Medical Sales: How To Connect With The Right People
In this episode, special guest Todd Crowder joins Samuel to unpack what it really takes to develop transformational leaders in medical sales. Together, they explore how proper management training and mentorship can unlock the full potential of a team, and directly impact revenue, culture, and long-term growth.
We dig into the often-overlooked transition from top-performing rep to successful manager. Todd shares how to empower new leaders to think like CEOs, embrace strategic thinking, and handle hiring with confidence. If you’ve ever struggled with promoting the right person or building leadership from within, this conversation gives you a proven framework to do it right.
You’ll also learn how mindset can reshape a team’s success. Todd explains how to stay solution-oriented, even when facing adversity or toxic work environments. With real-life stories and insights, he shows how energy, emotional intelligence, and vision can turn roadblocks into stepping stones for growth.
Whether you’re aiming to break into medical sales or level up into a leadership role, this episode is packed with the strategies, tools, and mindset shifts you need. From hiring smarter to building future executives, Samuel and Todd deliver the blueprint to help you lead with purpose and drive real impact.
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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 and remember I am a medical sales expert sharing my own opinion about this amazing industry and how it can change your life. It is kind of interesting how the right person in the right place can literally change everything.
00:59
I mean everything you can. Have someone that kind of knows what they’re doing and find someone that’s just excellent at what they’re doing, and that could be a 50% difference in revenue, and I think that that just I’m working through that too, Cause it’s like damn, you know.
01:17 – Todd Crowder (None)
Well, I mean, I think it’s the hardest thing that we have as business owners to to worry about. As business owners to worry about, I mean because you’ve got. When you make the move to move somebody into a position, I always tell them I am giving you part of my family’s finances, right, I want there to be a little bit of a ownership burden on their end to be able to say, oh my gosh, that’s right, he’s given me part of the finances. I need to treat this as though I’m my own little CEO of the area, because when we turn these things over, we need to be able to turn them over and go develop more so we can grow. But if I have to come back and rectify behavior or handle things that I shouldn’t have to handle because we threw somebody at it, then that makes for a bad decision and it could cost you not only economically but it costs you time-wise.
02:18
Right that part when we’re trying to talk to people that are coming out and wanting to do this job. Or if you’re doing this and you’re watching this and you want to take the next step to be a manager, you’ve got to have unconditionable, unfiltered ownership of what it is you’re willing to tackle. It’s got to come from inside of you, because if not, man, failure is part of life. It’s not how many times you’re going to fail, because you might fail multiple times. It’s how many times you get back up and learn from. The problem I see a lot of times nowadays is people fail and they don’t learn from it. Yeah, they’ll just go take that failure to another company yeah, no, you’re right, you’re right.
02:59 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
But as we, as we hire and you know whether the person works out or not I am also getting better.
03:06
We still have to work on the process and even if the person is not a good fit, you know, the cool thing about that is they will improve whatever the process was.
03:15
Yeah, so you know you have three or four people go through a position and you’re still not content with who you have in there. But each time the process is getting a little bit better, a little bit better so that when you finally find the right person, they’re walking into a smooth ship. And I’ve gotten to see that too. I’ve gotten to see where we have a department that we’re getting, you know, c-level work and the leader of that department or there is no leader of that department and we’re just trying to like work through things and we’re trying to prove the process, prove the process and finally find the best person. They get in there and now it’s like immediately A plus work because the good person is walking into a good process. And that’s the magic right there when you have a good process and a good person, you’re going to win and you find your next candidate, how much are you placing?
04:10 – Todd Crowder (None)
Because we obviously want to hire somebody that’s going to be the fit. We don’t want to hire somebody just to hire from a temporary season, Right. So how are you? If you’re going to talk to somebody, how are you instructed that person of what the failures were and the expectations of where it’s to be?
04:27 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Right, right. Well, I try to be transparent, and that’s a great question, because I think before I used to just be like okay, you’re new, I’m going to have you talk to the person that used to manage this area or the people that used to be in this area and you’re going to learn from them. This is how we’d like it to be, this is the performance we want. Good luck.
04:46
Now I’m a little bit more careful with that, because what I, what I saw with that is I’d send a new person to go learn bad habits. So now it’s like okay, listen, this is what we want from this department. We know what you can do, or what you believe you can do. I’m going to train you, work with you, get you warmed up for this. I want to see how you tackle these issues. We’re going to give you a few good examples of what good looks like and then, after that person feels pretty confident, understands the space, really wants to give it a go, then I do have them link up with the person that was in the position last, regardless of how good of a performer they were, and that has seemed to work out the best right. It staves off the bad habit development, and it empowers whoever’s being given charge of this new thing. It empowers them to do what they think would be best.
05:37 – Todd Crowder (None)
So that’s the person that’s managing, right? Yeah, so what about managing the workers that sit there and report to that manager? Because too many times I think we’ve seen, at least out in the field lately, that there is not a consistency of how managers are being taught, and so they come in there with their own ideas, some of them very bad because they haven’t been taught, some of them very good. So how are you instructing a person that has been a contributor and moving that contributor, whether in your organization or somewhere else, into a management role? Because you know, like you and I talked about before, when my dad was, when I was a contributor, my dad was like go learn, fall down, learn to walk, learn the stoves hot.
06:32 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
when you’re a manager, you have more of a philosophy now I’m gonna be honest with you, I’m a little bit I used to also be the one that’s like, oh my gosh, you’re killing it. Do you want to run this department? I am the opposite. Now, even if you’re killing it, I am. You want to run this department? I am the opposite. Now, even if you’re killing it, I am not. I’m still not thinking okay, we got to put you in management.
06:50
The only time I consider putting someone that’s you know for lack of a better word individual contributor for their department into a leadership role is if they’re doing leadership things without me asking on a consistent basis.
07:03
If I don’t see that I’m just rewarding the person for being a good individual contributor, I am not thinking about making that transition. I’ve learned the hard way and we’ve talked about this before, todd I’ve learned the hard way that when you move people that are awesome into management roles, you can get hurt quite deeply because they don’t just a lot of things they might not understand, because you’re, just because you’re assuming that they can deliver, that they’re delivering a management space, and it just does not happen. So actually, now, these days, I’m actually looking for if we need a manager, I’m going outside. I’m going outside the company. I’m looking for someone that just knows how to manage this type of people for this type of department, for this type of responsibility. I’m putting them into a vetting process. I’m giving them, you know, a month or two to see if they can deliver with us, and if they can, they stay, and if they can’t, they don’t. And that’s how I’m doing it now.
07:50 – Todd Crowder (None)
So when you go, look at a manager so a little bit more somebody that might be watching this and they’re sitting there and they’re thinking they want to be a manager. Yeah, as I jokingly say, they think they like sausage. Say they think they like sausage, they just haven’t seen how it’s made yet. So they think they want to do this. They think they like the title, they like they like the responsibility. They maybe want to move from being an individual contributor, but they’re not sure what to do. Right, walk us through how you assess one, like you talked about a little bit management material, and two, what are the kind of the main things that individual contributor needs to show to be able to, in your mind, move to that next level?
08:34 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah. So number one you know, even if you’re an awesome Rockstar individual contributor, you’re going to see problems with your own business. You’re going to see problems that are above your station with the you know, comparing it to a rep in the field the regional business right. So you’re going to see issues that you’re having in your territory and you’re going to see regional issues that your manager’s working on. If you are not volunteering useful ideas and contribution to the regional issues, that’s great. If you tell me you want to be a manager, but I’m not taking you seriously until I see that from you. That’s number one. I’ve learned that you know, yes, the person has to want to be a manager, but the person has to demonstrate some level of care for the regional issues while being amazing at their own business. So that’s number one. Number two if you’re coming to me and you got problems and you’re like, sammy, I don’t know how to do this or I don’t know how to do that, I can’t do this, I can’t do that and you do not have a solution, there’s no way I’m going to see you as a leader. It’s just it will not exist Again. I don’t care how good of an individual contributor you are. If you’re bringing problems to me, or if I hear you’re bringing all these problems to your manager and you’re not bringing solutions in addition to the issues, then you’ll still be here, of course, but there’s no way I’m going to see you as leadership material, because the first thing that I look for is any person that wants to be a manager and serious about it. They are thinking about the regional issues and they’re thinking about valuable solutions. Whether the solutions will work or not, their head’s already there and they’re trying to come up with solutions, and anytime they’re bringing a problem to the table, it’s with a solution. And then, lastly so if somebody that wants to be a manager is they’re killing it at their job. They’re showing that they care about the regional issues and they’re bringing sound, sound solutions to the regional issues, then I try to vet them for the culture.
10:32
There’s something that I call the individual contributor mindset. So if you’re someone that complained, you know we all complain. We all like, oh, I wish this worked out, I wish this didn’t happen, I wish, can you believe this happened? Can you believe that person did that? Look, we all have a little bit of that in us, but I do believe that, as a leader, you just can’t spend time there. You just can’t. If you’re you know bitch and or you’re you’re, you’re stuck in this. What was me space that a lot of injured contributors can afford to stay in and gossip and all that stuff. If you’re doing any of that, you’re not a leader in my eyes.
11:03
Leaders are so solution oriented and they spend very little time in gossip world because there’s so much to get done. And the cool thing about so much to get done is, if you really put your mind to it, there’s always a solution, right? I mean, you can agree with me, todd. No matter what the problem is, there’s always. Is it going to be the best solution? Is it going to be the one that makes you happy or excited or easy to do? Maybe, maybe not, but there’s always a solution, right.
11:24
Businesses in the grand scheme of things, business is a very. It’s a game and it can be a fun game solution. So if the, if the energy contributor is someone that does not know how to step into game, face and and be solution oriented and not live in gossip and complaining world, then there’s no way. There’s no way and I won’t even entertain it because I think I got to learn the hard way that my own attitude like if I’m, if I’m like, oh man, I can’t believe this is going on, or or I’m complaining, or whatever I got to see that it has drastic effects on my employees. Right, people are like, oh my gosh, you know something that even it’s not even a big deal and not really a big deal, but I’m just choosing to complain about it. One of my employees hears that and they turn that into a whole different thing. Or I’m upset and I express that to my employees and another employee sees it and like, oh my gosh, I’m gonna lose my job, and it’s like you know what? I have to now regulate myself and be very solution oriented. So if you wanna be a manager, you better already be displaying that self-awareness that the words you say, the complaints you bring, everything you say and do has a major impact.
12:37
I’ll leave you. I know I’m rambling, but I’ll leave you with one more thing about that. You know I had this. I have this employee. She’s she’s amazing, but she’s emotional, so like if something goes well, she’s like man, this is wonderful. If something goes bad, she’s like I can’t believe this is happening. And I used to feed off of her energy. So if she’s tripping, I used to think, oh my gosh, something really must be going bad. And then when I’m talking to another department that has to work with her, I’m carrying her energy and it’s causing problems and I learned that. Okay, because she’s emotional, I have to stop.
13:12
Anytime she comes to the table, I have to first of all assess is it really that bad or is it even that good? Figure out what needs to be table. I have to first of all assess is it really that bad or is it even that good? Figure out what needs to be done, work with her to get a solution. And then I go until everyone else. So you can see that even though I’m the one in charge and she’s reporting to me, her energy is affecting me. How much more so an interview contributor, when you get to a management position, all your energy is affecting all these people that report to you. So you better make sure you know how to regulate that energy. So again, number one, you got to show you want it and show you’re thinking about the regional issues. Number two you have to bring real solutions to any issue you have and any regional issue you see. And number three you have to know how to regulate how you come off, and you better not be a gossiper or someone that likes to complain.
13:56 – Todd Crowder (None)
Because I won’t for leadership, I won’t even tolerate that you know, and I really think we really shouldn’t tolerate it that much. With the individual contributors, I think we get to a point where we allow it and we just say, oh, they’re just venting, okay. But there is a point in time when it turns to blaming the individual company or blaming individual products from a company that it becomes maybe you’re not the fit as an individual contributor. At the same time, I’m going to add one other thing. I just came across this book and I read a little bit of snippets here and there.
14:32
And you know, growing up I was never a big book reader. I’m still not a huge book reader, but when I find I really, I mean I like to to get into it. It’s called conquering crisis. Okay, you ever see, it’s been around the internet a couple times. There’s an admiral that talks about if you want to have a first one in the morning, what do you do? You make your bed, and he has like a whole commencement speech about it. His name is Admiral McRaven, william McRaven, and it is 10 lessons to learn before you need them.
15:03 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That’s nice. I’m going to check that out, okay.
15:05 – Todd Crowder (None)
Yeah, I’ve read highlights from it and snippets. It just seems phenomenal. So one of the things I’m going to start implementing and challenge you know is also is in the interview process how do you handle crisis? Because crisis is going to come naturally by our business, whether it’s the Internet shuts down or you had to upgrade. Remember when you and I couldn’t do a podcast and the whole thing upgraded and like glad it happened over the weekend and not Monday when all of a sudden everything had to go on. You know so crisis happens. Day when all of a sudden everything had to go on, you know so crisis happens.
15:37
How do you manage the crises that are going to occur, personally or professionally is going to. Let me know also how much I can afford to let you lead, let you handle things, because those are bound to occur and we need to look. If you just open this industry up to every single person, every single personality, there is some good in that, but there also is some bad in that and we need as far as what we can control. We can’t control what Medtronic or somebody else, but we can control our own little worlds.
16:13 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
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 evolveyoursuccesscom. 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.
17:09 – Todd Crowder (None)
So I think one of the things I’m going to start implementing myself is I’m going to develop crisis situations that can occur in my business and, during the interview process, give it to them. How do you handle this crisis that’s occurred? How do you handle the doctor that this, this and this has happened and they call you up and you’re getting blessed, or the you know MA is calling you saying that this has happened with insurance, Right?
17:32 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
What do you do?
17:33 – Todd Crowder (None)
How are you handling this crisis and you have to involve me or can you handle it on your own? Right, right right so just an added thought process I was, I was interested, I was I’m gonna save that, took a picture of the thing, but just to save it because I was like I bet samuel would like something like this because it’s I would love it.
17:51 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
yeah, absolutely, I would love to see it. Yeah, you, you know I mean. So right now you do have your star questions, right? So we call them start, situation task action, result. And in our program we had a little caveat situation task action, result, takeaway and and that’s when you get those crisis questions.
18:08
But when I’m talking about the gossip and complaining thing, you don’t see that in the interview. Right, you know you won’t see that until the person’s working for your company. And even me I’ll speak to myself I don’t get to see it, right. In fact, I’ve been asked by certain managers to be like Samuel, we’re going to make a private chat for our department. But we kindly ask if you do not join it? And I’m like what do you mean if I don’t join it?
18:32
They said, well, when you join it, people are not going to be as free-flowing in their thoughts. And I’m like fine, I respect it, I will stay out of here. But, moving forward from that, when that group is created, I still get to learn who’s showing up with solutions and who’s just using that as let’s have a moaning session. And from working in pharma to working in biotech, to working in device, to working in any kind of space to now running a company and having employees and having direct reports and all that. I do notice that you’re going to have complainers and non-complainers, and the complainers are the ones you need to be wary of.
19:12
The people that you say what.
19:15 – Todd Crowder (None)
They can become a cancer.
19:18 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, they can become a cancer, exactly, exactly. And so, if you want to be a leader and you want to be and you’re an industry right now, check yourself. Ask yourself hey, you know, when I’m in a private room with my most trusted people in the organization, how do I show up? Am I? Am I complaining a lot? Am I like, can you believe? Did you hear? And if and if and if you could admit that? Yeah, I kind of do that.
19:38
I’m not chastising you or criticizing you, I’m just saying work on it, because what you don’t know and what you don’t see is the people that are in concert with you. They’re remembering that and all of you are going to have opportunities to move forward and when you guys do, they’re going to remember that you were the one that brings all the complaints. You were the one that brings all the complaints. You were the one that thinks this way. You were the one that says this side of the other and I promise you it will work against you. So, and if you do check yourself and you’re like, yeah, I show up that way, then start next time you’re in that same room. Act like the one that has a solution when you hear people say, oh my gosh, can you believe? Say, yeah, you know that does suck. I hate that, but you know what, what if? And watch the people around you. You know what I think is so cool, todd, is when you choose to be that person. That’s like the light to the problem.
20:22
Even in a room of complainers, you’ll start to notice other people be like you know you’re right, we should do this, and then we should do that. And then, before you know it, the whole room is talking about just solutions. And now you’re. Now you’re on your way to step into leadership, because that’s how you got to be no, yeah, you got.
20:37 – Todd Crowder (None)
You got to be able to flip the mindset and you’ve got to be able to be brash enough to be able to sit there and call it out at the same time too, right, I mean, it can be a thing, hey guys, let’s, let’s. I get it like you said, but let’s stop it at the same time, yeah, yeah, because we’re not moving forward. The problem isn’t getting smaller, right, the solution to our problem isn’t going to be found in griping. Yeah, the problem is not going to resolve itself. And where we are today in medical device sales, it’s not to the point where I, when I came in and it’s like hey, here’s a pen, sell me the pen. It’s, you are there to solve a problem. And if you’re there for any other reason than the patient on the table and to solve the problem that has arised that you can provide a solution for, then it goes back to the two types of reps either an ass or an asset.
21:30 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Right, there you go. See, I called them complainers, not complainers. Assets and assets, there you go.
21:34 – Todd Crowder (None)
I like that. It has more of a ring to it it has more of a ring to it.
21:38 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
But you know what? Even on that note, you know, one reputation that I developed is people would often say, samuel, you’re the most positive person I’ve ever met. And I’m going to tell you right now that goes a long way, right. When people struggle to see you as a gossiper or a complainer or whatever, yeah, they might think, oh, he just lives in positive land, he’s just Mr Positive. But when shit is the fan, they’re coming to you because they’re like I need something to lift me up from this and they’re looking for that positive person to help them see where the solution can be in the biggest of problems.
22:19
If people take it upon themselves to try to be that person more often, if you’re an individual contributor, you’re going to find yourself in front of leadership sooner than you think, because people will just gravitate to you. Everyone’s going to notice it. The one above you is going to be like let’s ask him. The one below you is going to be like you know what, let’s ask him. And before you know it, everyone’s coming to you and then you’re not even trying to be like I want to be this. People are pushing you like saying, hey, have you ever thought about becoming this kind of leader. Have you thought about becoming that kind of leader? And isn’t the answer. But it’s, it’s definitely part of it. It’s definitely part of it.
22:56 – Todd Crowder (None)
If I’m positive and this is something each, each person coming into this business or already in this business you’re checking yourself. If I’m positive, I have more clarity. If I’m negative, I have more things that I’ve enveloped in my mind that are pulling me in different directions, because I’m at the whims of emotion. Well, emotion doesn’t allow for clarity of thought, because you’re then feeding off of Bill and Joe and Susie and everybody else and your emotions then get tied up and you become the whirlwind. Yeah, and so when you are in that mindset, as an individual contributor or even as managers I’ve seen managers get together and have the exact same issues. I mean, you’re just at a different level. Now they’re just complaining about larger levels of things, and if there’s not somebody in there with positivity that promotes clarity, then all you’re doing is you’re creating, and that filters down to your reps and reps filter out to the customer and then the customer.
24:01
If you think about it, if you’re coming in the work negative and upset, whether you say a word or not, your body language, the way you present yourself, the way you treat yourself, damages your reputation, because then it’s like’s like, you know, there’s just something off.
24:19
There’s something off about them. You know, when they’re in the room, that they just they’re not connected with the, with the doctor, they’re not connected with the staff, they don’t seem to have a solution. They just throw their hands up, almost. And so, realistically, if you’re sitting there and you’re you’re wanting to check yourself, you’re sitting, you’re listening, going, well, hey, maybe I need to do what samuel says, maybe I need to look how I present myself, right, realize, as an individual contributor. Oh, I’m not interested in management management. Stupid, that’s for okay, great, but you’re still managing a territory, managing a business aspect, managing customers. That still filters out of you. So it is really sometimes and I see it more and more with how devices and sometimes device reps get treated in the hospital. You’ve got to rise above that, right, you’ve got to rise above the. Rise above the hate. You’ve got to rise above the hate.
25:16 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You’ve got to rise above the negative. No really, I mean, that’s what it is. You’re rising above and you know, because I hear the narrative of oh man, he’s just Mr Positive or he or she is just positive, they’re in la-la land. I don’t think the problem is being positive. I think the problem is being positive without action. So for anyone listening to this, that’s like am I positive? You got to be positive, but you got to act on your positivity, right?
25:38
If you’re positive and you put yourself first of all, being positive allows you to see like you just said solutions. And if you see the solutions, then you can act on those solutions and, by God’s grace, whatever you choose to act on works. I think why people put any negative connotations on hyper positive people is that if you’re being positive and you’re not acting on it, or you’re being positive and you’re and you’re not seeing solutions, then what? What’s the use of it? And then it’s like, okay, you are living in la la land. So I’m not, I’m not just saying you got to just be, I’m saying be positive so that you can see solutions and when you do act on them, and that’s going to be a whole hell of a lot better than being the negative Nancy or the complainer in the room? That’s just highlighting gossip material for people to stew on.
26:21 – Todd Crowder (None)
And that also because you know you’ve been in the OR, you’ve been in offices that has its own little entity of individuals, nurses or whatever that have their own little negativity. That you get sucked in and as if you’re new into med device or in new into medical sales and its entirety encompassing of all branches, you will find quickly when you get in those offices or get in those ORs or get in the cath lab you’re going to have those same negative people and again you can get sucked into it. You can get sucked into the hospital gossip. Be very, very careful, careful, yeah, because if you become you all, I want to be liked by the staff, I want to be one of the guys, one of the gals. When I just gossip with the team.
27:10
I don’t have to wear this goofy red hat, but I want to wear the blue hat. If you get sucked into it, how are you going to be perceived as a problem solver Period Again, ladies and gentlemen, that’s what we’re trying to help you guys understand that. Getting sucked into a whirlwind or whirlpool of negativity in any part of your life, personal life too yeah, it doesn’t allow for you to have clarity to act. I think you said it right being positive, just being positive, that’s fine. That’s unicorn world, that’s wonderful. Rainbows and skittles, that’s fantastic. But that’s short-lived at the same time too, because when you’re there by yourself and the stage lights turn off, as I say, you’re by yourself with your thoughts. Where is your mind then?
28:02 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yeah, does your mind produce clarity?
28:07 – Todd Crowder (None)
or is it drained because you fought off negativity and now you just need to be negative yourself?
28:15 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
It even goes down to the level of trying to get into medical sales. You know, you know we have this program, the medical sales career builder premium, and we have, we have hundreds of, we have all these students in the program. You know, right now I think we have 80 students and we’ve had hundreds and hundreds go through it. You know, a few months ago we had a student that he was just, he was going through something in his own life, he was going through his own challenges in his personal life and it was causing frustration as he went through the program and he would lash out at instructors, he would lash out at other students. He was just negative, just negative, just negative energy that he just carried with him because of his own frustrations, because of his personal problems, and he wanted to be in medical sales. And you know, our whole, our promise is I should take the average person about four to six months. Yeah, some people do get it, a lot of people get it Maybe in 120 days, 90 days, but the average, if you just take the whole length of how long we’ve been around and the majority of people, regardless of the level they’re in four to six months, is a good average. And he was in his fourth month and he was just frustrated. Just energy, just negative, negative, negative. And it got to the point where it was being toxic to other students. The students would be complaining to us saying, hey man, you know this guy, he’s in, I am involved. I thought he was one way. But now that I’m in this private messaging group with him, he’s just cussing at us and he’s being weird. I don’t know what to do. Make him uncomfortable. And it was tough because we are the company that you join us. We’re going to be with you until you get the job. However, if you’re toxic, we can’t tolerate it. We just can’t. There’s too many people I care about, too many people. I care about their journeys too much. If you’re toxic, I got to let you go and best wishes. And here was the frustrating part for me. He complained about well, this stuff doesn’t work and I don’t know what to do, but he was still after it.
30:00
It got to the point where we had to let him out of the program because he was just too toxic and it was making other people nervous. It’s one thing to be frustrated because of your own personal stuff as you work our program. It’s one other thing to be so frustrated that you’re now making other students think about you instead of their own journeys because you’re being that toxic. Long story short he left.
30:19
We let him go within a month, todd, he got into medical sales. So so, with all his complaining, with all his in and all this stuff and with all the, it doesn’t work and it’s not working. I’m trying this, I’m doing that. He continued to use it, he got let go and actually it actually worked for him and and that means he got the position within four and a half months. So it was right within that four to six month window. So you know, it was frustrating for me because I’m like if I, if I, if I kept him in the program, he would have gotten to where he is and he would have said, okay, I did complain and bitch a lot, but yeah, you know it actually works, but I let him go because he’s being so toxic. And he would have said, okay, I did complain and bitch a lot, but yeah, you know it actually works, but I let him go because he’s being so toxic and he still got in.
30:59
But I highlight that story because he’s not. He wasn’t even in medical sales yet and his energy was having an impact. My concern for him is if that’s the kind of default position he can land in. I hope he realizes it and tries to manage it as he is in his new job, because he won’t last long with that kind of energy. So, as we’re saying, you know it hits all levels. If you want to be, if an energy contributor that wants to be a leader, have some kind of cap on that. On that You’re negative, complaining. No, we all have it. So make sure it’s super small on your shoulder. And if you’re someone that wants to get into medical sales, it’s even more important. Super small on your shoulder. You know hiring managers they can smell that and your hiring manager that brings you onto the team when they start working with you initially. It’s going to come out real quickly if that’s your default position.
31:44 – Todd Crowder (None)
Yeah, and I think I don’t think we, I don’t think it’s been stressed enough to some of these guys coming, guys coming out of college, just not medical college but just regular college. I think the COVID kids coming out have been undue serviced and so now they’re coming out and they have this false sense of people are going to accommodate me and if they don’t, then my default that a lot of times it seems to be is to go down. This woe is me kind of deal, and when you find yourself or find someone that’s not, I mean you’ve got yourself a hardworking individual. That’s a gem. So let me ask you something. So you mentioned a couple of times, where are you seeing right now individuals coming into the college? Where are you seeing them coming from background wise?
32:33 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Coming into medical sales or coming into our program.
32:36 – Todd Crowder (None)
Into your program yeah, everything.
32:38 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I mean there’s a lot of marketing majors, business majors, there’s some biology majors. You know, our program is kind of half and half. We get about 40, 40, 40 to 50 clinicians, so think nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and then everybody else is maybe a split between some type of business professional, whether it be an entrepreneur or someone that works as a business admin in whatever business, and a college graduate, someone that’s coming from a business major and sometimes a science major.
33:08 – Todd Crowder (None)
Have you ever ran the analytics to see the split and how quickly one gets hired in the other?
33:14 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Of course. I mean, of course we do that all the time. I mean, I think it goes without saying that clinicians usually get jobs the fastest. Now, that’s, there’s caveats to that. So clinicians get jobs the fastest because they have that medical knowledge, they have the medical background, and companies are looking for that.
33:32
And especially now, with that being said, we’ve noticed that clinicians with a flat affect have a harder time than clinicians that bring the energy. And you know, I guess that can be obvious, but it’s still interesting to see. You have this clinician that’s like yeah, yeah, my name is this and, yeah, I really want to be in medical sales. And why do you want to be in medical sales? Well, you know, once upon a time, and they just have this really flat affect. And then you have the clinician that’s like yeah, you know, and they got the lively energy. And we consistently see that, when it comes to clinicians, the ones that have flat affect versus the ones that have the energy, the ones that have the energy get the job faster than the ones that have flat acts almost every single time.
34:17 – Todd Crowder (None)
Yeah, so when you I know I know I have my own thoughts with this one that’s one to hear yours. So when you’ve got a young individual coming right out of right out of college like I was contacted by an individual that was still in college and trying to mentor them to get to a point of what they should be doing now to be able to put themselves separate or separate themselves, so when they come out they’re having oh yeah, and I mean I have of course, I have thoughts on that okay, go ahead so.
34:49 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So if you’re a college student, well, let’s. Let’s make it more specific. Or junior yep sophomore. Junior Yep Sophomore.
34:56 – Todd Crowder (None)
Sophomore junior.
34:57 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So if you’re a sophomore junior, I’m not going to speak to like what’s going to make you more attractive as a candidate. I’m going to speak to just what’s going to help you, period. I think it’s good if you take some science classes. I think science classes are good because it just shows that you care about that space and you’ve done your own level. Even if you’re a sociology major, get some science classes under your belt so that you can just showcase that you have interest in this space. It’s you know. Yes, marketing.
35:25
Business majors are the most in medical sales, believe it or not, they’re the most actually. But now that people can get so prepared and medical sales is so it’s much more common and people are learning about it everywhere and there’s podcasts like this one and everything. Take it upon yourself, if you’re a business major, to get some science classes, just so you can lean on that and say look, I want to be here because I’m already doing the work. I’m already doing something. That’s number one. Number two take it upon yourself to read some sales books now Challenger Sale, spin Selling, integrity Selling there’s so many different types of books out there that you can get. That are just kind of cornerstones of being a sales professional, especially in medical sales. Take the time to learn those now again, so that when you’re in the interview and you’re talking to someone who’s a hiring manager you can say yeah, I’m this major and this is what my focus was. But because I want to be in medical sales, I’m taking these classes to understand anatomy and physiology and I’m reading these books because I want to get in front of the sales process. Another thing you can do as a as a college student is, if you have the, the bandwidth to get a job, take a sales job. Now I’m going to be the first person to say you do not need a sales job to get to get into medical sales. I repeat everybody listening you do not need a sales job to get into medical sales. You do not. However, if you have the bandwidth and you have the time and you’re in school and you have a good handle on your studies and you’re thinking, okay, I need to make some money, I want to get some kind of job while I make some money while I’m in school, it just makes sense to get a sales job because again, when you get to the interview process, you can again say look, I know rejection. I sell knives. For Christ’s sake. I get the door slammed in my face 10 times a day, in addition to being this student. I can handle that and let me speak to that real quick.
37:08
People want to see people’s sales experience, not because you need sales, but to get into medical sales. You know you hear this narrative you better get B2B sales experience for two years before you even try to. That’s hogwash, in my opinion. 100%. The reason why that advice is given is not because they’re wrong. It’s because the easiest way to showcase that you can handle rejection and get up and do the job anyway when nothing’s working out is some difficult to sell product sales job like a commodity product, like alarm systems or knives or wine or whatever copy machines. I mean, let’s be honest, selling copiers. That’s hard work. If you can do that successfully, you can probably sell anything right and that’s why they say go get a B2B job.
37:48
But if you’re doing something else and you can show that you can handle rejection and you can handle getting in front of people over and over and over again and making an argument to buy them into something, that counts too.
38:00
You know chefs, uh, bartenders, um, waitresses and waiters I mean all they all have sales experience, because they’re all trying to get people to do things that they might not want to do or or or invest in things that they might not want to invest in. So that’s what people really want to see. So, if you’re a college student, again I would say, if you’re not a science major, get some science classes so you can show that you care and look, it’s going to be to your own benefit. If you have anatomy and physiology down, all this stuff you’re going to learn is going to be that much easier to learn. It’s just the way it is. Get some. You, if you have the time to get a job, look for any, uh, a sales job of any sort, so that you can showcase that you can handle rejection. And then, uh, what was the other thing I said?
38:43 – Todd Crowder (None)
and then, um, so yeah, the, the science classes, get the job where there’s sales involved and yeah, I mean, I think those two things, I think also if you’re not able to get a job, I think, in the multitude of clubs, whether fraternities, sororities, debate club, whatever, the if you don’t have the ability to do something of that nature because, whatever, maybe your town, maybe the town you’re in, like the town I was in, and delonica, georgia, which probably most people couldn’t find on a map if they needed to yeah doesn’t provide the ability to have a whole lot of sales unless you’re sitting inside a retail in small little areas.
39:21 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Sure Sure.
39:22 – Todd Crowder (None)
Then get yourself in a leadership position inside of an organization.
39:26 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yes, yes, even, even a club. Even a club. I don’t care what it is, I don’t care, it’s the hiking club.
39:32 – Todd Crowder (None)
Yeah, be able to show your abilities to move or maneuver and gather people to move in a common thought and thread. Yeah, yeah, not just be a part of the club but be a leadership role in that club, right and and I remember now the books, the books.
39:50 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Look, don’t sleep on the books. Read these books. Show that you do your own, you exercise your own initiative to get the education that might not be readily available to you. And sales is not. You know you can’t, you’re not going to, not every college has sales as a class to take. So read the books, study the books and be able to come to an interview opportunity, bragging that you study this stuff, which is going to definitely-.
40:12 – Todd Crowder (None)
It’s almost like a group people should get together with and try to talk to colleges about what medical sales could be like.
40:19 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Todd, Todd, you’re preaching. Now we’re trying, man.
40:23 – Todd Crowder (None)
I know we are, I’m kind of throwing it out there to everybody that’s listening to this thing, Everybody listening.
40:27 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
If you have ideas for?
40:29 – Todd Crowder (None)
We are now actively trying to work inside of colleges on local levels.
40:32 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yes, we are we get us out there. We believe that all colleges should have some kind of medical sales education, because this is just a growing industry that’s literally growing by the day and people need to learn about this. Students need to learn about this. So if anybody has ideas about this for college, please you know how to get a hold of us. Evarvisconsistcom. Go to the podcast page. You can submit ideas.
41:01 – Todd Crowder (None)
Please submit your ideas. Speaking of ideas, you and I kind of talked a little bit offline last time, right after we finished up, and we also want to have people. So Samuel and I have committed that there is no topic that is off limits, regardless of how uncomfortable it might make somebody feel or how we’ll tackle it with class and dignity. But we also want to hear from you guys, because we can talk about the things that interest us and that’s going to be fine and you might find some pearls and wisdom and, hey, I need to really go do this. But we also want to hear some of the things that you guys want to hear about as well. We want to understand, from having two senior individuals and been in this industry on different aspects of it, to be able to have you guys tell us a little bit. Hey, we’d like to hear this. I’ve seen this situation and it wasn’t sure. Can you guys mind discussing this? So we’d love to hear from you guys as well in that same area awesome, all right.
41:54
All righty, my sir.
41:56 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Until next time on the Unconverted 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 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.
