Struggling to stand out in medical sales?
This episode is your blueprint for crafting a resume that gets noticed, even if you don’t have direct sales experience.
Learn how to position your background as an asset, highlight your sales potential, and structure your resume for maximum impact.
We’ll also dive into LinkedIn strategies to boost your visibility and connect with decision-makers, plus real success stories from professionals who made the leap.
If you’re serious about breaking into medical sales, this episode is a must-listen!
Connect with me: LinkedIn
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How »
Want to connect with past guests and access exclusive Q&As? Join our EYS Skool Community today!
Watch the episode here:
Or Listen to it on your favorite platform:
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!
Want to connect with past guests and access exclusive Q&As? Join our EYS Skool Community today!
This Podcast offers a pathway to continuing education via this CMEfy link: https://earnc.me/5ux0zp
Episode Transcript:
00:07 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
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% performer within your role or climb the corporate ladder. Welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. 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. Hello and welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. I’m your host, samuel, and today we’re going to have another episode where I am going to talk to you about things that matter as far as medical sales. Today we’re going to get into how to stand out as a medical sales candidate. You know I’ve been in this industry 18 years now, going on 19, and there’s things that I’ve seen that work for people in medical sales and things that I’ve seen that absolutely do not. So let’s get into it. How to stand out as a medical sales candidate? All right, so let’s talk about it.
01:22
First, let’s talk about the hiring process, truly understanding the hiring process. What are hiring managers looking for today? Well, they want to believe that the candidate they’re talking to has some kind of sales ability, has industry knowledge, has really good communication skills being the most important thing are long gone. Are resumes still important? Absolutely, but they are a tiny part of what it means to get a space in this industry. Now do you have to have a resume that makes sense, showcases you well? That’s a must, that’s a given. It’s not even something that, yeah, you can have a bad one or a good one. You need a great resume. That’s the answer to the door. But here’s the reality. Everybody that’s going for these positions these days can get a great resume. It’s not that difficult. There are so many resources that you can invest in that will give you a fantastic resume. So you have to take it further. So I really want people to understand that it’s not so much. The resume is no longer important. Resumes are critically important, but it’s just that everybody has one right. So if everybody has a fantastic resume, or everyone can get a fantastic resume, then obviously you have to bring a lot more to the table and, like I said before, you have to show sales ability, communication skills, product knowledge and, of course, resilience.
02:45
One good story I love to tell about this is there’s a candidate. She didn’t have any sales experience. She didn’t have any medical experience either, so she didn’t have product knowledge and she didn’t have any sales experience. But what she did have was she had a ton of resilience.
03:03
She was in a business administrative role. It was an administrative role where she would make B2B sales, but it was all on the phone. Every now and again she might see a customer at a customer site with other people from her team, but for the most part it was a lot of administration, a lot of working through contracts, and she didn’t have a lot to showcase as far as outside sales ability and, like I said, product knowledge. But the job was gritty. There was a lot of resilience she had to demonstrate, number one to get deals done and number two, to track down the right person to even get the deal started, and that’s what we were really able to showcase. We were able to double down on the fact that her job fostered so much resilience and even though she didn’t have that outside sales, traditional sales process going on or sales ability going on, she had this incredible tact to find the right person, get them to sit down, give them some of her time to make a case, get a deal opened up and then drive it all the way to closing the deal. And that showed her sales ability and we were able to package that really nicely into something that played very powerfully into her candidacy. And then, of course, her communication skills were bar none because of all the talking she had to do to get something done in the first place.
04:25
That’s an example I like to kind of showcase, because it highlights that it’s not so much you have to be a traditional sales rep or you have to be a clinician or you have to be this or that. It’s more about you have to be able to back up these things that hiring managers are looking for. And really the beautiful thing about what we have in today’s day and age and what I like to say is maybe 10, 15 years ago it wasn’t known, it wasn’t well-known exactly what hiring managers are looking for, but today it is well-known, it’s crystal clear what they’re looking for there’s so much data that supports when you identify these things in a candidate nine times out of 10, they’re going to be an effective representative in the medical sales world. So, again, it’s one thing to talk about these things when you’re asked. It’s another thing to talk about these things on your resume. But there’s other technologies that exist today that allow you to really showcase this stuff, and one of those things is LinkedIn.
05:24
Linkedin is a fantastic resource, number one. The medical sales world just lives there. You know, I think it’s kind of funny All the platforms that exist. Linkedin is what draw the medical sales world, because LinkedIn is the most corporate For lack of a better way of saying. It probably really has the most red tape, it’s the most business centric and, of course, it’s a place where there’s a lot of opportunity to take advantage of. And exactly that’s what I believe medical sales is it’s very corporate, there’s a significant amount of red tape and there’s tons of opportunity to take advantage of.
05:58
So, of course, it’s natural that everybody in medical sales wants to live on LinkedIn, which is a great thing, because when it comes to showcasing your sales powers, when it comes to showcasing your potential medical knowledge, even though you don’t have the traditional things that back those things up. You can describe it on your LinkedIn profile. You can follow the things that support those things on your LinkedIn profile. You can follow the content creators that even work in the companies you want to work for, that talk about those things on your LinkedIn profile so you can really build this colorful display of hey, you know, I know how to do these things, because this is how I engage with this type of community, the sales community. This is how I engage with the product knowledge and science community, and then this is what I do in my day job, and it kind of can paint the picture of someone who’s very well-rounded, which, of course, is what a hiring manager is looking for.
06:47
And then, on top of that, there’s a very amazing resource that we specifically have in our program called the Career Portfolio. Now, is that only in our program? No, career portfolios are everywhere, but the way we do it is web-focused, so it’s almost like your own personal LinkedIn page that’s specific to a company. It speaks volumes when hiring managers see something like this and it absolutely backs up and supports all these different things we’re talking about, like sales ability and product knowledge, if you don’t traditionally have them in your job. So, on that note, let’s talk a little bit about that LinkedIn, using technology of today to really bolster your candidacy.
07:24
So we just talked about LinkedIn and let’s stick to LinkedIn in your resume, because I think, with all the education and information about how to make an amazing LinkedIn profile that supports your candidacy into medical sales and how to make an amazing resume that supports your candidacy into medical sales, people still don’t get it. Sometimes I wonder if there’s just too much information. Maybe there’s so much information it’s kind of confusing and who knows what to do, right? In fact, that’s kind of where I believe education is right. All the information out there on the internet, it’s there, it’s all there. Whether you want to get a PhD in nuclear fusion or you want to get a degree in how to teach a first grade classroom, the information is there. Now the reality is which school do you go to? Which program do you sign up for? Which resource has the right or most accurate information to follow to get you to where you want to be? I mean, that’s just where we are in today’s day and age. Want to be. I mean, that’s just where we are in today’s day and age. So, when it comes to a resume and a LinkedIn profile, even though there’s so much information about how to make these two things, I can understand why people still just don’t get it. So let’s talk about it. Let’s make it simple. So what is the resume portion?
08:39
Resumes should do one thing literally highlight what you’re so good at. As far as your work history is concerned, it should always be somewhat recent. What I like a little rule of thumb, is try not to go past 10 years. Why, well, the things you knew 10 years ago? I’m not going to tell you that they’re not applicable anymore. Of course they are, but if you learn something 10 years ago that you haven’t used, then you’re not going to be able to use it. How good are you at actually using it, right? So whatever you’ve learned in the last 10 years that you’re using can probably make a case that you know what you’re doing. Everything. Before 10 years, though, especially if you’re not using it anymore, it’s gonna be much harder to make. So why even bring that stuff into the fray? Why not stay focused on the things that you’ve been honing and working on and delivering on a consistent basis, and those are recent things, and that’s why we say don’t go over 10 years.
09:32
I’m sure you’ve heard of this. Don’t go over two pages. Why wouldn’t you want to go over two pages? Because there’s a million people that recruiters, hiring managers and sales reps are looking over to make decisions on who to put on their teams and work in their companies. So make it easier for them If your resume is longer than two pages. I’ve literally talked to hiring managers to tell me if they see a resume longer than two pages, they remove them, and they don’t remove them to a special list. They remove them from the list that does not get looked at. And then if your resume can fit on one page, it’s even better because it makes it even easier and it makes it even quicker. So if you can’t get your stuff on one page, don’t force it. If you can, fantastic and definitely go over two pages.
10:12
Another thing to keep in mind is highlights. Your resume should be highlights. It’s a piece of paper, literally, and like we’re just talking about right now, one page piece of paper. You better make that the most phenomenal piece of paper you’ve ever seen. And the way to do that is to capture the highlights, not what you just were responsible for, not your job duties, but your literal accomplishments One, two lines max for each position you’ve ever had on whatever the job duty was, and make it impressive, right?
10:42
So, instead of you know, saw accounts, talked to businesses to do business. Right, that’s going to be a version of a resume line. It should be no. Saw 300 plus accounts and met with C-suite decision makers to initiate five projects within six months. I mean, that’s really specific. Now, they both describe what you were doing, but one of them really gives a lot of context into what you were doing. And the same thing with your accomplishments, right, it’s one thing to say.
11:16
You know, one award for best salesman or exceeded goal four quarters in a row. Whole different scenario, though, if you’re putting down one. This prestigious award, first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, every quarter exceeded goal 289% in a territory of 300 accounts within six months or within a year, or whatever the time period was quarter one, quarter two, quarter, three, quarter, four or heck, the entire year because you performed every quarter. Those kinds of statistics where we can see the numbers, because you performed every quarter, those kinds of statistics where we can see the numbers, we can see the time period, we can see the impact that’s gonna resonate. And that’s really what this is about. It’s about backing up what you’re claiming to be able to do, showcasing that not only can I do this skill, but I have a record of achievement in this skill. And then the level of impact, which is the context of the numbers and the timeline and how many accounts you saw. So when you think of things you accomplished, that’s how you look at it. And then, of course, for you clinicians that are like well, wait a minute, I don’t have numbers, I didn’t do anything like that. You did. I’m going to challenge you right now. You absolutely did.
12:26
If you led a nurse’s team or if you were responsible for the contribution of changing the way you guys do a certain process because of how successful you were with an initiative working with patients, or if you were even part of a team where you guys had to work on a special project or something like that that was a little unique to the, to the everyday rigor of being a nurse, those are the kind of accomplishments and things you want to list on your resume. So, again, keep it to one page, definitely no more than two. You want it to be spatially and evenly arranged so it’s easy to look at. Remember, the easier it is to look at and the shorter it is, the better for you, because there’s so many they have to go through and you want to capture the highlights. What is a highlight?
13:12
A highlight is for any job. You have one, two lines on what the job entailed and be specific so we can see the context. And then, of course, more importantly, two to three lines of what you’ve actually accomplished on that job and use context to show the impact. Don’t get hung up on the fact there’s numbers. If you got numbers, great. If you don’t, great, get hung up on the fact that how do I show that I made an impact?
13:36
And then, last but not least, you want to have some of the accolades that you’ve been a part of on your resume, and what I mean by that are if you’ve been certified for anything, if you’ve joined any kind of special organization, maybe you work with a volunteer group or some kind of non-profit, or maybe you got some kind of uh training and now you can perform this, perform that, or maybe you’ve taken it upon yourself to learn a kind of training that you know is going to be beneficial to this job that you say you want in medical sales. That goes a long way. Take a sales training program, take a clinical development program. You know that goes. That shows someone that you’re not the kind of person that sits around and hopes for the best’re not the kind of person that sits around and hopes for the best. You’re the kind of person that sits around, hopes for the best and it takes significant actions to increase your chances of actually getting it done.
14:19
And so I want to wrap up this episode with a topic that I think man, out of all the medical sales topics that are discussed and questioned, I think this one is probably one of the most discussed, and that is I’m going to use the quotations for this one networking. So what is networking? Right, you can probably go to YouTube right now and type in networking and find 30,000 videos on what it means to be networking. But I’m going to just tell you, in this medical sales capacity from the EYS way, networking is literally getting in contact with people and developing relationships that move you forward in your career on a personal, professional level. That is networking.
14:58
In medical sales, it’s everything, and really for any sales position, it’s everything, because what is sales? Sales is literally the day to day of meeting people and inviting them to your solution for whatever their issues are. So you need to have a lot of networking going on to meet enough people to invite them to your solution. This is relationships. Now, in some businesses, the companies do it for you. You just show up and close deals all day. In other businesses, you got to wake up every day and go find them In medical sales. More often than not, you have to do both. So how do you effectively network to get into medical sales and to be a powerful and thriving medical sales rep?
15:37
And I like to categorize it in two different types of ways the online way and the in-person way. And guess what? They should both be 100% consistent and aligned. So, online, you know, it’s one thing to randomly spam people with messages and say hi, my name is Jack or Jill and I’d love to talk to you about what you do. Everyone’s doing that, there’s nothing wrong with it, but there are more effective ways and I think some things you can kind of write down and keep in mind is number one if you’re on the LinkedIn platform, let’s talk about online first, and I’m going to speak specifically to LinkedIn. Do medical sales exist in Facebook and Instagram and YouTube and other platforms? Of course they do, but let’s talk LinkedIn, because that’s the best, most prominent platform with the most serious people when it comes to medical sales.
16:28
The first thing you should consider is if the person’s even active on that platform. If they’re not on the LinkedIn platform, it doesn’t matter what you’re trying to say. It’s going to be hard to get in touch with that person because they’re just not paying attention to what’s going on on the platform. Now you can send them an email message that has the cool feature of sending them a real message. Let them know someone from LinkedIn has sent you a message. But the reality of 2025 is every single vendor and person pushing whatever service or product they have is doing that. So there’s a strong chance it could still be ignored.
16:59
So what do you do to get around that? You look for the active people. To find out if someone’s active, you literally go to their activity, click on it and see the last thing they reacted to. If it’s within a week or two, they’re probably active. Before you send a message, find out what they’re about. Go to their profile, study them for two or three minutes, maximum five. Learn what they’re about, see what they’re interested in and then try commenting on a post that they commented on or reacted to.
17:26
I like this soft approach because number one it I just think in networking in general, you should care about the person you’re trying to talk to. In sales in general, I think one of the most powerful things about sales is just deciding to care about the people you talk to From the first person you talk to. So not just about the decision maker and studying them all night, but I’m talking about the office manager. When you step into the hospital or the clinic or wherever you’re going that person, get their name. Find out something about them that you can bring up the next time you see them. Just that little interaction right there goes an incredibly long way and it shows that you care. So the same thing applies when you’re online and looking at someone’s LinkedIn profile Care about them. Find something to care about that they got going on, so when you reach out to them, you can actually speak to it and then, before you try to reach out to them, comment on what they’re doing.
18:18
Look, everybody on LinkedIn that takes the time to post and comment. They want to be seen and they want to be seen for some. Well, I can’t tell you why they want to be seen, but there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be seen. Sometimes you want to be seen because you have an amazing message that people have to hear. Sometimes you want to be seen because you want to feel good. Sometimes you want to be seen because you want to make other people feel good. You have your reasons. Point is, people want to be seen. So help them be seen by commenting, interacting, and do that first. Then find out, like I said, if they’re active. Then, once you know they’re active and you’ve commented and you’ve reacted and you’ve gotten into their world on something they got going on, now a message that either speaks to a post that they made or something in their profile is going to be much more well-received. Another tip that I’d like to add is, if you do have a valuable comment you made on someone’s profile and you really want them to see it whether it be a recruiter, hiring manager, sales rep tag their name in your comment. They will absolutely see this. Now, the power of your comment and what you actually say will get the response out of them or not, but by tagging their name in the comment, that at and then, whatever their name is on LinkedIn, they will absolutely see that.
19:28
I think one of my favorite stories about something like this is with one of our students. Stories about something like this is with one of our students. A graduate now works at a medical sales company, wanted to get in the industry for years and she just couldn’t do. It Found our program, invested and here she is. But she actually sent such a powerful message on LinkedIn to a hiring manager and she highlighted what he was doing, highlighted something about the company that they’re working on and her two cents on it and I want to believe that something about a post that hiring manager had done. And not only did he give her an interview, but he told her in the interview. He said I get a lot of messages on LinkedIn. No one has taken the time to write a message like you did. And because you wrote this message, that’s why I’m talking to you today and I just want to say you know, kudos to you for taking that kind of initiative. That is an amazing story and it just goes to show that I know you want what you want and you’ve probably heard from a number of people that it’s all about.
20:32
You just got to go every day and apply and apply and apply and do this and do that and do this, and there’s some truth to that. You’ve got to be a lot more strategic, but I understand why people are saying that out mass communications to people. You still have to take the time to ensure that you actually care about what you’re doing, because people are actually reading it, and for a hiring manager to give someone an interview based on a message means that as annoyed as a hiring manager is for having to read a thousand messages of potential candidates, they’re still reading them, which means you still got to make some good ones, which means care, do this due diligence, look into who you’re talking to before you start talking to them, and the same thing applies in person. Let me say this you should know every single group out there that’s doing something that has medical sales, decision makers meeting with people that want to be in medical sales or that are in medical sales. If you don’t know of any groups right now, as you listen or watch this message that I’m telling you right now I am not going to give it to you you better get online right now and look up medical sales groups I can attend and you need to start going. It’s critical to attend these things.
21:50
Another story I’d love to share is you know, we’ve had this business now for gosh going on five years and which means that there are people that graduated that came to us into medical sales, are in medical sales now, that have been in medical sales for five years, which means that some of these people have gotten promoted. And one of the coolest stories is you know, in our program we force everyone to go to these networking events. Of stories is, you know, in our program we force everyone to go to these networking events and one of them, one of our students went to and one of our graduates was there hiring. And, long story short, one of our graduates that’s a manager now hired two of our students. I mean, talk about full circle. That’s what you call. That’s what I call a beautiful moment. And it happened because our students left the house, got off of the computer and went out and showed their faces.
22:40
Now you still have to deliver when you do this. So remember, you’ve got to be consistent. Your story why it makes sense for you to get into medical sales, your accomplishments, your sales prowess, your ability to command medical knowledge all has to still be there. It’s just that you’ve got to be able to deliver it in person, just like you can deliver it on a LinkedIn profile or a resume, and there’s a whole science and arts to doing that, and if you can do it well, then you’re going to get very far. You’re going to get the job you want. In addition to that, you’re really going to make a name for yourself in the medical sales space.
23:11
As always, we do our best to bring you guests that are doing things differently in the medical sales space. Today, I was the guest sharing this valuable information that I know can change your life. If you want to get into medical sales, you know where to go evarvisasscom. If you’re in medical sales and you’re trying to really create a career, you know where to go evarvisasscom. And if you’re leading and you’re thinking what do I do now, then you need to go visit EvarvaSuccesscom.
23:34
As always, we do our best to bring you information, innovative information that will change your life. So make sure you tune in next week for another episode of the Medical Sales Podcast. 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 at EvolvesAssesscom by visiting our site, filling out an application, scheduling 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.
! 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.
