Key takeaways
- Medical devices selling needs specialist skills: clinical value, safety and operational efficiency all matter to the buyer.
- The Sales Gym uses two-hour virtual or hybrid workouts with groups of six or seven participants.
- The methodology runs over three to six months and develops managers as coaches.
- Short, regular practice on live opportunities supports implementation better than long classroom events.
The situation
Medical devices sales teams work in one of the most demanding commercial environments there is. Their customers include surgeons, nurses, biomedical engineers, procurement teams and hospital managers. Each group judges a product on different criteria: clinical outcomes, patient safety, ease of use, total cost and fit with existing processes.
Our client had sales teams in nine European countries. Like most device businesses, it faced a familiar tension. Its people needed sharper skills, yet every day spent in a classroom was a day away from theatres, wards and tender meetings. Traditional multi-day training was hard to justify and harder to schedule across nine markets.
There was a second concern. Previous training events had produced good feedback on the day, yet it was difficult to see what changed in the field afterwards. The business wanted development that sales managers would own and continue, so that new skills showed up in account plans, hospital meetings and tender responses.
The engagement is anonymised, and we do not publish client performance data here. What we can describe is the method and why it suited this situation.
Why The Sales Gym fitted
I created The Sales Gym methodology to answer exactly this problem. Salespeople do not want long classroom sessions, and leaders cannot afford to take teams away from selling. The Sales Gym replaces the big event with short, focused workouts linked directly to the behaviours that drive performance.
Each workout has a consistent structure:
- it lasts two hours and runs virtually or in a hybrid format;
- groups are small, with six or seven participants, so everyone practises;
- participants work on real skills and apply tools to their own live opportunities;
- each person leaves with a personal action commitment to carry into the field.
The full methodology runs over three to six months. That rhythm matters. Skills are built in small increments and tested in real customer conversations between sessions, which addresses the well-known problem that teams forget around 80% of what they learn within 30 days.
For a device team, a typical workout might focus on one moment in the sale: preparing for a value analysis committee, handling a request from procurement to match a competitor's price, or securing a clinical champion for an evaluation. Participants bring a real account, use the tool on it during the session and agree what they will do with that account before the next workout.
Sales managers as coaches
The brief stressed implementation with sales managers, and this is where many programmes fall down. A rep can leave a good session full of intent, then meet a manager who asks only about numbers. Within weeks the new approach has gone.
In The Sales Gym, managers are developed as coaches so they can keep the momentum going between workouts. They know which tools the team is using, they see the commitments people have made, and they can follow up in one-to-ones and deal reviews. Our sales leadership material cites research from Gartner, McKinsey and the Corporate Executive Board indicating that effective coaching can improve performance by 19 to 26%. In a device business with dispersed field teams, the manager is the person best placed to deliver it.
Making it work in nine countries
Running the same methodology across nine European markets requires both consistency and local sense. Hospital procurement, reimbursement and tendering vary from country to country, and so do the habits of clinical customers. Our approach to Health and Life Sciences reflects that: a unified methodology, delivered with local insight by consultants who know each market.
The Sales Gym format helps here. Because workouts are short and small, they are easy to schedule around local calendars and in local time zones. Because every group uses the same structure and tools, a regional sales director can compare progress across countries and managers can share what is working.
What other device businesses can take from this
If you lead a medical devices sales organisation across several countries, a few principles from this work are worth considering.
- Protect selling time. Two-hour workouts fit around clinical schedules far more easily than multi-day courses.
- Practise on live opportunities. Applying tools to current accounts makes learning immediately relevant and gives managers something concrete to coach.
- Equip managers before you equip reps. Managers who understand the method can reinforce it every week.
- Keep one structure across countries. Shared tools and language let you compare, share and scale.
The Sales Gym is one of several approaches Gyroscope uses in Health and Life Sciences, where we work with medical devices, pharmaceutical, life sciences and animal health businesses. Our other sector examples include core selling skills delivered in local languages for an animal health company in seven European countries, now in its third year.
Frequently asked questions
How long is a Sales Gym workout?
Each workout lasts two hours and runs virtually or in a hybrid format, with small groups of six or seven participants.
How long does The Sales Gym methodology run?
Typically three to six months. Workouts are spaced so participants can apply new skills to live opportunities between sessions, with managers coaching them along the way.
Is The Sales Gym only for medical devices teams?
No. It was designed for any sales team that cannot afford long periods away from customers, though it suits field teams in Health and Life Sciences particularly well.
Steve is a highly experienced sales leader and director in the Health & Life Sciences sector and leads the Gyroscope HLS team. He drives measurable performance in complex, multi-stakeholder sales environments through focused, behaviour-led development. Creator of The Sales Gym Methodology™.
