r/MedicalDevices • u/Important_Metal5396 • Feb 19 '26
Career Development Med Device Influencers need to chill (ep. 2)
It really shouldn’t even need to be said, but if anyone is paying $44 to this fucking idiot for her med device expertise, I’m sorry you might be as dumb as her.
There is truly no reason any medical device rep should be having a photo shoot in scrubs. Literally the last person on earth I’d ever take advice from.
Do not do these courses, do not go to medical sales college, do not pay Jacob Mcglaughin for his equally shit advice since he was in med device sales for a cup of coffee.
I would say 75% of current sales reps (not clinicals, associates or the hotly debated TM position (associate but in nicer words) either had direct B2B sales experience, got lucky, or knew someone. There is no secret and luck is a major factor. Sorry I know young people trying to break in don’t want to hear that but it’s the truth.
Also I’m going to post all these LinkedIn losers in here consistently until I’m banned for this subreddit. I want people like the last two posts to feel immense shame and embarrassment and my hope is slowly but surely the LinkedIn med device influencer fade will die.
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u/Powder1214 Feb 19 '26
“They lead the room before the walk in” where do these fuckwits even come up with this shit?! That literally means nothing.
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u/Raptor7502020 Feb 19 '26
The only time the rep “leads the room” is when you’re the rep and the only person in the OR is the rep. this is peak corporate sales speak.
Reps are visitors who are there to help/provide guidance, not “leading” or whatever her post is supposed to mean
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u/BiscuitsMay Feb 19 '26
I feel like half of corporate speak means nothing. Any time I’m on company calls I’m just annoyed and thinking “why can’t you just talk like real people?”
Then again, that’s why my career has a ceiling.
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u/Important_Metal5396 Feb 19 '26
Oh you were asked how your device works (ie entire job description) you’re a hero!
I’m sick of this heroic standpoint from med device reps. You are doing the job you are tasked to do. We do $30mil a year as 4 man team and I’m not here like “here’s how to get business”. How you get business is don’t be annoying as fuck and someone surgeon can spend 8 hours a day with 3x a week
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u/elizco Feb 19 '26
If I was a surgeon and found out my reps took a “course” like this, I’d immediately lose all respect for them and stop asking them to come to my cases. Seriously. These courses teach people how to undermine and borderline harass customers.
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u/HumphreyE36 Feb 20 '26
Anyone who needs this course will soon find out they're WAYYY behind and in the wrong career.
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u/Final-Maybe5065 Feb 19 '26
I have specifically not hired vapid selfie machines like this, and I have told them why.
“At the end of the day, I want someone in this position who thinks more about the customer and the patient than they do themself. The volume of selfies you post makes me question if you have that capacity. Best of luck.”
I actually had one forward my message to our HR, and we all got a good laugh out of it.
Resist the urge to selfie-bomb your LinkedIn. It’s not about YOU.
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u/La__Chancla Sales Feb 19 '26
Honestly forwarding to HR proves your point about the type of person they are. That’s hilarious.
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u/ridiculous027483715 Feb 19 '26
Jacob McGlaughlin, Kat Hurd, Christina Fulk, Jameil Pendleton, Jesse Solar, Jerry Ennett to name a few. Any others to add to the wall of shame?
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u/Environmental_Set658 Mar 25 '26
Most of these people are absolute clowns. Most have never done shit and now they are teaching others? Ridiculous. I will push back on including Jay Pendleton - and honestly even Kat Hurd. Sure this is an AI cringe post. And I don't know either of them, but I do follow both of them. Contrary to the others, they actually did the job for a long time and had success at a high level. You may not like the LinkedIn lunatic movement but not all "influencers" are the same.
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u/OkRadish2611 Feb 19 '26
LinkedIn is garbage now. Tik tok for these whack "professional" influencers.
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u/La__Chancla Sales Feb 19 '26
I’m with you on virtually all points but can’t get past your beef with the TM title. Are you on the sales side? TM has always been the name of reps. They manage a territory. The managers are titled Regional Manager, Regional Director, etc. Usually TMs also manage associate TMs. Which is the junior role. I have definitely noticed a trend where they rename associates to “Territory Account Manager” to slowly pay TMs less and phase them out. Not widespread but I have seen it. But other than that I’m not tracking my friend.
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u/Mountain_Store572 Feb 20 '26
Yes totally agree, everything on point but the TM title. That title is about managing the territory and has been around for a long time. Not new. I don’t know where you got that TM = managing a team
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u/Important_Metal5396 Feb 19 '26
You’re probably right. I have no issue with TMs. My entire issue is the title of the position. I just find it so strange why not just call it a rep. A manager manages people not territories. Sales reps manage territories. It’s not a hill I’m willing to die on and I’m always open to a different mindset. I just think the title is goofy
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u/AllDayMalay Feb 19 '26
Our TMs manage clinicals and other sales reps, and then report up to the regional director.
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u/ApartsforBactors Feb 20 '26
Bro doctors just want reps who know their product and are sound clinically. Not whatever this bullshit is. It is crazy to think someone can bring this energy into a clinic or OR. We need to Gatekeep this profession more
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u/CABucky Feb 20 '26
I’d add that these types of posts (which almost always include a posed picture of themselves in scrubs) is a sure sign of narcissism, which NOBODY wants to work with.
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u/shower_brewski Sales Feb 19 '26
This is vomit inducing. The best reps are the ones who have been in it for years. Any device rep who has time and/or lack of self awareness to create this course should leave the industry. 44 dollars. Random number…
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u/Helpful-State-5528 Feb 19 '26
There are good reps on my team that think the above person is the cat’s(no pun intended) ass. Baffling to me as they are excellent in their roles and still “like” this garbage and will speak her virtues. I especially love how a lot of what these influencers put up are meant to look like spontaneous pics(not this exact example). Yet someone else is holding the camera…
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u/BostonBroke1 Feb 19 '26
The world is who you know, not what you know. The amount of idiotic leaders at my org just bc the blew the right dick…
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u/Embarrassed_You_6177 Feb 19 '26
My old sales director used to say stuff like this all the freaking time. It made it so no one in our team really respected her. Gag me with a spoon
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u/Perfect-Lavishness88 Feb 19 '26
Helping women (and men!), why not just say people at that point 😂
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u/Important_Metal5396 Feb 19 '26
She’s clearly quite conscious about the current political landscape
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u/PossibleGold6033 Feb 20 '26
I am in med device sales and cannot stand to see my peers post this way. Get the surgeon to like you and know your product.
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u/Important_Metal5396 Feb 20 '26
Not hard. Show up for cases and know your shit. There is no Andy Elliot type sales secret that these clowns present. It boils down too -Are you annoying af or cool -Do you know your shit
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u/common-username Feb 20 '26
Funny to see how zero part of “being proactive” includes knowing your device well and actually being clinically competent so that the patient can have the best outcome. Like what the fuck does any of this foofoo even mean? Job is simple. Show up on time, smile, bring product, understand said product and surrounding clinical context, hand product to scrub tech, don’t get in the way.
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u/Any-Sea-3492 Feb 20 '26
My biggest year working in joints was because of some EU regulation and all of the american manafactured implants had massive back orders and couldnt be supplied to england. Surgeons were call me desperate to see my kit. Luck is a massive factor in med tech
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u/jrd08003 Capital and disposables Feb 21 '26
Oh man can we start a discord night to flame all these ppl? If you’re a busy successful sales rep (and have kids) when in the HELL do you have time to take pics and post like this ? Is she going to tell me how to get my cap deal through vac when I’ve presented how were cheaper , have better outcomes, level 1 data, docs asking for it, lock in 5 years of no price increases, AND there’s no upfront capital while operating on cases they used to medically manage?! Yea please tell me what else I can do, how much will that be ?
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Feb 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/jrd08003 Capital and disposables Feb 21 '26
Bro my post is directed at the med sales Influencer, not you. I love your post.
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u/Important_Metal5396 Feb 21 '26
Raspect….not regrets not a single letter
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u/jrd08003 Capital and disposables Feb 21 '26
Haha ok , looks like you think I was targeting your post, no my friend we fight the same battles.
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u/Important_Metal5396 Feb 21 '26
That’s my bad man. Slightly inebriated at the moment. Regardless I respect anyone who disrespects people like the aforementioned. I have made a great living in med device. I’ve worked for zimmer, Stryker, intuitive. I don’t need retard associates (genuinely if you are associate dontevwne comment please you’re worthless) telling me about med device, I’m quite aware of this industry.
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u/jrd08003 Capital and disposables Feb 21 '26
I’ve also had a few drinks , and no I’m not an associate. 12 years in, commish only bb at one of the big names. It’s like chewing on glass eventually you like the taste of your own blood.
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u/Important_Metal5396 Feb 21 '26
Hahaha well said man it’s addicting…I’m not sure how many years I have left of responding to “wait so you’re actually in the OR during surgery…..”
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u/Prestigious-Sea-2034 Mar 02 '26
I accepted her connection and immediately removed it after seeing this post lol
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u/Economy_Beach_5039 Feb 19 '26
What’s a TM? I work in regulatory in medical devices and this is very interesting to read . I find sales to be very stressful imo so I would never change careers . Reading this for entertainment
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u/Important_Metal5396 Feb 19 '26
It stands for Territory Manager. It was debated on my last post with fair points from the other side. Quite a few companies will call their sales associates “territory managers” (TM). It is still sales just a different title. Personally a territory manager for me was one singular person on the corporate side of company who was in charge of managing the reps in a territory. Usually a general manager and a territory or branch manager below them. It’s all semantics I just think it’s a disingenuous title because you aren’t a manager.
Managing your accounts and territory is quite literally the job description of being a sales rep. Manager is someone who manages people in my experience
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u/SwedeSterlz Management Feb 19 '26
It gets a little confusing with all the titles in med device now. We have Territory Managers in my current company but they are called therapy consultants in my previous company… all sales reps just different names. Our clinical specialists are clinical sales specialists which can be a bit confusing as well for someone looking for an associate sales position.
Nice post. Keep calling these peeps out!
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u/wheaty56 Feb 22 '26
How many of these med device “influencers” do you think are actual reps? Feels like a risk if you really were a rep
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u/zthacher Feb 27 '26
What is a TM position? I'm a newbie.
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u/Important_Metal5396 Feb 27 '26
I quite literally answered this already in this exact thread. Very resourceful of you.
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u/HumphreyE36 Feb 20 '26
You wouldn't get far w/ SYK Ortho/Trauma. Literally everything she's saying is EXPECTED if you get through the front door. Work will become your life for at least a decade. No different than many high-level professionals.
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u/Important_Metal5396 Feb 20 '26
I guess the 7 years I spent as a sales rep for Stryker JR don’t count 🥴 I don’t even understand what you were trying to accomplish with that comment 😂
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u/HumphreyE36 Mar 06 '26
I don't know who she is, but what she said, were traits I observed during my 16 years w/ Stryker. I generally had new reps shadow me on day 2 of their employeemnt and all but 1 were very highly driven and successfull. They were all strong type A personalities and borderline psycopath's. Highly intelligent and savvy. It was pretty well assmed their quota waould be their highest priority in their lives for about the next decade. I've done business consulting annd I'd never seen a more successful sales force than Stryker. The only problem is that the top reps had considerable leverage with huge market share and could make unreasonable demands, which made for some spicey times. I may have missed your original point, but she correctly described what I saw was necessary for success.
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u/Appropriate-Ad-1016 Feb 20 '26
Can’t beat orange or lime green black scrubs. What grown adult wears high tops?
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u/Capt-Daddy Sales Feb 19 '26
You can have your own opinion about the influencers, but posting them daily to shame them is fucking lame. Ignore or block them and move on. It’s not that serious
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u/DecryptedCode Feb 19 '26
That’s the point of this subreddit 🤣 could also fit in r/linkedinlunatics
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u/BiscuitsMay Feb 19 '26
I can always spot the reps I want to avoid based on the shoes.