me, that that’s kind of like number one in my mind for. Absolutely, man, there’s, there’s I don’t think we should be doing I don’t think we should be doing non selling activity during key selling hours. So from, from 10 a.m. or 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., if that’s peak time for whoever’s listening, like we probably shouldn’t be doing any expense reports, maybe at 230 or 3. Walking out the expense reports then, is probably the best use of our time.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:29:51 Okay. No. Hey, you know that it’s I’m laughing because it’s it sounds obvious, but to your point, a lot of people don’t operate that way, and they shouldn’t be. So that’s that’s. Yeah. Good. Yeah man okay. All right. Number five.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:30:05 Thinking.
Jon Alwinson 00:30:06 Two weeks in advance I think is so important. So a lot of people don’t again we’re moving so fast. We we don’t think two weeks in advance. And so we don’t plan two weeks in advance. We think lives like this like first thing in the morning we’re scrambling for our phone.
Jon Alwinson 00:30:24 Like, what am I doing today?
Samuel Adeyinka 00:30:25 What am I going to do?
Jon Alwinson 00:30:27 And a lot of people just don’t spend that time. And so I think carving out a weekly time during your schedule again, whether it’s end of day on Friday, you know, maybe one day you don’t have clinical cases and you’ve got a good window where you can be productive. Are you are you looking over the the fence and planning out the next two weeks?
Samuel Adeyinka 00:30:50 God, why two weeks?
Samuel Adeyinka 00:30:53 I think that’s the capacity.
Jon Alwinson 00:30:55 I mean, obviously we should be planning continual planning. If something comes out. We know we have something in a month from now. That’s great. I think two weeks is that special window where we can really be, you know, if we’re always doing it right. This week, I’m planning the next two, next week I’m playing the next two after that. I think that’s how we stay minimally tight with our schedule.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:31:17 Got it. Okay.
Jon Alwinson 00:31:18 It can it can vary though. I mean, depends on what business you’re in and where you’re going, but it can absolutely vary.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:31:26 Sure. All right. And last but not least number six.
Jon Alwinson 00:31:30 Number six.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:31:31 Man I think.
Jon Alwinson 00:31:32 This is this is pretty big. We already talked about the zone territory which we’ll we’ll put that in point one. But I do think that that competitive greatness in that will to win is so important.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:31:45 Greatness and will to win. Talk to us about that. What do you mean?
Samuel Adeyinka 00:31:48 Yeah.
Jon Alwinson 00:31:48 It’s funny, one of the podcast guys that I follow was talking about there’s nothing casual about winning, right? Like, there’s nobody who, like, thinking about your business, Samuel. Or anyone you know. Like, no one casually like, wants to win and actually wins.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:32:04 Right?
Jon Alwinson 00:32:04 Right. And so, man, if we’re suiting up to go out and serve our patients, our physicians, our accounts. Like, man, we want to win. And and I think that competitive greatness I think we’re seeing that in the world. We’re seeing a shift in in corporate America that’s moving back to heavy, heavy, heavy.
Jon Alwinson 00:32:25 We’re here to have fun and do cool things and be great people. We’re going to win. And I think I think that competitive greatness. Coach wooden coined that phrase John Wooden, key basketball coach. But I think no one’s ever won by just being casual about it. And so if you’re listening right now and you want to win, believe in yourself. Like fuel up my, you know, pick a resource that can help you be better. but like commit to wanting to win and go after it and put in the work. And because there’s nothing casual about winning. Like, we’ve got to, we’ve got to go for it. And and a guy in my team coined the phrase, I was like, hey, and John, winning is fun. And I thought about it. I was like, Wendy is fun, isn’t it? I mean, it’s a team, you know, a basketball team or sports team. Have you been a part of where you guys just stunk and weren’t very good? That was fun.
Jon Alwinson 00:33:20 Like not many.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:33:21 Right, right. Okay, lady. Competitive greatness and winning is fun. I like it. All right, John, these are the six. The six. What do you call them? The six. What?
Jon Alwinson 00:33:32 I don’t know, man.
Speaker 5 00:33:33 The sink. There’s six secrets to.
Jon Alwinson 00:33:35 Success in 26, baby.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:33:39 You know what I, I like it. The six secrets of success in 26.
Jon Alwinson 00:33:43 That’s a tongue twister, isn’t it?
Samuel Adeyinka 00:33:45 Well, you know what? But we we we got it out. This is fantastic. This is some true insight. Everybody that’s listening right now, please make sure you get John’s book. John, where can I get this book?
Jon Alwinson 00:33:55 Amazon.com relentless sales with with with love for you to pick up coffee and if you enjoy it, shoot me a note. Would love to catch up with you afterwards too.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:34:03 I love it, I love it. John, always a pleasure chatting and wrapping it up with you, man. You’re going to have an amazing year 2026.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:34:10 Everybody get that book relentless. Without Amazon it’s an easy grab. And John thanks for the time Samuel.
Jon Alwinson 00:34:16 Thanks as always man.
Samuel Adeyinka 00:34:17 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 allowing us to get you where you need to be. Stay tuned for more awesome content with amazing interviews on the Medical Sales podcast.
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.
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. I owe this opportunity to Samuel, the program, and the incredible mentors at EYS.
