Hospitals kick sales reps out of the OR

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Anonymous said:
Let's see if I got this...
Hospitals want to go repless because they think they can get things cheaper. you want ot charge them more for your "service"
Hospitals quit paying delivery charges and shipping because they couldn't get reimbursed. you want to charge them
You walk into an account as their guest. You have no right to be there. You see your role as training "monkeys".
If your accounts are trying to get you out, perhaps we understand why. Your attitude is what's ruining it for the rest of us! You might want to take a closer look at your role. Hospital OR's think you can be replaced by those same "monkeys"!
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NO, you don't have it!!!
I am not a guest when they call me to come and provide them with a product or service. I am considered a contractor/vendor.

2. They can get a discount for not calling in a rep/service rep.
3. Training "monkeys", it wasn't a sales rep that microwaved blood to heat it before killing the patient.
4. I've just been around long enough to know when "they" are taking full advantage of a rep.
It's all about price now days. We are and have become a commodity.
 






Anonymous said:
Let's see if I got this...
Hospitals want to go repless because they think they can get things cheaper. you want ot charge them more for your "service"
Hospitals quit paying delivery charges and shipping because they couldn't get reimbursed. you want to charge them
You walk into an account as their guest. You have no right to be there. You see your role as training "monkeys".
If your accounts are trying to get you out, perhaps we understand why. Your attitude is what's ruining it for the rest of us! You might want to take a closer look at your role. Hospital OR's think you can be replaced by those same "monkeys"!
Click to expand...

You missed most all of it completely! By your comment, I can tell you are paid a salary not paid by performance or commission only. If you are on a salary as a sales person, you are not a real sales person unless you meet a few of the exceptions.
 






There is another side to this that I don't see any discussion on; companies have to agree to provide a discount on "no-rep" sales models. It seems like a pretty short-sighted sales strategy to me. Who is gonna introduce and implement use of new/premium products? Sales of new/premium products = increased revenues = happy shareholders. No rep = no new product sales = flat growth = grumpy shareholders. The only companies I could see going for this are second or third tier players looking to pick up market share, and it will only look good on the annual report for a year or two.
 






Anonymous said:
There is another side to this that I don't see any discussion on; companies have to agree to provide a discount on "no-rep" sales models. It seems like a pretty short-sighted sales strategy to me. Who is gonna introduce and implement use of new/premium products? Sales of new/premium products = increased revenues = happy shareholders. No rep = no new product sales = flat growth = grumpy shareholders. The only companies I could see going for this are second or third tier players looking to pick up market share, and it will only look good on the annual report for a year or two.
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I believe you are right. But, I haven't seen too much innovation with orthopaedics in a couple of years. Not everyone buys into the new technology provided by MRI scans Ect Ect. Lots a legal action in regards to some of that technology. And insurance companies resist paying for the new technology. Good luck getting a new cutting edge, expensive implant Ect accepted into a hospital when they are not reimbursed for it!!!!!
 






Anonymous said:
I believe you are right. But, I haven't seen too much innovation with orthopaedics in a couple of years. Not everyone buys into the new technology provided by MRI scans Ect Ect. Lots a legal action in regards to some of that technology. And insurance companies resist paying for the new technology. Good luck getting a new cutting edge, expensive implant Ect accepted into a hospital when they are not reimbursed for it!!!!![

There are plenty of non-ortho reps that hospital administration would love to kick out if the OR.
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Great read! There are some great points in every post here.As far as the no rep model goes I personally don't see a facility in my geography that could do this,at least right now. I read a survey somewhere that said new docs coming out of training are more likely to join a health system as an employee rather than join a private practice.As the older private practice docs retire or sell their practices to hospital systems,the norm will be employee not P.C.
This is when product usage/rep limiting contract will be signed by physician employees.

I'm in sports med implant business and can honestly say 80% of my territory has no clue what instruments to use to implant a basic suture anchor, they never needed to learn,we were always there hell we did half their job for them and still do.Ever had a circulator tell you to open what the doc needs and watch the bags so they don't run out of saline while they take a 15 minute break?-Every day for me. Nothing implants its self and very few things sell themselves,as professional representatives we spend double the time in the OR than the busiest doc that has 2 1/2 surgical days.There is still value here folks.We are paid well,not as good as we once were.Thats life. We are present,attentive and provide a great deal of value and experience.We are advocates for the docs that use our stuff and for the patients that they put our stuff in.
We know if we screw up its our next pay check that is lower.Only when the OR staff takes their role as seriously as the professional representatives ,will this ever be a success.
Rep less model will lower initial cost only until a competitor matches the price and gives them a rep.
All of this is only my opinion and there are,I'm sure,many counter points and people that will disagree with everything here.Im no expert,just an opinion going into my 20th year.

Enjoy your holidays!
 






Anonymous said:
Great read! There are some great points in every post here.As far as the no rep model goes I personally don't see a facility in my geography that could do this,at least right now. I read a survey somewhere that said new docs coming out of training are more likely to join a health system as an employee rather than join a private practice.As the older private practice docs retire or sell their practices to hospital systems,the norm will be employee not P.C.
This is when product usage/rep limiting contract will be signed by physician employees.

I'm in sports med implant business and can honestly say 80% of my territory has no clue what instruments to use to implant a basic suture anchor, they never needed to learn,we were always there hell we did half their job for them and still do.Ever had a circulator tell you to open what the doc needs and watch the bags so they don't run out of saline while they take a 15 minute break?-Every day for me. Nothing implants its self and very few things sell themselves,as professional representatives we spend double the time in the OR than the busiest doc that has 2 1/2 surgical days.There is still value here folks.We are paid well,not as good as we once were.Thats life. We are present,attentive and provide a great deal of value and experience.We are advocates for the docs that use our stuff and for the patients that they put our stuff in.
We know if we screw up its our next pay check that is lower.Only when the OR staff takes their role as seriously as the professional representatives ,will this ever be a success.
Rep less model will lower initial cost only until a competitor matches the price and gives them a rep.
All of this is only my opinion and there are,I'm sure,many counter points and people that will disagree with everything here.Im no expert,just an opinion going into my 20th year.

Enjoy your holidays!
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Wow. 17 years in this business and NOT ONCE have I been asked to "watch bags" or cover for any OR employees break. If that's how things run in your area maybe they DO need you in the room ???? Just remind me where you are located again ? I wouldn't let your colleagues take my trash out!
 












I am a competitive rep in major city in Texas. 30+ years in business. They do not do a video procedure or ANY orthopedic procedure unless the rep is in the room when they do the "time out".
 












Being a device salesman in Texas is similar to how it was in the rest of the country twenty years ago. The texas economy is expanding and health care is booming. Most reps in TX for any company do pretty well. I'm not critizing TX or any reps in TX, but it is much different in the rest of the country. Especially compared to the northeast
 






Hospital Kicks out a Sales Rep of a company that is pretty weird and it can only happen due to following reasons:

1) The Sales Rep was not trained good enough to deal with the Doctors / Hospital Administrators.

2) He might not actually know the meaning of customer service, his back records could suggest that he might not be a good guy.

3) He might have over charged earlier and was trying to sell the medical equipments and instruments at a higher price than the actual price in the market.

4) The company the sales rep was working for was a fraud or was offering improper medical equipments with no good or accurate results.

If a sales rep needs to crack a deal make sure your the company you are working for is genuine and offers high quality of medical equipments and instruments. Secondly, the sales rep needs to offer free giveaways of equipments first time so as to attract the hospitals in doing a business deal with him.

I remember there was one sales rep from http://www.baronmedical.com/ who offered medical equipments and supplies to my local hospital and also his company was running a charitable trust which helped the children and also helped various med startups by funding them by offering such medical supplies and equipments. Any company in this kind of business firstly needs to create a trust and should offer high quality products.
 






Anonymous said:
Hospital Kicks out a Sales Rep of a company that is pretty weird and it can only happen due to following reasons:

1) The Sales Rep was not trained good enough to deal with the Doctors / Hospital Administrators.

2) He might not actually know the meaning of customer service, his back records could suggest that he might not be a good guy.

3) He might have over charged earlier and was trying to sell the medical equipments and instruments at a higher price than the actual price in the market.

4) The company the sales rep was working for was a fraud or was offering improper medical equipments with no good or accurate results.

If a sales rep needs to crack a deal make sure your the company you are working for is genuine and offers high quality of medical equipments and instruments. Secondly, the sales rep needs to offer free giveaways of equipments first time so as to attract the hospitals in doing a business deal with him.

I remember there was one sales rep from http://www.baronmedical.com/ who offered medical equipments and supplies to my local hospital and also his company was running a charitable trust which helped the children and also helped various med startups by funding them by offering such medical supplies and equipments. Any company in this kind of business firstly needs to create a trust and should offer high quality products.
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Thank you Dale Carnegie
 






Anonymous said:
Just going to say it and get it out there. I am and most of the successful medical OR servicing sales reps I have met DO NOT have the kind of personality traits, likes and dislikes that hourly hospital staff exhibit.
In fact, hanging out in a hospital is torture to most of us I know. The idea of making a set amount of money for a set amount of hours is so boring to me. On the other hand, ask a scrub tech Ect about getting paid by "performance only" and they have told me " I can't handle the stress of not knowing what my pay is going to be from one pay period to another."

Surgeons lean on device sales reps for more than answers in the OR that they already know. It's all the behind the scenes and ancillary services and keeping "the cap on the bottle" in the OR that surgeons have come to rely on. The sales rep sometimes is the only constant for them.
I welcome leaving the OR!!!! I hate vendor credentialing and putting up with testosterone do driven female materials managers who do not know the difference between allograft vs.zenograft, bone cement vs. Antibiotic bone cement....

If your asking me, PLEASE KICK ME AND MY PEERS OUT OF THE OR!!!
Let's start over and re-evaluate the value of a good to excellent medical sales device reps value in the OR? I think about a 90 - 180 days at most any hospital would do the trick.
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Anonymous said:
Just going to say it and get it out there. I am and most of the successful medical OR servicing sales reps I have met DO NOT have the kind of personality traits, likes and dislikes that hourly hospital staff exhibit.
In fact, hanging out in a hospital is torture to most of us I know. The idea of making a set amount of money for a set amount of hours is so boring to me. On the other hand, ask a scrub tech Ect about getting paid by "performance only" and they have told me " I can't handle the stress of not knowing what my pay is going to be from one pay period to another."

Surgeons lean on device sales reps for more than answers in the OR that they already know. It's all the behind the scenes and ancillary services and keeping "the cap on the bottle" in the OR that surgeons have come to rely on. The sales rep sometimes is the only constant for them.
I welcome leaving the OR!!!! I hate vendor credentialing and putting up with testosterone do driven female materials managers who do not know the difference between allograft vs.zenograft, bone cement vs. Antibiotic bone cement....

If your asking me, PLEASE KICK ME AND MY PEERS OUT OF THE OR!!!
Let's start over and re-evaluate the value of a good to excellent medical sales device reps value in the OR? I think about a 90 - 180 days at most any hospital would do the trick.
Click to expand...
 






Anonymous said:
While I agree that some cases can be done without a rep present, in particular trauma ortho reps,( why a rep is needed for any plate and screw case is mind boggling to me) this post makes some great points.

Go to any OR and the lounge is filled with nurses on break. What other occupation gets this? I understand having breaks for meals, but circulators will take there break an hour into working- its insane to me. Why a circulator needs a break from a 3 hour case makes zero sense to me.

Before hospitals start kicking out reps, they better realize what they have now. That is a rep for every case they request, who knows how to walk their incompetent staff through a variety of cases. These reps may not have the hardest job on the planet, but they are there when needed- nights, weekends, even sometimes on one hour notice when the staff forgets to notify them. They don't ask for "relief" and don't punch out a 3:30 in the middle of a case.
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Who gives a shit! Kick me out! I'm there to support the use of my cardiac surgery products! You don't want support? Good! FU! Don't make it sound Mr/ Mrs Hospital administrator like your doing me a favor. I'll Still sell my devices. I'll still see your docs. I just won't have to be blackmailed into signing up, and charged for, your rep verification services. And by the way, when your doc calls me for assistance because he forgot where the aortic valve goes, I'll be there in a week or two. Why a week you ask? Doctor wants me right away? Sorry. The industry has laid off several reps in my company, and I'm covering multiple states. Honestly Mr / Mrs administrator your the 16th largest hospital I cover. In other words FU! Can't wait!!
 






























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