Breaking Into Medical Device Sales
When he was 25 years old, Jacob McLaughlin moved from being an athletic trainer to a surgical sales representative for one of the top medical device companies in the world. He used some traditional techniques for breaking in, but also some that were very non-traditional, including documenting his journey in his podcast, New to Medical Device Sales and his presence on YouTube, TikToK and Instagram. In this episode Jacob shares the similarities and differences between athletic training and medical device sales, advanced networking techniques, what the interview process is like from a candidate’s perspective, how to make yourself stand out, what 99% of candidates don’t do, and what the first year in medical device sales is like.
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Episode Transcript
This transcript was generated using an automated transcription service and is minimally edited. Please forgive the mistakes contained within it.
Patrick Kothe 00:31
Welcome! We learn from every guest on the Mastering Medical Device podcast. Sometimes we get the wisdom of someone with decades of experience. Sometimes it's someone mid-career. And sometimes it's someone just starting out, like today's guest, Jacob McLaughlin. What's great about hearing from people at different ages and stages, is it helps us understand what's the same and what's changing. I think you're going to find today's episode interesting because we have some of both. When he was 25 years old, Jacob moved from being an athletic trainer to a surgical sales representative for one of the top medical device companies in the world. He used some very traditional techniques for breaking in, but also some that were very non-traditional, including documenting his journey in his podcast new to medical device sales, and with a significant presence on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Although we shouldn't generalize, because everyone's different, it's interesting to hear this the perspectives of a cusper, who was born on the dividing line between a millennial and a Gen Z. In today's episode, we discuss the similarities and differences between athletic training and medical device sales, advanced networking techniques, and what the interview process is like from a candidates perspective. How do you make yourself really stand out? What 99% of candidates don't do? And what the first year in sales is? Like? Here's our conversation. Jacob, you graduated from college in 2016. Some people know exactly what they want to do when they graduate from college. Were you one of those?
Jacob McLaughlin 02:29
I thought I was. And then you get out in the real world. You try it out. And then you figure out for at least for myself, I was like what am I doing? And I don't know anything about anything.
Patrick Kothe 02:40
So So what was your first job out of college? Yeah, so
Jacob McLaughlin 02:43
um, I fell in love. I was a college athlete, and I fell in love with strengthing auditioning, wow, that's working with athletes doing the work working out the weight lifting, right getting them better performance. So I went into strength and conditioning right after college did internships, I actually graduated at semester. And then I went and ended up going to California. I didn't I've never been never left the Midwest, took a took an internship at Santa Clara University, and packed up my little Buick and drove out to California and, and did an internship for three months out there. And what a lot of people don't know is straining condition is a tough world because your internships are free. You don't get paid during that. So I took out a loan for myself to go live out in California, I lived with 11 people in an Airbnb and paid $1,000 a month to work from 5am till 7pm. Every Monday through Thursday, even some on Friday to make $0
Patrick Kothe 03:41
Did you know that that that was the pathway that that was what you're getting into?
Jacob McLaughlin 03:46
Yeah, yeah. And I did, right. And then the thing for me was like, I loved making people better, loved helping people, but also just, you know, that's work hard, no hard works gonna pay off. And then for me, I think a lot of people who get in strength and conditioning, I was very similar. You know, you want to work with professional athletes. And that's just, you know, it's part of it, you got to put in your time you got to go being an intern. And then eventually you would go being a grad assistant where you're going to get your masters but you're working as a full time strength coach, and then you'd go take the associate route, and then they have full time, right, and then you just work through levels, right, and maybe start at a small d one, and then you hopefully become an associate and ahead and then go to bigger D one and then work with professional athletes was kind of the path and I knew that but I found out real quick. To me. I've always been somebody I pay my own way on everything through college, everything. And to me, it was like I'm working 100 hours a week. And I like even I talked to assistants that are doing it. And they couldn't even pay for their vacation. They're barely made the rent, they had to live with roommates, and they're 34 years old. And again, there's nothing wrong with that. I think like there's a lot of people who would do it like for me though. I just had different financial goals. And in that I know people in the strength conditioning world they do great. They make good money even me like you know, we'll talk into it. I did the Personal Training, I went private sector instead of college sector and made a great living.
Patrick Kothe 05:05
So you moved your thoughts? I'm no longer going to be with professional athletes now I'm going to deal in the private sector. So what is what is it like training people in the private sector?
Jacob McLaughlin 05:16
Oh, yeah, it's way different. Because, you know, what I learned real fast is in the strength conditioning world. It's all science based, right? You I needed my four year degree, I needed to go get my CSCs, which is the highest standard for your certifications. And it's all science based. With we do everything. It's the same with personal training, but you really learn that Sally doesn't care. If she's doing a proper squat, she just wants to make sure she's not gonna you just wanna make sure she's not gonna get hurt, she's moving burning calories, and she has a good conversation with you. Or she feels like she had a great experience and wants to come back with you. And as we'll talk, going in correlations, but like that sales, people want to make sure they're having fun, and it's a good experience and that they're coming back. Because compared to college, right? You're their coach, they don't have a choice, they got to come to you. When you get to the private sector. It's you can they can go anywhere. And just in my like little sector, literally in a quarter mile radius, we had 15 gyms and inside my gym, there's other trainers, you know, so how are you separating yourself? To keep your clientele to to feed yourself?
Patrick Kothe 06:17
So you move from California to Arizona? It was what was what was that? Like? You know, picking up and moving again?
Jacob McLaughlin 06:25
Yeah, so I actually Um, so I went from California back to Omaha, Nebraska area where I'm from lived there for about six months went through the winter. And then in the wet middle of winter, I said, I'm not doing this anymore, moved out here with 12 $100 to my name, didn't know anybody to Arizona, and I just said I got two months worth to make it work, landed here and went to gyms and just introduced myself with my resume, just to show I was a go getter. I was going to do whatever it took. Um, yeah, but it was a hard decision. I'll be honest, when I left home, I dragged my feet for six months, it took me six months to be able to like go because all my friends were back there. My whole family, like when I moved out here, I knew nobody. And it was that scary of like, do I believe in myself enough to leave everything that I've ever known my whole life, to just take a shot on myself in my entire life I want to live.
Patrick Kothe 07:13
So you've done that a few times you did it when you moved out moved out to California, you did it again. And we're gonna talk about how you moved moved your whole career into the medical device? Have you always been a risk taker?
Jacob McLaughlin 07:24
Um, I would say I've, I would say so. And in the fact of just being more like, I'm just a very confident person in myself. And that's what allows me to take those risks. But I will say a lot of times I try to take a calculated risk. Hey, is it good to make sense to me? And just in my mind, right, it was always like, and this what I tell everybody, you can always go home. You know, like, I knew I had two months worth of rent. If it didn't work out, I'll just pack up and put my tail between my legs and drive back home and go back to landscaping for $12 an hour. You know, so yeah, it but it's just more of the self belief. But I do like to take risk. And the the guy I was mentored under here, he changed my life. I'll just be honest, his name's Jeremy Scott. He's Instagram famous. He's mentalities. He's all about fitness. But he taught me about business taught me about like, you know, I used to think, you know, coming from the Midwest, $60,000 was life changing. And, and again, that's still a good, good living for people. But like, you know, when you start working with millionaires, it really starts changing your life and being that young kid, it just changed my life. And then also confidence. He's taught me and we'll talk about this going into the future, but not to care what anybody thinks about you, because it's your life, right? And people are always gonna have opinions about your life, whether it's good or bad. But as long as you know, you're doing the right thing, you're treating people, right, you're doing what fills your soul on file fire. Like, who cares what everyone else thinks. And he, he instilled that into me. So as we'll talk into how I broke into medical device sales, that I just want to mention that because that was a huge base for me. Because when I left out there, I wasn't as much.
Patrick Kothe 09:03
So he's expanding your thought, your your thinking and your your worldview, in that period of time as you're developing a fitness business, a real following within in the fitness area. So how long did you do it? And what type of success Did you see?
Jacob McLaughlin 09:18
Yeah, so I worked for Jay for two and a half years. So how he had it set up, he told me the first day I came in, he's like, you're not going to get rich working here. But I'm going to teach you a lot. And I'll let you see things and he's like, I will give you the steps. I'm never gonna do the work for you. But I'll tell you what to do. And you got to do it yourself. And that just excited me. But I did it for two and a half years. So how it was I ran classes from like 5678 9am. And then I would have breaks between 11 and three, and then I would trade my own personal clients that I had, then I would train glasses for five and six. And then I would train some of my own clients seven and eight o'clock. So my day started I would wake up at three 54 o'clock in the morning. And there's a lot of nights, I didn't walk through the door till on eight or nine o'clock. But because of that, you know, that was my selling point, when I tried to break into the careers. And two years, I took a business where I opened my LLC for my personal training business, and I had $0.00 clients, and when you Google what the top 10% of personal trainers make, I was in the top 10% in two years. And so like, for me, I that was a huge success. And I was super happy with my accomplishment and just knowing all the hard work I had put in, had started paying off and then that's one, you know, working with a lot of different people started expanding my thing and my mindset, hey, like, I would have people who were my clients, but also just like, like family, like the one who got me to start thinking about medical device sales. She's like an aunt to me. Because we just talk she's had me over for dinner, but literally was like, Jake, have you ever thought about doing sales, I think you'd be pretty good at it. And they just started, like you said, making it me expand, like, here, I was doing this. But then finding out there's other there, there's so many different ways to do things in the world and to make money and to and to do stuff. So it just started making me broaden my horizon.
Patrick Kothe 11:10
Let's talk about broadening horizons for a second because you were successful, you would now you're in a top 10% you're making money people are happy with you, you're happy with what you're doing. What makes you say, you know what, even though I'm happy here, I'm maybe I can be happier somewhere else. What What was the change?
Jacob McLaughlin 11:28
Yeah, um, for me, I'm huge on self growth. I'll just be honest, like, I, I don't know if I'll ever be at that point where it's like, I made it, you know, like, I just want to keep growing, I want to keep learning. And so I had experienced, you know, I listen to Gary Vee Gary Vaynerchuk. If you guys don't know who that is, he's an entrepreneur, he talks about it. But it was always just like, close your eyes till you're 30. And, and try everything. Because you could be in $250,000 in debt, and now the dollar to your name at 30 and still die a millionaire. And like that, that phrase changed my life. And so for me, like, I'm 26 now, but I'm just like, I'm gonna taste everything. I'm literally gonna try it. Because even at 30, I'm gonna be like, okay, I still have 30 years if I want to jump into a corporate career and do this forever, right. And so that was, that's just been my thing. So with medical, or with personal training, I love it. But then, you know, I train a lot of business people, and they're like, hey, Jake, I see you working all the time, I see you up at 350. In the morning, four o'clock, I post on my Instagram driving to work or like seeing your music getting pumped. And then they I'd be like, turning off the lights at the gym at 830 at night. And they're like, I see you like working hard. I see you doing this Have you thought about like, industries, right? Like if i and this is one of the things I talked to, if I'm in the top 10% of personal trainers, and I'm in the top 10% of medical device sales reps or real estate reps, or whatever it is, your life is probably a little different. And your financial reward is a little different, just because different industries provide and not to say again, I know fitness people that make a lot of money and do different things. But like if you're just training one on one, your, your time is money, right? Even if I if even if I maxed it out, I probably was still gonna do what like the average medical device sales rep did when you just when you Google salaries, right? And so I was like, and then I would see people and I'm just I'm an athlete, it is a little egotistical, but I also tried to rein it in, I'd see people who don't have my skill set who don't work half as hard as me. And they were doing really well. And I was like, if I was in there, I would crush them. And I would I would benefit from the reward. So again, I'm not saying that's a great mindset to have. It's just the competitive part in me when I would talk to people and I'm like, Man, I'm working 14 hour days. And they're working, not even near as hard, but they're making more money than me. And then again, there always will be levels, there always will be someone who's always gonna make more money than you. But it was just for me, it's okay, I'm gonna go, go try this and prove it to myself. And again, just like just like, I can always go back home, I can always go back to being a personal trainer, I can go open my own gym at any moment in my life. Like I still have my clients that I still train on the side. But it's just way more condensed, right? I don't have all the clients that I was doing. It had to be a smaller number. But yeah, I've just always been like, I can always go back to a job or pay my rent and like also just being smart with my finances. Like I one thing I tell everybody is, I could quit my job today and live for the next five years, never have to worry about it and go take my trips. And that's not for me to brag. That's just for me to like, have security, because now I don't need to do anything. I don't really want to I'm just I'm doing it. I'm learning I'm having fun. And if life happens, like I always just tell people life can happen. I don't know what tomorrow is gonna bring. And if life changes, I'm just gonna have to adapt.
Patrick Kothe 14:46
So Jacob, somebody opened your eyes up to medical device and going from one industry to another is not always easy. And once you decided, hey, I want to attack this. I want I want to break into this. What happened? Well, how did how did you do it?
Jacob McLaughlin 15:05
I'm an all or nothing kind of guy. If I go in, it's the Tony Robbins, burn the boat, and just go, I want to say like, I actually burned the whole boat, I was still training, but I made it my I made it, I make it a full time job. Like, I would wake up, I was just telling somebody yesterday who called me I was talking to him, I'd wake up at 5am, I would shoot messages from 5am till 8am go train if I had to because it was during the COVID time, so I wasn't training regular hours because they shut down gyms, I would go train my people during the day at parks are out there houses or whatever. And then I would come back and in the evening, not every morning and evening, I took three to four hours messaging people responding back scheduling calls, jumping on calls going in. And so my whole story is I reached out to 3000, over 3000 people in five months. And I was able to keep an Excel sheet and I had 180 people that I talked to. But again on that Excel sheet it was who they were, who they worked for, what position they held, what day I talked to them notes, because I knew by talking to enough reps, hey, this is what I'm going to be doing for the job. So my whole thing is, I don't have sales experience, which I would argue personal training as a as a sale, especially because I have to make that person do all the work. Like the work plus come back for more work. But that's neither here or there. So I had to show that I could do the job. So my whole job, my whole thing was I'm going to do the job to get the job. And I say it all the time. So I knew networking as part of this job. I knew following up with people as part of this job. And so I just went all in and, and just started networking, and then also documenting my journey. Because when I was trying to break in, you know, there was not a whole lot of resources about breaking in. And there was an if it was it was a couple people and it was going one way, I was like let me bring a different twist to it. I'm not even in the industry yet. So let me just use the social media, which again, Jeremy had taught me running some of his social media, how the power of social media and people use it more as I'm just going to look. But what if you're the person creating and now the people who are looking are seeing you all the time. And so just using different things and just went as hard as I could and, and under six months with no sales experience, I end up getting four job offers from top 30 medical device sales companies, and was fortunate enough to land a full line sales rep with one of the top companies in the world.
Patrick Kothe 17:28
So you just said a whole lot of different things that you did in this process. Let's break it down. Yeah. 100%. So so when you when you decided, hey, this is what I'm gonna attack, did you have somebody telling you what you should do? Or did this all come from you, I need to learn more. And this is how I'm going to reach out,
Jacob McLaughlin 17:45
learn everything. It's always made sense to me. I've done this with strengthing auditioning, and then this is again, life experiences all go in. I had to do this to get an internship. Internships are free. Don't take anybody but like, you have to separate yourself. So I would have to send 100 emails with my resume tried to connect with coaches to get in. But before I decided I was gonna go when I shadowed people, and I would call people because I want to know what the good the bad is, what would my life be? So my first 10 people I called was just, Hey, can you tell me what this career is? I don't know anything about it. what's what's an average day look like? What do you do? What's the pros? What's the cons? What's the financial opportunity? So I was just learning what what is this job and then once I talked to enough people, then I was like, Okay, this is something I would really love to do, then it was just reaching out to much people. And again, I say this all the time with training a lot of very well off business people. It's never what you know, it's who you know, it's same with my guys that are in strength and conditioning, the pert the difference between the dude at an NAIA level school and the top division one school, they both have the same certifications. One guy knew the guy at the top level school and the other one didn't. And that's what got them in. So I just knew it was not what you know who you know. So that's how I just was like, I'm gonna learn but I'm also good at network.
Patrick Kothe 19:01
So you make a decision, hey, this is what I this is what I want to explore. And then there's a period of time where you're exploring it, you're you're doing informational interviews with people to say, Is this really what I want to do? I want to learn enough to say yes, now I'm committed to the search. So how long was that process? That until you just flipped that switch?
Jacob McLaughlin 19:21
Oh, it was a week, two weeks, um, because I had reached out to a bunch of people. But I had talked to about 10 people within about a week or two by just reaching out to so many people who were willing to jump on a call with me, and it's just how you deliver your message. This is a common question I get, hey, how do I get on calls with people, you know, medical device sales reps, and everybody they like to teach. They want to give their experience and so it's if you're phrasing a question on you just want to learn how I did all of them. People were willing to go and jump on, jump on a call. So yeah, it was about a week or two. Again, I had talked to the lady I said, who had kind of introduced me she had worked in medical device, she's now a higher up a top pharmaceutical I'm company. And so she had kind of given me an insight, I talked to a guy who had used to work at it, who was at my gym. He used to work for Stryker. Now he's in a startup doing something with like us sterile processing. But he had told me about his experience about the industry about the career opportunity. And then I just started reaching out to those people that I had reached out on LinkedIn. And then after that week or two, then I was like, Okay, this is, I know, I could do this. And this is something I want to do. And so then, even while I was still working, I was going hard on breaking in.
Patrick Kothe 20:32
So LinkedIn is was your primary that's out of contacting people.
Jacob McLaughlin 20:37
That's it. Everybody always asked me what Instagram Facebook Now, what's LinkedIn, at LinkedIn is your resume for people on medical device sales that's ever they all use its business. So you need to have an amazing or not amazing, but a good LinkedIn profile. I went and made mine to where as professional as I could read books on how to make a LinkedIn profile looked good. watch YouTube videos, again, just always learning. What can I do to separate myself and then from there just started reaching out with people and sending a lot of messages.
Patrick Kothe 21:05
3000 people you reach out to? That's a lot of people. Yeah. What was what was it like getting that much rejection? Because he said, he said he only talked to a few 180
Jacob McLaughlin 21:17
Yeah, exactly. And that's the thing I tell people, you know, like, I personally think that sales, right? You got to talk, you're not gonna get you're not gonna bat 100%. But by me reaching out here was always my thing. They don't know me, I don't know them anyway, if they don't reach out cool, we're at the exact same path that we were beforehand, or they might just think I'm a little weird, but in the same respect, I'm never gonna meet them in my life, most likely. So I was like, I'm just going to reach out to as many people, there'll be some people who are willing to help and and majority, right, majority of them just are never gonna respond back.
Patrick Kothe 21:49
I think you just hit on it right there. It's help. Yeah. Because no matter if you're as a sales rep, that you're asking for help. Or if it's a physician, you're asking for help or a CEO, you're asking for help. If you ask for help. People like to help other people. But it's it's but it's but it's got to be packaged correctly. So when I get hit up, and people say, hey, I want to pick your brain. I hate that. Picking brain is not is not a real nice thing to say. What types of strategies did you use to connect to people
Jacob McLaughlin 22:22
100% I'll give my whole message your way. Cuz like, that's what I just tell people. First off, this hit me and I just want to share a quick little story. Some I was at the gym, and one person walked into Jeremy's gym. And again, he's in if you, if you took three seconds to search him, you would see him pop up all over the internet. He has a huge internet base, right? And this person walks in and they say, what do you do? And I remember that salesperson leaving. And he he uses explicit language, which I won't use on here, but he's like, who would come into a place and not take five seconds to look up? Who you're about to talk to? Like, how dumb are you? And like that that stuck with me forever. And so like same thing for the LinkedIn people, everybody I reached out to I visited their profile. I was in strength and conditioning. I talked to a lot of people at a lot of schools. I had buddies at big schools. All you went to University of Texas, my friends a strength coach, they're just that that little connection. Now we have something in common? Or hey, you know, like if they are from the Midwest, I would say I'm from Iowa, you understand the cold, right? Like make a little joke, make a connection in some way, is what I always did. And then if there wasn't right if there was just something we had nothing on connection or they on their profile, some people have it like blocked to where you can't see much. This is the message and I use it all the time so I can give it to you guys. I literally was Hi, my name is Jacob McLaughlin. I'm 25 years old. I'm a personal trainer in Scottsdale, Arizona. I'm really excited about breaking into medical device sales. And I see you've had a lot of success in the industry. Would there be an opportunity where I could learn from you for five minutes, and then after again, short, precise write to it and then I would say looking forward to hearing back from you and hope you have a great rest of your day. Jagan MacLaughlin, put my phone number underneath, bam. And this is something I talked to people all the time. It's just like when you're trying to do an interview, it's when you're doing a job when me as a sales rep. My life My job is to make everyone else's life easier. Right? So when you're reaching out to somebody, include your phone number, please. Because you know what I do when I'm on my driving, click the phone, bam, I'm talking to that person real quick. But if I have to ask for the second step, sure. What's your number? Now I have to wait on you. You just made my life an inconvenience when you're trying to when you're trying to ask for help. You said that
Patrick Kothe 24:36
the first week or so when you're doing it you were really trying to learn, but you use the same type of strategy. After that. What were you trying to accomplish by talking to the rest of this 2900 people
Jacob McLaughlin 24:51
100% and that's where I just tell people, I just needed one person take a shot on me. And I figured if I reached out to 3000 people, maybe one person will be like Hey this kids a go getter.
Patrick Kothe 25:02
So when when you were doing that, were you targeting a particular region were you targeting a particular area where you're targeting a particular specialty?
Jacob McLaughlin 25:09
Not at first not at first I just went to everybody cuz I didn't know anything I didn't know about Medtronic Johnson's and Johnson's the striker Zimmer Biomet all the above, you know, like all the top companies, I didn't know about any of them, I didn't know that there's a million different divisions that there's a million different products, I just was trying to learn and network with people. And I would reach out to everyone literally associate sales reps, full line sales reps, regional managers, district managers, recruiters, everybody, because I was just trying to make a connection. And I always say this, if you are trying to break in, you're probably going to be an associate sales rep. So it's pretty good to talk to an associate sales rep a, they just broke in, and B, they're going to tell you what their life's like, which is what your life would be like, full line sales rep, same thing. They're gonna tell you what they look for, and their associate sales rep, and then what the life is after a sales or an associate what you want to be, and then just try to learn from them. And then the managers are the ones who do the hiring. What are you looking for, you know, and so that's literally what it was. And then the recruiters, everybody knows recruiters, I'll just be honest, I had zero recruiters every call, I got on with recruiters, they just said, Go get b2b sales experience, which is good, which is good advice. And I think a lot of people to me, though, personally, again, I say I'm a more confident person. I was just like, Thanks, I appreciate it. And, and I left it at that, but I never took their advice. I was like, No, I'm not gonna waste six months to go do a b2b job, when I know I have what it takes to get it now. And I and I say this all the time, I was okay with waiting to break in. And I didn't want to go get the sales job. And I know that could have took two years before I broke in, like that was me just being maybe a little more arrogant, but I just had so much self belief. I'm like, I'm gonna break in without it. I don't need it. Because I, I have every attribute that I need to be successful, and I can show it. But let me just do that instead of I when sold this many copies, or copiers? You know, I just believed in myself with building my own business and my hustle to build that, and being able to, again, your story to everyone that's listening for an interview, it's how do you relate your past experiences into what you what the new job would be, and how you could be successful in that.
Patrick Kothe 27:15
And the sales pathway to get hired hasn't changed much, at least in the 40 years that I've been is this, because I actually started off selling office copiers, before I got sales. So, so the the comments are still the same. But some people get hired out of college, you directly out of college, some people would come, you know, get a couple of years that, you know, check check company or a copier company or something else, that's b2b, some people, you know, break in through pharma and come into device, there's a lot of different ways of doing it. It's a matter of who you're getting hired by who's doing the hiring, who's going to take a chance, who isn't? What the profile is of the people that are making the hire, and then who you are and what you're bringing. Because there's always exceptions. Somebody can go in and say I want to, here's my criteria for hiring. And I want somebody with three years of sales experience, and I want him to come from these companies, I want him to be this age profile. And, and then when it comes down to it, they've got a slate of candidates, and one doesn't look like that. And they say, well, that's kind of interesting, and they hire that person. So it's not always what you set out to do when you're making a hire. But it's who the candidates are that come through the door.
Jacob McLaughlin 28:31
Yep. And that's a great point. And I do just want to mention this to the audience, I had jobs get I was the final interview with to me and another person, they took the person who had sales experience. And I literally had a call with the top company that the manager who hired him, said, Hey, Jake, I just want to call you I want to apologize, we're gonna go with the other candidate, I just want you to know you are actually the better candidate, I have no success that you are going to be successful in this industry. Because I've seen what you're doing, and you have what it takes. And there's not a doubt in my mind. I just can't get over the fact that you don't have sales experience. And I'm gonna go take this person who worked at Yelp, who just did phone calls, and they're gonna have the job. And again, there's nothing wrong with Yelp. But what I say that is the difference between me and that y'all person, I know how to make personal relationships, because I had to train people every day, that person just did 100 calls, they never had to actually physically read a person, see how they act, read off that body language. And that was actually funny enough, three weeks later, I get a call that VP didn't hire that candidate that the manager wanted to because he asked him how would you be build a personal relationship and he bros and that the VP vetoed that candidate, and I got the call for the offer then. But even just that they called me and said you're the better candidate. But I can't get over the fact that you don't have sales experience that happened to me several times. And that's okay. That's what I tell people that are trying to break in with no sales experience like myself, I knew I was gonna have to work 10 times harder. And there were going to be managers and higher ups that just kind of get over the fact that I didn't have what they were looking for and I didn't fit the square that they We're looking for, and that's okay. But there's gonna be one person. That's like, man, there's just something about you that's going to. And luckily, I got four people who believed in me enough to do that.
Patrick Kothe 30:11
So I assume what you did is you watch the job boards and you read and you waited for jobs to come up. And it's
Jacob McLaughlin 30:17
not ever, you know, I've learned bass, I will say, at the beginning, the first couple of weeks, I did do that. And everybody told me to get a subscription to med reps and all that. And again, I think that's still a good investment, you can do that. But I joke around on my podcast all the time, like, everybody, every manager who talked to me told me my resume sucked, like trying to break into medical device sales. It wasn't a good one, I didn't have the percentages they're looking for I didn't have president club winner, I had strength and conditioning coach, I had personal trainer, growing my business, they're like, Where did you come up with these quotas? Right? Because I knew I needed to have some quotas. And I was like, I just put monthly quotas. Hey, if this is what the top 10% is doing, this is what I wanted to hit. I was doing it. But you know, yeah, I got told by almost everybody, my resume was very weak. But that's where I tell people it's not what you know, it's who you know. And I knew, well, yeah, you can look at my resume. But you could have the also the same the best candidate that you're ever looking for, and you talk to them, and they're just a drag to talk to. And I knew that wasn't me, I knew I could bring in energy. So again, and I I say this all the time, there's a computer system, if you don't have what they're looking for, I got rejection letters, literally within five minutes, when I would go to some of these job boards. And I'm like, Nobody looked at that literally went through a computer system, it goes through it because they get so many candidates, if they can't read it, or if you don't have the magic words, you're just kicked out. And then I would literally get rejection letters. I say this all the time, I got rejection letters. When I was six months into medical device sales. That means I put the resume in eight months ago, nine months ago. And I got rejection letters like it was never that. So again, I knew from just personal experience, strength and conditioning, like my past life. Hey, I need to just talk to these people. I need to get my foot in the door. Because I am also aware enough, hey, if I make the connection with the right person, I might be in the final interview already. I cold called this manager. And he was like, Hey, we don't have a job opening right now. But we might in three months. Follow up with me every Thursday at 8am. Every Thursday at 8am. Not 801. Not 759. Every Thursday at 8am. He got a text, and every week for three months. Hey, nothing yet. Follow up next week, right? And my message was always like, hey, hope you're having a great week, looking forward to hearing from you. Like just wanted to touch base like we talked about. And for three months, it never happened. And then the job opened and right away I was in. I was one of the final two candidates, because I had just done what I needed to
Patrick Kothe 32:41
do you think he was testing you
Jacob McLaughlin 32:42
owe 100%. And then because this is the thing, this is what people don't understand it is a test. Because I my my most I guess one of my biggest pet peeves is when people reach out to me. They're like, I reached out to him once and they didn't respond. And I'm like, What do you think medical device? You think I go to every doctor and they're like, Oh, you respect you came one. So I better give you my business? No, like they want to see if you're going to have that grit to keep going. Are they going to just follow up? Or are you just gonna quit like the job I personally have now, I reached out to my manager five times with no messages, never responded back to me. But I knew she was like the manager, I was talking to people on the reps. And then I made the breakthrough one day just shooting calls. I found who her old associate was, and that she worked directly with and that she liked me. And then she told her and then after that tell her that day she messaged me back after the fifth message never responded. And because of that, that got to talk with the position I'm in now. But again, that took months. It wasn't overnight.
Patrick Kothe 33:42
So you didn't go to the job board route. To find these these openings. It was networking, it was 100% networking. That's where you surface the jobs. That's where you learn that jobs may be coming open. Because as we know that a lot of times before a job is posted. They already have a good idea of who the slate of candidates are.
Jacob McLaughlin 34:03
Yep. And again, I say this, I learned that in strength and conditioning. When a coach is leaving Texas they are they're not put when they put this stuff on HR, they already know who they're hiring, they just have to do it for HR reasons. So they don't get sued, right. Like the strength coach doesn't like let me interview all these people. They're like, hey, my buddy works down at se tech. Let me just text him. Hey, buddy, you want to come work at you know this big division one school? Yeah, I mean, bam, he's, he's in the job. Right? It's just it was the connections and when the spot opens up, so I say this all the time on my podcast, like, I wasn't trying to be the starter. I'm not trying to fight for the starting position. I just knew I was gonna be the player on the bench when that position opened up. They were thinking about me and they put me in. And that's literally things Yep, exactly. And so that's all I tell people right now, like, the problem is is you when you go on that that job board, most likely that jobs already filled, or they have candidates going through it that are already in the final process. So with you applying and you don't know anybody, you're just shooting in the dark and 99.9% of time, you're probably never gonna call this the few might. But most of the time, you won't. So what can you do to network and get those people to to like you. And again, I always pass the first couple rounds of interviews because I reached out to people. And they're just like that, that shows that you're a go getter. And I would be talking to him on my first call. So that already already took around the the second interview what people talk about, I'd have to go with HR right away. And then I didn't have to talk to the manager, because I had already talked to the manager. And he already liked me. So he was just putting me to the third round already. You know, so that's what I tell people on that and good point with the resume. Nobody cared about my resume in my final interviews. I was halfway in and then they're just like, hey, shoot us over your resume, so we can give it to HR. It's not like they're like, Wow, this is amazing, Jake, like, no, it was what I had been doing in the back end and showing that I'm actually putting in the work to have that happen.
Patrick Kothe 35:56
Every process a little bit different. You said do three rounds, how many rounds? Is it typically?
Jacob McLaughlin 36:02
So from my experience, it was between five and seven. You know, each like you said each one is different. Some people we're gonna put the Gallup test or other tests in there, some aren't. Some people are gonna have you do right along. Some of you aren't. So yeah, from my experience, it was normally between five and seven rounds. And they don't move fast.
Patrick Kothe 36:20
Oh, yeah. over what timeframe said a couple of months.
Jacob McLaughlin 36:23
Yeah. So like, people think I tell people if it happens within six weeks, that is insanely quick. Even even when I call I got called for my job I have now I got called three weeks before the job was ever posted. And they told me I was the top candidate. And they told me they wanted me hired by the time they posted that job. I had it, it took four weeks for the job to get posted. And so now we're already a week past it. And they told me I was going to be hired by that time. And I hadn't even had my first interview because they had so many applicants, they actually had over 100 applicants. So I had to go through a regular interview process and how to go through five rounds after that. Even though I was already the favorite how to talk to my manager, a handful of times, all that they wanted to make sure that I was going up and i and i was going up against people who had 10 plus years experience. And that's actually I beat out the rep who had 10 years experience to get the position I have now.
Patrick Kothe 37:15
And a lot of that depends on the size of the company, the type of company that you're working working for. Because some some places it may be, you know, a month and three interviews, it really depends on which company that you're going for. But you were going after large, some of the largest medical device companies in surgical specialties or sales. And that's a little bit a little bit different in terms of the types of sizes of companies that you're dealing with?
Jacob McLaughlin 37:44
Yep. Oh, yeah. And that's the thing I learned real quick, that they move slow. And my managers would tell me that they're like, they want to move fast, but also to your point, you know, like the size of the company matters, but it's also the need of it matters. Do I need an associate right away? Or can we go three months without an associate? Right? Because then that will dictate how fast they're trying to get through interviews, and also how busy the territory is, the amount of times I had a manager or a rep say, Hey, I'm gonna reach out to you on this day. And it was eight days later. And they're like, sorry, my, my territory has been so crazy. Like, I just needed to take care of my territory before we had this interview.
Patrick Kothe 38:21
So Jacob, a lot of our listeners are managers who who do hiring? Yep. So so let's, let's have them learn a little bit from you. What are some of the worst interview questions that you've gotten?
Jacob McLaughlin 38:34
Oh, that's a that's a great question right there. Um, I guess one of the ones that comes to mind when they're like, you know, it i and this is different for everyone is the five year goal, right? What's your, what's your What do you expect to do in five years? I'm gonna give you the cookie cutter answer, I want to be a successful sales rep. And then I'm gonna be a manager in five years. Like, what happens when fight two years in COVID hits? Like, I don't know, you know, but like, again, that's where it's just playing the cookie cutter. And I get managers have to ask certain questions, and it is what it is. But I'm more of like, I tried to be a realist. Everybody asked me they're like, Jake, what are you doing in six months? I'll see in six months, because just like we're facing now, my surgeries could all be shut down. That changes my whole game plan in a day. So I have to change my game plan. So I think that one is just going there's so general and so broad, and they're like, Yes, I get they want to see the ambition of people, or see what they aspire to be. But also, like, you don't know what you don't know. And that's something I go on. So that I guess that's a question for me. And I want to flip it real quick. A good question for people I think you could ask more of like, I always asked them this because I wanted the company to sell to me, because I had enough job offers coming at like, I didn't need to take the first one. And I also was, I didn't ever want to be the needy person. I wanted to be like, Hey, I have some options because I want to make sure it's a good fit for you and myself. It was always be like, can you tell me about your best rep? Because they're gonna tell, they told me right what they were looking for. Like, they could say, Hey, I don't really worry about if you're working hard or if you're on time, we just want to make sure you get it done. And then you ask, Hey, can you tell us about your best Rep. And they're like, yeah, Johnny was our best Rep. He always showed up early. He always stayed late. He always was overthinking with, he already had tray set up before we even needed to be there. And so I just ask, I would ask those questions. But I will say most of the questions I got asked weren't horrible. It was just like, I don't like the very broad ones, because it's not getting, you're gonna ask the same person, I get it. You guys do. They go through a lot of interviews, but you're not getting to know me. They're not asking about my past experiences. Like my final interview, I joke around with people, that the job I have now, it was like a boxing match. Like I got punched in the face for an hour. Because it's literally they question every single thing about me about every number about making sure it wasn't a lie, how I got that, making sure and like making sure that I could back it up. And I think that's the problem I have sometimes going through interviews, I can tell you, whatever I want, you don't know, I can put whatever I want on my resume, you don't know, like, but my actions lined it up. And that's why I did certain tactics, to show that I wasn't just going through the motions and saying stuff I showed that I could give you something to show Hey, I did what I said I was gonna do.
Patrick Kothe 41:27
It's interesting, because from your standpoint, you're looking at, you know, the simple questions or the common questions that that come in. And, and there's, you know, there's not a lot that's learned there. Same thing comes back for a hiring manager, when you're getting similar responses, you know, what, you know, what's your, what's your strengths and weaknesses? Well, I try too hard. Sometimes. You're hearing the same thing on both sides. And it's really a matter of how can you get past that, and get down into the motivations behind the person and the motivations behind the company and what they're, and what they're really, really looking forward to. So it's getting down to that next level, I think, is what both sides need to do.
Jacob McLaughlin 42:07
100%. And that's where I love personal training. I got to figure this person out. When I'm marking them. I got to get to know their life. And like we always say that personal trainers, like it's a weird position, because you can hear about someone's family all the time, but you don't know the family at all. I know, Jeff, but like I've heard about Jeff a million times I've never met Jeff. And it's been six months, right, like, and I think that's like you're saying finding out the motivations. That was like a question I always asked my, my companies, what are you excited for the next two years about this company? Again, making them sell to myself? What what inner innovations do you have? What what's the growth opportunity look like? Trying to get more around the just the cookie cutter? Well, I see you guys are a great company, I saw you in Forbes, or whatever it is. And, and just getting down to the dirt. And then also, that's where I think for myself, I would talk to reps at every single company I ever. When I had an interview, I reached out to all the reps in that division at that company, and then just do a deep dive, what do you like about it? What don't you like about it? Is there pros or cons? And just again, just learn about it, and then be able to question some of the things I've heard and be able to ask the higher ups to dive deeper into that company instead of keeping it so surface level.
Patrick Kothe 43:19
You know, it would seem like everybody would do that, Jacob.
Jacob McLaughlin 43:23
Oh, my goodness, I I say this on my podcast all the time. 99% of people are lazy. The reason I got job offers and I did stuff. Again, I say this all the time I moved out here without $1 to my name, I had two months. Nobody ever gave me anything I had to provide for myself. And I wish more people had that life. Because there's more people who literally it drives me nuts when they're like, I reached out to three people, I haven't got a job interview. I don't know why I'm like, You don't deserve a job interview. And the same respect of you think by like, to me, it just made sense. If I'm going to go work at this position, I should go talk to the reps in the position. They're going to tell me the good, the bad, what's the best product? What's not the best product? What's the competition? What's the market share? They're just gonna give me the information. It's a cheat sheet. And everybody who reaches out to me every time I tell them to do that. They're like, Oh, my goodness, that's such a great idea. Like, like you're saying to me, that's just common sense. Why wouldn't I just ask the people doing the job already. But to most these candidates reaching out to myself or your or even yourself is like, they don't even think about that. And so again, that's where it's just like if you can do the work, and just not be lazy. You'll you'll be able to break eventually, and don't quit. And I should put that hard work. Do what you say you're going to do and don't quit, you'll break in. I promise you, because everybody who tells me they're gonna follow up and tell me how they broken never follows up. Everybody tells me they're gonna be a president club winner Two months later, I see on LinkedIn, they took some other sales job that has nothing to do with this industry. And then most people say they're gonna call me at, these are the biggest telltale signs. Someone's gonna tell me that. They're gonna call me at 8am and they call me at eight 852 I'm trying to get off the phone with you as fast as I can. Because you're not serious. And I'm not gonna waste my time, my time is valuable. Just like every your managers, the hiring managers, everybody's we're trying to, they're trying to get weed out people. And if you just if you don't do the little things, they shouldn't waste their time on you. And you should learn like that. That's just my I learned, I messed up, I was late once dinner wasn't late again. So that's just my opinion. And I and I also say, I'm a very competent person, I might be a little more harsh, but I just I learned real fast in life. You can't sugarcoat everything all the time. And that and we live in a society that everybody sugarcoats and wants to make you feel good. But if if you suck, you suck, and that's just my competitive part of me, you're either a winner or you're a loser. And you're either gonna do what's above and beyond, and you're gonna get job offers, or you're gonna feel bad, make excuses, tell everybody else, why you're not getting it and try for three months and then say it didn't work.
Patrick Kothe 45:51
So being unusual is good in many ways. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't. But being unusual and doing things that other people don't do to get a sales job. That is that's really unique. You took a big chance by putting make it all public. So you you've got a podcast you introduced what your podcast is, and why you did it when you didn't have a job.
Jacob McLaughlin 46:13
Yeah, so my podcast is new to medical device sales, again, just shares my journey on how I broke in. I started it while I was a personal training, I started as a personal trainer, I started it while I didn't have a job. I started it before I even made my first couple of sales calls. And it was just like, hey, I want to break into medical device sales. I'm going to track my journey. Because what was
Patrick Kothe 46:33
it done for you? Or was it done for listeners?
Jacob McLaughlin 46:36
Um, both, both. And I say that, because when I was doing the research to try to break in, nobody had done this to this point. So I said, Why, and again, what I've noticed, and that's why I love like your podcast, and this podcast is, most people like to sugarcoat things and not go into the deep weeds. I got nothing to lose. I'm just I'm gonna share it out is I'm gonna tell when people are mean to me, I'm gonna tell when people are not nice to me, like people who helped me out. And so I was like, I'm just going to share my experience and what I experienced real life and as it's happening, and so I knew it would help other people, or I didn't know, I figured it would help other people because I figured if I was in the same step looking for that, it would have helped me a lot. And then also, just selfishly, it's fun for me to go back and even now look back when I was a personal trainer a year ago. And like, man, I did all that work to be where I'm at now. It's just fun for myself as well.
Patrick Kothe 47:26
Were you afraid at that point? Hey, if I don't get a job, in medical device sales, I'm gonna look, I'm gonna look like an idiot. You
Jacob McLaughlin 47:35
know, I wasn't too worried because I can just delete it. You know what I mean? Like on a YouTube, if I was a year and a half in two things, if I was a year and a half and had a broken a, it's either gonna make my journey sweeter. Or it's okay, it didn't work better delete all that. And I only had 1000 people listen to it. And only 1000 people think I'm an idiot instead of you know, the whole world. So yeah, that was I never was scared. But with that said, I should just put this out there as I was documenting my journey. When I reached out like in, in my later messages when I had been like, Hey, I had talked to like, in some of my messages, I had been like, I had talked to 150 people. I'm just, I would love to get your stuff. I would have reps call me managers call me. Well, you must suck. Because if you talk to 100 people, 250 people, you just must not have what it takes to break in. And I always laughed, and I was like, Oh, thank you. No, I appreciate it. Like always be nice, right? But internally, I'm like, screw you. Like, that's not me. But that's all right. And I I'm dead serious when I say this, everybody who said that, to me is no longer in the industry. They all quit and they went to a different industry. So everybody who was negative to me, that was rude to me when I was trying to break in and just be this hustling. That was mean, they're no longer in the industry. Literally the one guy I can I just remember him because he was so rude to me. Three months later, after I broke in with my company, he quit and went to go sell insurance or something like that. Like he just got out of it completely. And I was like, if I would have listened to that one, dude. You just rip me. And he told me like, because him and his girlfriend both worked at a top company. And they're like, yeah, you just must not be good enough. And I was like, thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. But they're both no longer in the industry. And I'm like, okay, it is what it is.
Patrick Kothe 49:13
Well, I can tell you that. That doesn't stop. So when I'm out raising money, and I talked to different different people, angel investors or VCs or something, and they don't treat you well. Well, I've got a long memory too. It's not you know, anytime you're out there selling, you're going to get people that are going to be good. Some people are not going to be good. Exactly. It's a personal confidence that you have and move in moving it and just staying with it.
Jacob McLaughlin 49:42
Yep. And again, it's just like, you know, I always looked at it, man, they're having a bad day. Like that was just his personal train. Sometimes I get ripped by my clients. But you know what, I also know my client is the CEO of $100 million company, and he's got a lot of stress and he's going through some stuff. That probably wasn't the right Let me I'm just the duty gets to see and I ate it, you know? So just being able to get Okay, that sucks. And maybe maybe they're right, but self reflection. I love self reflecting. Maybe he's right. But then I usually have a pretty good read. I'm like, No, when you have 20 other people saying you're so close, and then one person says, You suck, and you should give up, I just wouldn't go off that.
Patrick Kothe 50:22
So your podcast, you're sharing a lot of personal stuff, you're letting the whole journey the whole, you know what you're feeling, the process that you're going through. So in essence, what you're doing is you're giving your if if your interviewers are listening, you're giving them your playbook all day. So what was that? Like?
Jacob McLaughlin 50:41
Oh, and that's the thing right now in the position I'm in, I don't actually hire people. And my manager well, but like, I get to talk to people and have influence on that. But it's again, are you are you gonna do the work for me, like, even when, like, I'll just be honest, I have hundreds of people reach out to me a month because stuffs gone good. And I'm so fortunate about it. When you call me and you ask what company I work for, I get off the phone with you. It takes two seconds to look up my LinkedIn and say this is who you work for. It says to the date when I started for that company. Like, again, just going back to laziness. When people call me, it's like, it's what Gary Vee says I can give he gives out information to help people make hundreds of 1000s of dollars a years, he gives it out for free, because he knows 99.9% of people are so lazy, they won't do it. And so like that's my whole thing is I again, my whole journey with during this was just to help as many people as I can. I think this is a great industry. And I was like I wish somebody would have just helped me. And I also just believe in karma, right? Like if I do something good, and that helps somebody like it works. And like, that's my favorite is, every day I wake up and on my phone on LinkedIn, it's somebody saying thank you so much. I did what you said, I bought your book, I did whatever it was. And now I'm in the industry because of you and your encouragement and what you did, and I just had one, if it wasn't for you, I would have quit six months ago, and I just landed a job with a top company. Like those are the messages that filled my heart that I'm like, that's what I did it for, because I wish somebody would have been there to kind of help me. And then just being honest, I reached out to a couple people were that were the names that they never responded back to me. And I'm like, cool. That's why everybody who ever responds to me, literally, I'll go through, it's like, oh, 40 messages today, I respond to every single message. It might take me a couple days. But I respond to every single human being that ever reaches out to me because I know how special it just takes one person to change your life. But in the same respect, like we're saying, I have to protect my time. If you're not serious, I'm not going to be serious with you. I tell everybody, I'm willing to help everybody who's willing to help themselves. So like people who reach out to me and they're like, Hey, you know, like just even simply for me, Hey, listen to all my podcast before you reach out to me, because every question you're gonna ask I answered it in all my episodes. But you just listened to three and you thought it was the time to reach out what about listening to the 53 I have out and then you would know my whole story. And then you can talk to me. That's just been my mindset. But yeah, it's just to help as many people as I can.
Patrick Kothe 53:03
So as I said, you've you've given away the playbook a little bit, and people 99% of them aren't going to follow it. 1% are it's still is a good playbook. But I found your one of your episodes really, really curious. And one of your strategy strategy is really curious when you talk to us about the the strategy of of the giveaway that you have for an interview.
Jacob McLaughlin 53:28
Everything about sales is having people remember you. And I wanted people whether it's personal training, right when they say Jacob, I wanted him to be like, man, he's a great trainer. He has they have a good feeling after they leave my class, I give energy. That was who I was, I was the kid laugh and clap and smile, and I gave my energy to you. So you can go have a great stinking day. Same same energy. When I went into a medical device sales, I wanted to show that I was a great candidate. But when I went to close how I phrased it, I did all mine. It was during COVID. So it was all virtual. So I just put it in, but I was going to do it. If we were in person. I had a president club winner. Rep tell me he did this. And he's like, I've gotten every job I've ever done with something to this extent. And it was a guitar pick. And so I put a slide up a guitar pick. And then at the end of my interview, when I'm closing people, I was just like, I just want to if we were in person, I was going to give you a guitar pick. Because I wanted to show you why I'm the right pick for this job. And then what people don't understand is if that was actually in person, I would have gave them a guitar pick, they would have put it in their pocket and six hours later is when they take it out of their pocket when they're changing clothes. They wouldn't call that guitar pick and taught me and I would have been on their mind six hours later, or whatever it was. And it's the same same thing, right? That was like, I did that I got the job. I got every job I've done it with but he did it with like bamboo. Right? He did a bamboo seed. It's the fastest growing seed. I'm gonna grow this territory like little things but it was little things to make you stand out. And that's, I say this all the time when you're in the final interview. When there's three candidates in the final interview, every one of them couldn't get hired. They're all good enough to get hired. What are you doing to make yourself stand out between those other people to be like, yep, this is my guy, or my girl.
Patrick Kothe 55:09
One of the reasons why I find that really interesting is about 20 years ago, I was interviewing advertising agencies. And he's had a lot that was head of marketing. And we had advertising agencies coming in, they come in do a presentation after one of them came through. The next day, I received a FedEx package, and it had a handheld pick ax, with a note attached to it pick us. And it just so happened at that point time, one of my daughters was applying to colleges. So I took that pick x and I gave it to her head, and she applied to a college and sent that to a college and said with the same same thing, pick me and she ended up getting into that school. So this is this is not an idea that is is no Yep. But it was something that was effective. And as you said, 99% of people don't do it. The problem would be if a lot of people started and ended up you know, everybody who walked in the door is is giving guitar picks. Yep, that's, that's a bad, that's a bad situation. But I think what you're saying was, is whether it's a mustard seed, or whether it's a bamboo or whatever it is, make it unique to you and that person. There aren't a lot of new ideas out there. But there's new ways of applying those ideas. So make it you make it unique, because your story when I hear it is you did things that other people weren't doing. And you did them consistently. And that's what what led to it. Yep. And and whatever it is, make it you make it unique.
Jacob McLaughlin 56:40
Yep. And that's it. I say that all the time. I just did a podcast the other day, know your story. Why are you different? That's literally all it is. Why are you different? Why should they choose you over anybody else. And just to your point with the guitar pick, don't reinvent the wheel use that exact same thing. Because if you're in an interview that nobody did that, bam, you just set yourself apart. But even to the point of if everybody started do that, I would do something different. To make myself stand out again. And that's all this interview processes is, what am I doing to stand out. But the problem is, is people think they can do 90% 80% it's got to be you standing out and you're doing the right things 100% of the time, all the time, because it's no different when I break into the industry, like I know that now, you know, like, you can't be 80% because if you screw up, that's somebody's Mom, dad on the table. And that's somebody's life. And guess what, that's your business, that doctor doesn't trust you and like it just keeps going. And that's why I always tell people, you got to do the job to get the job because they're just seeing if they they can trust you to go in and with me doing stuff over and over and showing that I was always consistent. I was always on time I stuck to my word. I always did follow up. Like, I knew I was going to be able to do that once I broke into this industry.
Patrick Kothe 57:49
So you've been in in the job for a year now. You've been doing medical sales for a year? Is it what you expected it to
Jacob McLaughlin 57:55
be? Oh my gosh, yes. And no. There was there was some of the fun of like what people had told me. But if you would have told me I had to wear as many hats as I did, I would have never believed it. Because I'm also in an industry or my my division. I actually, apparently it's a little different. And I don't know, I would love to hear your thoughts. I actually sell both disposable and capital. So I have to close. So and again, I know that this isn't our product. Yep, oh, our product. So I have a quota for my disposable and a product for my capital, which a lot of times when I talk to people in the alar, they're just either worried about capital or they're worried about disposable. So again, that was a that's a great learning experience for myself. But it's also just the million different hats that I have to wear, that I never thought I would have to like, you know, I tell people all the time, it's like, customer service, I'm on the phone with customer service, I'm running stuff to running products to people, I'm dealing putting out fires, I'm answering all these questions, I'm doing all the opportunities that are possible, I have to close the sale, I have to enter all the paperwork that comes with it. I like just again, things that I didn't know just not being in the industry. But being like, wow, you were 100 different hats when you're here. And you have to be diverse. Because one day I can be in surgery when like in the same day, I can go run product, be in a surgery, make a sale, make a have a lunch, get two lunches and close a doctor. And that's not even two o'clock. And that's all in a day. And also put like enter and all that stuff. So again, it's just different things. And making sure that every place is up to speed, making sure your accounts have everything they need, making sure that they're prepared and like and just all the above.
Patrick Kothe 59:38
So you really attacked getting a job you're really attacked and you were successful to do it and and from what I understand you're successful so far in your career and in relation to your peers as well. Yeah. So congratulations on that. Well, thank you what's what's next for you because if you attacked, getting a job, that's one thing and then attack being successful? How are you going to attack your career? Yeah, if medical device is your career, how are you going to attack that portion? Yeah.
Jacob McLaughlin 1:00:09
And I think that's a great question. So again, I always have like goals where I'm reaching to where I would like to be eventually, but also trying to be great at where I'm at. Because I've listened to a lot of things, if you can be great, where you're at, it's gonna open up new horizons to where you're going. So that was for me was like, hey, when I took over the territory that I took over, there was the lowest performing territory in the nation, it actually had never performed ever knocking on some wood, I got it performing. And my, you know, my quota got it increased. And I took over and I did it. But like, right now, I'm in the top five in the nation. And again, that's not for me bragging, it's just the hard work that I put in, again, COVID could wipe all that out. And I understand that, but just knowing that like, hey, what I set out to do a year ago, I am accomplishing it. And I know the amount of hours I've worked, I know the amount of travel the heart hours, the relationships, I've built the, the the deer I've ate, to do all this stuff. It's fun to see. And then again, for me, it's just like, hey, what can I do to be great in the position I am right now, and see what opportunities come from that. You know, like I said, I do have a roadmap to where I think I would like to get to, but again, I could be doing this right now. And then something different comes up or something happens in the world. And I'm like, Okay, what are we doing now? But it's my best advice on that question is, I'm just gonna give everything I got to what I'm doing right now, with a goal in mind, but just take it day by day and see where it's gonna go. Because positions, open up opportunities, open up, careers, open up, and just, again, just attack it at full force with whatever I'm doing.
Patrick Kothe 1:01:41
As I said, at the beginning, Jacob did some very traditional things, and some things that were very non traditional. But he knew what he wanted, and found the path to get there. A few of my takeaways, first, take chances, and he took some big ones. But what he said is, you know, what do you have to lose? If you fail? You're where you started. So what's what's the big deal? If you reach out to someone, and they don't reply, so what you don't know them any better than what you did when you reached out. Also, you can, you can always erase the podcast. The second thing that stood out to me is ask for help. And Jacob did that with 1000s of cold emails that he sent out to different people. And the thing is, people genuinely want to help. That is the not only physicians, but people within the industry as well. So people want to help just ask for it. But you have to do it in an interesting way. And not just helped me but you have to make sure that that they know that there's something in it for them too. And the final thing is hard work is hard. And that's why most people won't do it. So people may know what to do. But they don't have the desire, or the willingness to work hard enough to do it. And that's a real thing. The real thing out there people are just aren't willing to do the things and if you are willing to do the things, you're going to have a payoff on the end. The other thing is, you know, all the reading that you do or all the listening to podcasts you do, well let's just useless unless you implement what you're learning. So, what are you going to implement from today's episode? Thanks. Thank you for listening. Make sure you get episodes downloaded to your device automatically by liking or subscribing to the mastering medical device, podcast and Apple podcast Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Also, please spread the word and tell a friend or two to listen to the mastering medical device podcast. As interviews like today's can help you become a more effective medical device leader. Work hard. Be kind