"The power of referrals is huge." - Casey Mcginn

🚀 Ever wondered what it really takes to succeed in medical device sales? Hosts Syya and The Traveling Saleslady sit down with Casey McGinn, who went from crunching numbers in accounting to closing deals in the operating room.

Casey shares his powerful journey into the fast-paced world of medical sales, revealing why curiosity, competitiveness, and connections are the secret sauce to sales success. From handling objections with confidence to building lasting relationships and earning referrals that open doors with real-world strategies and insider tips.

Learn more about Casey:

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Check out The Traveling Saleslady and Community!

💡 Plus—don't miss the hilarious travel tales and surprising insights about what it really means to find wins (even the small ones) on the road.

📲 Watch now and level up your sales game!

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Welcome everyone, it's the Traveling Saleslady podcast.

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So what do we do when we think about medical healthcare industry and we combine it with

sales?

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We know that there's a lot of opportunity, obviously.

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There's a lot of products, a lot of services and platforms now in this AI world.

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But you know what?

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What does it really mean for an actual sales professional?

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So Traveling Saleslady, how are you and how...

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I love that question.

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It's a good one.

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know medical device sales, as you mentioned, healthcare sales, very interesting profession

for salespeople.

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So I think today our audience, our viewers are in for a treat with, can I introduce our

guest, Sia?

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Are we ready?

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All right.

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Welcome, welcome, Casey McGinn with SI Bone.

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That is an

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interesting name of a

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does not roll off the tongue.

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No?

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And maybe Casey, if you could share with our viewers a little bit about your background in

sales, the company, and maybe what you do day to day as a sales professional working for

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SI Bone.

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Absolutely.

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Well, thanks for having me everybody.

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but so my start in medical device sales, I first started in sales, selling accounting

services because I, got an accounting degree in college at the university of Miami.

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Then I, I thought I needed a job and they said accountants have jobs.

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And so I worked for a big four accounting firm and they nearly crushed me.

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And, then.

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People suggested I try sales and so nobody in medical device would have somebody from

accounting.

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So I got into accounting sales.

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I was selling for a consulting firm to sell accounting services.

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And before everybody falls asleep, fast forward, I had a buddy who worked in medical

device and they had had some bad interviews, suggested I give one.

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And I started work for Smith and Nephew in the sports medicine division.

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So from there I went to a company called my sonics, which I believe now is bioventus But

they that got me started in spine so I was in sports medicine and then I was in spine and

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I'm still in spine But it's like spine and ortho so orthopedics Because I deal with mostly

the SI joint hence the name SI bone.

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It's marketed towards

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Surgeons, it's not marketed towards People the general public like a medtronic or names

that sound like medical companies That's why the name is what it is and it does work.

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But so Now I I'm dealing with most of the SI joint which is the very very bottom part of

your spine but the bottom part of your spine is always part of the construct if you're

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doing procedures for the rest of the spine.

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Anyways, so that's how I got there.

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And I love my job now.

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I absolutely love it.

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So.

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What do you cover for an area?

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Now my area is pretty small.

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had some pretty good years and what happens is they kind of cut your territory at that

point.

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So it's the greater central Florida area.

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So from Lakeland to Daytona, Gainesville and south to not quite Sebring, but if you think

of, if you know Florida, I-4 essentially.

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That's a really small territory from a sales perspective,

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So it is, it is a, but you know, I, my mileage begs to differ.

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So the, when I was a Smith and nephew, but even now, the way that the medical industry

works is that the doctors, you can't control a doctor.

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can only hope to kind of contain them.

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And so, but the expertise that the salespeople have are extremely valuable.

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One case.

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opposed to zero cases is a world of a difference, especially if you're launching a

product.

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So I was one of the very first in the world to use the one of our products that we

recently launched.

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And then I had to travel all over the place.

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My boss travels all over the place, but typically in medical sales, if you're not

traveling by plane everywhere you go to close a meeting, has to do with

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the surgeries and you're traveling, you have to be really logistic about it and call and

help when you need it.

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And often if you are the first person to use something or somebody that has more

experience with the product, nobody was going to take any risks if you get a doctor to try

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something for the first time.

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Cause if he likes it, he'll keep using it.

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If he has an okay time, he just won't.

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There's really not many second chances.

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So

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Very interesting.

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And I've got to pull this whole conversation back to something that you said earlier that

I think is key.

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Your buddy introduced you.

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What did that feel like?

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Because part of the Traveling Sales Lady brand is all about the good stuff in sale, the

relationship side of sales, which is just key.

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And I'm just curious if you can think back to that time.

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it vividly.

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Medical industry.

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I love what I do now.

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I've always loved them, especially compared to what I've done in the past.

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So I was in accounting sales, still hard to convince somebody that you can sell medically

and clinically.

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And they just had some bad interviews.

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My buddy's like, you seem like our type of people.

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Do you think you'd be interested?

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And he didn't know that I had been

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dying to get in, but I didn't know how, you know, and I had a job.

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So I wasn't trying, I wasn't one of those people that was like, I just want to get into

med device and that happens a lot.

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it's the right thing to do, I think, but you can't just say, I really want to be in this

industry because it's growing.

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That's not compelling to anybody, but I just sounded really cool to me.

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What he did.

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because there's two parts to it.

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There's, there's a sales part, which I love any type of sales.

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And then there's this clinical part where you can be better than your competitor by just

learning more.

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And there's a million resources.

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So when he gave me that opportunity, would you think you'd mind interviewing?

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And I don't know if he, he needed a spot to fill in the interview, but I knew I wasn't

going to waste it.

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And it was, it was like,

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I put all my eggs in that basket.

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took a huge pay cut and came in as an associate and it paid off tremendously.

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And we're still friends.

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mean, it's actually one of my wife's best friends husband and I'd known him for years.

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But he didn't think of me like that.

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And when he did, I jumped at it.

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I hope that answers it a little bit.

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It does.

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It definitely does.

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And I think it's key too for people listening that sometimes it does make sense with a

career path that sometimes you've got to take a step backward to take a big leap forward

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in time.

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it's very important to think of those things.

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Sia, I know your background, a lot of it is in tech sales.

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Tech sales and medical device have got to have similarities.

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Do you think tech sales?

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is something people can look at an ad online on Indeed and jump into?

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Or just like Casey, do you think there's got to be some level of referral relationship?

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So I think that's a really great question, Traveling Sales Lady.

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So I think curiosity.

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To be a successful sales professional, period, I think curiosity has to be a key

component.

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Whether you're curious about your client from a personal interaction perspective, curious

about their business need or what problem you're helping them to solve, if you're helping

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them to be more efficient, medical sales devices, I think, is technology.

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Now...

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Is it tech in the context of the way I was in that industry?

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No, but I think of it as innovation.

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And so there's a lot of, I think, opportunity for excitement that if you have that fire in

the belly, people that are transitioning in careers, yeah, you might have to take a step

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back to learn the basics, but if you've got the right, you know, ingredients, I think

anyone can go into any industry.

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If you know how to sell, you can stay curious and you're eager to learn.

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I mean, what do you think about that, Am I off course on that?

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Not at all.

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Not at all.

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think that the, the kind of, if it was a Venn diagram and you have like medical and you

have like the tech industry, I think the middle of it is the part of the salesperson where

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you're trying to learn.

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If you can learn what C plus plus is, I don't know if that's even relevant anymore, but

like, if they need, yeah.

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Okay.

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So when I, when I was working for the accounting consulting firm, like we had a group that

was doing tech sales too.

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And I heard them.

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trying to find those consultants and things like that.

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then it was like Salesforce people we needed.

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And so if you're willing to learn so you can talk to your customer and you like that type

of learning, it's perfect.

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Same as me.

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If I can learn more, then I have a better chance of selling to this doctor.

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You know, I may not be able to take him golfing at his favorite place or even know how to

frame that.

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But if I can,

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in a five-minute meeting, explain to them, know what I'm talking about.

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It works.

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I have a question because I was supporting a hospital system and I got to tell you the

biggest challenge and I was supporting the IT department infrastructure to help get the

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doctors and nurses on board with some of the latest innovations to help make their jobs

easier.

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So it wasn't medical devices, but it was definitely, we knew who our audience was, which

is very similar audience more or less, right?

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How do you overcome

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that objection of whatever device you're introducing.

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Like you said earlier, if it's hard for them to learn it or they don't get it from the

jump, how do you overcome it?

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Because, okay, medical professionals, I'm just gonna call you out.

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A lot of do not like to change.

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So how do you overcome that?

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That's so what the first thing I learned is that the hardest thing to do is to change a

doctor's mind to change the way he does things because he and that's also one of the best

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things it taught me about doctors even to help my family.

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But the the way that the best way to do that is to to realize it's very difficult to

change their mind.

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So what what would what could possibly and it's usually luckily

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Data, that's simple.

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If you're with a company that has enough data, clinical data that's compelling,

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That can get your foot in the door.

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The second thing is if it seems cool, they may be nerds, some of them, or they may be

excited about the industry itself.

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If your product is cool, it has good results, that's half the battle.

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The other part is just sales 101.

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Do what you say you're gonna do.

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because you can sound really, really good, but, and promise something at the end of the

meeting.

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But if you don't, if you say, I'll follow up tomorrow and you don't, even with a, need to

follow up tomorrow, then they at least know where they stand with you.

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It's never failed me.

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And I guess the only other thing is just also another basic sales thing.

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where you get past your ego and you just ask that question one more time.

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I'm here again.

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It's me.

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Can we have a try again?

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But really in medical device, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that data leads.

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Also, doctors are exactly as difficult to win favor of as you'd think.

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but another doctor can do your bidding for you too.

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So that's the, that's another one.

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If you have faculty on your company that is a doctor, maybe somebody they trained under,

or they trained under the same people, then it's wildly easier.

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Like it's, it'd be stupid to not give it a shot.

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you went to here for residency?

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Do you know this guy?

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Then do you not even have to sell that other guy?

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You just say, please, please talk to him.

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You don't want to talk to your friend.

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Yeah, he does.

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And then it's not like you have to feel like you're selling a doctor.

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You're just asking him to have a conversation with your doctor.

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The power of is huge, it?

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mean, Traveling Sales Lady, I know you've got an incredible network.

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I think it's super huge.

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It's everything.

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It's the learning that Casey mentioned aspect.

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It's the referral.

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It's the relationship.

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And it's asking questions too, because you could be connected to someone that you want to

ask, you know, not always just to about referrals, hey, help me learn.

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You may have one tidbit of information that makes them feel good as a teacher and makes

you feel good as the receiver.

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I've used that too many times.

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am a curious person and I am a very sincere person, but if you say, if you see something

and you don't ask, so why did you do that?

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And it can be less sincere than others sometimes, but it doesn't mean it's not sincere, I

guess.

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They want to teach you.

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Yeah.

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Hey, Traveling Sales Lady, I just had a thought.

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Is it time, Sia?

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Is it time for our Click to Commerce segment?

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I think so!

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Falling asleep with your neck in the wrong position can be a real pain in the neck.

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Literally, people of all ages are falling for Tossie.

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Tossie gives you the comfort you've always dreamed of.

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Go to TossyBrands.com Get your comfort on!

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Okay, I have to ask, I have to ask.

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Have you ever thrown a golf game just because you knew if you beat your prospect or your

client there, they'd get upset with you?

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no, it is against my nature.

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however, in the second, you know, in the last like four holes, if there's an opportunity

for the doctor to have a win, he might just get it.

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Maybe I'm, maybe I'm ahead enough where I get lazy, but, typically, you know, it's

interesting that you can already, you can tell by the type of personality, whether.

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they are okay with being beaten or not.

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And, and I might just lose that doctor that day.

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don't know.

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I got to jump in with a quick story here related to golf and related to orthopedic

surgeons.

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So many years ago, I'll make it real quick, many years ago, because Casey, your wife,

Katie McGinn and I in a former life used to work together for an imaging company and we

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worked with orthopedic surgeons that had a golf tournament and we had a tent and they came

out and I always wanted to drive a golf cart, yet I hadn't.

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Oh my gosh.

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mind.

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I always wanted to drive one.

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And this was my opportunity.

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So one of my teammates said, hey, can you take me over to a restroom?

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We were on one of the holes on one of the green.

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Oh, let me drive, let me jump in.

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And I got in that golf cart, not realizing that reverse didn't have a break.

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You just let your foot off the pedal.

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But I couldn't process that.

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No one had taught me.

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I just thought, oh, I always wanted to drive.

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I'll jump in.

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And this kind of relates to sales as

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do your homework lady, know what you're getting into.

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didn't.

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And we put the thing in reverse.

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The golf cart is just going back.

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It's terrible noises.

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It's going back, back.

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And the person in the cart is saying, stop, stop, but my mind's not processing.

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And we hit four doctors and another golf.

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No one got hurt.

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No one got hurt.

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It was humiliating, but it stirred conversation.

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Deanna, back to your point about networking and how to meet people and kind of break,

break the ice or like, hope you don't break their legs or their golf cart.

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That's right.

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There is a way to make an entrance and you know, sometimes that works.

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Make it

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Absolutely.

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I don't even want to, I don't even don't think I want to tell my golf story, but I'll just

go, I'll say it very quickly.

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So, uh, we were in Vegas for a sales conference.

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used to work for a particular tech company and you know, lot of our clients would fly out

for it as well.

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And my boss had booked, uh, uh, links for us one morning.

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Well, we also all hung out together that previous evening that eat its way into the

morning and he.

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booked this golf outing at like eight o'clock in the morning and we had been stumbling in

around five.

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So I thought he was joking when he said, Oh yeah, I'm going to book it at 8 a.m.

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and you guys better show up.

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He was dead pan-serious.

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I get a phone call at 7 30 going, where are you?

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And I'm going, uh, I freaking just went to sleep.

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And he's like, get downstairs.

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We're golfing.

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And I'm like, Oh, hell no.

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And, uh, yeah.

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So, uh, let's.

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They have that other level to they you think they don't get to do that stuff that often

but when they do you'd be surprised they go nuts again golfing I'm going to Disney and I'm

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gonna stay up till five o'clock in the morning at the same

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they do it.

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don't know how they, and these, I'm gonna just say it.

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These people were older than me, okay?

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And I was dying.

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At one point, you guys, they're on the green, and I just said, I need a, I'll be right

back.

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So I went to the car and just laid there.

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And I just went, okay, when you guys are ready, I'll just drive, I'll drive you to the

next hole.

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I couldn't play.

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I was useless.

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So there you go.

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That's my golf story.

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The news about golfing with people is that you only have to be like, it's very hard to be

very good.

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So I'm really harmless to everybody and I might beat them, they golf people only want to

golf and they want to play golf all the time.

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A lot of them are doctors, but like it doesn't mean that they're good.

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And so if you're like, you don't get to play very much and you can just have a nice round

and it actually works to your favor.

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And you're never going to get that amount of time alone with the doctor, that's for sure.

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That's very true.

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That's true, true.

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How about conferences, Casey?

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Do you go to lot of conferences with your role or an annual sales meeting?

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I'm trying to dig into, I know you love sales.

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What's the fun stuff for you?

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What puts that big, beautiful smile on your face that says, love it?

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Well, often it's any shape or form of a win.

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I played sports my whole life.

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not saying that this doesn't make my whole identity.

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But if I was thinking about it, like I, it's hard for me to say the money's great, but I

know if I win enough, the money will come and winning feels so good because you're trying

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really hard.

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And you can try really hard and not win just like anything.

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So I'm just seeking wins.

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It can be as small as a yes.

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It can be as small as a yes to a meeting.

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can be a great case.

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could be rescuing a case.

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And so I have a lot of opportunities to win, but in terms of like traveling and stuff like

that, if you, yeah, the, the conferences are a great place to stack up a lot of little

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wins.

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You know, what's better, like you kind of are, feeding off of tiny ego boosts in this and

you don't get a lot of time with doctors because if you call their office and nobody wants

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to deal with you, but they said, I might be interested at a conference and you saw them.

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Then you say, he said he wanted to see me.

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so you, those conferences are great for just having a bunch of people concentrated in a

small area.

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And you're just trying to stack up little wins.

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then that's your, that's your call list, you know, and then, for like national sales

meetings and stuff.

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Yeah.

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I, I, I want to win, you know, I, don't, it doesn't, I don't need to be, I'd love to be

first every time.

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But that's unrealistic.

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So I don't get mad if I'm not, it certainly drives me, but you definitely don't want to be

left.

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I just love winning.

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catch it with your pitch and on that sales, the sales profession is one big competition

because you're competing against obviously your competitors, right?

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All the rival products that do the exact same thing that can serve, you know, the same

solution up for your one client that you're all fighting for.

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It's interesting, you guys, so Traveling Sales Lady and Casey, either one, do you think

you have to have a competitive spirit to be successful in sales?

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I'll jump on that.

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I do think you need a competitive spirit, but I think competitors does not necessarily

mean you need to have a top 100 list and you're competing.

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It's who are you competing with lots of times in sales.

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You can compete with yourself for a better day tomorrow, an additional win, going from a

no to a yes.

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And it doesn't always have to be

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a direct sale.

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You need those things, but I'll give you a perfect example.

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Let's say someone who is new to sales and maybe always wanted to be a public speaker, but

they just weren't there yet, but then they practiced and then they had their big opening

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and maybe it was okay to the audience, but they got in their car at the end of that

conference.

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and they turn their radio up and they felt on top of the world because they did it and

they came out of their comfort zone.

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Those types of things are wins and they've competed against themselves to get to another

level.

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So that's my take on it.

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I agree with you.

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it harkens all of these.

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When I'm trying to figure out why somebody beat me, I'm trying to say, what?

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I thought I was more charming than them.

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I thought I knew more than them.

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thought, but, so I'm analyzing what they've done.

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And it's the exact same, that person just is making the right decisions and doing what

they said they were gonna do.

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So discipline is everything.

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And it's something I think many people struggle, but I certainly did because it's easy to,

to be able to talk to somebody or to know, to memorize studies.

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But the people that I see do the best have both sides.

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They're extremely disciplined and they, they get the sales part.

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And so there's a lot of like this one girl that I work with comes to mind.

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It's like, she's very soft spoken and.

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It could even sound unsure, but she will not be denied at every step.

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You know, and she has spreadsheets upon spreadsheets and her day is booked out on her own

calendar, just blocked.

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And I learn a lot from that, but there's the win is whatever you classify as a win, you

know, but

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She's winning, you know?

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was like, preparation is key too.

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I think as sales folks we can talk and I think there's a, look, being able to speak and

communicate with the people you're working with is critical because it's a relationship

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driven position.

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However, you can be asked for only so long, right?

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So preparation I think is gonna be critical in order to be successful.

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okay.

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So we were talking about all this great stuff.

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Okay, so we're going to be wrapping up time here because Travis, I know about you, us

salespeople, we can all talk all day.

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Don't!

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When are us sales kids ever sorry?

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Come on now!

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I walk around with a bag of sorrys all day long.

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I'll see you at

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Exactly.

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So all the great fun things.

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Can you tell us a funny story of any of your travels, whether it was on a long windshield

road trip or if it was on a train somewhere or of course flying on that airplane.

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Do have any funny stories you'd like to share and maybe a lesson learned?

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of traveling at all or just traveling for sales.

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I mean, if you've got a funny, story, a travel story is a travel story in my book.

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So I don't know, traveling sales lady, what do you think?

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I think just travel related in general because there's always, you could tie anything

right back to sales.

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You just can't, we're all salespeople.

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So I'll do a little bit of both.

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I had a conference somewhere, got separated from my group.

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Um, it was a costume party at the national sales meeting of some sort.

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And I was dressed like Marty McFly from, uh, back to the future.

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And it was a terrific costume.

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Uh, but I got separated from my group and I think we were in Nashville and I got lost,

like not like a loss loss, but I was like, where the hell is everybody?

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And.

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And I ran to a buddy from high school and he's like, Hey, what the hell are you doing

here?

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I was like, what the hell are you doing here?

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And I was like, actually I need to get back to this place and I don't know where it is.

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Like it's not like on Broadway or something that was normal.

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Like I, I, it, he like led me back and I was like, Oh, thank you, baby Jesus.

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He was watching over me and then other travel stories.

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I drove to Illinois with my family in a minivan like every year.

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until I was like 17.

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And sometimes it wasn't a minivan.

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And I have two other brothers.

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It was the worst ever.

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I guess that's not funny, but it is a terrible experience to be trapped in the car with

your two brothers and sometimes in like a bench seat in the back and you're like, we're

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going to die here.

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This is how we die.

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Did you do that?

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Did you do the don't touch me?

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You're in my space You put your hand over don't touch me because I had two two sisters

growing up and we did don't you're in my space Don't the appointment.

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Did you do that as kiss?

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never worked because at that point a punch had been thrown.

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so the don't touch me.

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wasn't like a, I, was, you'd already been punched and you're like, wah.

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And then your parents are like, I mean, they can't say I'll turn this car around.

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Yeah.

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You drive 17 hours back the other way, but it was, uh, now that I think of it, I don't

know if that's funny at all, but it was, it was terrible.

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A travel story is a travel story.

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my brothers are my best friends.

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Like truly, we're thick as thieves.

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And without us hating each other for a long time, I don't think that would be possible.

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There you go.

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Here's what I gleaned from both of those stories.

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Ready?

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Is it gleaned or gleamed?

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Okay, gleamed.

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Number one, always ask for help when you're lost.

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And apparently run into your buddy from high school.

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And number two, there's nothing like really bonding with people when you don't like each

other, especially when you are stuck in a confined space, but always look on the bright

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side of life, which is...

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after you get your destination, there's always going to be some space at the end.

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And when I say space, it could be theoretically in years.

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So many years down the road, now you guys all.

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Everything can be your Cracker Barrel.

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That's a nice way to put it, Sia.

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That's an awesome way to pan that out.

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So, okay, so guys, are, again, we can be talking all day long.

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Traveling sales lead, do have any parting thoughts as we wrap this up?

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like to say thank you, Casey, for being our guest.

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It's so great to see you and thank you for the insights on the medical device sales.

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Super important.

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See you.

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Always a pleasure.

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Always a pleasure.

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And thank you for putting this together.

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You are brilliant.

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This was a lot of fun.

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Awesome.

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Thank you guys so much.

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I really appreciate it.

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That about wraps it up for another episode of the Traveling Tales Lady podcast.

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Casey, thank you so much.

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As always, the illustrious leader, the Traveling Tales Lady yourself.

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Guys, we'll see you next time.

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See ya.

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Thanks guys.