Want to Win in Medical Sales? Master These Skills First
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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, 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 another episode of the Medical Sales Podcast, and I’m your host, samuel and today we have our very own, april Hoffman.
01:00
She is an enrollment director for Evolve Your Success. This is why this is an episode you got to listen to, though. April was a physical therapist for over 10 years, who then, the hard way, got into medical sales, with a journey that took almost two years. Then, through life, she became an employee here at Evargo Success. She’s running things. It’s amazing. She’s an enrollment director and her journey from physical therapist to a leader at Success is something you absolutely have to hear. If you’re a physical therapist, this is a no-brainer. You better listen to this episode.
01:35
If you’re a healthcare worker, I’ll go ahead and say that Again another no-brainer episode that you got to listen to. But if you’re anyone else, the value here is you’re going to understand what it really goes into who gets these kinds of positions, why they get them and why it makes sense for some of these connections between being a healthcare worker outside of medical sales and being a medical sales professional and the fact that it really doesn’t matter whether you’re a healthcare worker or a sales rep or a business admin or a dog walker or a bartender or whatever it is that your story belongs to. There’s an opportunity for you if you’re with the right people, going through the right thing and you’re connected to the right opportunity. So this is one of those episodes that you just got to listen to. It’s one of our very own April Hoffman. She’s fantastic and I really do hope you enjoy this interview, april. Let’s take it to the beginning. Why don’t you tell the audience exactly who you are?
02:28 – April Hoffman (Guest)
So yes, I’m April. I am a physical therapist by trade. I actually graduated with my doctorate in 2011. To be very honest, I knew I wanted to be a physical therapist since I was 14 years old, which isn’t really common for most people. I tore my ACL at 14. Common story I was an athlete my whole life and literally spending so much time and somebody being able to help me regain function and get back to the soccer field.
02:53
I went on to play in college, so I was very passionate about like I want to do the same thing for other people. But yeah, so I knew at a very young age I worked really hard to get into PT school and it was a long, very expensive process. I worked as a PT for about a decade and in every setting you can imagine. I mean, I moved around so much and in that world it’s really not like shunned upon to do that, because it’s almost looked at like okay, the more experience, the more exposure you have. I was really told the impression that the beauty of that industry is that there are so many options.
03:25 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So let me jump in, because I want to understand why a PT becomes a PT, why someone with your calling becomes a PT.
03:34 – April Hoffman (Guest)
I was 14 when it first happened. 14 years old, I was a competitive soccer player. I played very competitive soccer my whole life. Tore my ACL at 14. So like blew out my knee. I was a general patient that at that point that they had done this reconstruction on, had full reconstruction, went on to play soccer. So I spent nine months in an intense rehab oh, wow, so, okay.
03:54 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So that’s where. That’s where like this, that’s where it started.
03:57 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Yeah, I was at that point I knew in high school when we would do like the career days. I was like I want to be a physical therapist, so I was very passionate about that. Then, yes, went on to play college soccer. I actually blew out my other knee.
04:09 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Oh my gosh.
04:10 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Again playing semi-pro co-ed soccer here in San Diego locally, and I was back in physical therapy and at that point I was applying to grad school. Imagine my story, my interviewing process. You know I was like why do I want to be a PT?
04:24 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I’m like look at me, I feel right, I’m really the epitome of being a physical therapy patient.
04:29
When I think PT, I just think, okay, a PT is someone that when you get hurt, you go to them. You see them. They give you all these cool exercises, they move your muscles for you, they get it going. This can take a couple of days, a couple of weeks, a couple of years, whatever your situation is, but it sounds like it’s a little bit more levels to it and different things. You know, can you just kind of give us a rough picture? What does it mean to be a PT Like? What do you think you’re getting into before you actually become one?
05:00 – April Hoffman (Guest)
I think with our industry, to be very, very honest, is that there hasn’t been a true you know, hitting the ground and exposing what we do and how much we impact people’s lives. Because really, physical therapists do so much in every setting that you can imagine whether it be pediatrics, neuro, to you know, home health, school district home assessments there are so many levels. Every person, every single person listening to this that’s out there, every family member at some point either has been in physical therapy or will be in physical therapy. There’s so many clinicians that are in that rehab world that will impact us at some point in our lives or our loved ones. So it’s really crazy to me that people don’t know enough about what we do. But yeah, so really it’s functional, right, it’s about function and occupation.
05:41
If you’re talking about occupational therapists, it’s helping people, literally at their core, get their function back and regain strength, whether it be mobility, whether it be brushing their teeth, whether it be after a stroke, feeding themselves, whether it be after a sports injury, regaining the strength to go on to be a professional athlete, you know, or a kid that had, you know, broken their arm and needs to regain function. So there’s a lot that goes into it. It’s not just, you know, broken their arm and needs to regain function. So there’s a lot that goes into it. It’s not just you know, the exercises, of course that’s important part of it, but it’s really also assessing and understanding the individual person and what their needs are and how to give that approach very individualized, because every person’s different right, every anatomy is different, human is different, Every approach is different, which, not to give it away now, is why therapists are amazing salespeople. They have been bred to be that way.
06:31 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
No, that makes a lot of sense. So you know, back in the day, right when I was just coaching, you know, and I was working with all kinds of professionals to get into medical sales Like I’m talking six years ago, seven years ago, I would work, I would talk to some PTs and they would complain about the finances. You know so, but I’m assuming, though, if you’re going to be a PT, there must be a dream there that like, okay, as a PT, I’m going to change people’s lives, I’m going to make great money doing it, because the dream is this. What is that dream? Because everybody I talked to, they would have almost like the same gripe, which is a lot of school, a lot of work, a lot of value. I’ve provided for changing people’s lives, but the compensation is not matching. What is the dream that you heard before you became one, or that people hear when they want to become physical therapists?
07:18 – April Hoffman (Guest)
How much time do you have? No, I’m just kidding. Yeah, I’ll be careful here. I will say you know, the profession is consistently changing. A lot of the foundation of of that is going to be For me, going into school, the vision and everybody that’s a therapist will know this was vision 2021, I think it was, at that time, vision 2020. And the point of that vision and, mind you, I started grad school in 2008. So that was a long way off for me. I was like, oh, vision 2020, like that’s seemed like infinity, but that was to have direct access to. If you have an issue, you can go right to your PT office and they can assess you, they can diagnose you, they can refer you out. There was a lot of autonomy that was being sold to us. You’re going to have so much autonomy. You’re basically going to be a primary care provider. That was the vision that never came to fruition. There’s little bits and pieces of that that might’ve trickled and there’s aspects that are better, but it never came to fruition and we’re in what? 2025? Now.
08:31 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Sure.
08:31 – April Hoffman (Guest)
So you know, we all were really sold and they were hopeful. Like I don’t want to say that this isn’t because the professors and things like that in the schools, like I do think they advocated and they tried, and that has to go through.
08:45 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So so is that because you’re going to be a, you’re going to have your own practice as a physical therapist, and because you’re going to be that point person, you’re going to have a lot of business. So, as long as you’re doing your job and helping people, the money’s going to be there. Is that what?
08:56 – April Hoffman (Guest)
And more autonomy, more freedom. You’re you’re a primary provider. It’s like saying that instead of calling your PCP, you’re calling your PT, like hey, I’m Dr Jones, I’m watching my pee, what do I do? Come in, we’ll assess you, we’ll be able to deal with that.
09:11 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That’s where you need to go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:12 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Imaging. I can refer you out, like there should have been. That was the goal. So you know, for us going in, we’re like cool, we’re going to be doctors. They, not to mention they, changed our entire education system.
09:25 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Oh, wow, okay.
09:26 – April Hoffman (Guest)
We’re very quick, like when I was applying it was a master’s and then it was like oh, now it’s a doctorate there was no choice at that point that was direction of the profession.
09:41
Of course they grandfathered people in, but you had to become a doctor and the reason for that was them to pitch like these are doctors of physical therapy. They added you know more pharmacology, more tech like radiology, and you know imaging courses so that you could, in differential diagnosing, to basically push this idea that you were going to be an autonomous practitioner. With that came what A raise in tuition. So the education immediately went from this you know affordable healthcare, I’m going to have a stable job as a rehab person and help people. To now I’m supposed to be a primary care provider, essentially, and a doctor and I have. Now the schooling had to match that. And so the tuition you just saw. I mean, if we looked at data, I would be probably blown away at the difference in the tuition.
10:25 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And while this is happening, what about the other side, the people that are actually doing it, the physical therapists? Is their pay starting to creep up? Or were they being told that it’s coming? It’s coming, don’t you worry, it’s coming.
10:37 – April Hoffman (Guest)
They’re like what was going on oh yeah, and a lot of them hated it. I mean, the OGs were like this is ridiculous, like you’re not going to tell me some new grad, because their name is doctor, is going to know more than me with a bachelor’s who has 25 years of experience, you know. So there was a lot of that was a big issue coming in with, like trying to compete with those personalities. And then also, you know, we did think we were cool and tough and doctors, you know, right away, right, like we earned it.
11:03 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
We did, we earned it cool and tough and doctors and yell right away.
11:06 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Right, like we earned it. We did, we earned it. You know you’re kind of naive to that sense and also you know you’re just, you’re hopeful still Right, because really, like you said, the core foundation why, if you asked therapists why they became a therapist, it was never for the money.
11:16 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Right.
11:17 – April Hoffman (Guest)
You know, and back then it was honestly a little bit more affordable to breathe air at that point.
11:25
But you know. So we were like cool, we like we’re having, we have autonomy, we’re, you know, providing really great care, like we’re very passionate. Most of us didn’t want to go, because people would always say, like, why are you getting your doctor when you go to med school? And most of us were like, well, we don’t want to go to med school, why would I want to do that? Because I don’t want to be forced to a certain specialty. That’s why a lot of people going to physical therapy. There’s a lot of that freedom to be like I want to go be neuro this week, and then you know what actually so is it?
11:52 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
is it even accurate to say that, like every physical therapist’s dream is to own their own physical therapy practice?
11:57 – April Hoffman (Guest)
that’s the worst statement I ever heard she’s like.
12:01 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That could not be more wrong for us. Like what? What’s the reality and who really wants that, who does versus who doesn’t want that and the one that doesn’t want that, what are? What do they want to do?
12:12 – April Hoffman (Guest)
so go ahead you know and again I think that’s going to go back to what decade of life we’re in right, because probably when I was starting pt school, that probably was a little bit more of a realistic goal for people I see see For sports teams was like really appealing.
12:25
You know, being in orthopedics, you know, unless you were super into neuro right, like I was kind of a nerd, so I was like vestibular was like my jam and well I thought it was really cool to work in like neuro units and stuff. But yeah, owning a practice like that’s I mean I can only really speak to myself and the population of people that I talk to now especially too. So you know it’s a good basis for what I’m going to say. Most people don’t want to have a brick and mortar. That’s not a big goal.
12:50
It’s very expensive and it is incredibly hard to be profitable. You cannot be most cannot be a brick and mortar, standalone physical therapy clinic and be profitable. Especially with the current rates and reimbursements. It’s nearly impossible to do that. And I mean I know when I was like I said, when I was 14, I was spending nine months in rehab, three times a week, extensive 60 minutes with the therapist. You know manual therapy they were. Now I mean you’re looking at a few weeks. Maybe you know half the time you’re spent with an assistant and they have to do that because they can’t make money.
13:29 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
It’s not feasible, yeah.
13:31 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Yeah, so no, it is not a goal of most people. I think of anything you know in an integrated space is now the new way of doing that To be part?
13:39 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
of a real powerful team and be the physical therapist representative on that powerful team. That’s so, those guys in physical therapy school, those girls and guys in physical therapy school, right now they’re dreaming of being on that multi-specialty team and being the physical therapist representative.
13:53 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Yeah, or working for just like a really good clinic that takes good care of them and gives you flexibility and freedom. It’s yeah. I mean there are a lot of options, I will say that.
14:02 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
But so with the cat out of the bag, I mean because right now there are physical therapists that are not physical therapists yet, but they’re being trained like right now.
14:13 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Yeah.
14:14 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And do they now expect that? You know the money is not going to be there. But gosh, I love what I’m doing. I’m doing this anyway.
14:23 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Or is it still like this, undisclosed? No, I think it’s okay. So now we have all these groups, right, we have all these facebook groups. Not to age myself, but like, honestly, when I was in school, it’s like you had to pull your laptop out to get to facebook. You know, like there weren’t all these social media platforms. Like you’re reading this blog post, sure, your way to class. Now it’s a lot more accessible to understand these things. Right, right, like, I’m in a lot of those groups and they’re brutal. Some of them, like, are very honest, like run.
14:50 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
The first term on your investment ever like run.
14:54 – April Hoffman (Guest)
So you know like I’ll be honest when I tell people if you are truly passionate about it and you have the means, do not bankrupt yourself becoming a therapist. I’m sorry, sorry, I do not care how passionate you are. There are other things that you can do to impact patient life without bankrupting yourself. Don’t do what I did. But you know, like my mom always used to say, do as I say, not as I did. So you know, I would say like it’s. It’s pretty clear now that it’s gonna cost what it’s gonna cost and there are options, you know, as far as if you can get a scholarship, if you can do like a prolonged course. Um, I literally had this conversation with my husband the other day and I was like I like, looking back right 2020 vision, always in retrospect I was like I was so stubborn, like why didn’t I go to school in like minnesota for two years? Like who cares? Right, I’m just like no, I’m, I’m staying in San Diego. Why you don’t think about the?
15:48
future too much when you’re in it because you’re just so passionate about, like, I need to get through this. I’m excited you’re not really thinking about the long-term. You know outcomes from that. I didn’t think about the debt that much because I was sold the dream that this was going to make me profit it’ll be.
16:02
It’ll take care of itself so now there, I always say there are options, like you really are passionate about it. But I will tell you this if you’re going to get your pt degree or ot degree or slp degree, I, at least like one of the things I’m very passionate about we talk about this often is like just letting them know that there’s alternative options out there If you don’t like it, or if it doesn’t work for you for whatever reason there’s nothing else you can do with all that education and that know-how that you have.
16:28 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I like that. 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 the medical sales position? You need training, you need a strategy and you need to visit evolveyourassesscom, 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. How do you land on medical sales? What happened?
17:27 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Yeah, so funny. I did not even know medical sales was a thing. Funny enough because I had worked in all these settings and had all these devices but never, and even had presentations and things like that given to me and people coming in. And you know, for us as therapists it was always like, oh, you’re bringing us pizza like, and donuts like, whatever I got to listen to. But I didn’t know that that was like a thing. I guess it just never dawned on me. I didn’t really know.
17:52
So I actually started with joining as many groups as I could, like. I started on Facebook, I joined the non-clinical PT group, I joined every alternative care provider, a career path, you name it. I tried to join it and literally I was just like blown away at how many other people were in the same boat. I was like I’m not crazy. You know I was crazy, but not that crazy anymore. Right, like it was like it solidified that this is not just a me problem. And again, you know to circle back, like school didn’t teach us. I didn’t teach us like here’s all your options that you can do with your degree. It was like this is your job, keep your blinders on and do it. Here’s the specialties that you have and that’s your options. So a lot of guilt came with that, a lot of like fear of like what’s the unknown, you know, which obviously is a huge component. I talk about a lot with individuals now, but you know, I joined all those groups and eventually I just started plugging away and seeing postings for different jobs and I came across a job on one of those platforms and this was like, mind you, I was at it for months.
18:57
At this point, when I first started, you know, it was just literally like I’m curious, like what options are there? And you know a lot of people will know there’s the biggest like pull for us at that point was like these reviewer jobs. Right, I had gone to a bunch of mixers with other people that were trying to do the same thing and so they would kind of talk about and a lot of it was like reviewers, like billing, like accepting different billings and things like navigators I can’t think of the proper terminology but that never really appealed to me because one at the time like fully remote work wasn’t something that was super attractive to me. It didn’t. I liked patient this is pre COVID. I liked patient centered or like in being in people’s faces. You know talking.
19:38
So I wanted something that still was very interactive and the biggest thing for me was that I wanted to still use my clinical brain. I wanted to somehow still be able to say I know all of this knowledge, how can I still have an impact? So I just embedded myself in trying to like, follow what other people were doing, join every community, every live event, workshop, dah dah dah. Until probably, I would say like eight months in, I saw a post for a job and it was like a care specialist was what they called it, and everything. It was like patient interaction. You need to have, you need to like dah dah dah, and everything it was like patient interaction. You need to have good children, you need to like da-da-da-da-da. And then it was like pay $85,000 base salary plus committed. And I, samuel, I swear to you, I almost fell out.
20:25 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I was like I can do what I can make a company.
20:32 – April Hoffman (Guest)
I’m betrayed. Someone is lying, this is a scam. I was like, okay, what’s the catch?
20:37 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
because there’s too good to be true there was no way, right?
20:43 – April Hoffman (Guest)
yeah, anyways. So I you know, I’m not kidding you I went into a patient’s home I can visualize where I was and I came out and I saw the posting I, every day, after every patient, I.
20:53
I was insufferable, I was like non-stop looking, checking every platform, and I saw that post for that job and I ran to my car and I immediately like found who the recruiter was and messaged the recruiter and I was like I am perfect for this job, this job’s for me. Like I need this job. Like how do I get this job? Like basically, like oh, so excited. Lost her heart because she didn’t think I was crazy enough to like ignore me. She responded and was like send me a resume and we ended up talking.
21:25
The challenge then was like how to get me to be a good candidate, right? So it was ultimately a recruiter that I had come across with by doing all of this hours and weeks and months of just like connecting and finding someone. She she took me in. Really, she took me under her wing. She was like I see something in you, but you don’t have sales experience, you don’t have this, you don’t have this. I was like, well, I have a really great resume and she was like your resume is terrible well like, wow, okay, I got yeah, she’s like but you’ve got a great personality, so we’re going somewhere, you know.
22:00
So we spent months back and forth. She was helping so many other people so there wasn’t this dedicated time to me, right, that was like. So it was very frustrating and so, you know, fast forward that that whole process. Finally, it was a new company not a new company, but it was a new division and a big company that was launching a product.
22:22 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Sure.
22:22 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Specifically into the rehab space. Sure, so I like to say like this is a dash of like luck, obviously, with like consistent persistence and just a lot of time.
22:33 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Fast forward. You’re doing the job. Now I want to hear, and I want everybody to hear, what was the reality of this new job of medical sales. And I like this perspective because you had this whole life dedicated to physical therapy. You got to taste it or you got to live it.
22:50 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Oh, it was the best. Honestly, it was the best experience, best decision I’ve ever made in my life. Hands down I. I cannot stress enough how incredibly exciting it was to feel like, wait, I get to go now and not only help patients, but I get to help therapists and other providers and help all the patients in a facility. I literally had a conversation today with a nurse, actually about this. You know the whole imposter syndrome. We all have it. We all have it. It is no way around it, when we’re so trained in one, one world that to then step into another world and expect to be like I got this.
23:33 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah.
23:33 – April Hoffman (Guest)
It doesn’t matter how great you are, you have it at some aspect, you know. So I had that too, but it was so comforting to go into a space that was so comfortable to me that I didn’t even know was like real, like it dawned on me like duh, like who. Where did all these devices that we’re using come from? Someone had to sell them to the facility. Yeah yeah.
23:52
Not like the administrators are walking around town looking for devices, like people are coming. I was like no, it’s so cool, because I was on the other side of it, you know, like I was the one getting to go in and not only meet with the therapist and the administrators, I was also standing there while they were working with the patients and helping them and giving them this like bigger picture of the long term impacts of these devices and the impact it can have on overall patient care. And it was so rewarding. It doesn’t really matter what the devices like, as far as you know, is this going to change like save a life versus is it going to make better quality of life? Right, like that didn’t matter to me as much as me enjoying the product and knowing that it was something that could benefit people. That was exciting to me.
24:38
So it was a lot of training up front, I will admit, because none of us had any sales experience. So I think for us it was a big that imposter syndrome really kicked in right, like how am I going to sell something? And even though we were more clinical specialists at the time, there weren’t any like territory managers because we were just launching the product. So we were really I mean, we obviously grew into the territory managers, but so we kind of took on this big role and lots of sales training was required. A lot of money invested in that too, because that was became part of the requirements for it, but it was really rewarding.
25:12 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So let’s talk about it, cause I’m everyone listening is like okay, april’s story is amazing, but April’s not a medical sales rep today.
25:23 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Why.
25:24 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And what is April doing, and why does she prefer this than to what she just described was the best decision?
25:29 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Yeah, great question. So when I worked for that company I stayed with them for three years, which, the irony of that, is the longest job I ever kept. And the reason I did leave that job is honestly because the territory did get so massive.
25:41
I grew that from zero to 500 leads and a massive pipeline very successful territory and the honest reason that I left that job and I’m sure there’s people on here that will know the company and know me well but there was no more growth within that organization. They had done some layoffs, mind you. Let me just backtrack this for a second. I got that job and then COVID hit. So let me tell you what, if you can sell a product during COVID, you could sell anything. But you know, we were literally faced with, I mean, I was faxing people stuff Okay. Yeah, it was a struggle, but it really it made me tough Okay, but anyways. So then COVID kind of like partially left, I don’t know. Anyways, we kind of moved through that, but then there was a lot of layoffs that came with that Right.
26:36 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Figured out.
26:36 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Yeah. So then they cut some of the roles where a lot of us that had been there for so many years were like, great, I can move into an AE role. I can move into you know do a director role. There were so many layers to that, that kind of excited us Like there’s so much opportunity. Well, they cut so much of that. Of course, those are all temporary cuts usually, but it’s like do you want to stick around and wait for it or do you potentially want to explore other options?
27:00
So at the time I literally was just like I have come, I have seen, I have conquered. It is time for me to be more challenged. Literally, that was what I needed to do was go and find something that was going to now take me to that next level. I’d grown the territory. I did all of that work. I had the skills now to go out. I knew how to sell myself. Imposter syndrome did not exist anymore. I was like put me in any setting, put me in coach. Like I got it. And also I wanted a smaller territory. So that’s what’s really cool about this that I tell people all the time is that they don’t realize not every role is this massive three-state territory.
27:34
I was selling capital equipment, right, you don’t know that when you’re getting in. You know when you’re in your early stages, like what’s the difference between capital equipment and what’s the, you know, a territory manager versus a clinical specialist role, and like that’s you know stuff that we learn, obviously. But so I wanted something smaller. I wanted to be a little bit more present, so the beauty of it was I knew exactly what to do. At that point I was like so I went, I found a surgical role and I loved it. I did neuromodulation. I went back to the clinical specialist side of things. It was great. It’s funny because during that time I had started to really feel passionate about wanting to help people do this, because I was starting to get hit up on my LinkedIn, on Facebook.
28:15 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
How would you?
28:15 – April Hoffman (Guest)
do it Like after COVID. It was like the cat’s out the bag and it was just a wave of burnt out clinicians being like I am done, get me out of here, what other options do I have? And that’s when we started to see that influx of people wanting to explore medical sales. So I have connected with you at that point while I was doing that surgical role, because I was going to find organizations like yourself, and I had been connected with another company that was like he’s doing this, there’s a bunch of clinicians starting to be interested. He’s looking for more people to help, like with resumes and mentoring.
28:53
And then I’ll never forget and this is the best story I got laid off that same day. I cried, I went and like got mcdonald’s and a mcflurry and ate french fries and was like you know, my life is over, okay, boohoo. And then I went home and I texted you and I was like, like Samuel, I know we’ve been trying to connect, but I have all the free time in the world now. What do you mean? Do you remember that? And you were like okay, let’s chat. So I, honestly, I started working with you. I don’t remember this, but I started working with you as, like a sure, I’ll help you out a few hours. We’ll I’ll. My kids are in school. I have a severance for it’ll get me by until my husband gets home. I can help you. That was two years ago.
29:33 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I know Wild, wild, come on, god works in mysterious ways. I’ve had multiple offers. You’ve had offers, yeah.
29:40 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Multiple. All the time I’m getting hit up by people and there’s been times where I’ve actually waited and said, you know, but what gravitates me to stay with Evolver Success one I’m I mean, it’s just in my nature as who I am but I like to see projects through. That’s why that first job it was like yeah.
30:00 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I want to make this work.
30:01 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Yeah, yeah, and I have loved seeing the growth, the impact. You know I always talked about that with impact. That’s why, in my core, I wanted to be a physical driver, yeah yeah, like seeing those people be exactly how I was and then knowing that they’re just lost, like they are just, yeah, lost and being able to provide them some resources and a valuable path that prevents what I had to go through. I don’t know, there’s no device to me that does that for people.
30:36 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That’s beautiful. I love it. I love the April. That’s amazing. Thank you for sharing that with all of us. So let’s talk a little bit about this PT 18-month stint that you were just hustling, grinding, trying to figure it out, to get finally into medical sales. What’s cool about even able to talk to you about this is you literally talk to people hundreds of people every single day about what they need to get them to medical sales, especially people that come from a PT or a PT-like background. Why do they need it?
31:08 – April Hoffman (Guest)
It’s really tough for us this is what I say if you’ve always success Not to sound cheesy, but I’m like, really Like we have 100% success rate with healthcare workers. Like, hands down, it’s not a matter of if you’re going to get a job, it might be a matter of when, but they are some of the most successful individuals. However, they’re some of the most challenging up front because they just don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to this world. I mean, we say that for everybody, right, but what I mean is like they’re so knowledgeable, they’re so intelligent, they worked so hard to get where they’re going, so there is just so much fear and barriers and like objections that they continue to feed themselves because they’ve been, we, we have been taught like this is what you’re supposed to do, right, like, and this is it. So it’s really hard for us also to grasp like we, I can do this and still make good money and have some freedom, like it doesn’t. It’s not. I don’t believe you. Like I don’t believe you, I’m not kidding you, it is like I got the chills. I don’t believe you, you know.
32:11
And so I love that. I love having that conversation with people and helping them. I always tell them all the time I’m like, listen, you are not alone. We all feel this way. Imposter syndrome is real, like we have a lot of guilt. It comes to it. I always tell them I’m like it’s real humbling when you submit your resume. 16 revisions later you’re like a whole different person really. I had no idea. I thought that was a good resume.
32:39
Um, right, because you don’t know how to sell yourself in this space it’s one way to do right as a therapist it is oh, you have a degree, you’re. A life is physical. Can you start yesterday? We, we desperately need you, yes, for you wait, you could walk.
32:53 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Oh, you’re in the clinic buddy.
32:57 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Also, I’m gonna need you to work weekends. Alphas hours are no documentation time, by the way, and productivity is 99 percent. You’re like, oh, this is what, this is my options. You know so, but we are not used to that. We are not used to being told no yeah other than from our patients.
33:14
We are not used to six to eight rounds of interviews, so it can be really difficult. It’s, it’s very defeating. It’s, you know, applying, applying, like you have this amazing, I’ve been an amazing clinician. I have I have made people walk again, you know. Like what do you mean? Mean I’m with a different candidate, like what candidate, you know? And I tell people all the time, like medical sales is like the wild, wild west. If you want to specialize you have to have that certification. Like it’s very cookie cutter when it comes Right, yeah, they come here and it’s. You know you’re competing against an attorney. You’re competing against a veterinarian, against an attorney. You’re competing against a veterinarian.
33:51 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You know you’re competing against a radio, a radiology tech, all people you’ve had in the program so you have to.
33:56 – April Hoffman (Guest)
You have to shape shift a little bit. You have to be able to be coachable, you have to be willing to be like. What am I missing? What I say is like finding a program in an organization. That that’s what. That’s what this is meant to do. It it not only teaches you all those foundational skills and provides that insight, but it teaches you what you’re missing.
34:14
That shows you what you’re missing and then it trains you in that right and like that’s, that’s what I think is so important and valuable for the health care workers, because they just don’t know what they’re really missing yet. And then when they do, they’re like oh, I don’t know how to sell a device and I’m like what are you talking about? You sell therapy all day long to like the worst patients.
34:36 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That’s, I think, man, april, I think you captured it with that one. That was perfect. That’s exactly what happens in this program and that’s why we have the success we have and that’s why we have the graduates and they go on to live these amazing medical sales professional lives. That was fantastic, april, this was great. You know, of course, if you’re a fan of this show, you know this. But for those that are new, how can people find you, april?
35:01 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Yeah, I mean please. I’m on LinkedIn a lot now because I realize how important it is. I mean I love my LinkedIn, so please find me on LinkedIn, don’t be shy. This is what I do for my job now, so part of my job is getting to just interact with people. School, I don’t know if people are. Yeah, they can get access to.
35:24 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
They go to evarvisuccesscom and you click on the tab. In the tab the menu that says Inside EYS. It takes you straight to school and you can join our free platform there and be connected to a whole world of medical professions, april.
35:37
It’s been real Again. Folks, this is our very own April Hoffman, enrollment Director for Evarva Success. Her story is amazing, so, please, I hope you got some pros from it. We got one more thing to do, april, before I let you go. Are you ready? So this is the lightning round, april, and you can’t prepare for it because, like a bolt of lightning that you cannot prepare for, you just have to be ready to take it when it comes.
35:59 – April Hoffman (Guest)
So don’t judge me.
36:01 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Now we will begin. First question what’s the best book you’ve read in the last six months?
36:06 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Who reads books anymore? No, last six months. Who eats books anymore? No, kidding, oh god, this is embarrassing. You guys are embarrassing me. Okay, it ends with us. Oh my god, I can’t believe. I just said that a lot.
36:16 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Listen, I have my own hobbies okay that that was a good one, though that, oh my gosh. Okay. Next question what is the best tv show or movie you’ve seen in the last six months?
36:25 – April Hoffman (Guest)
oh 1983 19.
36:30 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I don’t know, what is that wait.
36:31 – April Hoffman (Guest)
So yellowstone, have you seen yellow?
36:33 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
oh 1883 1883 I’m sorry. Third question we got the restaurant now and the location. Best rest, best meal. You’ve had the restaurant and the location oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
36:47 – April Hoffman (Guest)
I wish I don’t even remember. I was gonna say the place that we went for dinner that one night that was more than six months ago, april you’re right. Oh my god. That just goes to show how many, how much I do not go out to eat. Oh, that’s with a lot.
37:02 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
My husband is jamaican okay, what’s the best meal you’ve had then the last six months?
37:08 – April Hoffman (Guest)
The best meal would be probably some oxtail.
37:12 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Oh God, that’s my favorite. Okay, folks, to cover that one. The restaurant her and I did go to more than six months ago will be in the show notes. All right, the last question, april, but not the least what’s the best experience you’ve had in the last six months?
37:26 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Oh best experience. Oh man, six months, oh best experience. Oh man, I will say probably having my husband home, honestly, and being able to. You know he’s been gone for three years at a time, like no more than a few months at a time. This is the longest stretch over six months. So we’ve had him home and so doing all the things, having a flexible work schedule that’s let us go to my kids’ sports and all of things Like truly, that’s the best experience I know.
37:53 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That’s probably not a resort or something Beautiful and thank you for sharing that, April. This was awesome. We got to have you back. We have so much more to talk about, but this was awesome. Thank you for being on the show.
38:03 – April Hoffman (Guest)
Don’t ask me about any more books because I’m not reading it. Right, right, I think you will take one, awesome.
38:10 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And that was April Hoffman. You know I am just flat out impressed with that woman. She has experienced so much of what the professional working world has to offer in the healthcare space, even within medical sales, and now I mean, for the last what two to three years she’s been talking to hundreds of people every single day about medical sales and what it can do for them. So her perspective, her insight, is unlike any other. You know, you’ll talk to a rep that’s in the field, that only knows their experience. You’ll talk to a coach that’s only dealt with, who they’ve dealt with. You’ll talk to a company that’s maybe been in one niche for a certain amount of time, but very rarely are you going to talk to someone that has that much of diversification on the different things they’ve done that can add valuable insight to what you’re trying to do. As always, we do our best to bring you guests or give you things different in the medical sales space.
38:58
Make sure you subscribe to this podcast. If you are a listener, if you are someone that loves what you hear, then you’ve got to subscribe so you’re on top of every episode we produce and then, on top of that, if you’re someone that wants to into medical sales. You’re in medical sales and you want to be better. Make sure you visit ebarbersuccesscom. 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 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.
! 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.
