This Is Where the Top Reps Pull Ahead in Sales
When things go sideways in the field, do you freeze, complain or solve?
In this episode, Lisa and Cindy tackle the shortcut mindset that keeps reps stuck and show you how to shift from asking to acting.
They share real stories like the lifeline text stream that saved a case in the nick of time and break down how top performers build trust by becoming the solution, not the problem.
You’ll walk away ready to pause, think critically, and tackle any problem with confidence, creativity, and grit so your customers always know they can count on you.
Episode Chapter Markers
00:00 Introduction
01:07 The Pectin Story
04:01 Transition to Problem Solving
05:02 Common Problems in Medical Device Sales
10:35 The Secret to Problem Solving
12:59 Practical Tips for Problem Solving
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
The Shortcut Mindset – Why too many reps default to asking for help instead of owning the issue themselves.
Own It Before You Outsource – Cindy’s powerful reminder that you’re the first line of defense for any problem.
Tap Into Your Lifeline – Lisa shares how a simple text chain turned into a field rep’s secret superpower.
How to Slow Down to Solve Faster – The importance of taking five seconds to pause instead of panicking.
When Complaining Backfires – The hidden damage when you throw problems up the chain and hope they disappear.
Become the Solution – Why the best reps aren’t just problem solvers — they’re solution makers their customers trust.Solve Like You Sell – The mindset shift to tackle every problem with confidence, creativity, and grit.
Everything Is Figureoutable – Marie Forleo’s mindset in action: break down big problems into manageable steps.
Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode
“Top reps don’t just sell solutions. They become the solution.” — Anneliese Rhodes
“Admit when you don’t have the answer, then figure it out fast.” — Anneliese Rhodes
“Your mindset matters more than the problem itself.” — Anneliese Rhodes
“They want to work with reps who keep calm and fix things.” — Anneliese Rhodes
“Own it before you outsource it.” — Cynthia Ficara
“Are you asking questions you could just Google?” — Cynthia Ficara
“The best reps train their brains to own their outcome.” — Cynthia Ficara
“Problem solvers don’t panic — they think.” — Cynthia Ficara
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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 another episode of Secrets in Medical Device Sales, brought to you by the Girls of Grit. We are so excited that you guys continue to join us every single week and listen to all these fun and exciting episodes, and we hope we are bringing you guys some really good stuff.
And so I, I agree, right? Today is actually a really good one because, well, Cindy, I'll let you tell them your pectin story. I'm like, oh my God, this is such a good episode.
Cynthia Ficara: So, you know Lisa's saying this because, you know, we record on Sundays. Okay. So it's on the weekend. Today's Sunday. And this morning I thought I was doing something very easy, all I wanted to do was go to the grocery store and get the little pectin packages or whatever it is that you put inside, preservatives for to make strawberry jam.
Strawberry seasons. I wanna make strawberry jam. Well, I don't buy it that often, and I don't know if anybody out here is like me, but I hate the grocery store. Okay, I could order online, I can do this and that, but. If I go into the grocery store, I do this all the time. I look at my watch and sometimes I'm like, seven minutes.
I can be out in seven minutes and I just go get exactly what I need. Well, this morning I didn't know where it was, so I thought, okay, if I'm a pectin gelatin package, where would I be first? I think I. I'm gonna go to the baking aisle, and I went up and down and up and down and I noticed like nobody was really around.
And then I was like, okay, where else? I'm like trying to find where it would be. Now, wait, I forgot to tell you the funny part. So I decided to shortcut my day. Okay. First of all, I don't wanna go pick up something. I don't know where it is. And if I go to Food Lion, which is the closest grocery store before I have to cross the street and it's a packaged item in and out, it's not usually as crowded.
Let me try that. But my go-to is Publix. So anyway, love public to go to public side across the main road. It's only two more minutes, but I'm like, Hmm, I'm gonna make this short and sweet. So I walk around, can't find it in the baking aisle, and I asked somebody, finally when I found a person and I said, oh, can you tell me where I can find this?
I even had a picture of it. She looked at me, probably the baking aisle, and I was like, I was just in the making aisle. Can you just look like, you know, they have those little, they look like walkie talkies or scanners, or they plug it in where they can find it. She's like. Yeah, it's just somewhere I'm like, well, can you help me find this?
And she was like, just check the. Aisle and a lady behind me goes, maybe it's in produce. I just finally was like, but you work here. I didn't. I mean, I wasn't rude. I was very nice, but I said, that's it. I put down the basket and I went right to Publix. I walked in and I'm like, all right, there's a baking aisle.
I saw somebody on the way, and I very nicely asked. She immediately pulls it up. She goes, no, that's an aisle 14 over there by where you package all the jars and stuff. Oh my. Like where they sell like mason jars? Yeah. So I found it and it was simple, but it's one of those things where, first of all, I tried to shortcut 'cause I didn't feel like driving further and.
All I wanted to do was just, I just wanted somebody to help me. You know what I mean? You
Anneliese Rhodes: just need a problem solved, and they couldn't frigging solve it for you. They couldn't be bothered to solve it for you, so you had to go outta your way to go to Publix. First of all, I love Publix way more time. Me
Cynthia Ficara: too.
Don’t Be the Complaining Rep — Be the Solution
Anneliese Rhodes: But the truth is, is like. You go to Publix because you know you're gonna find somebody who can help you. Doctors call the reps that they know are gonna be able to solve the problems. They're not gonna call the reps. They're gonna be like, I don't know. So today that's what we're gonna talk about is. Don't be the frigging complaining rep.
Be the problem solver, be the solution. And there's some really easy things to think about, some steps to think about. And there's also a lot of mistakes that I guarantee you, every single one of you out there has done it. I, myself included. But when you realize what you're doing, even long term, it's like, Ooh, I gotta stop doing that.
I need to be the problem solver and not the complainer.
Cynthia Ficara: It's such a difference to be a problem solver. Like to me, just the thought of I will not try to shortcut my way in going. To foodline, I'm just gonna go right to Publix. it's a reliable place it's, because I know that problem solving there can make a huge differentiator for me.
Like, I could have been in and out in five minutes. Instead, I wasted more time. So think about doctors, think about how much time means to them, right? so, but taking all this out of the grocery store and back into the or, and into our job. Think about the problems we face every day. Okay. Tech glitches.
That is something that irks me because I can't fix my computer. I mean, I wish I could, but aren't those one of those things? You get a glitch. Then you've gotta figure out how to do it. I would say that might be one, number one, I think back orders is another like, oh yeah. Huge pain. Right. How do you solve this?
What do you do? I'm trying to think. What are some other good,
Anneliese Rhodes: well, you know, like recalls on products, I dunno, comp plan changes, people changing positions, leadership positions, anything at all that can disrupt a rep's life in their field, you know? Oh, our schedule changing.
Yeah. Like every, everything, somebody's gonna complain about it and it's like. I'm guilty of that. I definitely can say that. In the past I had this little like text chain, you know, that we would all like, oh, can you believe so and so blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, sure. It feels good to vent. It does.
Mm-hmm. It feels good to have some place that you can let out your complaints, your feelings, whatever. But is it really good because. I really think that long term that makes you one look like the complainer. Two, a potential troublemaker. And number three, if you're looking for a promotion in your company, that's the very first thing your company's gonna be like.
Mm, I don't know about this person, because they can't be trusted to keep their mouth shut, and they can't come with solutions. They're only coming with problems. And so, yes. You know, I mean, it's the truth and it's, it's hard to admit because I definitely have been there, done that, but it's so important. If you wanna be super successful and highly professional and highly just a high performer all around, you gotta stop with the complaining.
Cynthia Ficara: Oh my gosh,
Anneliese Rhodes: you still gotta stop.
Cynthia Ficara: Oh my gosh. You are so right. And there's so many things you said in there that is so true. But problem solving actually really builds trust. I mean, hands down, I kind of said that in my example, but excuse makers are so dependent on other people. And think about what we talk about on this podcast, how you are a high performer, okay?
Yes, you have. You're not on an island and you've got a team behind you. But high performers are that because they depend on themselves first, mm-hmm. They reach out when they need help. They know how to network strategically. They don't just dump everything on somebody else because that's not gonna get you anywhere.
You know, um, I think, I think that's something to, let's bring that up now, because I was guilty this morning. The grocery store. I want it easier. I just didn't wanna cross the main road. So why do reps default to being easy? Okay. Think about it. Are, are you tired one day? Are you, you know, it's, it's a crutch.
You just don't feel like doing something. Yeah, it, it's true. But when you default to easy, that doesn't always, always. Air in your favor. You know, you might ask before you even think, like, why do you immediately, if the problem comes your way? Let me ask everybody out there, you're walking into your day tomorrow morning, it's gonna be Monday and something, you get a phone call or you're walking in.
Now the OR schedules change. You got a case later. What do you do? Just think for a minute. You get a call, something's wrong or your schedule changes. Are you gonna stand there in the middle of the. Or desk could call, I don't know, your manager. Oh, what do I do now? This is this. Um, do you see a high performer immediately calling the lifeline of, yeah, solve my problem for me?
Anneliese Rhodes: Ugh. Absolutely not. No. You're gonna flip the script. You're gonna change, you're gonna pivot. You're gonna say, okay, I'm gonna go see Dr. So-and-so instead, you know, well, Dr. Smith is still in the or, I can still. Go see him afterwards or go make an office visit. I mean, all the things that you're supposed to be doing.
But you know, you're right Cindy. And the truth is, is like doctors don't wanna work with complainers. Like, who wants a complainer? It's like, oh God, get outta here. You know? Be able to fix. You are on crap. If, if it's an issue, if it's a back order and you have no control over it, it is what it is. Find another option that they can use Instead.
What is a substitute? Give 'em the back order status. Tell 'em, okay, yes, it's not a great deal, but we have it. You know, in the next two weeks, how can, how else can I help you? What's another substitute? Hey, go above and beyond. Is there a competitor out there that maybe has a product that isn't? Maybe quite as good in your eyes or the, you know, customer's eyes, but they are a, uh, substitute for what you sell.
Offer them that information. I know so-and-so sells almost the exact same product. It's available. I already checked. I have the rep's number here. Here you go. If you think for one minute that your physicians are all of a sudden gonna change their business because you're helping them out by giving them a competitor's information.
You are so wrong. They instead will absolutely respond to the fact that you are being a trusted partner, which we always talk about. And you're solving the problem versus, well, we're on back order. Sorry, I have nothing for you. Where does that leave 'em? Like, they're like, okay, well thanks a lot, thanks for nothing.
You know? Yeah. They're still gonna find your competitor, by the
Cynthia Ficara: way, and, and it's, the problem isn't always the problem. If you think about it, it's how you react to it. What are you gonna do? The problem is there, okay? Like Lisa said, are you just gonna tell your, well, sorry, customer service doesn't know anything, can't help you.
No, you, when when you jump in with two feet, you become their partner and you really help them problem solve because. You know, when you make it like their problem and not yours, then then you're not partnering with them. Yeah. And just to be able to see that I think is, is a big thing. So, you know, in every one of our episodes we always talk about the secret behind things.
Everything Is FigureoutableOwn It Before You Outsource It
So I. Before we really help you solve this problem of problem solving, ha ha. Lisa, I think we need to reveal our secret. What do you think?
Anneliese Rhodes: Yes, yes. You reveal it. You say it.
Cynthia Ficara: Okay. So Lisa and I believe the secret to problem solving is knowing this. Everything is figureoutable. Okay, where did I get that from?
So let's rewind about 10 years. I thought I made the word up. I totally did not. There is an author of a book, Marie, I think you pronounce her name for Leo. It's F-O-R-L-E-O. She actually wrote a book. It's titled Everything is Figureoutable. I got the audible and it made me laugh. It's so true because being a mom, I think you try to.
Teach kids how to problem solve and um, okay, so interesting story. This just happened. My daughter is going to officer training school in the Air Force, so she flew across country. The Air Force books her room at the Marriott. She gets all the way there and she goes to the front desk and the Marriott says.
We have your confirmation number, but your room is canceled. And she's like, what do you mean? And she was like, well, there's a glitch in the system. You know, now she's young and she's tired. She just flew across country and now there's no room for her. And they say the whole place is sold out. So. You know, we're, we're looking around and being a Marriott number or member Marriott is good to us, so I had points.
We found another place, got her booked at another place, so she was all stressed out and the end of the night I said to her, well, what did you learn from today? She was like, I don't know. This is stressful. I'm like, you learned that? Everything is figureoutable. I love that you could figure this out.
There's a solution. You know, I mean, you didn't have to sleep in the lobby of a hotel. You, you knew that I had resources to Marriott. You called me for help. We figured it out, and I think that I. When you tackle a problem trying to break it down, go behind the problem and see where it is. In a system like engineers do, you can solve the problem and I love you guys.
This is a great book. If anybody just stresses over this and has issues with problem solving, everything. Figureoutable is a great book, by the way.
Anneliese Rhodes: I need, I need to read it. It sounds, I, I swear, I think I like listened to maybe like the cliff note version or something, but I know I've heard it before. I'm gonna definitely listen to it.
But you're right. And, and the automatic reflex is to freak out, is to panic. Mm-hmm. So how do you not do that? Right? Yeah. How do you instead become that thoughtful? Uh, problem solving sales rep. I think one of the first things is obviously to change your mindset and to pause. Like to take a break. Just chill out.
Take a break. Okay. Let's just say the, or schedule changes right before your eyes case cancels. You, you brought in all the graphs. You got up at four, three in the morning. We'll say you drove four hours, right? To get there by 7:00 AM which I have done and you have too, Cindy. And we have had cases either get super, super delayed or get canceled.
It is what it is. This is surgery, you guys. Things happen. Our agendas are not our own. We are at the, we're at the beck and call of the patients and the physicians and the, OR scheduling and all of the things. It is what it is. So first of all, you need to accept that second of all, yes, okay? Instead of just being like, oh man, man, you know a bunch of curse words.
Come outta your mouth. Go get a cup of coffee, go pee if you didn't pee, and like sit in the lobby, drink your coffee. And then figure out where you're gonna go, figure out what you're gonna do if you need to ship product back or give it to the next rep, you gotta do that. Then you've, and, and figure out when the case is now gonna be scheduled.
I mean, truth be told, it's probably just getting, it's probably just getting rescheduled. So do that part so you follow up and then figure out where you're gonna go that day if you are in a town away from your own home. Go make some sales calls. You're in sales, like, let's figure it out. Right? It's all figureoutable, like Cindy just said.
But I think one of the first things is to take a breath before you start to panic because. Nothing in this life is other than death and taxes, like, you know, you can change it. It's gonna be okay. So just take a breath and, and look at it differently as a perspective, because when you get into the middle of a case and crap is going wrong, you don't get to panic then.
So why are you panicking now? I mean, come on.
Cynthia Ficara: Exactly. Think about how when you're selling, you're gonna problem solve there. So why is it any different to not critically think through things? And, you know, something you were saying is, I feel like maybe a, a good way to summarize what you just said is to own it before you outsource your problem.
Oh, I love that. 'cause you may have already solved it in the time that it took you to pick up the phone and complain to somebody over and over. And now it's worse. And you're making the old saying of a mountain out of a molehill. When if you just own it and say, okay, let me just figure this out. Before you know it, your problem is solved and you're onto the next thing.
Because high performers don't dwell on. Problems, negativities and just, oh, yes. Well, if you talk to a high performer at the end of the day, how was your day? They're gonna talk about the high points first. They're not gonna spend 10 minutes talking about one problem that they had to discuss five times and commiserate with somebody else and, and then never get out of their problem.
So, yeah,
Anneliese Rhodes: I love that.
Cynthia Ficara: And own it before you outsource.
Own It, Admit It, Solve It
Anneliese Rhodes: Own it and, you know, tap into those things that you do have at your fingertips. Okay. If it is like a technical thing, like you were saying, Cindy, well, usually we have an IT department. Usually most companies have IT departments. Most of the time, like me, I have 'em on speed dial, so I'm like, text them and be like, glad you answer me now.
But like, you know, tap into your tools, into your solutions, figure out how you're gonna. Fix the problem. Is it something as simple as you just being able to go to Best Buy? Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. Um, or if you're in the middle of a case and something goes wrong, first of all, you should already know what you're doing in terms of being able to troubleshoot.
But if you cannot, you know, it's really funny, Cindy, we used to have this. Text stream. This was back when we first got phones and I was with an, uh, startup company at the time. Brand new device, you know, new. I was a new rep, but like brand new device to the market. And so we had what we called technical support and it was like this text stream where if you texted this number, people that got it knew what they were doing.
They could answer any text message whatsoever. Wow. It was like amazing. And let me tell you, I was in a case, I wanna say it was like the fifth case. I was doing something like that, and we got into a bind and the physician asked me a question and I didn't know the answer to it. And I'm like, you know what?
I don't know, but I'll ask text support. And I quickly like texted away. I think it was on my little, like, I don't remember what the phone was called, but, um, Blackberry. The Palm Pilot. Oh, the Palm Pilot. Oh my gosh. Remember those? But I texted and immediately five answers came back, all the same exact answer, and I'm like.
Oh, there you go. So it was like, wow, that's a lifeline
Cynthia Ficara: for sure.
Anneliese Rhodes: Right? But I just had to pause and tap into my tools that I knew that I had, and you're not gonna be able to do that every time. But maybe set that up, you guys. Like maybe have somebody that you can text last minute in a bind. Maybe your team members, hey, you know, they're all potentially in cases, but maybe somebody isn't in a case and you can quickly text all of 'em and say, Hey.
Anybody know the answer to this kind of thing?
Cynthia Ficara: Well,
Anneliese Rhodes: your
Cynthia Ficara: example is really important because there's a lot of people listening that have startup comp that work for startup companies. Yeah. And you know, it's a startup. So what happens is there's gonna be incidents that nobody else has heard of. So it's not like you went to training and they told you all the things that can go wrong, and here's all the ways to handle it.
Yep. So in your instance, it's still so. New that this is the first time. And if you're thinking in your head, okay, this doesn't work. This doesn't work, now we gotta get the doctor out. That's exactly when you outsource. But I, I really like that. I think if anybody listening needs to at least have a lifeline of one, two, to five people that they could immediately get to.
But I think that's really important. But at that point, your decision was to use the lifeline and clearly that was a good choice. So that's good.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah. Um, you know, I mean, I, again, it's taking ownership and owning it. Like you said, you know, you need to own the issues, right? I mean, it's your job to figure it out.
Not every single time are you gonna have an answer for every single thing, but number one, you should admit it when you don't have the answer, and then you're gonna tell the physician, I can figure that out for you asap. But it is your job to have solutions to almost every problem, and not to sit there and complain about them.
Back orders happen to everybody. You know, recalls happen to a lot of companies. Um, changes in leadership happen, like companies getting bought, like things that we can't control out there are gonna happen. And if you sit back and you complain about it versus looking on the bright side and figuring out a way around it and a better solution.
Not only do you look better, your mindset's better, but your customers are like, oh wow, shit. Look at that. I rolled right off of her shoulders. You know, she's doing great and they wanted, they want that, right? They want their reps to be okay. They don't want you struggling trying to get through a problem.
They wanna know, look at that. She figured it out.
From Shortcut to Solution Become the Problem-Solving Rep
Cynthia Ficara: So if you're listening and you're wondering, well, am I this person? Maybe I do. Sometimes, maybe I don't. I'm gonna ask you a question, okay? If you are somebody who defaults too quickly to outsource, are you someone that asks somebody something that you could simply Google?
I mean, could you literally just Google it? Or are you taking the time to call somebody that you could Google? Are you also somebody that throws a problem out there and then sits back and now you're just waiting for somebody else to fix it? So maybe a good example of this is, I do remember somebody used to work with that.
As soon as something went wrong, he would send it up to the his manager and just tell him something's wrong, and then wait. I remember the manager had like, this was when, um, when your phone's gonna get wet. And he dropped his phone like in a sink or a toilet or something. So hours go by and there's no communication.
Well, this rep never followed up. Just thought by asking the manager he would solve the problem. Turns out nothing was ever solved. And who does the doctor blame? You think he's, he's blaming the manager who lost his phone down a toilet? No, it's the rep. So if you sit back and just wait somebody else to fix your issue, you could be guilty.
And I think another. Thing to think about if, if you're in this bucket of, of defaulting to handing off is if you're somebody who, um, immediately just hands responsibility off too early. So I'm throwing out those scenarios because I. Again, in, in this episode, we want you to think critically, as Lisa said, pause, think, try to solve, because top reps solve problems like it's a second nature.
Yeah. They don't, they don't have to think of anything in an algorithm, you know? Yeah. They've trained the brain to own their outcome and why that helps them is the moment it matters most is they learn how to rely on their own internal resources. They think, they critically think they know what they know about their device and they can break it down.
This works here, this works here. And I think that that is so crucial in this job. And, um, solving the problem is really how you react into the problem presented. And I just, I think it's so, so, so important.
Anneliese Rhodes: I just, I was thinking about something that I read not that long ago, and it says, the best salespeople, people, or you can infuse high performers don't just sell solutions.
They become the solution. And I think when you become the solution for all the problems, then why wouldn't they wanna work with you? Why would they wanna work with anybody else? Because if you can solve all the solutions, all the problems for your physicians with solutions, and you become the solution.
They're never gonna call anybody else. You're gonna be like, Nope, I'm gonna call Lisa or Cindy. They already got me.
Cynthia Ficara: And you know, Lisa, what you just said is so important because if the All right, I think this is really important. You said if you solve all the problems well. If you try to work through the problem with a physician, they will always call on you.
I think I'm gonna, I, I just wanna clarify that because we're not every problem doesn't have immediate solution anyway. Good point. Good point. But every problem can, can have somebody help them step by step. And if we, we would love for you to walk away with a takeaway that you want the physician to call you to help them.
Yeah, solve their problem or your problem is walk through that with them. Your answer may not come right away. That doesn't mean you didn't solve it, but owning it and critically thinking and working through that makes a huge difference because I. And you're asking with purpose. You're not just complaining.
I think that's what separates it, and I know you said that at the very beginning, but problem solvers truly have a purpose in their problem solving. When a problem comes their way, they don't panic.
Anneliese Rhodes: I love it. All right, so what's our call to action? Because I feel like our call to action should be something like, okay, the next time you are faced with a problem.
How are you going to react to it? Are you gonna freak out, call your manager, complain, or are you gonna sit back? Take your five second or ten second break and figure out a solution to the problem. Because it can be as simple as taking a little bit of time and thinking to yourself, okay, this isn't, this is a problem that I can solve.
How am I going to solve it to get that next call from the customer and to be the solution? Not the problem.
Cynthia Ficara: I love it. And the secret is to. Like Marie Forleo said, everything is figureoutable. And don't panic. Break it down. I think many of you listening sell with a lot of power. You sell with confidence.
Creativity and many of you, a lot of grit. If you attack solving problems like that, that's where you're gonna see a difference. So we'll leave you with this note to solve like you sell with confidence, creativity, and grit. We hope you enjoyed this little awakening on problem solving and give you one little tip to take it a step further.
Thank you so much for listening. Definitely write us a review, drop in to our dms, send us messages. We'd love to hear from you, and we're wishing you an awesome week ahead in selling.
Anneliese Rhodes: We all know this rep, the one who hits a snag in the field, fires off a group text message like, oh my gosh, what should I do? Meanwhile, someone is already fixing it quietly, strategically, and professionally in medical device sales. It is not about knowing everything.
It's about how you think when things go sideways.
Cynthia Ficara: Today we are talking about the shortcut mindset, how to shift from asking to acting what it really takes to solve a problem like a high performer.
I.
