The Answers You’ve Been Chasing All Year
Feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or invisible in your sales game? You’re not alone.
In this final 2025 episode of The Girls of Grit, Lisa and Cindy tackle the three questions reps stress over the most: How to differentiate yourself, how to stay consistent when overwhelmed, and how to turn interest into commitment.
Packed with real-world advice, actionable strategies, and the tools that helped them hit President’s Club, this episode will set you up to crush 2026. Learn how to build your brand, stay accountable, and lead your customers to say “yes!”
Episode Chapter Markers
00:00 Introduction
03:15 Triple the Secrets: Answering Your Top Questions
03:39 Question 1: Differentiating Yourself in a Saturated Market
09:51 Question 2: Staying Consistent When Overwhelmed
15:13 Question 3: Getting Commitment from Interested Surgeons
17:44 The Challenger Sale Approach
24:10 Wrapping Up 2025 and Looking Ahead to 2026
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
Differentiating Yourself – Learn how to create a personal brand that builds trust, credibility, and sets you apart from every other rep in the room.
Authenticity Matters – Lisa and Cindy discuss the power of leveraging your true strengths and seeking feedback from those who know you best.
High Performer Habits – Explore actionable steps like going beyond product knowledge, mastering clinical expertise, and following through to make a lasting impression.
Consistency When Overwhelmed – Discover the success system and small habits that keep you on track when life gets chaotic.
Sales Success Planner – How Lisa and Cindy’s 2026 planner helps track goals, maintain accountability, and build momentum every week.
Closing the Commitment Gap – Why relationship-building alone isn’t enough, and how to lead customers toward decisions using the Challenger Sale approach.
Teaching vs. Selling – Learn how to guide customers, uncover hidden needs, and position your product as the solution they didn’t know they needed.
Actionable Takeaways for 2026 – Walk away ready to hit the ground running, work smarter, and elevate your sales performance.
Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode
“Sometimes, when you get deflated, the answer isn’t in what they’re doing, it's in who you are and your brand.” - Anneliese Rhodes
“Know everything about your product, your competitors, and your territory then work harder than everyone else in the room.” - Anneliese Rhodes
“Consistency builds momentum, and momentum builds results.” - Anneliese Rhodes
“High-performing reps don’t just sell; they teach, guide, and lead their customers to the right decision.” - Anneliese Rhodes
“Walk into 2026 as a different kind of rep smarter, bolder, unstoppable.” - Anneliese Rhodes
“If you wanna differentiate yourself from everybody else, know as much as you can.” - Anneliese Rhodes
“People see through anything that’s not authentic, know who you are and own it.” - Cynthia Ficara
“Start with one small task; it's the micro habits that create consistent, lasting change.” - Cynthia Ficara
“Follow up with purpose, not just to stay top of mind.” - Cynthia Ficara
“The key isn’t working harder; it’s working smarter, with a system.” - Cynthia Ficara
“If you feel overwhelmed, start with the thing that’s weighing the heaviest then build from there.” - Cynthia Ficara
“Consistency builds momentum but consistency starts with discipline” - Cynthia Ficara
Mentioned in the episode:
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A Team Dklutr production
Blog Transcript:
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Anneliese Rhodes: Welcome everyone to the last episode in 2025 of Secrets in Medical Device Sales, brought to you by the Girls of Grit. This has been a fantastic year and I think we are kicking it out with a bang. Cindy.
Cynthia Ficara: Woo. Hands down, just hearing the end of 2025, like do you believe it's almost over? Its crazy. Holy moly.
I know. Well, I hope. I hope all of you hit the goals you went to hit this year. I hope you got great momentum into going to next year, but we would not be the girls of grit if we did not help you end your 2025 of the bang. And as you know, we spend time really trying to impact your day shortcut ways, and we do not want you to be working harder and and making so much time.
What we wanna do is teach you to work smarter and. One of the ways we do that is a lot of the topics we discuss actually are questions that. Are things that we see in the In the field. Mm-hmm. Because we are so in the trenches with you. However, we also get questions. We have people submit DM questions and we absolutely love that.
So what we decided to do today, something a little different for the end of the year, but you're still gonna get your secrets. Actually, we are going to triple your secret. We are going to give you three secrets. Behind. Three big questions that some of you have brought to us. Even some of you have asked us, a couple of you have asked the same question.
So here are three questions, three secrets to really elevate your sales game. You got a couple days left at the end of the year. Don't let your foot off the gas. It's time to get moving. I love it.
Your Personal Brand Is Your Power Move
Anneliese Rhodes: Alright, question number one. How can I differentiate myself from all the other reps out there? And boy, oh boy, do we know this all too well?
You know, it's, I'm sure in almost every industry it's super saturated, right? With different competitors, different reps. Some have been there for 20 plus years, others are brand new. You know, you've got different energy levels, different things that the products do, but how are you going to differentiate yourself?
As your own person in what you're selling with your company and your customers and, and go out with a bang, right? Like hit a home run. So I think that this is such a great question because obviously it happens to all of us. Um, and I think that the biggest thing is really creating your own personal brand.
And we've talked about this. I, I feel like we talked about this before, but like even when we interview people, Cindy, you know, a lot of our people that we talk to, they. They say you really need your own brand. Who are you? Who is Cindy Kerra? Who is Lisa Rhodes. When they see you, when they see your name, they immediately think of something.
They feel something. You want that to be impactful, you know, powerful, trusted, all the things. And we, we talk about all of this throughout the year, but I truly think that you need to have a solid brand.
Cynthia Ficara: So that brought it back a memory of flashback of 2025 at the beginning of the year we did, it was long.
It was 10 actual characteristics that make a high performer.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yes, we do. And I really
Cynthia Ficara: think that as a high performer, there are certain things and one of those was authenticity and just what you were describing is, is that you know when, when you think about what makes you different, you don't ever wanna.
Be something you are not, you can work towards something.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah.
Cynthia Ficara: But people see through that. And um, you know, knowing authentically who you are, but then maybe the question is, well, shoot, I don't, I don't remember how to do this. So, you know, again, this is the end of the year. We're reminding you of things.
One thing Lisa and I talked about is like, write down three things that you think are your strengths. Now go to about. Five of your closest people, maybe your parents, your sister, your childhood best friend, nobody knows you better. And simply ask them a question, what do they think your strengths are? And then take a look and realize, do I pull on these strengths?
Am I making something that differentiates me from somebody else? I'll tell you what doesn't differentiate, and that's when you go in and you are a product feature benefit. Discusser, is that a word? Discusser? Oh my gosh, yeah. Seriously, like anybody can read the package. You know, but like you have to think.
Maybe you are the representative of a device, but it's 2026 and you listen to our podcast. We want you to bring you behind your product. We want you to be the one that has a conversation. Find out what's important to them, see what things are, and like everybody knows you as somebody who's honest and trustworthy and know how you wanna be known.
Are you the clinical expert?
Anneliese Rhodes: I love that. And you know what else? I was thinking of another episode that we did this year, which was with Patricia Ette, which was, um, I'm totally blanking on the title, but I mean, just look up her name, you'll find it. She did a fantastic episode on how to be a true high performer, a very successful rep.
And one of the things that she talked about was not only the clinical expertise, but working harder. Everybody else in the room. So if you wanna differentiate yourself from everybody else, know as much as you can. Never stop learning and work as hard as you can in that room harder than everybody else.
You gotta know everybody else's products and your own. And I really think that shows not only that you're a hard worker, obviously, but that you can be trusted, you can be leaned upon that they truly know they have a partner with them working with them.
Cynthia Ficara: And that's working smart too. You know, like you can be efficient in ways to make this really impactful.
Patricia Ette doesn't like nobody else. You know, one of the things that, when I think about she's the perfect example is. She is an identity. And that's just in her presence. Yeah. Like when she speaks, she's confident. She knows who she is and, and that's her identity because she is knowledgeable, she's put in the extra work.
And sometimes it's not just taking a moment to know the information that your company provides you. You know how you can differentiate yourself is know everything about the area in which you work. You know, read about articles. That's a good point. Say you're an orthopedic. Say you're in neuro, know what the newest thing is coming out.
You know, pull in a lot of resources, be able to discuss things beyond just your little box. And it makes you more worldly knowledgeable because I think that's huge. Um. So I, I think there's a couple other different things I was thinking of. One is always following up, following through because there are reps that might make an impact, but the ones that make a continual impact and want to be called, again, differentiating is those that follow through and they see, um, they see what you're, what you're made of.
You're not just saying you're doing something, it actually is the action behind it.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah. I love this question. I think it's such a great question. You know, overall it's about your brand, right? What we're talking about in this one is what is your brand? Figure out what your brand is, like Cindy said, have, ask three people, five people, what your top strengths are.
Sometimes it'll surprise you and then deliver on those. Understand them, uncover them, and then be a deliverable on all the things that we just talked about. And truly build that brand of trust and respect and partnership. And you will differentiate yourself. And I think when you get a little bit deflated and you're like, oh, this rep got the case.
I didn't get the case. Go back to who you are, go back to your brand and continue to land and, and well, and really feel good about your brand and. Continue learning. Put more effort into it. That's all you need to do, and you will truly differentiate yourself.
Your Path Back to Consistency
Cynthia Ficara: Oh, I love this. And you know what? I hope you're getting lots of secrets today.
You know, this is the end of the year. This is like secret bonus, right? Yeah. Okay, so we are going to go into the second question, which ironically, Lisa is also a topic. In which we have a podcast that was probably launched like in November, October, and that was all about consistency. Oh yeah. Talk about consistency as a rep.
So the question that we are going to pose to you all that we will discuss here is how do I stay consistent when I'm overwhelmed? And I love that end part because we may have talked on consistency, but again, you're all high performers out there, so. We're gonna talk a little bit about how do I stay consistent when I'm overwhelmed,
Anneliese Rhodes: so, and it's easy to get overwhelmed.
Oh, right, Cindy? I mean, there's so many things that can overwhelm you. I know I get overwhelmed a lot. You don't only just get overwhelmed in your work with the fact that things are, you know, chaotic at times. You've got cases, you've got meetings, you've got. Courts, you've got managers, you know all the things that can make you feel a little bit like, I don't know, things are coming unraveled, right?
And you don't know where to prioritize and you feel all over the place. And then throw in personal life, throw in the fact if you're married, if you have kids, if you gotta make dinner every night, like kid pick up. I mean, you just throw in all of that on top of all your work responsibilities. And it's like.
Wow, it's easy to get derailed. So I love this question because we created something for you guys that will absolutely help you stay on track and stay accountable. And we now have a yearly one of these. So Cindy, tell everybody about it because honestly, I truly believe in this. I have. Seen it work. It has worked for me.
I know it has worked for you. It got you all the way to President's Club and you were, you were managing two girls, you know, in college, a husband, a normal life, like all the things, right. A promotion and it's like it got you to President's Club. So tell everybody, tell everybody.
Cynthia Ficara: Absolutely. So we have a 2026 a a, a success sales planner that is.
You know, we launched one last quarter. Yeah. Um, this is the exact same planner that I use because it has a little bit of accountability. It's not just making a list and making sure you do stuff and setting a goal. It's checkpoints along the way. It keeps you intact, keeps you motivated, and we had a lot of great response for the quarter.
So we decided to put out one for the entire. Year. Now, those of you that wanna have a thinner printout, feel free to just print out one quarter at a time or print out the entire thing at once. Whatever you wanna do or keep it digital, but the option is yours. We literally love our grit, sales Success planner, and it really, it's a system.
Yeah, it's a, it's an entire system. And, um, well, you need a system,
Anneliese Rhodes: right? You need a system in this, in this line of work, because it's like, if you don't have things that keep you accountable, that keep you moving forward, that keep you on your toes, that ask those questions, and Cindy, you made it so easy for the weekly, daily wrap up, weekly wrap up monthly, you know, it really keeps you, you top of mind on the things that are so important.
And because our life is so chaotic, I just love the fact that this is such a great system.
Cynthia Ficara: So know this, that I have felt overwhelmed and I know somebody listening is really feeling it and maybe really, really feeling it. More so today when you're listening, because if, if you celebrate Christmas, you just had Christmas, or whether you had Hanukkah family, whatever your, your holiday.
Is, and maybe you've had visitors, this is a tiring time of year, you know? Mm-hmm. You've just seemed to have extra overwhelm, and I know you're listening thinking, oh, great, they, they've made this, made this work. But I want you to understand that this actually came from overwhelm that I personally felt, and I, and I know if you feel it, you can get out of it.
And here's the thing. The success system is kind of everything in one. What I'd like you to do is pick one thing. One of the best ways to stay consistent is start with one small task. And what that does is it builds a habit and tiny, tiny micro habits are what's going to make a consistent change in your behavior.
And it's amazing because I gotta tell you. When I think about, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. That now some people make 24 feel like 60 and others make it feel like two. It, it's unbelievable and, but understand this, you're not gonna get from A to Z in one. One quick thing. You've got 365 days coming up this year.
So how do you get over the overwhelm? You have to start with one area that is most overwhelming and it may be, yeah. Looking at your plate, what can you take off first? But there is a, a great algorithm that we made to help make this better. We use our grit algorithm. I, I think that understanding consistency builds momentum.
But consistency starts with discipline. The sales success system will provide you the discipline to give you the momentum, to continue with the motivation to make a difference.
Anneliese Rhodes: I love it. I feel like that's a wrap because that was great on that question. I mean, I just, yeah. Anyhow. Okay. And you guys, it really does work 'cause I've used it and so it was like everybody that we've talked to recently.
A Challenger Approach to Commitment
Um, all right, number three, and I really like this question because gosh, how many times have we hit this one? Um, alright, what do I do when a surgeon tells me he's interested or she's interested in my product? But still won't commit. That's like the ultimate, you're like, you keep going back and back and back and they're like, oh, it sounds great.
It sounds amazing. I'd love to use it, but you gotta get it through the back committee. Or you know, I'd love to use it. It's approved. I'll call you, I'll give you a case. You just wait for the phone ring.
Cynthia Ficara: There was, there was somebody that I worked with that. Every week. It felt like every week he thought his, he's like, oh no, he's great.
He's real interested. So we're gonna go have dinner this week. Okay, great. He's so interested. Um, guess what? He's coming over to my house. Oh, that's great. Still hasn't bought anything. Hey, he's so interested. Now we're going to go skeet shooting. And there was all these little things and he had this like relationship, but nothing was going forward.
It was like, that's crazy. I like you. I'm interested, but like. What am I missing in my conversation? Come on. Yeah. Right. Let's, I'm not committee, let's get home
Anneliese Rhodes: run. I'm doing something wrong. It's like dating, right? It's all like dating. Yes.
Cynthia Ficara: It won't commit. It's so painful. No. Won't commit. They'll come back to you.
But there's so there's something. There's true commitment relationship. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Where you're just at a plateau. But now think about it. What can you do to get them to get to the next level? What can you do them to commit to work with you?
Anneliese Rhodes: So there is a book that Cindy and I recently were discussing, and it's called The Challenger Sale.
And this book is written by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson. And you guys, this is a very thought provoking. For sales, because I will tell you when I read it and when she read it, I for sure thought like you're discussing one of the people in this book that doesn't work, which is the relationship builder, right?
You're doing all the right things, you're golfing with them, you're taking, you know the wives and you are good friends. You're going to dinners, you're doing this, you're doing that, but you don't get a case. That's the relationship builder, and shockingly, that's the one that closes the least amount of deals.
The one that closes the most deals is called the Challenger rep. And what do the Challenger rep do? Well, what you do is you lead your customer down a path. You're gonna uncover a need for them that they don't know that they have, right? Like, so for example, if your product solves a certain need, you need to figure out a way to get that customer to understand that they aren't getting that need solved, and only your product.
Can solve that need. And you can't have a super duper crazy good rela, I mean, you can, but it makes it almost harder to push 'em because this is almost like you are leading them down a path. You are going to kind of push back a little bit. So Cindy and I were discussing some funny ideas, right? Because without going down to the, to the, you know, specific devices that, you know, we sell or you sell or whoever sells, it's much easier to keep it light and fluffy.
Um, I will tell you. I'll ask you, how many products have you bought that you think you need because the ad made you believe that you needed them. I mean, hello Wrinkle Cream. Hello, cellulite Cream. Hello, apple Cider, blah, blah, blah, diet. Um, I could go on and on, but yes. What do all these things happen? You know, you know.
That was yours. I forget what your, I just bought
Cynthia Ficara: this gap mop thing. It was like, I don't even know what that is. It was like a mop and a squeegee and it could like get around things.
Anneliese Rhodes: Apparently you needed mop a lot, but this is so true. And, but here's the thing, like all of these things have in common is that they uncovered or made you think that you had a need, that you needed to get filled by that product.
And they do it very creatively, very strategically. So I think, you know, it's. Asking all the right questions, but also, you know, making them think about the right things. Right? It's not always just about listening. It's actually about teaching and telling them as well, you are going to teach them something that they don't know.
How do you do that? Well, the very first thing is to be clinically knowledgeable, and we talked about this actually in question number one. Mm-hmm. You know, the very first thing that we all should be able to do is talk clinically, not just on our product, but on the industry in and of itself. So that is the very first thing.
If you have to be solid, solid, solid on your clinical knowledge, and then you move forward with how are you going to push them to that next step, right? How are you gonna make them decide and commit?
Cynthia Ficara: Uh, Lisa, I, I think that it would be really great if we just link the Challenger sale in the show notes. I think that, yes, you know, and even if you don't read this book, here's what you need to remember When you're discussing with your customers, you need to guide them through the decision, okay?
So you are in sales. You need to create a pathway of how you speak to them. You need to be. Asking the right closing questions. Take a hard look at what you're doing now, because if they're still interested but not committing, you are missing something. Mm-hmm. There is a key piece that they, you have not.
Uncovered their need or their problem. They, they're aware of you, but you're not solving anything for them. You are not easing any pain in their day. So you've got to figure out what that is because, you know, we sell on, on pain points. So if you follow up with a purpose, now, don't be pressuring somebody, but you need to follow up with a purpose and be consistent that you stay top of mind yet don't just be top of mind and sit back and be.
Happy with just the relationship. Yeah. 'cause that's only wasting your time as much as it is their time. You know, we don't want you to sit here and keep doing the same thing over and over again. Definition of insanity, but also what's the point of just continuing to get up every day. Go somewhere, work hard and not move it work smarter.
Identify that your conversation is at a stall.
Anneliese Rhodes: I love that you're so right, and you're talking about the obvious, but sometimes we don't even see the obvious, right? Because we get so caught up in our own world of, well, I'm doing this and I'm doing that, and I've done 10 dinners and five lunches, and you know, I've set up all these meetings and the doctor's gone to my home office 10 times.
Well, apparently. Some you're, it's not working, number one, and you're missing something like you said, Cindy. So I encourage everybody if you have not, and Cindy and I love to read. I, you know, I think it's so important that you read, I don't know, like what 12 books a year or something, like one book a month or something like that.
I think it's so important that you continually learn, listen, read, and if you don't have the time to read the book, put it on audible and listen to it on your drive. It is fantastic and it really changes the dynamic. At least it did for me in the way that I think about being a high producing, high performing sales rep.
It really made me think about things differently, you know? And really honestly start to work with my customers a little differently too. And I've seen results, and you and I are talking about this. We've talked to some other reps and they too have seen the same thing. So. Again, I think this, it was a really great way to get them to that final commitment to say, yes, I wanna date you, Cindy.
I wanna use your product. I wanna call you for a case. Or I'm calling you for a case. Here's the case, right? Here's the case date. Pam is gonna call you on Tuesday to tell you what time the case is scheduled. So I love that. We just went over three really great questions. These questions have come up time and time again with us and we've answered them one off.
But Cindy and I have been discussing this and you know, we get a, a number of questions and we love y'all's questions. Please continue to write in 'cause it really helps us as well. Kind of bring. Forward all the things that we're all battling with every day. Mm-hmm. So we're gonna close out this year. So crazy, creative things.
Right? And I just, you know, again, just like in our Thanksgiving episode, we're just so thankful to all of you for tuning in, listening, asking the questions, supporting us. All we wanna do is help you guys. Call us. Let us know how, what else you need from us, you know, what kind of courses do you want? What other types of, uh, deliverables that you guys need in order to be highly successful.
'cause
Cynthia Ficara: we're here for you. Yep, we are. And you know, I, I really hope that you enjoyed all the secrets we gave away for your three great questions. And I think that it, it really helps build how we can help all of you. So, the call to action for today is that we want you to write in with more questions that we can answer next year.
We want you to follow us. We want you to give us a review. We want you to tell us how we're doing so we can make an even better 2026. I will tell you that is, that is that makes all the difference for us. We hope you all have a great and safe ending to 2025 and we cannot wait to see you back in 2026.
Anneliese Rhodes: Okay, declutter. Here is our snippet for this last episode of 2025. Okay, everyone buckle up because our final episode of 2025 is going to be fun. We grab the three questions we get asked the most. The ones that reps sometimes whisper, they definitely stress over and obsess about, and today we're giving away the secrets behind them.
Cynthia Ficara: And these are not the cute answers, not the corporate answers. The real ones, the ones that change how you sell, how you think, and how you show up. So if you
Anneliese Rhodes: think you already know all the answers, you don't. And this episode is where everything will click and you are going to walk into 2026, a different kind of rep.
