Unlock the secrets of thriving in the competitive world of medical sales with Eddie Cortez of Integra Life Sciences’ Neurosurgery West Division. Join us as Eddy, with his 14 years of experience, shares the journey from the front lines in the operating room to leading a sales team, providing a rare glimpse into the dynamic space of neurosurgical product sales. Learn about the delicate balance of spending time in the OR versus the ICU, and get a behind-the-scenes look at the sales strategies for both capital and disposable products in this high-stakes field.
Experience the adrenaline-fueled environment of medical sales where the relentless pursuit of goals and the resilience to bounce from one quarter to the next are not just desired but required. In our latest episode, we discuss the crucial qualities that define top performers and how overconfidence can be your downfall in an industry that prizes adaptability and continuous learning. Eddy and I also delve into the personal growth that accompanies professional advancement, sharing stories that range from MMA fighting to balancing a demanding career with a vibrant family life.
The power of diversity in transforming teams takes center stage as Eddy and I highlight the importance of cultural, racial, gender, and generational differences in driving performance and innovation. We wrap up with a call to action for all aspiring medical sales professionals looking to make their mark and remind our listeners that embracing diversity isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s a strategic imperative. Tune in to gain a mentor through your speakers and take the next step towards a flourishing career in the fascinating realm of medical sales.
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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 and 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 Eddie Cortez. So what makes Eddie special?
00:50
Well, Eddie is actually a director of sales for Integra Life Sciences in their neurosurgery division, and this is a fantastic episode because he rose the ranks in that company. He started as an individual contributor, got himself all the way to director of sales, so he’s really seen it all, and this is a span of 14 years. So he knows what it takes to be the best individual contributor, he knows what it takes to be the best sales manager, he knows what it takes to be the best director of sales and he knows what it takes to lead people in all different levels. So this is an episode that I absolutely want you to listen to, especially if you want to be someone in leadership yourself or you’re wondering what actually happens in a neurosurgery division for a company like Integral Life Sciences. As always, we do our best to bring you guests that are doing things differently than medical cells face, so I really do hope you enjoy.
01:41
Hey Eddie, how are we doing today? Good, good. How about you, Samuel? No complaints, no complaints. Why don’t you tell the audience who you are and what you do?
01:49 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
Yeah, I’m Eddie Cortez. I’m the Director of Sales for the West for Integra Life Sciences, the Codman Neurosurgery Division. A handful of regional sales managers that have eight to 10 reps working for them. That everything west of Chicago down through Texas, all the way down to the coast. We focus on the neurosurgical space both at the ICU level but mostly at the OR level.
02:21 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, okay. So we got a lot of people listening right now that have heard of neurosurgery and they’ve heard of neuroscience but they have no idea what type of products are being sold in those spaces. Tell us a little bit about when you say you’re in the neurosurgery division. What exactly is, what exactly are you guys treating? A disease, state, a condition? What type?
02:38 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
of device. Yeah, look. So it’s an amazing opportunity, right? Because you’re working with some of the most genius customers on the planet every day. Think of a problem that you can have neurosurgically and then someone sells a solution for it quite frankly. So you know, whether it be something like epilepsy or Parkinson’s, there’s a lot of products that go out to those. Those aren’t particularly the Integra products or my products, but they are products that serve those patients.
03:09
Integra focuses largely, at least in our neurosurgery or Codman division. We focus on a few things. We focus on closing the head, so that means after surgery you need a watertight closure or spinal fluid tight closure. You need a watertight closure or spinal fluid tight closure and we sell collagen-based products and other sealants that allow you to have that closure and have the confidence that the patient will be safe, even if they get up or if the surgery is in a weird place where there may be high pressure when they change positions.
03:40
We also focus a lot on removal of tumor. It’s obviously a critical space where there’s a lot of really important structures in there. So anything that takes a tumor out has to take it out very gently and really can’t disrupt the surrounding tissue. So we focus a lot on those types of products. And then the last thing I say that we focus heavily on is moving fluid, and that’s through shunting and those types of products where you’re taking fluid from the brain and put it in the perineal cavity to work through hydrocephalus for a handful of reasons. More recently, excitingly, integra is actually getting into the minimally invasive aerospace and that’s been really really exciting to start to see through their rebound product.
04:19 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So that’s pretty neat, that is exciting, so talk to us a little bit about that then. What does a day in the life look like for someone in this space? Think of a relatively new rep. They’re new to this space. They’re getting up, usually at what time? And they’re heading off to go and do what.
04:35 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
Yeah, first case probably starts at 730. So I don’t know where they live or where their first case is, but the first case is probably going to kick off around 730. You know, we always hope that you’re in the OR as much as possible. 60, 70, 80% of your time is in the OR In between cases. We’re hoping you’re spending your time supporting your ICU nurses, supporting the drains and the other products that you have up there that can make sure that those nurses feel supported and are reporting to the surgeons that you’re doing a great job and that they like having your products in the building because they know that they have someone that they can count on when they need help.
05:12
So you know it’s trying to balance between those two. I would say that the Integra reps are a little unique in the fact that they have a combination of capital and disposables that’s maybe a little heavier than most. So we have some really, really, really, really good traditional salespeople that are really PO-based bring in the purchase order, work it through the entire building all the way up to the CFO of some hospitals or out through other GPOs or their IDNs and the bigger part of bigger cap, part of the accounts to get it to come back and get it on a forecasted timeline. Our reps are incredible that way. They can do that and it’s it’s, it’s. It’s really impressive. So when they’re not in the OR, they’re often trying to figure out how they’re going to move the deal along one way or another so that they can get kind of get to where they need to get every quarter and every year. So they can kind of get to where they need to get every quarter and every year right, I love it.
06:04 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I love it. And how is the team typically set up? Is it very autonomous and a sales rep has kind of got their territory, they’re on their own and you know, check in as often as you can. Or is it they’re often working with an associate sales rep and a clinical specialist and a product technician? How is it?
06:21 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
normally set up. Well, first of all, like I like to think that I have some, I feel pretty confident. I have some of the best managers in the business, right, right. So I don’t think, even if they didn’t have the amazing nurses and, trust me, we have amazing ICU nurses, we have the best capital specialist you could ever imagine, a dental gentleman by name of john, who he can help, he helps work through. Okay. Well, I understand this is how the hospital typically buys things.
06:52
How can, how can we change it? I would really like to see if we can get this in earlier. What can we do here? Or, you know, we have this objection. How can we work around it? And he does a lot of those things. So, even if it wasn’t for those, those amazing resources that each of these reps have, not to mention their minimally invasive specialists and their hydro specialists always make sure they have a resource and someone that they can bring out. They’ll get on a plate for them in a minute. They also have a manager that I I’m pretty proud of and I can say that. I can say I don’t think I have a manager on my team that I I wouldn’t work for, and I mean that wholeheartedly. I couldn’t always say that in my career, but I think I can say that very confidently now. I have a team of people that make their team feel supported. They make their team feel like they got someone out there that’s in the fight with them every single day, but the players that constitute a team are who?
07:45
Players that constitute a team is who Players that constitute a team is. At the end of the day, look, sales is an individual sport. You have your resources. You got a nurse that can go into your OR with you. You got a capital specialist that can help you with your deal. You have other resources, yeah, and you got a great manager who’s going to help you.
08:01
But, at the end of the day, what is sales? You got a territory. This isn’t a pod. You may or may not have been blessed with an associate rep if you’ve done a really good job and shown a propensity to grow and want to bring someone along More importantly than how you do just in your territory. But if you’ve shown that you want to teach somebody and you want to educate, you want to help, then maybe you get an associate rep right and that will be included in your team. But, look, I don’t think that that associate rep I mean. As they get further and further along, they definitely do help a lot, but a lot of times they’re more work than they’re worth as far as from a financial side.
08:40
From a financial side. I mean what you’re doing it for is for the fulfillment of being able to help somebody’s career and make someone better and see the growth and learn from teaching right.
08:50 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That’s where, for the first, Would you say that it’s safe to say, as far as people on your team are concerned, if they want an associate sales rep because they want to be a manager?
09:01 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
The answer to that is no on the front end.
09:04 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, okay.
09:05 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
All right, but here’s what I’ll tell you is. I’ll give you a story. I, I have, I have an associate, I have a, I have a manager, an account manager right now that has an associate and we never would have thought, or he never would have thought I should say, that he wanted to be a manager, but he’s an amazing trainer and he has this associate and they’ve done some amazing things. And look, and I compare them, so I bring on all the associates with their trainers and we go through each and every person’s business plan and how the associate plans to attack and we want to get really deep in because, look, we’re investing in these, in these people being super successful. Right, we’re not investing in them to show up and hang out for a while. We want super successful associate reps to invest in this program. So, so, from that perspective, uh, you know, you know we’re, we’re willing to do whatever we can.
09:52
So we’re going through and we’re talking to him and we’re finding out and I listened to him and I realized this guy might really have a lot of passion for this. He sounded like he had passion for for growing people and and making them better, um, and know we start talking about it and talking about it and he comes. I talk to my wife about it. You know she sees that passion in me too. Maybe this is an option. So maybe not always, but sometimes backwards it does. Sometimes it does happen in the reverse way too. You find a little bit of a passion.
10:21 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Okay, so in this space, would you say that, let’s say you started off with uh disposables and you wanted to sell capital? Is that pretty straightforward, a series of moves you can make? Or would you say it’s much more, uh, unique to the person’s experience, to see where they can go?
10:43 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
I don’t think it matters what they’ve done Okay, and the reason I say that is I say this with everyone- that interviews with me, I’m not going to find a person that has neurosurgery experience, capital experience and disposable experience.
10:58 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And if I did.
10:58 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
I’m probably going to find a person that has a reputation Good, bad or indifferent but they’ll have half the customers like them. Half the customers won’t. They’ve built a reputation over the years of doing that when I hire. That’s not what I’m hiring for. Right. That’s not at all what I’m hiring for. We’re hiring for potential. We’re hiring for someone that’s going to grow their careers. She can become, you know, build their own reputation. We can build their own. Again. I have a lot of faith in my managers.
11:22
I have a lot of belief in my training team. I have a lot of belief in our marketing team and my specialists, I have a lot of belief that, with someone that works really hard, that they’re going to and has the, the, the, all the recipes or all of the ingredients to be great, my team can get them there.
11:41 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So you know, let me ask you this Is it that on your team, people are selling disposables and capital equipment, or?
11:48 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
is it?
11:49 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Oh, so they’re selling. They’re selling the same products.
11:52 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
There’s my, my, my team, my, my if you’re in a given territory say you’re in portland, oregon, um, you, you, you have about 75 of your bag is disposable and 25 of your bag is capital. However, if you make president’s club you probably did about 35 of your bag is capital that year you know if you, if you really made it right, because you had a big capital year.
12:14 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
my guess is Some rules are very autonomous, and if you’re someone that you need to be in interaction with someone every day, you work better in a team environment every single time than giving your own ship to run. You want to be like we said earlier. You want to be on a pod, and they should definitely not do this or the other, whereas if you’re left to be autonomous, they should definitely not do this or the other, whereas if you’re left to be autonomous, they should definitely not do this or the other. I want to know what are the qualities that are let’s talk about this what are the qualities that are unique to your space, that if somebody wants to work on your team or a team like yours, they better have these three things?
12:51 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
Yeah, you better be ready for a 90-day sprint, because what makes my reps and managers and everyone make as much money as they do and they make great money is that they’re chasing bonuses every quarter and every year, which means they’re always chasing a bonus.
13:12
I mean they’re either 45 days from chasing a bonus, so getting themselves ready, or they’re 45 days until they got to get to their bonus. Right, there’s only two ways about that, right? And if you break that down into business days, you’re now talking 30 each direction, right, so you’re not talking a lot of days here, right? So every day matters, yeah, right, like when you’re talking 60 business days, I mean that’s almost two percent of your, of your quarter happens in a day, almost, right. So so you know, you need to be able to handle that push, you need to be able to handle that aggressiveness. You need to be able to handle that going after it, because it’s it can be hard, it can be exhausting to feel like you just finished a 90-day sprint and you’re stepping up to the starting line of the next 90-day sprint. The other side is it pays well, right, because you’re getting paid for each sprint right.
14:07 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You’ve mentioned it three times now. Give us some context for those that have no idea what you’re talking about.
14:12 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
I mean, look, I think most of our managers you know, most of our employees are over, most of our managers are over, going to make over 200, or account managers right, Very comfortably, you know, and I would say that would be.
14:21
The other thing is is we need self-motivated people, because the reality is, is a lot of the jobs that we offer, there’s a certain level of residual business that people are going to be able to make. You know, quote unquote, rolling out of bed and I use that word loosely because that’s not really fair but, um, but, but. But still to the same point. We need people to look at their income and say I know I’m making a lot of money, but I’m not on top of the rankings. I want to be on top of the rankings, I want to grow my territory, I want to win, I’m not worried that I’m making enough money to make all my, my, my financial goals right. And that’s another thing that I think does make our people a little bit unique in this space. I think it’s just a, and I would say the last thing is I would say that our people are extraordinarily trustworthy.
15:12 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Repeated 90-day sprints and have exceptionally high level of integrity.
15:17 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
Yeah, and I would say the reason that is is you have to remember, there’s not a lot of neurosurgeons on the planet, there’s not that many accounts that do neurosurgery. You don’t have the bandwidth to turn and burn a customer. You spread fast. You can’t lie, you can’t guess you can’t, that’s just’t you can’t guess you can’t, you can’t that. That just that’s not who we are. That’s not, and as an organization, that isn’t, um, say, the stride, the size of some of the giants out there the, the, the billion multi you know big, big number, billions of companies.
15:50
We can’t afford to take a hit for making a mistake like that either. Um, so we have to have the most amount of integrity that we can possibly have when we step in.
15:59 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I love it. So let me ask you this you know when you, when, you, when, when somebody hears this let’s say someone’s listening to this episode right now they think, oh, I have that. I absolutely. I have integrity, I work hard, I can do a 90 day sprint anytime. I think it’s easy for a lot of people that want something to say they have what it takes. What qualities would you say? That might not be so obvious that if you have these qualities, you probably don’t want to be in this.
16:31 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
If you catch yourself saying I already know, or if you haven’t been wrong with any of your buddies in like last three months, you’re probably the wrong guy. If you and your buddies have had like dozens of conversations and you just always happen to be right, you’re probably the wrong guy for this job.
16:51 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Just telling you right now the way you phrase it. I’m laughing because it’s easy to see what you’re saying, but please continue.
17:00 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
It’s just the point is is, like you know, first of all, you’re working with really smart people. You’re working with, you know, in an environment that’s constantly changing. You have managers that are having to constantly make adjustments and do these things. And the thing is, if you can’t look at your losses because you’re not going to win 100 percent, I guarantee you that If you can’t learn from your losses especially some of the ones that involve install bases and where you lose, where you lose, it kind of stings a little more for an extended period of time If you can’t do that, your cap’s limited.
17:39
Um, if you can’t do that, your cap’s limited. You know, you can only kind of be cocky and fired up and and and power your way through so far before you get to a point where that’s just you’re just running your head into a wall. You, you, you. You need to be able to make adjustments, you need to be able to humble yourself in a lot of situations in this job, because it is a very, very hard job that changes so much with the market and the dynamic.
18:02 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I love that. You pretty much reinforce that. You have to have a strategy, you have to think well ahead of whenever it could happen and you have to work that strategy every single day, without skipping a beat.
18:15 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
Exactly, exactly.
18:17 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I love it I love it All right, Eddie. So let’s talk about it. You’re director of sales. So was it that in college, in your freshman year, you were sitting in the dorm room and you said one day I’m going to be director of sales of Integra Life Sciences? Or is it a lot more uncertainty than what I just described? No, my dad did, though wasn’t entire, but he did um so, um, uh, get it where you can, if that’s the story you know um no, so I uh, I went to college.
18:51 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
I went to university of northern colorado, aka formerly colorado teachers college. Uh, I thought being a history teacher would have been an amazing. I went to University of Northern Colorado, aka formerly Colorado Teachers College.
18:58
I thought, being a history teacher would have been an amazing job. I love it. It is. No, it is. It would be amazing. I will be an amazing history teacher someday. I promise I will Truly. But I thought, you know, I thought being a history teacher would just be like the coolest job. I loved history. I loved reading about it. I was still into all the different places and how history can repeat itself if you don’t understand it, and just tendencies, and so many different things to me.
19:31
He said you know, I’ll never forget I was in his little red honda and he said he sits me down. He says that he’s. You’re gonna have to make a decision if you want to go experience history or if you want to go teach it. Um, because unfortunately we live in a society where you’re gonna have to choose if you want to be able to afford to experience it or teach it. Um and um.
19:51
The conversation followed up with a little bit more of his opinion on why I should want to experience it, of course. But you know he kind of said you know, this is really where I think you need to. You know you need to move your career along. And I’ll tell you what I took from that was. You know he was a manager and I spent time interning at the ADP and you know he took his job as a manager and then as an exec, more as a teacher. You know he held like a Monday basics, fundamental sales teaching class, you know, for various seasoned salespeople and so I kind of took it as okay.
20:30
If I want to do this sales thing, I got to find a way to teach, because that’s what I really want. I like teaching, I like making people better, I like seeing people start here and get where they want to be. So I decided I want to be a manager. I said I want to go up to the management route and find a way that I can teach more people and do it that way. I found sales to be very interesting in a fundamental sense and like kind of like a nerdy sense, and so I’ve always loved it, love the nerdy side of it and kind of embrace that side of it so that I could teach it. And then, as I’ve kind of continued to be able to do that and I’ve been really fortunate because I’ve had great hires, I mean I’ve just I’ve been like a hiring King. I’ve just hired some amazing people in my career. I’ve been so lucky that that that I get to benefit from all their hard work, because they’re just incredible, you know.
21:17
So, as I’ve been able to do that in order to give those people you know opportunities, I’ve had to get out of the way and move my way up so they could have better opportunities to, to to make bigger impacts in this organization. And it’s just you know. So no, I didn’t. I didn’t know that was how it was going to be.
21:34 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
But I knew I was going to teach somebody someday.
21:35 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
I knew I was going to make people better and I’m very, very lucky that I get to do that.
21:39 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That is fantastic. I love that story. Another thing I found very interesting in your history is you were a writer for MMA fights.
21:49 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
I was.
21:52 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And then you got into medical sales. So let’s go back to being a writer for mma fights. First question I have is do you still follow it today?
22:01 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
I do, I do. Actually I just got my tickets for ufc 300 um a couple days ago, yesterday, before um what was that?
22:10 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I mean, you have to give us a little bit. I’m just curious. What was that?
22:12 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
yeah, um I, I, I, I was an, I was experienced in jujitsu and I was I, I, I taught a lot and um, I was really close with a, with um, with an mma fighter at the time, um, who, uh, later moved on to become a champion and and into the hall of fame and just still to this day one of my absolutely not uh and not give us a name uh.
22:35
Chuck Liddell. Chuck Liddell, wow, and he’s still a very, very close friend, an amazing person, just just a person of pure class always has been Actually fun fact about guys he’s an accountant as well. So but anyways, I. So I, as I spent a lot of time with him, I kind of stayed involved in the sport. I just was always very conscious, quite frankly, of long-term injuries just in general, and so I kind of moved more towards wanting to be a professional. But I wanted to be involved in the sport.
23:07
I was still so heavily involved as we were running towards really mainstream and getting like all the legislation squared away and all that, and so being just so involved in that during that time. I wanted an involvement. So I got together. I was working with Brian Bennett right before he passed away. I owned MMA weekly and then Ken Pishna helped me continue that kind of passion for a long time. So, yeah, I actually talked to Chuck last night. I still do a lot of things with the sport in general, but but I don’t, I don’t write anymore, I haven’t got a chance. There’s just so many fights, there’s so many people these days. I don’t get to keep up. I got three kids. I can’t keep up with all this.
23:45
Who knew it would explode the way it exploded, right, but that’s fascinating, just to be able to say yeah, so you know, I just took chuck to dell last night. Yeah, it was, it was fun. I, I, uh actually keep a autograph belt of his in my office. Oh, very cool, I love it.
24:04 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Um, okay. So how do you make all this happen? Family? You said, yeah, you should. We know you have a family because you got three kids. What are the ages? How do you do, how do you, how do you be the director of sales and successfully manage a three child family? Talk to us.
24:21 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
Yeah. So there’s a couple of tricks. First trick is is you do nothing else. Second trick is is you marry the most amazing person in the world? Uh and uh and that and that. That helps the other half of that trick. Uh, no, I got. I got an incredible wife. Um, the kids are just incredible. It’s just so much fun to watch. It’s. Um, they’re just twins in general as a sociology experiment in and of itself, right oh, wow, so you have three kids, you have two.
24:50 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
How old are the?
24:51 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
twins two and a half year old twins and a five year old oh, you ain’t playing around so no, you are busy, yeah. Yeah, so it’s quite, it’s quite an experience. It really really is. So that’s awesome.
25:02 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And do they do, they, do they do? They want to be in medical sales.
25:11 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
So the five-year-old uh, the five-year-old has an office or has manage people a little bit. I think she’s more focused on leadership.
25:16 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You’re the next CEO of the largest medical device slash pharma company there is.
25:21 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
Yeah, exactly as soon as she tells me she just wants to play golf at Stanford now. But we’ll get there.
25:26 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That is fantastic. This is great. I love the career that you’ve really showcased, because what I love about your career is you get into the industry from something else and you, you ride the, you rise the ranks in your 14 year span here and it’s, it’s simpler. And then we get to hear you talk and and what you talk about the most is leading other people. So, more power to you, Eddie. We’d love to see it. Now I want to do something else before we wrap up here and I want to have what we like to call a lightning round. Yeah, are you ready?
26:01
I’m ready okay, you have less than 10 seconds to answer four questions. Uh, starting with, what’s the best book you’ve read in the last six months?
26:11 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
I reread it all the time, but I’m going to go with what your CEO wants you to know, by Ram Charan. I think it’s just a great reminder of finance fundamentals and why people make the decisions they do.
26:20 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I love it what your CEO wants you to know. So is that more helpful for someone that is trying to be the best individual contributor, or is that more helpful for someone that’s trying to lead a number of individual contributors?
26:34 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
Both. What it teaches you is it teaches you why your organization may be making the decisions they’re making and understanding how their financial decisions have to be affected. It teaches you basic things of EBITDA, EPS and some of those decisions. So you’re seeing really what the organization is doing, why they’re going after different margin products, how their products mixes and why they have to make the business decisions they make. I think it’s just a great refresher. Anytime I take on a mentee, that’s always the first thing I send them. I send them that, and then I send them another book that I really like, along with spin selling.
27:15 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Very nice, very cool, best TV show or movie you’ve seen in the last six months.
27:20 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
Oh, Ted.
27:20 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Lasso man, I still have never seen that. Everybody talks about it, but I’ve never seen it.
27:26 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
Well, I mean, it’s a 30-minute show and it’s like four seasons, so you’ve got to put aside like five hours. It’s really not that bad. That’s on you at that point.
27:37 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You heard it here, folks, you heard it here. Okay, and then restaurant. Actually I’m sorry. Food, what is the best? And we want the restaurant and the item what’s the best meal you’ve had in the last six months?
27:54 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
Out here in Bellevue, washington, there’s a place called in bellevue washington, there’s a place called ascend um amazing sushi, amazing sushi restaurant, or just it’s sushi and steak. It’s a nice steakhouse as well. Yeah, um, I just I, I just I just I love that place hey, okay, that’s happening next time in washington, having to send all right.
28:14 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And then last question what’s the best experience you’ve had in the last six months?
28:21 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
You know I volunteer at my daughter’s school Just doing some like reading and things on Friday afternoons.
28:29 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
With my travel schedule.
28:30 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
The one time I know I’m home is Fridays and it’s just fun when I get there and my daughter is actually at recess when I come in every Friday and when she comes in she’s just so excited that I’m there to be, I’m the parent that’s there to be involved in the class and you know now, all the kids get excited. So I’d say like maybe it’s not one experience, maybe it’s a total of experiences, but I would say, I would say that would be it. I’d say just getting to go spend time with those kids it’s just so they’re innocent and happy and full of just so much potential. It’s awesome.
29:02 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You couldn’t have said it better, Eddie. This was fantastic. Thank you for the time today. Keep doing all the amazing things you’re doing out there in the medical sales world and I hope you come back anytime to the MedSales podcast.
29:14 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
Sammy, you mind if I give you one quick thing for anyone listening.
29:16 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Yes, please, please.
29:19 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
If you get a chance to run a team and I’ve had a chance to run quite a few and I’ve had a chance to run teams different ways and I’ve had a chance to work with people that have run teams, and you’re listening to this, and you get a chance, and you can take one piece of advice from me, and it’s just one Don’t underestimate the power of diversity. Don’t underestimate the power of different thoughts. Don’t underestimate the power of cultural diversity, racial diversity, gender diversity, generational diversity. Don’t underestimate the power that different backgrounds can make your team better, because the way you become successful is by being more complete than everyone around you, and the only way to be more complete is to have more ideas and more perspectives.
30:05 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So, Eddie, you know that’s. That’s a great point, I think I love that you made it a point to share that message. I think everybody needs to hear that. But you know what? I want people to really understand what you’re talking about and actually hear an example of what that looks like. You know why are you such a firm believer in? Why diversity matters and can enhance your team, and how has it actually done? Give us an example.
30:28 – Eddie Cortez (Guest)
You know, it’s actually kind of it’s kind of funny because I did it, maybe less than intentionally. When I first became a manager, you know, I hired the best people for the job and I was very, very, very fortunate that they happened to be a lot of diverse people or the best people for the job, you know and I started to see some really strong functioning and I was doing a lot of internal reflection on what was going on and I reached out to a really really close friend of mine who’s a venture capitalist now, but he at one point worked in our industry and I was talking to him about it and he started laughing and he said you know what?
31:07
you’re not looking at is you’re not looking at the diversity that you brought in. You’re not looking at the amount of talent you’re bringing in and the amount of more people are willing to work for that. And and you know, and as I saw that grow, you know I’ll tell you I have seen my diversity attract more talent and more talented diversity. I’ve seen associate reps that have gone out of their way to fight to get into, uh, a good to a region with another diverse manager because they saw themselves in that manager.
31:37
They saw themselves. So you know what they did. They produced more, they fought harder. They saw themselves getting to that job.
31:43
So then they imagined themselves in that job and then, they’re trying to push their goals, they’re trying to become trainers, they’re trying to do more because they, you know, look social or racial mirrors, and social mirrors and gender mirrors. These are all real things. They’re very, very real things, you know. I mean people seeing themselves, you know, when they in other positions, and saying I can do that because that person looks like me, sounds like me, acts like me.
32:07
That’s so, so, so real. And when people see something they can achieve I don’t think there’s a salesperson that can be listening to this that can truly tell me look me in the face and say that if they see something to achieve, they don’t go out and get it Right so once it becomes achievable, it becomes something that you can go fight for. It can be something that you can go get, and when you create that diversity, you get that, and that’s not even counting the diversity of thought and different ideas that just organically come up when you’re starting to brainstorm and do those things. I’m talking more on the motivation side. We can go a whole other conversation and we can start a whole new podcast just on that, and it would be a weekly podcast too. It’s not just a day, it really is.
32:47 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
It really is, I love it, I love it, I love it. That’s fantastic, Eddie. Again, thank you for the insight, thank you for that message and make sure you come back in the next one.
32:58
Anytime you’ll have me, and that was Eddie Cortez Fantastic stuff. You know, what I loved about Eddie’s story is his highlight about diversity. He’s led a lot of teams, he’s seen a lot of things and he’s seen how successful teams work. And for him to see you know anecdotally, not just what the data shows us outside of your personal experience, but what he’s actually seen, it’s fantastic because it is the truth. When you have diversity on your team and you can pull from different experiences, all working towards the same goal, everything supports that that is the best way to get the best results, and that is exactly what Eddie highlighted in his episode today.
33:44
So I just I love the fact that he stressed that in the interview and for all you leaders out there that are listening to this episode, I really hope you’re taking heed, because this can absolutely add value to your team. To make it a point, to diversify your team from all aspects. With that being said, if you’re someone out there and you want to get onto a team and hopefully diversify a team, then you already know what I’m going to say Go to EvarvisSuccesscom, fill out the application and schedule some time with one of our county executives and let’s get you to where you want to be. As always, we do our best to bring you guests who are doing things differently in the medical sales space, so make sure you tune in next week to 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.
