Here's a good post from the STJ board.
Anonymous
Posts: n/a
Re: A OPEN, HONEST QUESTION FOR SJM/CRM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Again, the industry is becoming more service oriented rather than sales oriented. Not necessarily a bad thing unless you are an incompetent sleaze ball like that relies on a "Good Ol' Boys Club" like many of the "reps" that hang out here.....
I think you're absolutely right, unfortunately the part you are missing is that the "service" is not going to be provided by an industry clinical because of two things: automaticity and the growing trend of "part time" reps.
Automaticity: with each new generation of devices, we (clinicals and sales reps) are becoming increasingly unnecessary particularly in follow ups clinics. How much of what we used to have to do manually is now accomplished simply by placing the wand over the device? The big 6 are there on the home screen now: sensing, impedances, thresholds - along with AF Burden Percentages, Quicklinks to stored Egrams, BiV Pacing percentages. When the occasional "legacy device" comes in, we earn our keep, but the new cans were purposefully built to be clinically friendly. The doctors could care less if we go away since all we're doing is pounding them with requests that they no longer have the authority to make now that the bean counters call the shots. The company's could care less because declining ASP's, new anti-industry legislation, litigation costs and alternative therapies are putting pressure on them to save where they can. Labor is the most expensive outlay, so why not hire...
"Part Time Reps": Nurses and Techs can be trained to follow these devices (particulary the new generation of cans for reasons already discussed). In fact, the next time you offer a local training class for a group of Cath Lab Nurses, realize you're training your replacements. Admittedly, the hospitals aren't over-joyed - but they also realize that times are tight, and if a CV Tech is getting side work and free training that will make him a better CV Tech - that may be enough sugar to make the medicine go down. Besides - it means there will be fewer former military officers and pharma reps lurking around. Bonus!
The fact that doctors no longer run the show in alot of places is a critical point. Sales reps influenced doctors. Sales reps aren't nearly as good at stroking hospital administrators and department managers. The doctor / sales rep days are giving way to the administrator / account manager era. It's all about the contracts. So, reps and aspiring young clinicals, that's where your future lies in this industry. So, you can take the previous poster's advice and get into the tech manuals, but don't forget to know how your company's Tiered pricing stacks up against the competitions (just don't get caught looking through the cath lab manager's files.)
Bottomline: Industry clinicals are going away. I know there are some superstars out there who are real assests to the accounts they cover, and they'll be the ones that are left behind to answer the occasional "deep" questions about a device. But we're at the point where the ability to place the wand over the device is essentially the only skill one would need to get the information a doc would need to feel confident about a device's function. Implant support may be the Alamo for us, but if you know anything about how managed care states abroad are doing business - reps don't go in to cases. Nurses and techs are running the analyzer under the watchful eye of the EP. Like it or not, Obamacare is a step in the managed care direction. As with automatic followups, all the new generation of cans perform a self diagnostic as soon as a lead is detected, and nominals are set. If a doc likes his PVARP a little longer, well, Nurse Nancy can probably handle that, too.
