Embark on a journey into the heart-pounding, adrenaline-charged world of medical sales with your host, Samuel Adeyinka, and special guest, Chad Casey, VP of Sales at Zimmer Biomet. Chad is currently the Vice President of Sports Medicine, Extremities, Trauma, and ASC strategy for Zimmer Biomet Carolinas. He is a successful sales executive with over 23 years of experience.
Discover what it takes to make it in the high-stakes arenas of sports medicine, trauma, and orthopedics. In this episode, we navigate the challenges and triumphs within these specialties, shedding light on the evolving influence of Ambulatory Surgery Centers and Medicare on the sales landscape. As we dissect the demands of the job, from the urgency of trauma care to the precision of foot and ankle surgery, we uncover the strategies that enable sales professionals to excel in this dynamic field.
The path to success in medical device sales is not for the faint of heart, as we candidly discuss the grit and commitment required to forge a career in this industry. We confront the myth of easy success head-on, highlighting the steep personal and financial investments needed. This conversation delves into the complexities of proving one’s worth in a fiercely competitive environment and the increased expectations from today’s sales reps. By demystifying the sales process, we reveal how top performers use storytelling, build trust, and demonstrate the value of lifelong learning and mentorship.
Chad Casey shares his own remarkable career trajectory, from military service to his rise through the medical device sales ranks, embodying the virtues of resilience and adaptability. We discuss the delicate balance between professional ambitions and personal life, offering listeners valuable advice for maintaining that equilibrium. Whether you’re intrigued by the nuances of working for large versus small companies or seeking mentorship for your own career advancement, this episode is packed with insights from a seasoned expert who understands the transformative power of dedication and genuine connection in the healthcare sales industry.
Watch the episode here:
Or Listen to it on your favorite platform:
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!
Join the Medical Sales Podcast Community today:
Episode Transcript
00:02 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Hello and welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast, and I am your host, Samuel. In this podcast, I interview top medical sales reps and leading medical sales executives across the entire country, and it doesn’t matter what medical sales industry from medical device to pharmaceutical, to genetic testing to diagnostic lab, you name it you will learn how to either break into the industry, be a top 5% performer within your role in sales or climb the corporate ladder. Welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. Hello, welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. I’m your host, Samuel, and today we have with us another special guest, and he goes by the name of Chad Casey.
00:46
Now, Chad has a significant role. He is a VP of sales for Zimmer Biomet in their ortho division, and he manages many different fields, including sports medicine, extremities, trauma and ASC strategy. This is one of those episodes that, if you want to be in medical sales, you absolutely have to listen to. We get into what it means to be a medical sales representative the kind of person you need to be if you’re interested in being in the sales space. So you know we’ve talked about it before on the show where you have clinical specialists and associate sales reps and then there’s the sales reps, if you want to be a sales rep in this space.
01:27
you have to listen to this episode. The knowledge he provides, the insight is invaluable. As always, we do our best to bring you guests that are doing things differently in the medical sales space, so I really do hope you enjoy this interview and thank you for listening to the Medical Sales Podcast. Okay, hey, Chad, how are we doing today?
01:43 – Chad Casey (Guest)
I’m doing great Sam.
01:46 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Fantastic, fantastic. Why don’t you tell the audience who you are and what you do?
01:51 – Chad Casey (Guest)
So my name is Chad Casey. I am the Vice President of Sales for Zimmer Biomet in North Carolina and South Carolina. I oversee four of our divisions sports medicine, extremities, trauma, foot and ankle and also oversee our ambulatory surgery center STRAT for those two states.
02:17 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Wow, you couldn’t be a better person to talk to about everything we’re going to talk about today on the Medical Sales Podcast. Right off the bat, I want to get into the differences with all of the fields. You manage, if you could just indulge us. We have a lot of listeners that they have no idea what actually constitutes medical device sales. They have no idea what constitutes the different fields you just mentioned. Can you just give us a top-line overview on each field and maybe we’ll get into what it means to be in that field, what it does, and then, of course, something about the lifestyle. What kind of person really thrives in that kind of place?
02:54 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Yeah, so I’ll start out with sports medicine. Sports medicine was my foundational knowledge piece when I first got into this industry. I wouldn’t say that it is the backbone of orthopedics. I wouldn’t say that it is the backbone of orthopedics. I would say that trauma is probably the foundational backbone of orthopedics. But what I would tell you is is that sports medicine, if you’re an athlete, if you’re a weekend warrior, it kind of hits home.
03:19
We’ve all had some type of sports medicine industry or, excuse me, injury, and so what is interesting in our market is is that there’s a lot of surgeons that start out as sports medicine surgeons and then suddenly grow as they get older and as their patient population gets older they become total joint surgeons or they’re taking call and they’re also doing they’re becoming a trauma surgeon on call, and so now fast forward that into extremities, now that more than ever medicine has become somewhat subspecialized, and especially in the higher populated areas. And so now our fellowship programs, where surgeons will go for an additional year of extensive training, are now very specific, not just as broad as sports medicine.
04:08
They’re going and they’re becoming shoulder and elbow fellowship or wrist to elbow fellowships and so now these subspecialized surgeons are guys that do rotator cuffs repairs, labral instabilities, and those are considered sports medicine cases, but they also if you do a lot. The rule of thumb is is, if you do a lot of rotator cuff repairs, you’re going to do a lot of shoulder arthroplasties, because rotator cuffs fail at a very high rate even after they’ve been repaired. So now you look at trauma. Trauma can be different types of trauma. You have level one trauma, which is in the middle of the night, long hours as a rep. Or you can have extremity trauma, which is just the radius fractures, proximal humerus fractures, elbow fractures, and then if you look at foot and ankle, foot and ankle is probably one of the fastest growing orthopedic spaces in the industry, and so these are could either be DPMs or MDDOs, and it’s generally dealing with anything below the knee all the way to the toe.
05:16
All of those play a major role in the ambulatory surgery center because most of those types of procedures are now done in the outpatient setting. And what’s really happening is now is just recently. The last month we just got a new Medicare reimbursement code for the first time for shoulder arthroplasty, whether it’s reverse, hemi or anatomic or stemless. So now that’s even becoming even more prevalent in the ASC space. And I manage, try to manage all of that and manage a sales force of, you know, close to 60 to 60 to 80, depending on any given time during the during the year.
05:59 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So Wow, wow, a lot of people. So you know, I remember maybe two years ago we had an episode where we were talking about the explosion of ASCs. You know that was like during COVID and coming out of COVID, Like I said two years ago, where is the ASC? I mean, how significant is it a part of your business, of all, that you manage to be in ASCs and just being ever-present there to get business?
06:28 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Yeah, so the ASC is playing a certain role in our business because of the influx of cases that are moving to the ASCs being at Zimmer Biomed. And this is one of the blessing and the curses that we have at Zimmer Biomed is that we are pretty much the one company that allows our sales force to essentially sell all of our business segments across the board with the exception of spine and maybe cranial maxillofacial. That is a blessing and the reason I say that is that you could be in an ASC. You could be talking to a surgeon about converting a hip or a blessing, and the reason I say that is is that you could be in an ASC you could be talking to a surgeon about converting a hip or a knee and that is a very long conversional process and that conversation will run dry fairly quick.
07:15
But you might be able to grab that guy’s disarray business. You might be able to grab his his rotator cuff something that is easily more convertible than the total knee or the total hip and because of the industry as a whole embracing that ASC. And let me just also say this A lot of states now are doing away with what is called their CON their certificate of need Surgery centers are popping up all over the place.
07:46
Certificate of need Surgery centers are popping up all over the place, and so now these surgeons are looking at this and going look, if my reimbursement keeps getting dropped, why don’t I invest into a surgery center? I can take my profitable cases there and I can make up on that reimbursement side on this side, so there is a political game to be played there, though.
08:04
The political game is that they do need a referral source, and a lot of hospitals own the primary care physicians that will be referring to these sometimes private practice surgeons. So they try to do this equal balance, equal balance, and what we do is we just try to jump in and fit in wherever we can to help them be more efficient in both places, if that’s possible, and to give them strategic ways to efficient, be profitable and to hopefully one day where Zimmer Biomech can just be a sole vendor, if you will, in one of these ASCs. So I think every big company is trying to do that.
08:48 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Right, no, it makes sense. I mean it makes sense. Let’s dial it back a little bit. I want you to get into what you know. You’re in a specific area with an ortho and because you manage so many people, you’ve risen the ranks yourself. You’ve seen, you’ve been through and seen how people show up, how people perform, what success looks like, over and over and over again. With all that in mind, that context give us the what type of person should be looking to get into this space within medical device sales.
09:22 – Chad Casey (Guest)
It’s a great question device here. It’s a great question. I think one of the things is that sometimes when we interview people, we think home run and it’s a swing and a miss and I think one of the consistent if you look at everybody that’s been consistent in this. I think the one main trait that we see in people is a unquenchable thirst to want to work hard and be unbelievably successful. And let’s define what success is. I’ve said there are, every time I interview somebody, every time I speak at places, people ask me that same question.
10:02
And in our industry there are three types of individuals that get into this industry. And it’s clinical people that are very good clinically. They will jump behind the back table and surgeons love for them to be there because they feel like they can do no wrong. They’re type A people. They’ve got their back and to say that that will sell surges to want to use them over time yes, it will. Then there’s people that have the gift of gab. They can talk. They know how to talk people into certain things. They’re great salesmen. Maybe they’re not as good on the clinical side.
10:47 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Sure.
10:48 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Then there’s the unicorn that can do both. Samuel, you’re probably a unicorn.
10:53 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Hey, I’ll take it.
10:55 – Chad Casey (Guest)
I’m 100% a unicorn. I don’t have a problem saying that, because I’ve worked so hard to learn my craft. Yep and if it wasn’t for certain mentors of surgeons and things of that nature of leading me and teaching me over the years. I would have never been able to do this completely on my own.
11:15
But what I would say is is hard work, unbelievably unbelievable amount of dedication and a willingness to. When I look at a rep and I look at you and I go, I want you to look me dead in the eye. You have to do this. We are not working on cars, we are working on people, and the thing is is that if you are not in the first three years of your career, if you’re not willing to treat this like you’re in med school, don’t do it.
11:41 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Don’t get into this.
11:42 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Do not go down this path, because there is a level of expectation that you need in this that we can ill afford to have people just being just like B type people that are not type.
11:58 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
A humans, not automobiles, man, the way you put it out there. So let’s dive into this a little bit. So you’re saying that you know the person that demonstrates an unquestionable thirst that they’re going to do whatever it takes to get the results. But I’ll say that everybody says that. I mean everybody. Everybody says it oh man, give me a chance and I’m going to show you Everybody. Everybody says it oh man, give me a chance and I’m going to show you. So you know, let’s pretend we have people that listen to this right now and they’re saying to themselves I’m that person, I’m absolutely that person. So let’s make this less subjective. What objective things can you say that people listening right now can ask themselves? If I was in front of Chad right now and Chad identified me as a unicorn or somebody that can, even has a propensity to show up that way, what things should I be asking myself that can objectively say that, yes, that could be me?
13:03 – Chad Casey (Guest)
that, yes, that could be me. I think that they have to question their ability to understand the sacrifice. Getting into this. This is not pharmaceuticals, and there’s nothing against pharmaceuticals I mean pharmaceutical sales has a purpose but this level of intensity that this job has and look, man, I’ve been doing this 23 years and what I would tell you is is that the reps today that are hired have it far harder than I ever had. When I was a rep, I never had to worry about back committees, I never had to worry about, you know, vendor credentialing and I never had to worry about 70, sometimes 72 hours instrumentation delivery policies where you basically can’t bring instruments out of the hospital. They have to stay there.
13:49
It’s a part of our industry that the sacrifice is real and that sacrifice plays tolls on more parts of their life than they will ever know. I’m talking about personal, I’m talking about from a financial standpoint. There is a huge investment in this. When you immediately get into this industry, everybody thinks you’re going to make a ton of money. That’s not true at all, at all At all. Yeah at all. True at all At all, yeah at all. I mean, it’s a joke to think that you’re going to start out at six figures when you’ve done nothing, nothing to deserve that.
14:27
And I think that there is a bit of humble pie in listening and understanding people like yourself, people like me, other people that can give you reality. And reality is is that in 10 years, if you want to make 200, $250,000 a year, you have the ability to do that. There is no question you have that. But to understand that, um, that you think that you’re going to come out and you’re just going to make that because why you’ve graduated from college? No, that’s not going to come out and you’re just going to make that because why you’ve graduated from college? No, that’s not going to happen.
15:07
So, and you might be, you know, people might just be unbelievable at this, but there is it’s. You have to prove yourself. You just have to prove yourself. And look, I, Samuel, I will tell you this, matt I think that we as an organization and as an industry I would tell you that it used to be I think we have cheapened ourself on the individual that we bring into this industry. I wholeheartedly believe that because we just there’s a demand to put more feet in the street and it’s almost like we just accept the fact that maybe this person is OK, right, I mean they’re, they’re not, they don’t jump off the charts. But I believe that this is an elite fraternity that, once you get in and you’re successful, you should never, ever, have to want for another job ever. You’ve proven yourself in the hardest industry. I do believe this is the hardest industry. You, it will never leave your system and you make a name for yourself.
16:06 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You will always have people knock the van. Come on, Chad, come on, man, you’re preaching now, so let’s, let’s get into it. So. So I love what you said about you have to show up as this kind of person consistently, but I still want to. I still want to dive deeper into so. You’re someone that wants to be in medical device sales. You’re listening to this and you’re saying, yeah, I can show up that way. I’m a performer. This is high risk. I’m not going to make that much money. What type of person does get the rewards of the sexiness of medical sales? What type of person does make the half a the sexiness of medical sales? What type of person does make the half a million million dollars? And they are making that kind of money. Talk to us a little bit about what it really takes to be that kind of person.
16:49 – Chad Casey (Guest)
It takes the ability to hear no a lot, but the ability to never walk away after you hear no. And look there’s. I believe that this industry has a creative side to it. There is people that you know. You go back to the Dale Carnegie days where you’re trying to say the right thing at the right time and that’s not me. That might be somewhere else and it might be successful, but in my mind there is certain ways to go about things where you don’t have to hit a home run every single time. Sometimes you just need to bunt runners over. You need to hit a single to get to the next base. And I think that the people that have this creative mindset that can come up with creative ways of showing their product, demoing their product, talking about the product the surgeon doesn’t even know that they’re being talked to about, they’re being pitched. Those are the people that. And look, let’s think about this, sam, when you go out, you pull into a car lot, you get out and you’re looking for a new car.
17:56
The first thing you get out, what happens? What happens when you’re at a car lot? You get out, you’re looking. 30 seconds later, salesperson comes walking out. Your first reaction is to. There’s this psychological. You just tighten up.
18:14 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Here he comes. What’s he going to try and say? Tell me now Exactly.
18:18 – Chad Casey (Guest)
That’s right. And so all of a sudden, you’re like, oh, and you know what, what? That’s what happens every time we walk into an. Or if we’re always, always selling, you can always be selling, but if you’re doing it in a certain way where it doesn’t look like you’re selling, then you you never get that. People don’t get that feeling when you go to walk in, and I think the people that do that are so successful at this. That is an entity that they have, that they’re it’s very creative way of selling.
18:50
And, look, we are really good storytellers. I truly believe that I was at a lab today and I was with a surgeon and one of the things that we were doing shoulder arthroplasty, and I was standing there and we were just talking about kind of the history of shoulder arthroplasty. We designed something a certain way, and what led us down that path and what was so good about it was is that you just have bought in from the moment we started going down that pathway, because every surgeon in the back of their mind thinks that they should be an engineer, that they should design all these, and they love to hear when something goes from A to Z. They love it, they want to know, and when you start telling that story, you draw them in. And so the people that are successful have a great work ethic. They have this uncanny ability to tell that story. But then the one thing that everybody has to have is, at some point you have to turn and go. Dr Samuel, do five cases with me. Give me five cases with me. Give me five cases.
20:00
Did I do well, I’ll walk away, that is the people that make a ton of money and it’s the other thing that they do that makes a ton of money is they don’t jump from company to company. They stick it out. They become a hallmark, they become the mayor of those hospitals and those accounts and they’re known as that rep for that company. That’s been there 20 years and people just can trust them and that’s that’s who is successful.
20:28 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Wow, hey, you know, spoken like a true champion, OK, OK. So so, on that note, what do you think is going on? You know, we kicked off this part of the conversation with you feel like the industry has disappointed you a little bit in how they’re just kind of hiring okay as opposed to hiring people that truly want to be there and make an impact. We’ve seen the same thing. You know, one thing that we see on the training side of things is because they’re hiring a lot of okay, they’re also hiring a lot of unprepared and I have no idea what I’m doing. And you’ve hired me, you’ve thrown me to the field and I still have no idea what I’m doing. And they’re scrambling for help and thank God, you know we can offer some. What do you think is? How do you think that’s going to play out? I guess what I’m asking is where’s the future of all this going, and and and what are companies like like Zimmer, Biomet and Nuke doing about it?
21:23 – Chad Casey (Guest)
well, the one thing that I would tell you it’s funny that you’re talking about the future and the future is is that the reason I’m I’m so passionate about putting the right reps into this market is because society in the hospital setting wants to go replets In the back of their mind. They’ve been made to believe that if they can save 10, 15 more percent on implant costs by going to a replets model, they would do that. It’s been tried, it’s been, they’ve tried to perform that and it’s failed miserably. But at some point, if they swing enough, will it ever end up becoming that. And my goal and I’m sure your goal is too with the program that you started is to put the right people into the positions, because the future of our industry depends on us being great. I love it and look, I need for my competitors to be good too.
22:23
We need to be good, because if the day that they start going reckless is the day that there’s a side of our industry, that loses a lot of jobs, and that’s one of the things that we can’t, we can ill afford to do, right.
22:36 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You know, I remember when I, you know like you, you know I got into the game gosh, I won’t date myself, but many, many eons ago, Chad and they were talking. You know, I remember my first date, my first year in the job, in my, in my young twenties, and they were talking about how the future of medical sales is going to be a reckless model. They’re never going to happen. We’re all going away. It’s all going away. It’s funny to see that there’s only been growth since then. But to your point, you’re saying that we’re now at the time where it actually might start happening and they’re going to start going back on having as many reps. And the way we fight that is to make sure the best reps are out there doing the thing so that their value is never lost. Is that what I’m hearing?
23:17 – Chad Casey (Guest)
A hundred percent. And look, I mean I I think I find it interesting that when we look at some of the more tenure reps that we’ve had in this industry I mean, 10 years ago I used to know probably 10 reps that made, you know, three quarters of a million dollars to a million dollars a year. In some of this in every single year, those people, those 10 people I know, are still in this industry and they have lost money Every single year. They’ve made less, less, less and less. And so, because of Medicare reimbursement and ASP average selling price being dropped every single year, because Medicare really dictates that to a certain point, you know, my question is is why do these people still stay in this industry? Because if you were a business owner and you were losing money every single year, the question is, why would you keep doing it? Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great living what they’re doing.
24:15
And look, there’s three things that really incentivize sales reps in this industry. And look, I’ll ask you this. I mean there’s really I ask this every single time people that have heard me in my interviews. I ask them look, what incentive like if I were to tell you it’s usually three people or three types. It’s usually financial incentivation, right, it’s used. It’s probably, I would say, awards recognition.
24:44 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Right, absolutely.
24:46 – Chad Casey (Guest)
But here’s the big one. I think it’s intellectual stimulation, right. And so when I, if you were to ask me that 21 years ago, what is it for you 21 years ago, what is it for you? I would have told you that it would have been awards. Recognition would have been my number one, financial. And the reason I put awards first is I kind of figured that if I was winning a lot of awards, the financial part would be there.
25:11
Right. The intellectual stimulation would have been last Fast forward now If you were to ask me that today it is 100 percent. Um, you know, I I crave orthopedics.
25:25
The intellectual stimulation is such a huge thing for me and I think the people that have lost money every single year, even though they’re making a great living, the reason they do it is because it’s the greatest job ever and and look, we’ve kind of talked about this I think there is something so intoxicating about this job that the fact that at some point even me now in leadership, if I get a chance to go back into the OR and some of our reps go in every single day and at some point a unbelievably highly educated person is going to turn to somebody that is way less educated and look at them and go I need your help.
26:06
I’m in trouble a day and not being able to go to a job where it’s that important and for me, again, it comes down to this is one of two things I’ve only knew in my life. On learning how to do. I mean, I feel like I don’t know what I would want to do other than this, because I just don’t think anything is going to intellectually stimulate me or excite me like this, this career.
26:41 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Chad. That was awesome, man, Okay. So now, now we got to go back to see how you got to the position you are today. So let’s, let’s go back to college and I want to know. You graduated and now the world’s at your fingertips. What did you? What did you jump to go into?
26:58 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Well, look, I mean, I came out of high school I was never a great high school student, matter of fact, I didn’t, really I wasn’t a great college student and and, and you know, I struggled. I struggled because I really couldn’t find anything that really, you know, intrigued me or interest me. So now I get, I leave college and, and you know my, my dad tells me he’s like you, you got to do something like what are you going to do? And so I, I, you know I’d always wanted to go um into the Marine Corps, and so, uh, I had a, uh, my biological father had done three tours in Nam, and so I was kind of really drawn to the, to the, to the military side of things.
27:38 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Sure.
27:38 – Chad Casey (Guest)
I go to the military and everything changes for me at that point. Wow, the discipline and how hard things in the Marine Corps were made everything seem so much easier for me. So I get out of the Marine Corps, I come back out and I try to get into med device sales.
27:57 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
How, long were you in the Marine Corps? I come back out and I try to get into med device sales. How long were you in the Marine Corps?
28:00 – Chad Casey (Guest)
So you know, four years, but really six. I mean, you really aid, because you have to do inactive reserves for four extra years. And so you kind of you get out. And oh, by the way, while I was in college, the one thing that I found that was very intriguing to me is I found this, like this love for some type of medicine. I didn’t know what it was so like on the weekends and I started taking like an EMT course, just to take something in medicine, and I fell in love with. You know, it was just I was never going to work as an EMT, I just thought it would be cool to know that when I got in the Marine Corps, that that actually became helpful, you know, knowing those types of things. And so now I get out and I, I, I immediately come out and I look at a buddy of mine who had gone to nursing school and had become, you know, a, a first assistant.
28:55
He was working for Depew, and I said, dude, that’s what I want to do. And he goes man, put out your resume. You know, I’m sure with your, with your background and everything, you’ll get hits. And I said to myself, okay, um, I did it. I got literally no engagement whatsoever.
29:13
And so my buddy says go to nursing school and you know, cause that’s what all that’s that’s know, because that’s what all Marines do, right? They?
29:22
learn how to kill a bunch of people and then they turn around and they go hey, let’s go to nursing school. So you turn around and you go, I go to nursing school and I come out and I immediately wanted to go to the OR. I had no desire to want to go to the floor. I didn’t want to do ER. My wife’s an ER nurse and she’s unbelievably gifted and talented at that. I just wanted to learn the OR and so I did that. I ended up taking a travel assignment one of my very first jobs out of nursing school. I ended up in Boston. That’s where I met my wife and there’s a whole nother story you and I can talk offline about that and so I then worked as Pennsylvania. I just kind of threw out a resume Immediately. Three job offers came right across.
30:22
And at that time, companies were really looking for clinically based people, because that’s a part that we don’t from a medical terminology and the OR setting that’s something. That it takes them less time to teach people.
30:36
that that’s something that it takes them less time to teach people that Sure. And so I got gobbled up immediately. So now fast forward. I go to work. I take this I go to work for a distributorship. My first job. They were a Biomet distributor, but they also back. This was back in the days when Biomet didn’t really have trauma, so they also had Acumed and some other small extremity companies, so I had a very diversified product line. At my fifth or sixth year with that, one of the guys wanted to actually get out of the business so I actually bought his half of the distributorship. I became a distributor at that point.
31:13 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So you were a distributor early on in your career.
31:16 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Yeah, so I yeah, I mean I got the ability. And look, he was one of my mentors. A guy named Fred Zulo offered me the ability to be his business partner. I signed on with him. I bought the other guy’s shares out. Fast forward, four years later, my wife and I are making the decision to move down to Georgia, where I originally grew up. And my, my my business partner says what are you going to do? And I said I’ll, you know, I’ll look for another job. This is a decision that we’re going to make. And then and Rob Delp, who eventually became the president of Zimmer Bombing, at one point offered me the job to be the director of sales for Sportsman’s.
31:58
Tribes and so I took that on and then fast forward through a lot of reorg and transition when the merger happened. I get to this point where I leave Zimmer Bauman for the first time in 18 years. A company that I had bled died for it seems like I had my whole being and it was everything it took for me to leave and go to a smaller company called Medacta and I was an area vice president for the East Coast for all of their divisions. And then, about two and a half years later, Zimmerbaum came calling and made me an offer to come back. So I made that transition An offer you could not refuse.
32:39
It was more about the people that I work with. I mean honestly the guy that I work with was amazing and he’s the GM in this area and he and I were counterparts in one of our endeavors with Xenobioman up in the Northeast, and so I came back to work with him.
32:58 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That’s beautiful. You know so many things we can get into, but I want to understand the difference that you experienced from 18 years with a large company and then a few years with a much smaller organization. Talk to us about what that was like. You know, I know, there’s pros and cons to both, but what were the pros and cons that were most significant for you? Like you know, I know there’s pros and cons to both.
33:19 – Chad Casey (Guest)
But what were the pros and cons that were most significant for you? Yeah, so pros on, the bigger company is is that you have a lot of people able to. You can delegate a lot of things to get things accomplished. So from a leadership standpoint, I could pick up the phone and have a. You know, if I needed a spreadsheet, done, boom, it was done. Right, I mean, if I had a lot of resources.
33:40 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Sure.
33:41 – Chad Casey (Guest)
You also have the largest bag in orthopedics, so you didn’t ever have to want for a product. You just you had a platform. Sure, the I would say the the the negatives about a big company is just typical big company negatives and the fact that a lot of red tape bogs down progress and a lot of things. But the bureaucracy is there and it’s in every big company, right. And so then you have the smaller company. They’re quick, they’re very nimble, but you lose the ability to have a lot of resources. You end up having to do a lot of those things yourself and you don’t have as many products.
34:27
But as long as you have a message and you have a purpose and it’s not a commodity type product, the company can be really, really good. If you’re a young rep and you’re looking at this and you get the opportunity to get into this industry, you have to be very and it’s kind of a catch-22 because you don’t really know enough about the industry to know what is good and what is bad, and some people end up just taking jobs because they want to get in the industry and they end up spinning their wheels with a company that really doesn’t have anything that can engage people’s interest, and so I would tell you that you know if you’re somebody getting into this, do your homework, ask people before you just don’t make a quick judgment call on a job. So. But again, small companies have advantages, big companies have advantages. One is no better than the other, it’s just what are. What is your personality match better with?
35:26 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Well said, well said. Let’s talk a little bit about your, your personal dynamic. You know you’ve had an amazing career. You’ve done a lot of amazing things. How do you make it all work? Career You’ve done a lot of amazing things. How do you make it all work? You know, do you have a family? Do you have this strict, militant routine that you follow from your military days? Talk to us a little bit about how you make it all work and how you be as successful as you are today.
35:47 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Yeah, so my day is 4.30, wake-up call every morning, that is something, and I don’t even really have to have an alarm. My just body goes off at that point. It used to be, I would be at the gym at 5 o’clock. Now that I’ve gotten older, my gym goes from like really. Now I’m there at like 5.45. It takes me a little longer to wake up, you’re slacking Chad.
36:09 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I know, I know.
36:10 – Chad Casey (Guest)
I know it’s important to me for that, not only from the routine standpoint, but to feel better, look better. Your mind is more clear After I finish my workout. I’m dressed, I’m at the office. I’m not the stereotypical management type that likes to stand behind a desk or sit behind a desk. I like being in the field. My first love and my passion is the OR. So if I can even remotely grace the OR, I will do it.
36:45
I don’t want that’s a skill set that I think when you’re having conversations with high volume surgeons and key opinion leaders, if you lose that knowledge base, I think it’s not a good thing, even at an executive or a leadership level. Sure, they want to speak to you and you should want to speak to them on their level and about things that they are passionate about. Most surgeons are very good at being surgeons. On the financial side, surgeons are becoming better business guys because they have to. So being able to speak on both of those levels is something that I think makes leaders good and, to be quite honest, if you’re leading people, it’s very hard to ask people to do certain things when you’re not willing to do it yourself, and that’s a military thing. I’ll run through a wall for our guys. If I need to take trauma, call for our guys and I will do it just because they work their you-know-what’s off and sometimes you need to give them a little bit of a break. So my days, a lot of it consists of, you know, especially with bigger companies, I sit on a lot of design committees, a lot of strategic committees as it relates to those business segments that we talked about earlier. More and more frequently I’m sitting on calls on the financial side to approve and try to convince Zimmer Baume to give us certain levels of average selling price of products that are going into surgical centers at discounted rates. So there’s an administrative side that is definitely part of my day to day.
38:27
And then, ultimately, the most important thing is and I’m very passionate about this you know, my wife and I were separated for two years. I, at one point in my career, I was so obsessed with this that I forgot that. I, you know, I had a wife at home and I had a family and I got to the point where I almost felt like I was, we were just roommates. And, you know, going through a really long separation like that and praise Lord that we, you know we were able to put our marriage back together, but my wife is unbelievable with her being an ER nurse. She kind of gets this whole, you know, rat race that we’re in. But what I would tell you is is that and I tell reps this all the time is is that you can make all the money in the world. If you don’t have anybody to spend it with, it doesn’t really matter.
39:18
So, you know, stay. You know. Your number one is to you know, spend time with them, provide for them, but share that, share what you are doing on the other side and make it a part of their day. Ask them how, what their day is like, and just know that you know they appreciate how much you’re working. But I can promise you at the end of your life, when you’re sitting there, people are not going to ask how much money you’re going to make. It’s going to be your kids are going to ask how much time how much?
39:45
time did you spend with your wife? How much time did you spend with your kids? So I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m really a big believer in that. Now.
39:52 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I love that chat. I love that. How many, how many children do we have here?
40:02 – Chad Casey (Guest)
I have two. I have a? Uh, I have a 22 year old son and I have a 20 year old daughter. Um, both great, great young adults. Uh, my son is a senior at Widener university in Philly. He plays college football. He’s a running back. My daughter is an unbelievably gifted dancer. She actually at one point had gotten accepted to Juilliard for their summer intensive, so she is incredibly talented.
40:28
So she is at Millersville University, which is based in Lancaster, pennsylvania. I actually have a house there too. Um, so I live in Charlotte during the week. Um, I’m moving to Charlotte permanently very, very soon. Um, but two, two great kids man.
40:44 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And a great wife Are they? Are they following in father’s footsteps or mom’s footsteps?
40:51 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Or are they like?
40:51 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
medicine.
40:53 – Chad Casey (Guest)
So my son is was. He is a criminal justice major, psych minor, criminal justice masters program and at one point he was trying, he had thought about going to law school, he wanted to get into the FBI and and he basically came up to me and said to me he goes, dad, what if? What if I wanted to do what you wanted to do? And, uh, he’s a good looking kid, he’s got super outgoing personality. Um, and and Sam, you’ll get a great kick out of this.
41:24
When he was, when he was in high school, I said to him he wasn’t, he was like me, he was. You know, he wasn’t a great high school student. And I said to him he wasn’t, he was like me, he was. You know, he wasn’t a great high school student. And I said to him bryce, do you know, if you would just pick up a book, you would be a 4-0 student because of your memory, how well you were. You know, you remember things. And he’s like dad. Dad, I have something that my peers don’t have. And I said what and what? And he goes I have a personality, I can talk to people, and I looked at him and he goes what would you rather have? Would you rather have a 2.8 kid with a great personality. Would you want a 4.0 kid with no personality? I was like last time I checked. If you picked up a book and studied doesn’t mean that your grade point average is going to drop and your personality is going to drop. It means the other thing you can keep your personality and be great.
42:17 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So yeah.
42:19 – Chad Casey (Guest)
I will not help him. I will not like walk him to the promised land. I will make connections for him, but he is going to earn it. I was raised by my stepfather, who is. I consider my father and my mother were tireless workers. I mean, they worked endless, and just two of the hardest working people I know, and one of the things that hopefully my wife and I have instilled into our kids is the same thing is to work. And so, yeah, it’s very, very important that whatever our kids do, they earn it on their own.
42:58 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That is awesome. I love hearing that. You know if there was an overarching message, especially in the vein of what you just shared, an overarching measure. You share our audience, where you know again, we have people that want to get into the industry listening. We have people that are in the industry listening, and we have professionals like yourself that are leading the industry listening. What would you want to share with everyone that you just they have to know this what would you want to share?
43:36 – Chad Casey (Guest)
share with people is is that, um, get into this industry because you have found something that you are truly passionate about, and I think that that goes with anything. I would tell you that, if, being honest with yourself, knowing if you, you might think and? And look, Samuel, we, we talked about this People can sit in front of us in interviews and they can tell us exactly what we want to hear, exactly.
43:56
And I have to look and I have to trust what people are trying to tell me, and they might have even made themselves believe that they can do this. Sure, but it it’s not for everybody. And and and look, it’s sometimes you, if you, if you’re a young, you’re fresh out of college, or maybe you’re in your senior year and you get the opportunity to do internships and you can ride along and you can see what people go through. Even a small glimpse of what we go through it might help you figure out is this and look, there’s. There’s no harm in saying I think you know software sales is better for me, pharmaceutical sales is better for me.
44:41 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Or even look, I mean like a clinical specialist or something like that, a different field still medical device, but it’s a much different approach than what you’re doing every day with your teams.
44:51 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Yeah, and look, I think you bring up a great point. There’s some people that think that they can get into this, and and even they are on the clinical side, like I was, and they say I would really like to do that. I don’t necessarily want to sell, right? Well, there’s positions for that. I mean, we have we’re called coverage reps and but they’re capped in what they can make. Right, they’re not the, they’re not the rainmakers, they’re not the people out there that’s driving top line revenue, and so that takes a special person and there’s.
45:23
But again, I mean, it all comes down to whatever you decide you’re going to do. If you’re not super passionate about that, you’re never going to be great at it. You’re just not. And I just, I wholeheartedly believe that to the core of my soul. I believe that you have to have passion and so find something that you love to do, do it great, and if you have the ability to get into this industry, it’ll be the most rewarding job that you ever have. And I highly doubt if you can stay in this at least three years, the likelihood that you will spend a career in this goes up exponentially.
46:06 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
From the words from the mouth of Chad Casey. You heard it here first.
46:11 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Ok, on that note, on that note we’re going to wrap this up.
46:12 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
We’re going to have a lightning round From the mouth of Chad Casey. You heard it here first. Yeah, man, on that note, we’re going to wrap this up. We’re going to have a lightning round. This was fantastic, Chad. I think you really shared some truly enlightening, insightful information to everybody listening. But this lightning round, this is a whole new thing now we’re doing here, Chad, and you have less than 10 seconds to answer four questions. Are you ready.
46:32 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Not really, but go ahead.
46:34 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
All right, all right. First question what’s the best book you’ve read in the last six months?
46:43 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Let’s see Last book I’ve read. So I’m not a big reader in books. The best book I’ve read is probably the Journal of Sports Medicine, the American Journal of Sports Medicine. I read endless amounts of articles on sports med, injuries and even shoulder arthroplasty, and I’m really starting to dive deep into knee arthroplasty. Kinematic alignment versus mechanic alignment.
47:14 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So that’s what I read the majority. So everyone, you heard that you know what you need to be reading if you want to get to these levels that Chad doesn’t take. All right, all right, what’s the best TV show or movie you’ve seen in the last six months?
47:25 – Chad Casey (Guest)
So my best TV show is, without a doubt, Homeland. I was obsessed with.
47:32 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Homeland have you ever watched it. I’ve seen previews. I’ve never actually seen the show.
47:37 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Yeah, it’s great. Another TV show is for some reason, I’m totally hooked on Blue Bloods as well.
47:46 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I don’t even know what that is. What’s Blue Bloods?
47:49 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Blue Bloods is Tom Selleck, it’s Danny selleck, it’s danny walberg. It’s a family in new york city that is the, the uh. Tom selleck is the dad. He’s the police commissioner of new york city police department and everybody in his family is either in the police department or, like his daughter, is a an assistant district attorney.
48:10 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Oh wow, great show. I like it All right. Best meal you’ve had the last six months. We want the restaurant, the item and where it is.
48:20 – Chad Casey (Guest)
So, not even a doubt, the best if you are ever in Miami and South Beach. All right, poppy’s Steakhouse, poppy’s Steakhouse. What do we order? Poppy’s, and I would tell you to go YouTube that right, pop poppies steakhouse poppy steakhouse, because what do we order?
48:31
poppies and I would tell you to go youtube, that youtube, connor mcgregor poppy steakhouse. Okay, so they, they bring out a steak that is 110 ounces in a, um, a suitcase or a briefcase, and it’s lit up and it is. It’s it’s Wagyu beef and it’s $1,100 for 110 ounces and it is unbelievable.
49:01 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
It is crazy Now.
49:03 – Chad Casey (Guest)
if you go there, you have to go early and you will 100%. If you are there, you will see JLo alex rodriguez, conor mcgregor, like celebrities.
49:16 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Celebrities go to this hanging out wow.
49:19 – Chad Casey (Guest)
And so when you say early, you can’t make reservations, then you, you can, you can make reservations and, um, like, our reservation was literally the first reservation. That’s the only thing they had open, because that place doesn’t really start kicking off until about 1130 at night. So we got one at like, set like seven o’clock at night, sure, and within five minutes it was completely full. Wow, but it is hands down. It’s expensive, I mean it’s it’s pricey, but it is well worth it.
49:48 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That is awesome, that is awesome.
50:00 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Last question what is the best experience you’ve had in the last six months dancing professionally? She’s a professional dancer now and so being able to to see that. But also, I tell you, the other experience that I had just recently, um, and I’m super proud of her is my. My wife was a stay at home mom. She gave up her career, um, when our kids were probably nine, about eight, nine, 10. Um, and she was my wife speaks, speaks, you know three different languages. She’s unbelievably high, super high intellect, one of the smartest people I know.
50:39 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Sure.
50:40 – Chad Casey (Guest)
And so she let her nursing license expire, because she had been a stay at home mom, and recently she went back to get her nursing license and and she had to take her NCLEX and she passed it with flying colors. But to see the joy on her face of knowing that, now that our kids are out, that she’s actually going to be able to go back to her career.
51:03 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
It’s super cool man. That’s amazing man. Chad, this is fantastic. So glad you’re on the show today. Thank you for everything. I do have one more question for you. What I love about our whole time today is you’re clearly a person of intention and, and, and I think that living an intentional life is going to take you to the furthest of whatever you can achieve in your life. With that being said, what’s on the horizon next for you? You know what’s your next big ambition.
51:32 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Yeah, I mean, giving back is a big thing for me. You know, mentoring people, obviously, my career trying to continue to be successful. I’m, you know, in my early 50s now and usually when you get to this part of your career, there’s some people that really want to walk the corporate ladder. And you know, and I did that and not to say it didn’t make me happy, but you know I would make a great living and really kind of. You know I’m big on.
52:05
I guess I’ve got more of my father in me than I thought, like my dad and my mom both stayed with the same company for like 30 plus 40 years, sure, and like I love Zimmer Baumeck and and I, I, I definitely want to retire with Zimmer Baumeck, sure, and just being able to kind of I don’t know man, I mean the the thing is is like our GM really likes to make changes in people’s lives directly and he has all the talent in the world to become literally the CEO of Zimmer Bombard if he wanted to.
52:40
He’s a savant with spreadsheets and numbers and things of that nature and when you ask him, you know, why don’t you want to walk the corporate ladder at a higher level? And he says you know, I can make changes and I can make decisions that will impact people in a more direct level. When I’m at this level and I think that’s probably very true on my side too is that you get to see people succeed, and when you get to a certain level, that gets diluted and it gets washed down, so you don’t get to see that. And so to me is is just we we have goals here at in the Carolinas that we want to be within the next two years. We want to be at a hundred million in revenue. I think we’re going to eclipse that easily and and and really to kind of take this to something that we’ve never seen in these two States maybe 200 million. So it would be nice.
53:36 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Hey, that’s a worthy ambition, Chad, it was awesome having you on the show today. We can’t wait to see the amazing things you’re going to go out there and continue to do. And thank you again for being on the Medical Sales Podcast.
53:46 – Chad Casey (Guest)
Thanks guys, I appreciate you having me.
53:49 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And that was Chad Casey. You see what I’m saying. That was invaluable information. I mean so many gems he just dropped and actionable things that you, listening, can take action with today, even, and, if not today, tomorrow.
54:05
First thing this is why it’s so important to hear from professionals like this that have reached leadership. They’ve seen enough that their insights are profound and can help you, whether you’re trying to get into the industry or trying to navigate within it. Help you succeed to a higher level. You already know what I’m going to say.
54:25
If you want to be Chad Casey one day, maybe you have dreams of being a VP in a medical technology company, and you’ve heard some of these stories and you’re asking yourself you know I want to do this or I want to put myself on a career track to be this. What do I need to do to get there? Well, you already know what I’m going to say Make sure you visit evolveyoursuccesscom, select the application, fill out that application, submit it and have a discussion with one of our account executives and let’s put you in a position to get you exactly where you want to go. As always, we do our best to bring you guests who are doing things different in the medical sales space. So make sure you tune in next week for another episode of 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.
