Behind the Scenes for Holiday Season Success

Secrets in Medical Device Sales dives into the ultimate guide for crushing the holiday season without missing a beat.

In this episode, The Girls of Grit tackles the stress and chaos of balancing work, family, and personal goals during the busiest time of the year.

From simple preparation tips to reverse engineering your calendar for success, they reveal strategies for staying ahead in medical device sales and setting yourself up for a winning start to 2025. 

Whether you’re managing holiday dinners, closing Q4 deals, or stocking hospital shelves, this episode is packed with actionable advice for thriving through the holidays. And don’t forget—self-care is key!

Tune in for relatable stories, laughter, and insights that inspire you to conquer the season like a pro. Say goodbye to dry January and hello to success! 

Listen now to advance this holiday season and carry the momentum into the new year!

Episode Chapter Markers

00:00 Introduction 

01:32 Holiday Stress and Overwhelm

03:07 Personal Stories and Tips

07:08 The Secret to Success: Simple Preparation

08:46 Organizing for the Holidays

11:49 Setting Up for a Successful January

20:11 Self-Care

Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments

• Balancing Holiday Stress with Work Demands: They explore how to juggle professional responsibilities and holiday tasks, especially for working moms and career-driven women, with practical tips to stay organized.

• Reverse Engineering for Efficiency: Setting December 20th as the "new December 31st," they break down how to plan backward from key deadlines to ensure everything is accomplished before the holidays hit full swing.

• Simplifying Success Through Preparation: The focus is on mastering the basics—prioritizing accounts, showing up for clients, and ensuring critical tasks like stocking inventory are handled ahead of time.

• Starting January Strong: Practical advice on maintaining business momentum through the holidays ensures January is productive and stress-free, avoiding the dreaded “dry January” in sales.

• The Value of Personal Connection: Showing up for customers, scheduling key meetings, and maintaining visibility during the season are presented as essential strategies to strengthen relationships and close deals.

• Prioritizing Self-Care: A reminder to schedule time for self-care amidst the chaos, with ideas like workouts, spa days, or quiet walks, ensuring personal well-being doesn’t take a backseat.

Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode

• "Be mindful of cutoff dates and be mindful of when your customers are taking off, whether that's in purchasing or your physicians themselves.” — Anneliese Rhodes

• "Showing up and being there—you’ll solve some problems while you’re showing up.” — Anneliese Rhodes

• "Reverse engineer all your planning, and look at December 20th. This is your last day. Now start working backward." — Cynthia Ficara

• "There’s nothing better for momentum in your business than to come back with business ready to keep you going after New Year." — Cynthia Ficara

• "Our secret to success during the holiday season? It’s simple preparation—focusing on the basics and keeping it all aligned."— Cynthia Ficara

• "The holidays should be a time to stop and be grateful for everything that we have during these holidays and celebrate with your families.” — Cynthia Ficara

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Blog Transcript:

Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies

Anneliese Rhodes: Welcome everyone to another episode of Secrets in Medical Device Sales, brought to you by the Girls of Grit. We are so happy you guys continue to join and listen to us. And today we have a really fun episode. I'm really looking forward to this, Cindy.

Cynthia Ficara: I am too. I think it's the most relaxed and fun I've felt in a little while, which is good. This is how I want to feel this time of year—relaxed, laughing.

Anneliese Rhodes: Rolling into the holidays, stressful as the holidays can be, especially for all of you working mamas out there and wives—man, it can be very stressful. But Cindy and I are here today to give you guys some really good tips and advice on how to handle the holidays. We’re going to get you prepped and ready for success to set you up for a good new year.

Cynthia Ficara: And before we reveal our secret and how we're going to do that, we were just absolutely laughing. You know, we've been doing this a long time, and every year, this time of year is where you start to feel, I don’t know what the word is, like tightness. Overwhelmed, or you’re excited.

And then it all depends because I think everybody has different roles during the holidays. It's like if you're a working mom, a working wife, a single mom, or even a man out there, for some reason, mid-November to the end of December, regardless of what holiday you celebrate—Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, Thanksgiving—everyone feels the stress.

Every one of your customers feels the stress. Every commercial on TV is that way. Pretty much most Americans do celebrate Thanksgiving next week. And then it's the travel, and you watch everything you have planned for that week. It's like Yikes, I thought I had a whole work week, and I really only have a couple of days.

Anneliese Rhodes: Yes.

Cynthia Ficara: So these are all the things that we’ve faced over and over, and we thought it’d be really fun today to talk through some of them and help you all make this a very successful holiday season.

Holiday Hustle: Balancing Work and Family During the Season

Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, we’ve both been through this, Cindy. I mean, we’re both still going through this. I still have one little one at home and four teenagers. Well, three teenagers—I’m adding a teenager into the mix. Do you need another one? Add another one. I mean, it sounds like you do.

But I will tell you, talk about stress—this will make you laugh. I don’t know where Brooklyn got this timer from. Brooklyn's my 10-year-old. She has a Christmas timer. Literally, a Christmas timer. She knows how stressed out I get about Christmas because it’s Christmas, and then it’s her birthday. So, there’s so much stuff, you know?

The other day, she did this every week, and she started reminding me seven weeks out. I’m like, Okay, I’m good. Then, the other day, she’s like, Mommy, guess how many weeks till Christmas? I’m like, I don’t want to know. And she’s like, It’s five.

I’m like, This is not fair. Stop telling me! She just dies laughing, and I’m like, this is the stuff that really stresses me out. It’s not that I don’t want to enjoy the holidays. I made a commitment to myself this year that I would really try and work on doing things early and planning things out so I wasn’t so stressed.

But you know, it’s hard when we’re working, we’ve got cases, customer meetings, and all these things that are required of us. It really can be overwhelming, especially for women in this industry. Because, let’s face it, the Thanksgiving dinners usually fall on the mamas, the Christmas dinners, the gifting, the hosting of the parties—all of that.

And when you’re a hard-working career woman like we are, it just, oh man, it really stresses you out.

Cynthia Ficara: So, you know what? Brooklyn may have a Christmas timer, but Wall Street, our companies, our bosses—they don’t have a timer that says, "Time out. You don’t have to do your job for the next five weeks. You don’t have to go see that customer. You don’t have to get in that order. All your numbers can just settle for the next six weeks."

I think that one of the best things we can do for ourselves is to figure out how to align with all that’s needed because it’s not going to go away. Stressing about it isn’t going to make it any better.

I remember, of course, my kids are older, but I remember when they were little, and those hours of those days were so hard to fit in. I’d have all this work to do. How am I going to actually go shopping? Of course, now there’s Amazon, so hallelujah for that. Years ago, there wasn’t.

One of the things I remember was how the daycare they went to had this three-hour event called Holiday Drop-In Night. Maybe places still have that.

The premise was the first Friday of every December, from—I can’t remember if it was five to eight or four to nine. They had these hours where the kids could come. They had to wear Christmas pajamas, they’d make cookies, and it was free. They let all the parents who didn’t have help shop and wrap whatever they needed to do that you couldn’t do in front of little eyes.

I think about what a relief that was and how just a few hours could make a difference.

In November, I was thinking, Okay, that day’s fine. That Friday, what do I need to do? I remember one year I wanted to take Friday afternoon off so I could get my stuff ready, get them there, and be on with my day.

At the same time, I had this big project for work. The goal was to really have everything done before the holidays. Committees were meeting, and some shut down in November. This particular one was December 12th.

Why don’t I remember this day?

And then it would be, if that worked, we went into January. January is when you come back, and if you’ve got things on the plate to get you driving, there’s nothing better for momentum in your business than to come back with business ready to keep you going.

So, I remember I set out and what I did that particular day was set up two meetings in the morning and a lunch, particularly for everything they needed before the 12th. My sole goal was to do what I needed to do to go Christmas shopping.

But I don’t know about you, Lisa—when you focus like that, do you find yourself hyper-focused, very intentional, making sure everything you need for this lunch is buttoned up and you don’t forget or have to go back, or that it wasn’t a waste of your time?

Mastering the Holiday Season Through Simple Preparation

Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah, absolutely. I think what you're talking about is what you and I want to discuss today—how to be successful during the stressful holiday season, especially as working mamas. And, you know, it all comes down to what?

Cindy, what does it all come down to?

Cynthia Ficara: Our secret. Do you want to reveal our secret this time, Lisa?

Anneliese Rhodes: You go ahead.

Cynthia Ficara: Okay, everybody. The secret to success during the holiday season is simple preparation.

I mean simple preparation. What do I mean by that? We’re all in medical device sales, or if you're getting into it, there are simple things to focus on. When we're overwhelmed with the holidays and all the extra, we sometimes forget about the basics.

There's no better time than now to go through the basics with your customers. Bring them back to simplicity. You may be distracted with family coming, but guess what? Your customers feel the same way.

For example, say your customer is a hospital employee—they work 12-hour shifts. They are locked into certain hours, clocking in and clocking out. They can’t leave for something and come back unless they take an official day off.

Do you think their attention is on what you need to have done?

Anneliese Rhodes: Not at all.

Cynthia Ficara: Maybe you can ask them for a simple act instead of something big.

Anneliese Rhodes: Cindy, you are so organized—way more than I am. Let’s face it unless it’s on my phone, it doesn’t get done. So, in terms of simple preparation, how do you see this playing out? Is it a list that you make? A priority list?

And do you put like, Customers on that, you know, turkey dinner on that? What, exactly does that look like?

Organizing the Holidays and Work Like a Pro

Cynthia Ficara: Oh, I love this question. For those of you who don’t know, I absolutely love to be organized. It just really makes me happy.

Anneliese Rhodes: Her favorite store is The Container Store.

Cynthia Ficara: Oh my God, yes. My husband gets so mad. "We don’t need a container for that." I’m like, "Well, they all need to line up, and we don’t need to have a mess."

But I feel that way about my business too. I think I’ll start very simple—it’s kind of a little bit of everything. One thing I’ve realized going into the holidays, which took me years, is to look at work and everything I need to do by focusing on the big targets. Just like any plan, I really look at what I have to have done.

So during the holidays, I think about them as a new business account. When you’re busy at work and get a new account, you have to figure out how to squeeze it in, make it work, and not drop the ball on all your other accounts—especially the important ones.

Yes, I’m a list maker. I always start with a work list, focusing on the main targets first. Then I prioritize the holidays. I start with the big things that need to be done early and leave the rest for later.

One thing I do—Lisa thought this was funny, but I’ll share it—is my Thanksgiving prep. Don’t forget, the holidays start soon. Every year for Thanksgiving, I host. I have family coming from far away, so people can’t just drive in with meals. I end up purchasing everything for my house.

It used to be seven trips to the grocery store. Have you done that, Lisa? You forget things like brown sugar or, I mean, who buys bringing bags except once a year? Then if you don’t have Amazon or forget, one store doesn’t have it, and another doesn’t either. It got to the point where I told myself, "Don’t forget to bring bags! Remember, November—you better get a bag."

So I started making a list. Years ago, I made a note on my phone, which is now on a Google Doc, of every single item I need for Thanksgiving. Then, I just pull it up.

When I’m in the grocery store in November—this weekend—I get everything ahead of time. All the canned goods, packaged items, everything you don’t usually buy, like marshmallows for the casserole. Then, last week, it’s just the fresh stuff.

If you’re someone who buys a frozen turkey, you can buy it way ahead of time. Every year, I don’t rewrite the list or forget things. I even block it out by recipe—this recipe needs this, this, and this—because some ingredients overlap. It’s a lot to keep track of.

If you haven’t done this yet, start writing down what you bought this year. Leave yourself a little note, put it in your phone or a Google Doc, and it’ll be ready for next year. That’s one of the little things I do.

Anneliese Rhodes: Very nice.

Cynthia Ficara: So, back to work.

Preparing for a Successful January: No Dry Start

Anneliese Rhodes: So, for work—and that's amazing—but for work with your list, and you're talking about treating situations as new accounts, are you prioritizing that list?

You know, something I’ll do in my head is make a list of all the physicians or all the accounts, right, and the things I have to get done. Whether it’s like you were talking about—a VAT committee, going to in-service the staff on a device, or having somebody come in for a visit and making sure everything is set up for that.

In addition, though, what are you doing to get yourself ready? Because this whole holiday prep isn’t just about doing your job during the holidays. It’s about setting yourself up for a very successful January.

Right? Because January is tough. Everyone’s coming back from the holidays, and sometimes slow to start. Kids don’t go back to school until the middle of January now—it’s like you’re doing all this to make sure you’re set up for success in the future. So what kind of things are you doing for that?

Cynthia Ficara: You bring a really good point. In medical devices, dry January is a bad word.

Anneliese Rhodes: That is a bad word! I love that.

Cynthia Ficara: No dry January.

Anneliese Rhodes: Right? No dry, like period, no dry January.

Cynthia Ficara: If you treat January like it’s going to be the end of your quarter—and for some of you, it may be—it’s like the end of the year. You want to drive home and think about all the people that didn't prepare, all the people that didn’t listen to our secret. They’re going to be behind the eight ball. Why?

They let things drop in November and December. Their customers forgot about them. They got pushed to the bottom of the list or something. Now, those people spend all of January trying to build themselves back up because they’re in dry January.

We want you to come out of the gates after New Year’s charged with momentum, sales, and everything you need to keep your business moving.

To answer your question—how are we doing that? Prioritizing. We are preparing. First thing: prioritize your main accounts.

What are the big things? Do you have something big to close? Are you in capital sales? Can you have a PO by December 31st?

That was always a big, big push for capital sales. If you have something that people stock monthly, think about whether key people will be gone. You have to remember: so many people take vacation in the last two weeks of December.

Anneliese Rhodes: Yes. Good point, Cindy. You’re right. That affects collecting those POs as well as stocking those shelves.

The truth is, if you’re on a call like us, you’ve got to have those shelves stocked. Even if you’re not on call but you’re working through the holidays, you’ve got to make sure they have all of your products on the shelf ahead of time. Everything slows down. FedEx slows down, for crying out loud.

I mean, everything slows down during the holidays. Great point. Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.

Cynthia Ficara: No, I think you need to think about December 31st as moving that day.

What is the Friday before Christmas this year? It’s usually around the 20th or 19th. Whatever the Friday before Christmas is, in your business, make that like the end of your quarter—the end of your year.

So my favorite thing to do is reverse engineer all your planning. Look at December 20th as your last day, then work backward.

Mastering Year-End Success Through Simple Planning

Anneliese Rhodes: I love that. And you know what? Some things actually take a little bit of time. Like, let’s say you’re working on a bulk project, right? You’re going to give the hospital a great discount on X amount of products, and you need to have that PO drop.

Prior to your month closing, maybe your company year-end closing, but also the holidays coming, that December 20th becomes your new December 31st. You now no longer have till December 31st—you have December 20th.

So, if you’re not on the horn right now, you better get on that horn because by the time December 20th rolls around, if it’s not happening, it may not happen. At least get the wheels going; get it to where the signatures are going to be made.

And you said this already, but some people take two weeks off. Your CEO may be gone, flying to Nevis—you don’t know. So there’s no way you’re going to get that signature.

So again, it’s about simple planning and prioritizing. I love that reverse engineering term, Cindy because that’s so truthful in so many businesses, but especially in ours. Know your end date and now work back from it. Start to plan ahead of time.

Cynthia Ficara: Are you somebody who works better under pressure? When you’re in the home rush, does that make you think clearer? Take whatever day you’re listening to this and sit down, look at your calendar, and trick your mind.

Think, "I’ve got two weeks to do what really looks like four or six weeks of work." It’s amazing how this makes you more intentional. Depending on exactly what your goal is, it’s about being intentional.

I mentioned earlier about simple preparation, right? What are the simple things in medical device sales that always seem to work? We did an episode a few weeks ago: showing up.

Anneliese Rhodes: Absolutely. Showing up and being there. You’ll solve some problems while showing up. You’ll see your doctors, and get lunches scheduled, dinners scheduled, or cases scheduled. Showing up is one of the very simple things you’re exactly right to be doing.

Cynthia Ficara: So to make sure you don’t drop the ball like some others out there will, we’re preparing all of you to listen to make sure you don’t.

Pull out your calendar—you can do this right now. Why don’t you make a plan to show up? Look at your calendar and decide what you’re going to do when you show up.

We’ve talked about this before too. Maybe it’s going to be breakfast, lunch, or something like a special inventory check. Some hospitals allow you to bring in food; some don’t. But for those that do, those that work in the supply chain, there’s nothing like pizza for lunch or a great year.

Anneliese Rhodes: Or Christmas cookies, you know, something like that. I used to bake cookies.

Cynthia Ficara: Do they even allow you to bring something homemade anymore?

Anneliese Rhodes: I don’t know, but I used to hand-bake cookies for all of my offices. It was such a pain, by the way, because I’m not a baker, but my kids loved doing it. It was wonderful.

Holiday Success: Balancing Work, Preparation, and Gratitude

Anneliese Rhodes: One thing I was thinking about real quick when we were talking about prioritizing and doing things—you need to figure out your days. Pick the days you’re going to show up at your accounts, and strategize what you’re going to do. Side note: if you haven’t listened to that episode, go back and listen so you know exactly what to do.

The next thing is, if you’re taking off, you need to make sure somebody else covers you. Whether that’s clinical support, another sales rep you share the territory with, or a manager—whoever it is, you need someone to cover you while you’re out.

And let your physicians know. Sometimes we assume they know, or we think, Oh, they’ll never call. No. It’s really important to be on top of things and show your physicians that you care enough to have coverage while you’re out. It’s really important.

Cynthia Ficara: Gosh, it sneaks up on you. But again, preparation—that’s not hard.

It’s not hard to say whether it’s clinical, a coworker, or communicating with upper management. Let them know that these are the days I need off; these are the days I don’t. Many medical device companies have partners that can share the workload. Call them now.

Pull out your calendar. Maybe somebody’s heavy on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and you flip it—Thursday, Friday, they take some of the weight.

You have to remember: all the joy we get from the holidays—traveling, buying gifts—our jobs allow us to do that.

Our jobs give us the money and freedom to enjoy these moments. There shouldn’t be this friction. I could enjoy this, but I have to work.

Take a moment to stop and be grateful for everything we have during these holidays. Celebrate with your families and be really grateful for the privilege we have to be in medical device sales and the difference we make in patients’ lives.

Not every sales career has this. If you’re not specifically in medical devices, there’s got to be something you really get out of your field, or you wouldn’t be in it.

When we stop worrying about the extra things and ground ourselves in gratitude, it changes everything. It puts you in a better mind frame, makes you better with your customers, and makes you happier. It brings a whole new meaning to the holiday season.

Anneliese Rhodes: With that, Cindy, that was so perfectly said and wrapped up in a nice little bow.

I think it’s important to remember that this is truly a behind-the-scenes look at how to holiday prep during the season. How do you prepare for success? The tips we shared today are so simple and easy to do.

Put them on your checklist, get them done, and add turkey dinner to that list. Go shopping for the turkey dinner after hosting a late lunch or finishing a late case. Knock it off your list as you move along.

Definitely, as Cindy mentioned, reverse engineer these last couple of weeks into the holiday season. Be mindful of cutoff dates, be mindful of when your customers are taking off—whether that’s in purchasing or your physicians themselves—and set yourself up for success now and into 2025.

Cynthia Ficara: I have one more bonus to add because, Lisa, that was perfect.

One thing women tend to forget this time of year is ourselves.

In your preparation and planning, continue your workouts. Maybe get up 20 minutes earlier, and find a reason to treat yourself in these next two months. Whatever self-care means to you—whether it’s a massage, a 30-minute walk in nature, or a facial—schedule it now. Make it an appointment you don’t break.

We’re only as good to others as we are to ourselves. Wishing you all a very successful holiday season, because no medical device rep listening to this podcast will have a dry January.