ZB Surgical

Discussion in 'Zimmer' started by anonymous, May 15, 2016 at 11:27 AM.

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  1. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    I'm considering a position with ZB Surgical. West Coast regional focus. I like the people I've met so far and they have a decent, but small bag. Any insight regarding the team and sales group is appreciated.
     

  2. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    lot of reps with long term relationships just left, maybe more to come. If you're paid on growth bonus good luck. If you really need the job it wouldn't be bad for a two year resume builder. Stability and management out west is very unstable at this point
     
  3. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    I'm interviewing for a position in the Southeast. There's lot if talk about a huge product pipeline but no specifics. What's up?
     
  4. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    How big are the territories? Can the product portfolio compete against Stryker?
     
  5. anonymous

    anonymous Guest


    Huge variable in territory size. Some are in excess of $5 Mil some just 1. Manager in the west is great, southeast is really good. Product pipeline is complete but some of the products are not up to par with the rest of the market. Power equipment is a joke (and helmets) You won't be able to compete with Stryker on product quality or price. ZB corporate is investing heavily in the division. Could be good going forward. They have hired a lot of people from Stryker. If you have strong options I would look elsewhere. If they like you the compensation package could be huge, if not they will low ball you.

    Some of the old distributors didn't pay much attention to the product portfolio, so there is a lot of low hanging fruit. Others crushed it and there are fewer opportunities. It is important to know the difference.

    As long as you know the situation and aren't working for the RSM in the Northeast (Virginia through Maine) it is solid. I'd avoid that region if I had options. Senior management seems to like him but his reps hate him and he has a long history of lying and manipulating his reps. Again, the guy in the west is great. For whatever it is worth, just do your homework and know the situation.
     
  6. anonymous

    anonymous Guest


    Do you know what kind of money to realistically expect to make here? Why do his reps hate him?
     
  7. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Depends on the territory. $100k on the low end. At plan $250k on the high if you're a full line guy, both numbers at plan. Do your homework.

    His reps don't really hate him. He just cares more about getting praise from his bosses than his reps.
     
  8. anonymous

    anonymous Guest



    Are reps hitting plan? When they quote at plan comp is that realistic?
     
  9. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    So tough to hit plan and comp with the current bag. We need to add some high dollar products but nothing is coming out of Dover. Rumors of more product lines but talk is cheap.
     
  10. anonymous

    anonymous Guest



    So a majority of reps aren't hitting plan? Are quotas not realistic?

    Do you guys see this division being around long?
     
  11. anonymous

    anonymous Guest


    Anyone?
     
  12. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Some reps will hit plan, some won't. No different than any other company. It is a growing division and the variable from one territory to another is pretty big. It really comes down to doing your research. Understand why your territory is open, what the quota is and how much growth you will need to get there.

    The division will be around for a long time. It is a great space in the device market. What the ZB marketshare is and if the current people will be around in 5 years is the question.
     
  13. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Ditto the response about hitting quota. But the longevity of the division is dependent on its leadership. A lot of them, including the VP, come from Stryker. So ZB Surgical will look a lot like Stryker Surgical in the near term. Time will tell if mimicking Stryker is a good strategy for us but they're going to need to fill some big product gaps to compete effectively. It's hard to keep the bills paid with a small bag including Dornach and head gear. My two cents is that to get really good traction the Surgical guys will need to play nice with the Sports guys in order to compete with Stryker, Arthrex, S&N, and Linvatec.
     
  14. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    They will not play nice with the sports guys - Surgical is legacy Zimmer and Sports is legacy Biomet. ZB surgical is also trying to move further from the recon side of the business into their own business unit, like Stryker. The recon reps are really close to being cut from the business all together. You are right - those guys all come from Stryker, and a lot of them come from Endo, not Surgical.

    I think the division will be around for a long time - too many valuable products, Dornach, tourniquets, etc... The question is what will it look like and who will be left 5 years from now? The group that was running the show 5 years ago are all gone. They'd be smart to acquire a company or products with a strong power line and hopefully a strong management team.

    The VP is a smart guy who gets it - same with some of his management. But there are too many people who trying to be Stryker light. Too many people who aren't good enough to beat Stryker.
     
  15. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    I hope that the ZB management and the surgical execs focus on building out a great organization versus chasing some magic M&A sales team. Been there and done that and it's nothing but headaches as territories, commissions, and baggage are sorted out. We haven't even fully integrated the Biomet/Zimmer teams! I would much rather see the M&A effort be focused on adding products that we can leverage asap. But hire the sales force and management you want. Don't buy it.
     
  16. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Surgical will languish for years under the current management. ZB is too busy spending billions on half baked French spine companies. WTF.
     
  17. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Zimmer was the dominate surgical company from 1930 to 1995. Who is to blame?
     
  18. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    DD dummie
     
  19. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    A couple of problems with Zimmer Surgical comes down to incentives,market share, and contracts. Obviously, Stryker is the 800lb gorilla in this market space. First, I'm not sure which particular med device arena you're currently operating in but I would suggest you ask a few of your local hospitals which GPO they fall under.

    What you will come to realize is that most GPO's with the exception of a few have contracts already in place with Stryker. Sure, Zimmer has the lion's share of tourniquet business but when Stryker is the sole source for wound irrigators, fluid waste management, blades, helmets, power, etc., you begin to see the big picture. Let's not forget Stryker Sustainability Solutions. For every $18-$25 cuff Zimmer sells, Stryker will reprocess that cuff 3 times at $10 a pop to the very same hospital. Zimmer Surgical will continue to fail until it decides to:

    1.) Negotiate to get onto these major GPO's for ALL products
    2.) Get into the reprocessing business (It's gross but Stryker Sustainability Solutions is eating into Zimmer's one key product category at an alarming pace (cuffs)
    3.) Increase surgical reps commission percentage the way it was 3 years ago. I'm going to trade valuable commission points for a shitty salary/commission structure. GTFOH. And while we are on the topic, learn how to structure pay. Yes, smaller territories are getting killed because their market share and territory size sucks. Give them more percentage on base business.(2-7% variable) But what about new business you say? It should be a straight percentage across the country. If you sell a new tourniquet in BFE Idaho why should you get more percentage than the swinging dick in NY who sold the same product? New business is the king of sales. If you mess with people's $ who are trying to GROW your business then you should go back to Sales 101.
    4.) Dropping recon's surgical sales commission and subsequent surgical quota altogether (What is the incentive to a large recon team that has to split a 6% commission 7 ways? They don't care to waste their time on hyping surgical business that has little effect on their take home pay when they're focused on selling joints and not losing their bread and butter to every hospital asking them to lower implant costs 3% every year. Do recon reps in rural areas love the little commission pop? Yes, but only because they don't have to share it with 6 other guys and most times don't have to do any work in the surgical sales process to begin with)
    5. Stop buying shitty companies with shitty product history (Dornoch, CTC, etc.)
    6. Fix their god awful power. They can't give that stuff away. Until their power is so similar to a surgeons hands to System 7 they can't tell a difference, don't bother. You'll just piss off your recon counter parts who have to listen to the surgeon bitch everyday
    7. Stop hiring Stryker Endoscopy reps. IF you're going to hire a Stryker rep for Surgical Sales make sure he is a damn Surgical Rep. Zimmer needs to understand why Stryker is so successful. This comes down to deal structures, contract verbiage, etc.
    8. Expose Stryker Sustainability Solutions for what it truly is..(Disgusting) Would you as the patient like to know that the saw blade, tourniquet cuff, etc., has been reprocessed so that the hospital can tout "being green"?? A.K.A. Saves them money. Patient Smith, listen, we know the last patient that we operated on had Hep C, HIV, and an extreme case of Duck Butter but we cleaned this really well and are environmentally friendly in the process! Do you think a hospital would give two flying shit stains about going green if it cost them more money? Ummm, No.
    9. Come up with new technology or acquire companies with cutting edge technology. Zimmer Surgical is like Apple, post Steve Jobs. Has anything REALLY changed over the past 10 years?? You want a new iPhone? How about this smaller one? How about this bigger one? You get the idea.
    10. Buy a Communications company, a bed company, and either create an Endoscopy division or buy one. Stryker can go to any facility and say we have products in 10 separate product categories. Zimmer has recon, sports medicine, biologics, surgical, and trauma. Hard to leverage pricing when you don't have those other categories that Stryker touts. Sure I can save you money on widgets A-F but Stryker can save you on widgets A-Z. Get it?