Hooking the Whale: How to Land Game-Changing Clients
Ever wonder how some reps manage to land massive hospital systems or superstar surgeons while others struggle for small wins?
In this episode, Lisa and Cindy break down the art and strategy behind “landing a whale”—those game-changing customers who can transform your entire territory and career. They share real stories, key mindset shifts, and practical steps to help you win big in medical device sales. Whether you’re chasing an IDN, a KOL, or a high-volume surgical practice, this episode is your go-to guide for building long-term, high-impact partnerships.
Get ready to master the secret most reps miss: patience.
Episode Chapter Markers
01:41 Understanding the Concept of Landing a Whale
03:33 The Importance of Patience in Sales
04:48 Building Relationships and Trust
06:57 Cindy's Success Story
10:13 Strategies for Landing a Whale
16:46 Challenges and Persistence
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
Define Your Whale - Lisa and Cindy explain what “a whale” really means in medical device sales—and how to identify the ones that matter most to your business.
Patience is a Power Play - They reveal why patience isn’t just a personality trait—it’s a tactical advantage that separates rookies from rainmakers.
Build the Inner Circle - You’ll learn how to win the trust of everyone around your whale—assistants, techs, schedulers, committee members—to create unstoppable momentum.
Red Flags to Avoid - Cindy shares a vulnerable story about losing a key contact and explains why you can’t put all your eggs in one basket when chasing big deals.
Play the Long Game - The Girls of Grit™ wrap with hard-won truths on sustaining relationships and the real reason why landing the whale is only the beginning.
Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode
“If you’re chasing a whale, it’s not a sprint—it’s a marathon.” – Anneliese Rhodes
“Whales don’t respond to pressure. They respond to partnership.” – Cynthia Ficara
“Landing a whale is not about luck. It’s about strategy, consistency, and patience.” – Anneliese Rhodes
“You’re not just selling to the surgeon—you’re selling to their entire orbit.” – Cynthia Ficara
“Don’t get discouraged by the no. Get motivated by the opportunity behind it.” – Anneliese Rhodes
“Key opinion leaders are like A-listers. You better know their coffee, their people, and their pressure points.” – Cynthia Ficara
“You don’t keep a whale by coasting—you keep them by continuously showing up with value.” – Anneliese Rhodes
“This isn’t a transactional deal. This is a long-term partnership with big-time payoff.” – Cynthia Ficara
“Even one bad case doesn’t define you. It’s how you handle it that makes or breaks the relationship.” – Anneliese Rhodes
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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 and Medical Device Sales, brought to you by the Girls of Grit. And today we have a really fantastic episode coming at you guys because this is something that I think every single person and every single sales position wants to do, right?
Cindy?
Cynthia Ficara: Oh my gosh. You are so right. And you know what's so fun about episodes like this is I think that everybody listening and you don't even have to be in medical device sales to, to relate to what we're talking about today. 'cause today's episode really focuses on something very big. Okay. So I use the word big because we're talking about landing a whale.
Okay, so you're gonna think of a very large whale. You're gonna think of something big and have, have you all heard of the expression, landing a whale? Yeah. And actually Lisa, you and I were talking before, um, why don't you share with our listeners when you were talking about where actually landing a whale came from.
What ‘Landing a Whale’ Really Means in Sales
Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah, it's, well, I mean, I've only ever known it as like Vegas, right? A whale is a very. Um, it's a very high spender, like a big time gambler that comes in and we're talking like millions of dollars probably. Now, back in the day it was like hundreds of thousands. Now it's millions of dollars that these people will gamble at one fell swoop of a time, right?
They'll walk in, they'll put a couple million down, and then they're the high rollers, but they're the high, high rollers and casinos will actually buy. For their business. So they'll compete against one another for their business. So you got MGM on one side and then you got, I don't know, like Steve win on the other side.
And these two hotel type chains are looking to win that whale. And so they, why do they want it? Because of the millions of dollars that these people will spend, but both winning and losing. But also like they eat there, they shop there, they go to shows there, like they bring their friends there, they do the spa there.
So it's like. Lots and lots of money that comes into these casinos. And so every casino wants to have a big whale or 10. And as a sales rep, who doesn't want that whale of a surgeon or a hospital to come in and just be your guy, right? Be your gal. You just win them over and all of a sudden you've got all this big business, but.
Getting a whale, Cindy, just like you were talking about, like who actually can catch one is not easy. And our secret today, you guys is not an easy one, but if you can master this, you will get yourself a whale.
Cynthia Ficara: Well then let's just reveal our secret before we get into everything so you can be in the right mind frame, as Lisa said, landing a whale.
No easy feat for just the logistical part of picturing landing a whale. So if you're in a boat and you've got a fishing rod and you're actually gonna try to wheel in a whale, this is not gonna be easy. Right? Yeah. And then you look at all the steps it takes in casinos, you've got work to do. It's effort, it's time, and landing that whale is going to take our secret, which is patience.
Oh boy. Tell medical device salespeople to have patience. That's like very, very difficult. Like put the handcuffs on him right now, right? Yeah. This is hard. Yep. You know, Lisa, when you were giving your example. The casino, there's something else about a whale and I think of advertising and I think of commercials, like everybody knows Coca-Cola.
Everybody knows like if a president worked to come in, everybody would know, maybe a famous celebrity. And so it's not even so much. So the money and everything that comes with it, that goes to them. But if you relate this, if you parallel a whale in a casino to a whale in medical device sales, think about celebrity status.
A whale is like a very successful surgeon, a very successful hospital system, a very successful, somebody being that whatever area of your specialty is. Everybody knows. And so the whale, if you look at an notion, everybody can see a whale. Everybody knows who the whale is. So in your business, how do you become a partner with this whale?
How do you land this whale to be able to, in return, have the financial, um. What's the word I'm looking for? ROI that a casino would have on, you know? Yeah. It's your success. Yeah. So there's a lot to landing a away sometimes. Um, it seems tremendous. So how do we do this?
Anneliese Rhodes: Well, I was gonna say, it's actually kind of an art, to be honest with you.
You know, I mean, you don't have to be a seasoned rep. You could totally land a whale as a brand new rep and a company. It's all about the way that you go about it. It's very strategic. It cannot be this very salesy, pushy, you know, Ooh, I want you. I want your business. I'm here for you. Let me call you 10 times a day, doctor, until you finally give in.
You're never gonna get whale. When you lead with that, you cannot lead with pushy, you know, on the, all the time in their face. You have to be patient. Patient, you have to be strategic. And I think, um, yeah, I mean I think it's an art, you know, in medical device sales, we call these people key opinion leaders.
And there are key opinion leaders for a reason. Yes. Um, they are on the podiums. They are writing the papers. They may just be a big community doc that garners 80% of the business that you are working in that industry that you're in. Um, but that's what they look like, right? Or like you were saying, Cindy. I mean, some of it, uh, some of this can be a hospital, it can be an IDN, I mean, depending on where you are, if you're a distributor.
And you're able to get that business from that system, then good lord you could have five or six or 10 hospitals in that system. And that in and of itself is a whale. So I, I love that we're talking about this today, because again, who doesn't wanna a whale in their territory? I know, I sure do. Um, and you have a good story, Cindy, that I think you should share with everybody because this kind of explains exactly what it looks like to lay in that whale.
Cindy’s 4-Year Whale Hunt: A Case Study in Patience
Cynthia Ficara: Yeah, so years back in a, in a previous job that I had, you know, I'm sure many of you are familiar with IDNs, the independent networks that where hospital systems will have multiple facilities in which you work many times, like one system could have. Two hospitals, it could be 10, 15, 20. This particular one was very large, it was 10 plus.
And I entered into my role and my competitor had the business for over 20 years. Wow. And I remember I first started, I'm excited, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I could get business here and there and realize, well wait a minute. It. The only way I get businesses at one is if I get business at all. 10 plus. So this was a work in progress, hence our secret patients.
Mm-hmm. You know, the interesting thing is it's almost like detective work and you're constantly trying to find different ways, who knows what and it's, it's going through these motions and steps. But first of all, I had to tell myself. Can I do this right? It never dawned on me that I was not even going to try.
I know that the competitor had it for 20 years. Well, they hired me into this role, right? So now I guess it's my job to go after this competitor and what that looked like. I didn't know. I just had to start uncovering little steps, but I believed I could do it, so, okay, I'm gonna have to have patience clearly.
Um, ultimately, and you know, this kind of goes into some of the things we'll talk about, but there were multiple steps and I think something that I learned with tackling this tremendous whale is that. It took tremendous patience and it was a very long sale, and I think we all need to understand that when you set out for something like this, it was years in the making.
I will give a little teaser that four years later I actually did convert the entire system for the first time in 20 plus years. Wow. To go to our company, which was truly amazing. Um. All that went along to get, there was so many parts and pieces that we'll break down a little bit to give you guys a little bit of strategy for landing a whale.
But, you know, the patience in itself is, is tremendous. So I just wanna start with. Okay. All of you are probably identifying, relating to something I just said in my example. So I first want us to think about our mindset, and I first want you to think if somebody tells you, you'll never get this. If somebody says, there's no way nobody's ever broken into this.
Oh, just you wait. Because like anything else. Get the information, but people are gonna change jobs. Things are gonna happen. You're just chip away at tiny little parts and pieces and you start embedding yourself on where you need to be. And all the tactics and strategies that Lisa and I go through on so many episodes.
You pull a lot of this together and you can make this happen. Absolutely believe anybody listening to this can land a whale. If you have the patience and you understand this is a long sale, not a short one.
Anneliese Rhodes: And that was a perfect example. You're right, Cindy. It um, it definitely takes that mindset. And so how do you get there, right?
Because a lot of times we want that instant gratification as sales reps. Of course, who doesn't? Everybody wants to walk in, win the doc's over, win the hospital's, over, get the sales, get the numbers on the board, hit your quota, exceed your quota, and move on. But if that was as easy as I just said, it sounds like it could be, then everybody would be doing our job, right?
But there's a reason why. Our job and our industry is tough to break into. It's tough to be successful in, and it's tough to be successful year over year, over year, especially like when you're competing with something that Cindy was talking about, which is 20 years of the same rep. And that's, I mean, that is a staunch rep in that job, you know?
That's a tough one, but. Hey, things change. People move on. People retire. People decide one day they don't wanna work in that industry anymore. So be ready for the change. Have the patience. Set your mindset up to not hear the nos. Only hear the yeses. And I think another really important key strategic thing is to remember.
You are building a partnership with this whale. You are building the partnership, the loyalty, the trust with this key opinion leader. There is a reason why they worked with that one rep for 20 years. Cindy, maybe a little bit was habit, but it probably was the fact that early on that rep did a good job of building trust, of building great relationships.
That when things arose with issues with the product, they could pick up the phone, call the rep, and the rep would solve the problem immediately. Those are things that you have to do in order to land and keep that whale to even start to begin to catch that whale. You have to be super strategic. It's like putting on.
The exact bait that you need to catch that big old fish or the whale. It's the same thing, right? You need to have in your tackle box that specific bait that only a key opinion leader or a whale is gonna bite off on. And I think the biggest one is building that trust and loyalty. And that takes patience. That takes time.
Whales Have Teams—Build Relationships with All of Them
Cynthia Ficara: That is so well said. So let, let's dive into that. Okay. So how do you do that? So let's think about one thing. Every whale out there, and I mean this, whether you're looking at one true individual as a key opinion leader, if you are looking at an entire hospital system, I want you to think of it like this.
Every one of them has a team. I. They all have a team. They all work with multiple parts and pieces. For example, if your whale is a physician, you are going to have, you're gonna have, um, an assistant, you're gonna have somebody in your office that does your scheduling. Then you're gonna have a whole team of other people that work underneath you in different areas, scrub techs, nurses, other physicians.
Other partners. If you're a big hospital system, you're going to have committees. You are going to have people that are in all different areas. C-Suite, maybe you're an or maybe you're a distributor, so maybe it's supply chain. So it takes lots and lots of calls and lots and lots of points of contact. But what you do is you start making some.
Um, relationships, some contacts with some of these people, and then you start building each part of this team so that by the time you get to know the whale, you know, what's important to them, what they need from you, because, you know, like Lisa said, we're here to partner, but what's the point in partnering with the whale?
Individual or a hospital system, if we don't have something for them, right, what value do we bring to them? Why do we even wanna partner with them? Yeah. And when you know where we are, good for them, then we can think about how they help.
Anneliese Rhodes: Bus. Well, you just made a really good point. So it made me think about, just in general, you know, I have, everybody has a ton of whales in their territory, and I'm thinking of one in particular, and you're right, they are a hundred percent dependent on their staff in the, or their staff on the floors.
The value analysis committee, they're usually pretty tight with the purchasing and materials management people. Why? Because they're the key opinion leaders. They're the big doc in the entire hospital. They're constantly getting hit up with new products, so they have to know these people. So you need to make it your business to know them as well.
It's like when you are taking care of an Alister, what do people have to do with a-listers? Well, you gotta get their special food and their special blanket and their water and you gotta know their people. And you got know their favorite colors and their mood, mood, music and all the things, right? I mean, they're like, sounds
Cynthia Ficara: fun to be an Alister,
Anneliese Rhodes: right?
Yeah. They need a lot things. And so the point of that is. So do key opinion leaders. So do whales. They expect you to be at a higher level with them, and it's not just in the or, not just asking for more cases. It is the overarching, what all do you know? Who do you know? How do you make them feel? What have you done for them?
I mean, all of these things are so important before you even begin your conversations with the key opinion leaders.
Cynthia Ficara: I love that you said something that made or reminded me of something that happened years ago, but. You are right. You're gonna have to go in there, you're gonna have to see them, you're gonna have to be doing things for them.
But do not think these are one and done activities. Oh yeah. 'cause that will take you down the wrong path. And there will be a never. Right. That you will never get that business if you are somebody who says, well, I did that. I met the, I met the surgical tech. Oh. Oh, I've already been to the office. Yeah, I've already done that.
I'm done. That's it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. A well. Equals patience equals persistence. Okay, so what do we mean by this? This means you're gonna contact the surgical rep 1, 2, 20, 200 times. It becomes a practice. It becomes a true partnership, and it's just events that you do over and over, and it's continual support.
This is not a check. The box task oriented way to get a whale to even land a whale, even get that close. It is multiple actions on your part, beginning with showing up and having them trust you to be consistent with who you are because again, this is a a professional business relationship, so they have something to offer us as much as we have something to offer them all these steps.
Help us learn that. So I think that's something to really not one and done.
Is It Worth Chasing the Whale? Absolutely.
Anneliese Rhodes: So, you know, you're, we're talking about all this and it's, um, it's crossing my mind that maybe some people are like, is it worth it? Is it worth it to have to work this hard? To get one doc. Uh, the answer is yes, but why? Why is it worth it?
Well, okay, first of all, the very obvious is the increase in sales because you're gonna have their, hopefully you garner their business, but there's also a domino effect if you get that top dock. On your products. Uh, guess what? So are his partners probably gonna fall in line to the point at least of entertaining you and your CO and your product.
And what I mean by that is entertaining using you. You still are gonna have to prove yourself with them. They may not be the high key opinion leader volume, but they're still a fair amount of volume. And let's be honest, who doesn't wanna hit their quota? Wouldn't it be nice to have a one and done? I mean, not everybody gets a one and done.
And we can talk about. Some of the keeping of the whale in our second part of this two part series, but the the answer is yes. Landing a whale is 1000% worth the effort. But it takes effort and it takes patience. And sometimes it takes years. I mean, I can tell you from experience I know, and you get run down, you get burnt out, you wanna give up, you're like, I'm never gonna land these docs.
They're never gonna turn around. But you'd be surprised because things change. And I think, you know, again, that patience. Persistence being strategic, being in the partnership with them and making their world, your world pays off.
Cynthia Ficara: So if you're somebody that is driving in the car and you've asked that question, well, is it even worth it?
Let me ask you this. Have you ever landed a whale? Because my thought is this, if you're asking that question, you haven't felt the rewards in so many different ways. Domino effect is one thing, yes. Not only more business, but you know what it does for you. It elevates you. You talk about leveling up when you've done all this work because nothing good comes easy.
And when it, it feels so good and, and I want you all to know this, that it is worth. Every effort because partnering with some amazing people has been some of the, it makes it all worth it. I, I have some amazing surgeons that I've been able to part with hospital systems and feeling this way is amazing and I want everybody else to experience that.
Understand the System Before You Sell
So know that you can do it. Believe that you can do it, and approach it the right way. So in thinking about how we do this, we already talked a little bit about building champions of the team, right? We mentioned the, or, um, I think I wanna mention something else. I. If it's a whale, I guarantee there's going to be some type of, whether it's a value analysis committee or some decision making unit in there.
So during all of these contacts that you're making, another action step I want you to think about is start to understand the. Process know, you know how things work for, is there a value analysis committee? Do they meet every week, every month? Who are the people on it? Because you know, when I mentioned the story that I mentioned that took me four years, there were eight different people in different sections that sat on different areas, which took me years to get to.
Some, you got to easily, some took many, many months and networking of many people to get you in front of different people. But first of all, you need to understand. So if, if you have a coworker, uh, maybe, um, or maybe like somebody in like a different division that does something different or somebody that, you know, a medical device for another company or somebody who can truly lay, lay out the truth.
Um, not somebody who's gonna be a gatekeeper and tell you wrong. Some people try to do that, so don't be fooled, but just truly understand how do you actually get a product in this hospital? How do you actually work with this physician? And then, then you know the steps. Now it's your turn in this decision making to know, okay, what am I gonna present now to value analysis and.
How do I discuss this? Some of those things are, um, data, some of this is clinical results. Some of it is, you know, feature benefits. And, and the other thing is a lot of times it's just some of your testimonials. You know, you, you're using this product somewhere else. What can you bring to tell them experience that you've experienced?
So I think it's very important to understand how. The whale in which you are pursuing.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah, that was perfect. And you're right, I mean, it's a lot. And so I was thinking about some of the pitfalls, not pitfalls, but things that you're gonna run up against, right? Mm-hmm. Before we close this out, because I think it's really important for you guys to also have, I have your expectations set with a whale if you don't already know this.
So one of the biggest things other than the fact that it Yes. Is gonna take time. It's gonna take patience. It's gonna take strategery, but you're also gonna have some falls. You are gonna fall, you're gonna have some stumbles. You're gonna have hurdles. Those hurdles can look anything like you finally think that you got them and you do some cases.
Just Because You Landed the Whale Doesn’t Mean You’ve Kept It
Then the cases don't grow great. Right? And now all of a sudden he is like, why am I working with you? I could be using your competitor. I've had 20 years of using them, and you're brand new. You don't know what you're doing, you, millions of questions are gonna come up. So the first thing you have to remember is.
Don't get deterred easily. This is the long sell. This is the marathon. This isn't the sprint. Even though you finally quote unquote may have landed him, you really haven't yet because this is going to take some time to build that trust. It's again, it's not a one and done even after you've done all the work.
You have to continue to work. You have to continue to build that. That relationship up, that rapport up with your customer. So if you do have a couple of bad cases, okay, let's talk about it. Let's go through it. Let's maybe get another peer to chime in, let's, you know, bring some resources in and try and figure out where maybe potentially it didn't go well.
I. Do remember when your big time docs, these big time whales are using your competitor. They are so used to your competitor products that they don't know your product yet. You have to be the expert on your products, and even if you have a bad case, it doesn't mean you aren't the expert. It just means you need to probably go back, figure out what went wrong, and maybe even bring in somebody else.
There's nothing wrong with that, but you gotta stay on top of it because I will tell you this, if you let that. Deter you, you will lose that business. And I don't know about if getting it back will be, you know, even harder than it was to actually land them in the first place. So that is when I think of the biggest misconceptions that I think people get is they're like, Ooh, I landed 'em.
We're good to go. I'm in like Flynn. Everything is great now. But yet, but yet it's like, actually now the race starts. Now the actual marathon starts and now the expectations are set, and now it's up to you to actually make it happen, like over and over again and build that partnership. Landing the whale is just the beginning of it, and we're gonna talk more about that in the next episode too.
Cynthia Ficara: Oh, I know. Which is so exciting. And I love that you pointed out red flags. 'cause you're right, we can believe we can do it. And you know what, I'm gonna take, you know, one quick minute to expand a little bit on a, on a quick vulnerable moment, because I think it's important when Lisa and I share our vulnerable stories.
So one word of caution is do not put all your eggs in one basket. So if you're new, if you're new and you know, distributor, um, or, or even in new, in any, any new, um. Company. So it's very, very easy to get comfortable with somebody who's really nice to you or somebody who lets you in. And so I was early on in my career and trying to advance in, in one of my.
This was probably a mini whale, but I remember I had met somebody and I was so excited that I cold called and oh my gosh, this person's gonna help me. And this person had connections. So she would say, oh, well I will talk to so-and-so will schedule this. So I would always report back to her. Big mistake I did.
Was not ask, tell me who is this person you're connecting with? May I have their number two? Let me make sure. Could we all get in on a call together? Because I just like, and I was brand new and I thought, oh, I'm doing so well. She's got this, I have this great contact. Well, guess what? Her husband retires and she's early.
I don't know. Mid forties and says, I'm done work, I'm leaving. And literally in two weeks was gone. So I had lost all my contact. So that set me back a couple months. So just remember, um, turn over all, all, all the stones as you go. And, um, being in contact for everything. Don't put all eggs in one basket would be one additional red flag.
But I'm excited. I think that we, um. I think that landing a whale is so fun and so long and something that we could talk about for a very long time. Do
Anneliese Rhodes: you
Cynthia Ficara: agree,
Anneliese Rhodes: Lisa? Yes, I agree. Absolutely. I mean, landing a whale, like you said, is so,
So number one. Landing a whale is a thousand percent worth it. Every single I, I promise you, if you've landed a whale, that question was so good, Cindy, when you're like having you landed one, landing 'em is hard. It takes patience. It takes persistence. It takes trusting in yourself, a good mindset to know that you're gonna hear a lot of nos before you get the yeses.
But also believing in yourself and knowing that it's gonna take a lot of different. Steps, you're gonna need to know the entire team. And that's not just surgical, that's the hospital. That's the value analysis, that's the materials management. That's the nurse that runs his schedule and it's gonna con take continuous care, continuous.
Working with these people to show that big whale that you are committed to their business. You know, you need to know every step along the way. Know everyone, like Cindy said, don't leave one stone unturned. It's so important that you're doing all of those things. Have a couple of internal champions. Don't just depend on one person.
Have a number of people lined up to support you and you know, make sure that you're doing everything you can to support that physician and show him or her that you are committed to them. And remember, they're like a-listers. You gotta know their favorite color. You gotta know what coffee they drink. You gotta know who they love in the or how be able to.
Service the OR staff and make sure that they are set up for success so that when you finally get those cases with that whale, they run so smoothly and you just gotta, you don't ever be transactional. This isn't, Hey, I'm gonna sell you this and you're gonna give me that. It's, this is a partnership, not a transaction.
Cynthia Ficara: Well said. So our call to action today will be this. Bring your patience. So let's identify your whale. We have identified the secret as patience. And think about this. Believe that you can get this whale, and if you have identified and you believe it, then we want you to tune in to our next episode, which is what happens after you land the whale.
Thanks for listening, everyone, and go out there and catch your whale.
