I'm considering accepting this position. How competitive is this market with the products in the surgical supplies bag? Is this a difficult sell to grow/ convert business?
Combined Bag Sales Representative
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VERY competitive and on contract with major GPOs and IDNs. First year earnings should be 140-150K. Second year should be the same. You won't kill it with this position but the products are solid. No matter what company you work for converting and growing business is challenging. Decent company and opportunity overall.
Extremely competitve. Surgical Supplies is not going to be as OR driven as EMID ar EBD is. Direct quote from the manager. A lot will be dependent on contracts. More commodity type products.
You must have fallen asleep while reading over this thread. This topic pertains to the Combined Bag Sales Rep (Energy and Endo-Mechanical) not the Surgical Supplies position.
In other words, be sure that you have a territory with solid GPO and IDN prospects. If the major hospital systems are aligned with competitive GPO/IDN, you will be facing a strong uphill battle to achieve even a small market share/sales volume ... and believe me, you will work harder for those few points of market share and if Coviden's higher ups are like those I've dealt with, that fact will be lost on them.
Good luck.. Give it two years before Covidien pulls the plug on the Combined Bag deal.. They have used this model before and it's a short term deal to save money...
Thanks for the insight. Hopefully by then I will have proven my worth and have gotten a crack at another division if not another opportunity altogether.
Best of luck...more important to kiss the right ass than prove worth at Tyco Healthcare... Oh, my bad -Covidien
Any idea what the training is like for the combined sales rep role, same 90% or better on tests, or they fire you and leave you for dead between jobs?
Hahaha, this is some ish. U need to go to training to sell a retrieval bag? No wonder I'm taking business from u clowns. U sell on high level relationships & contracts & that's it. Your sales reps are pathetic
Give them a break. Most of the reps, especially supplies reps, are new to the portfolio any way. They can only sell suture.... so they do need to take courses on how to use and sell specimen bag 
I agree with this. A lot of these newer reps are clueless about the politics/GPO contracts and are left to stand in the room and confirm with the dr that he/she is going to use the retrieval bag for a lap chole. All the "selling" was done weeks and months prior by upper management. If you ask me, it doesn't constitute paying them $130+ per year. As for the sutures, I cannot speak to what Covidien is doing across the country, but in my accounts, the surgeons can't stand Covidien sutures. They're inferior to Ethicon's in almost every way and at least 25% of the surgeon base has screamed and yelled to get it off the shelf. The other 75% tolerate it or don't do enough cases to warrant causing an uproar and when the 25% scream loud enough, they will usually agree with them so they don't have to switch.
I've been with them for five years on the EMID side- now AST. Unless you are desperate for a job, keep looking. Re-organization and cost cutting measures have stripped away what used to be a great company. Dont get me wrong, you can make good living, but a lot of it depends on your RM and the IDN/GPO status in your territory. Miss your number and expect a PIP. Good products, but competing against JNJ's super deep pockets is not a cake walk. Good luck.
I agree about the suture. Ethicon has done an excellent job in building a brand that stands the test of time. Some surgeons don't even know who Covidien is and even refer to it as the cheap brand.
How does the "Combined Bag Rep" compare to other "Single Line Rep" divisions within Covidien?
Covidien's products looked cheap compared to Ethicon's. Especially suture, where it is all about how it feels on the surgeon's hand. I am not sure that it is being addressed.
"I am not sure that it is being addressed."
You're not sure it's being addressed? Of course it's not. It's only been a decade that the field has been telling upper management that suture/the robot/reprocessing/SILS/energy etc etc etc need to be considered more closely. Remember tho, they're looking down upon us from a 30-50,000 ft view; it's difficult to hear the field from way up there. And the air is thin; it's difficult to process information. Maybe we should create another app on a new device and run it through another layer of middle managers. Yes! That'll fix it.
You're not sure it's being addressed? Of course it's not. It's only been a decade that the field has been telling upper management that suture/the robot/reprocessing/SILS/energy etc etc etc need to be considered more closely. Remember tho, they're looking down upon us from a 30-50,000 ft view; it's difficult to hear the field from way up there. And the air is thin; it's difficult to process information. Maybe we should create another app on a new device and run it through another layer of middle managers. Yes! That'll fix it.