The Unspoken Secret That Holds the Power to Shape Your Success
Ever marveled at those admired individuals, wondering why people trust and flock to them?
Their secret? Credibility. It's often overlooked but crucial for success. We're thrilled to invite you to our personalized consulting sessions. Whether you're entering the field, feeling stagnant, or aiming to enhance skills, we're here for you. Our unique two-on-one sessions promise a dynamic, enriching experience. Let's embark on this journey together, honing your abilities and ensuring your success.
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Transcript:
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Anneliese Rhodes: Have you ever wondered about the secret behind that person's incredible success? How is it that they consistently land every deal they go after? Curious to discover the one thing that sets those individuals apart from the rest?
Cynthia Ficara: Listen in as we provide the keys to unlock this secret. Welcome
Anneliese Rhodes: to the Secrets in Medical Device Sales. I am Annalisa Rose. And I am Cynthia Ficarra. Together, we are the Girls of Grit. Two professional women bringing you over 40 years experience as top performers, top earners, and leaders in the male dominated medical device industry. Welcome Tune in as
Cynthia Ficara: we give you the keys to unlock the secrets to success in medical device sales.
Anneliese Rhodes: Good morning, Cindy. Good morning to all of our listeners out there. Good morning, Lisa. And good morning, everyone. We are so excited to share a really exciting update with all of you. So we are starting a new opportunity for personalized consulting sessions. And we cannot wait to share this opportunity with all of you.
So whether you're eager to break into the field, maybe you're feeling a bit stagnant in your current position or simply seeking to enhance your skills that you have now. We've got your back and our doors are wide open to support you every step of the way. And it's not just one on one consulting. It's two on one.
So it's really exciting. And Cindy and I cannot wait to offer this to all of you. So today we are talking about something that Cindy and I are truly passionate about.
Cynthia Ficara: Exactly. When you're in a meeting, when you're anywhere and you're, you notice those people that really stand out and you're wondering what makes them so great.
Why is it that everybody likes them? Why is it that people want to buy from them? And what can I do to get that business? And together, Lisa and I really broke it down and thought it comes down to one thing. There is one consistent theme amongst these successful people and that is, drumroll, if I could do that, credibility.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yes, it is. And it's something that I think we may take for granted sometimes, especially those of us that have been doing this for so long. But it's really important to assess. How does credibility? How does 1 get credibility? How do you build it? How do you become that trusted advisor? Whether it's in the or.
Or it's in front of your consumers or customers in a board meeting, or if it's just out there pounding the streets every day, how do you become that credible rep that everyone loves to be around? Everyone wants to work with and everyone wants to buy from,
Cynthia Ficara: you know, I have a pretty good example. Last year, we had a.
So, unfortunately, it went all the way through the back in the closet on the floor. So long story short, we pretty much had what we did. We had to gut our bathroom and start over. So our house isn't even that old, but it's a matter of, oh my gosh, now I have to find somebody I trust. So you're getting estimates.
Just like when you're working with other people, you get good feelings about people, bad feelings. So think about what you do in this situation. You're going to ask people for references. Who do you trust? Then you're looking at prices. And honestly, when I think about contractors, I've heard nightmares from friends that say, Oh, we booked this contractor, then they didn't come for weeks.
Like my neighbors had that when they had painters they hired, they had already paid the money up front. Four weeks went by, they never showed up. So, yeah, pretty scary, right? So it makes me think, okay, who can I trust? Number one, being in my home. Who is not going to charge me way above and beyond what this job is worth?
Because maybe I don't know that much about what they're doing. And then who's actually going to show up? Who's going to be on time? And the bottom line, who's going to do a good job? And so that to me is all summed up in one word and that's credibility. You just talked about
Anneliese Rhodes: everything that literally applies across the board.
Who can I trust in my home? Who am I going to trust in my OR? Who am I going to trust to lead the procedure and bring the product? On time at the right moment, they're choosing the right products to use. You basically just talked about everything that we're going to talk about today. And like I mentioned, I think sometimes we forget that this is such a key thing.
You talking about this actually makes me think about another example. I mean, men and women alike, but I know women. Our face, our skin is really important to us, especially as we get older and . I have a few ladies, yeah, . I have a few ladies that I go to for some stuff, but you know, I found a really great esthetician, I don't know, a couple years ago, recommended to me by girlfriends.
Who have beautiful skin. So of course I'm like, well, if they like her and they trust her, I'm going to trust her. And I let her do some pretty crazy things, including like putting hard peels on my skin. And I know this sounds like super silly, but it's really important because it's your face, it's your skin.
What if she did the wrong thing and she burnt the crap out of my skin? Right? Again, I went, I heard from my girlfriends, I saw the results. I liked her. And when I met her, she was very warm and welcoming. She was very. Explicit and exactly what to expect. She checked up on me afterwards. It's all the same things that we do as sales reps and medical devices.
And it's, it's something that I think is really important and we can't overlook it. So I'm really glad we're talking about it today. Cindy. Because I think all of our listeners will really appreciate what we're going to cover today.
Cynthia Ficara: Oh, I absolutely agree. It's something that it's always there, but we just want to take a little bit of time today to talk about being aware of it.
And so just to define, I actually looked up a definition. I'm going to read this to you. Credibility is defined as a characteristic of a person who is perceived by others to be a trusted advisor, Believable and confident by exhibiting a high level of expertise in a certain subject. So, clearly, that's kind of like what we just said in those 2 examples.
So, what's really fun about today is we're just going to take this episode to either talk about building, well, break down what makes credibility so we can help build up yours. So, to make it easy, again, we're just going to break this down in 3 simple things. So we're calling this the three C's of credibility and the three words we're going to talk about today are number one, competence, number two, consistency, and number three, confidence.
Anneliese Rhodes: And I think those all sum it up really, really well. So diving right in the very first C as Cindy mentioned is competence. And this is something that I think is. Uber important in every job and every aspect of everyone's life. If they want to be successful, continue their business model and continue gaining their customers over time.
So what do we mean by that is if you want to look at a definition, it basically is saying one's job and ability to perform tasks effectively will also help increase your credibility, but it's your knowledge, right? You need to know your product. You need to know your procedure. And you need to know the industry.
I mean, you need to know everything about everything that you can because at the end of the day, your name will be synonymous with your product. And if your name is saying, oh, I don't really know a whole lot. Well, guess what? Then you're not going to get the sales. So how do you do this? One of the first things is just like I mentioned, invest the time to read and learn everything you can about your product, about the procedure, about the industry that you're calling on.
I mean, if you are not going to become the smartest person in the room about your product, then why are you there? They're depending on you to know everything you can about that product. So that's really important. You know, another thing, and we talked about this, actually, in one of our prior episodes is reach out to your mentors.
Everyone has a mentor or a leader or a trainer that is there to really get you through kind of the nuts and bolts of your product and procedure, but also. Lean on them when you're struggling with something. If there's a troubleshooting issue that you need more information on, those mentors are really good for you to lean into.
Cynthia Ficara: Absolutely. We just can't say that enough. I think that's something we just have to keep repeating. You're always going to have to lean on people, trainers, mentors, or people who have been doing this longer than you have. So something else we're talking about mentors, but what about thinking about partnering with expert customers in our world?
You know, maybe there's a doctor that has many, many years experience going into 1 of the areas you're working, whether it be orthopedics, neuro cardiovascular and. Some of those physicians love to teach and love to learn and when you can learn from them and think about it, you go to another customer, you've gained all this knowledge from that physician who speaks so knowledgeable and beyond like capital C with competence when it comes to their area of expertise.
That's really fun. So if you have the opportunity, whether it be in your area or reach out to a mentor that has a relationship with a physician or a customer that can really help you learn from them, and they, many of them love to give back and teach. I find that more often than not.
Anneliese Rhodes: I agree with you. You know, a lot of I'm sure you did this Cindy, but all through my career, I have always leaned on physicians, the ones that I trust and they trust me that I can go in and watch them do procedures.
I mean, I will tell you back when I first started medical devices. I had a relationship with one of the general surgeons in town, he's now retired, but I went to him prior to even getting into medical devices, and this is back a long time ago, easier to get into the OR than it is these days, but he brought me in as an observer and he taught me so much and just that one time that I went into the OR with him, I loved the procedure.
I realized that I love the procedure. I love being in surgery. The smells didn't bother me, all of the things that you worry about when you first get into medical devices, he was able to kind of bring me in and that was so key to my learning and really gave me that competence in terms of what he did as a general surgeon.
But then also I learned a lot about the products that I would potentially be selling. So 1000%, if you can code directly to a physician or to your customer and have them teach you something, gosh, that's bar none.
Cynthia Ficara: Absolutely. It's golden ticket of education and seeking out that opportunity is amazing. You know, whether it is an internship, shadowing, volunteering, networking with people who you can learn more about, it's always, always be learning.
You never want to stop learning. And I think what links to that is something that I think is so crucial, and that is being coachable. Maybe that should have been another C to credibility, but I think it's really important because yes, we're always learning, and then we can tweak and adjust as we go. When somebody is there to give you instructive criticism, good end, and feedback about where to grow, you become even more competent.
Anneliese Rhodes: You bring up a really good point. So we talked about a little bit of this when we were talking about breaking into the space, right? Being coachable is one of the biggest things that we look at when we are hiring folks to come in and do our jobs or be sales reps for us. I mean, that is if they're not coachable.
You're wasting your time because there are certain things that everyone has to learn about every industry and usually they're breaking into a new one. So there's always going to be opportunity for learning and you're correct. Cindy, if you're not coachable, you might as well just kiss it goodbye.
Because a lot of folks don't want to work with somebody that doesn't want to learn, doesn't want to increase their knowledge that literally stays stagnant. And I think it's a super big C.
Cynthia Ficara: And never being afraid to learn and never let that fear of making a mistake stand in your way. You know, we've said before, fail forward.
The tiny mistakes, the little things you make that when you put yourself out there, you learn from them and you just get stronger and stronger and you build that competence. And I think that's huge. You got to learn from your mistakes and it's how you react. Do you pick yourself back up and know what to do next time?
That will give you true, true higher level of competence. That C is very, very important. So, we're going to move on. Um, second one, because Lisa, I have a question. Do you remember in New Year's, when we talked about goals, and I was saying that I don't really like goals, but I believe in doing one word of the year?
Do you remember what my word was?
Anneliese Rhodes: No, and I don't remember mine either. , .
Cynthia Ficara: Well, clearly . Oh boy. You're not being consistent in your memory because my word was consistency. . Oh, yay. Clapping. And it's, that's awesome. It's something that I, you know, it's funny thinking back about that. It's like, okay, well what I feel like I know what I need to do.
Remember we were saying this? Oh yeah. But then it's like, do I just do it? Am I consistent? Am I consistent every time I show up? Am I really bringing forth what I'm setting out to do? So being consistent in, in both your behavior and your actions is what really increases that credibility. Because when you deliver on your promises and your commitments, that builds that trust that we mentioned.
You're going to be trusted much better. And more credible. So actually, I have an example of like, what not to do this reminded me it was a while back, but in 1 of the hospitals that I go to 1 of my competitors was some had a representative that was always late. And so. The manager was trying to set forth, you know, you need to be here on time.
Your product has to be here prior to when we bring the patient in. Unfortunately, this person had to be told time and time again. And it got so bad that the OR manager didn't even trust him showing up on time. So she would call ahead days before have the product shipped into her. That's more work for her consistently.
He then was known as not being reliable, not showing up on time, not being coachable, being told over and over again. You need to get here early. You need to get here an hour early. You need to show up. So, where's the trust in that? Where do you build that credibility? If you can't trust him to be on time, do you trust what he's saying to you in a procedure in a moment that goes bad?
Anneliese Rhodes: Great example. That's a great example. And I agree with you. I mean, actually, I'm scratching my head going, how the heck is he still a rep? I mean, that's a long time ago. And don't be that guy. Yeah. I mean, very, very first thing that you need to be able to be is punctual and if or early to all of your cases, because all of us know, at least those of us in surgery, great.
Things never go as planned. Sometimes they go early. Sometimes they go late. Sometimes they go urgently. You have to be able to be flexible, but you better be there on time or early. I mean, that is, that is one of the key things to being consistent. And, you know, and you're right because they tie that, they tied that lateness to his competence.
To his credibility, it's like, man, if I can't even trust you to get in your car with your products and drive to the hospital on time to be here to support me, why the heck am I even using you? And I think that is so key. You are actually making me think of another example that I really kind of took for granted, um, that one of my physicians said to me, but now that we're talking about this, it really kind of rang true.
So this was a couple of years ago, but it was a product that I was selling where you really needed, you obviously were bringing the product in for the surgeon, but you were, you weren't hands on, but you were really there to support them like every step of the way, telling them exactly what they're going to be doing.
And this was in a very high level case, and this was with a cardiothoracic surgeon and he basically said to me, he goes, you know, Lisa, he goes, I love your clinicals and I love when you have them come and cover cases for you. They're great, but they're not you. And I said, Dr. Smith, tell me more about that.
What do you mean by is that a good thing or is it a bad thing? And he's like, it's kind of a bad thing. He's like, I know that when you come into my cases, I don't have to worry about the product. I don't have to worry about you. I don't have to worry about anything going wrong. And if it does, you're going to fix it.
And I don't, it's one less thing for me to think about. And you know, Cindy, I thought about that just now, and that is like something that's really important. And it didn't even occur to me because it was something that I just always do, but it's, I always show up on time. I'm always early. I have the right product.
I tell them the right things. I get them out of hairy situations and they happen. I mean, hairy situations happen everywhere, but it's like they knew that if they call me and I come, it's all going to be okay. And that really is something that I think consistency definitely speaks to.
Cynthia Ficara: Excellent definition of consistency, and all of that builds your credibility.
So you think of those years and those times that you went in. Each time you went in, you're delivering that competence, correct? And now you're consistent in every single time you're in a case, which brings us to our third C of confidence. Because what you just described to me is the two C's together equal the third.
Correct. When you have competence. Your customers know you're knowledgeable when you're consistent, they can rely on you. There's a reliability factor involved in the word consistency and that is you're competent. You are going to deliver on what you say, because these doctors have a million things are thinking about.
I kind of think about in an hour. It's like. When, I once had a surgeon say, working in an OR is like being the conductor to an orchestra. When you walk in the room, there's all these people working there, and everybody has a little job, but when you come in, you command the role. So if you think about it, all of us have a little chair in that orchestra, correct?
So if we're really good in our chair, and we show up, and we're confident, and we're he'll have the confidence in us to always put us in that chair. Oh, my gosh. I love that example.
Anneliese Rhodes: I've never heard that before, Cindy. I really love that. You know what it reminds me of? This is so, this is me putting, bringing it back to me, but it reminds me about being a performer when you're the soloist, right?
But you have the entire orchestra behind you. You need all these people in the orchestra to play the instruments and the conductor to make sure they're playing the right. Things at the right times, but then your part comes up and you're the soloist and you're the only one on stage. Well, you're, I mean, you've got the orchestra either behind you or in the pit, but you're the one that's now the star for the next two or three minutes.
And I love that example because that is synonymous with surgery. You're so correct. Honestly, that example could also be for the contractor example that you used, you know, or a wedding photographer. I mean, things that we talk about that we, we only hired them. We only use them because we trusted on their competence and, you know, their consistency and knowing their work is good and knowing they're going to be there every single time and knowing they're going to show up.
That's confidence.
Cynthia Ficara: Well, I love the example of your singing because I have zero singing and theater talent. So when you said that, I'm like, wow, I wouldn't even think about having an orchestra. But honestly, of all these three Cs, you know, how do we build and sustain this trust with our clients and colleagues?
And I think there's a couple of things to just really tie this into. And I think number one is being consistent and transparent. Number two, if you communicate effectively and be respectful, absolutely. Bye. But I also think in your conversation, showing empathy and understanding is very, very relevant to our jobs.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah, gosh, those are, those are so great. I think a couple more, like we mentioned, is, hey, seek the feedback, go to your mentors, ask them, say, hey, I'm struggling with this. Don't be so prideful that you can't ask for help. Everybody makes mistakes. Nobody knows everything. Even your surgeons, they all, they all need something.
They all have their own mentors. I mean, they follow and a lot of them follow in the tracks of their mentors. So seek those opportunities and go after those mentors and get the feedback that you need to build the confidence. Um, by showing. Over and over again, this competence and this consistency, you are demonstrating value and impact.
I mean, you really, truly are bringing value to your surgeons, to the OR, when you consistently do the things that we talked about. And I think that's, that's really important. And overall, you're going to be building your relationships with your surgeons, with your nurses, with your, all of your customers.
With your teammates in turn, those are your networks. Those are the things that are going to continually build you up and you're going to lean on them and you're going to just build your complete success story by doing the things that I, that we talked about today in order to become that true credible rep.
You need those three C's.
Cynthia Ficara: In summary, we hope throughout this episode that we have provided valuable insights as well as actionable steps to help you enhance your credibility. And we really hope that this episode provided you with a solid grasp of the three C's of credibility, which we believe, again, are competence, consistency, and confidence.
So, take this key and unlock the secret to building and maintaining credibility in your business. Mom, why is this so fun today?
Anneliese Rhodes: So our call to action today is simple. Go to our website and book your two for one consulting session with us, the girls of grit. It is super easy to do. Click the top right hand of the website that says book now and we will be there for you.
Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the girls of grit. We are so happy you joined us today. Please don't forget to rate us on Apple podcast and Spotify. We look forward to hearing from you on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, or go to our website and join our mailing list. Talk to you soon.
Have a great day and a great week. Bye. Bye everyone.
