The Changing Model for O.R. Medical Sales Reps
I’ve been getting a lot of calls lately from sales representatives asking me if I think the rep model will change. It’s already changing.
More hospitals around the country are adopting a model where representatives are no longer used in the operating room during orthopedic recon cases. In fact, the representatives are not even allowed in the operating room. The reason that hospitals are doing this is obvious. It’s to save money. If they can eliminate the cost of having a sales representative present at each surgery, then they can build a case for lower cost implants.
So how are hospitals managing the instruments and implants during surgeries?
Hospitals are hiring their own in-house orthopedic device technicians. If you think about it, a sales representative who is merely covering a surgery, is nothing more than a glorified scrub tech. I have said for years that sales representatives who want to earn a professional level income need to do more than what scrub techs do in the operating room. There’s a reason scrub techs don’t earn six-figure incomes. It’s because they are willing to work for less.
Medical sales professionals are paid to grow the market share for the companies that they represent. This requires them to engage, develop relationships, and influence the decisions of healthcare professionals who buy their products. They need to be creative, persistent, and able to demonstrate the ability to solve problems for healthcare providers and institutions. Scrub techs need to hand over the right instrument at the right time. It’s very different value proposition indeed. The only difference between a scrub tech and a case coverage rep is the side of the sterile field where each stands.
With the new hospital sales rep model, sales representatives who only provide the value of covering cases may be out of that account, and eventually out of a job. In the past, surgeons based a sales representative’s perceived value on the rep’s ability to help them during procedures in the operating room. With surgical implant technicians able to do the same thing, the value of the sales representative is greatly diminished if that is all he or she does. You may have wonderful relationships with some of your surgeon customers, but ultimately, one of a surgeon’s main goals is to get through each surgery as safely and efficiently as possible. As long as there are staff to provide the surgeon with what’s needed to accomplish that, the surgeon will be happy.
How can you add additional value beyond the case coverage paradigm? Now is the time to fully engage your surgeon customers in terms of understanding their needs beyond just what happens in the operating room.
Your future depends on your ability to be an irreplaceable resource that a scrub tech can’t replace. Learn each surgeon’s needs. Then ask yourself, how can you help them to fulfill each of those needs on a regular basis. How can you assist the surgeon with surgical case planning? Does he see you as a resource who provides additional insight into tools and techniques to approach a specific pathology or patient condition? Look for ways to make the surgeon’s life easier, save him time, save him money, or reduce his risk exposure and you will be perceived as more valuable than some surgical device technician who may be covering his cases in your place.
Sales representatives are finding that surgeons are less willing to go to bat for them than with the hospital than they were in the past. It’s because surgeons don’t have the same footing to stand on with respect to the value of the rep in the operating room. Their argument always used to be that the sales rep helps the cases to go smoothly and ensures that the right implants and instruments are available. With hospitals hiring their own employees to accomplish this task, the surgeon often finds himself in the position of needing to support the hospitals cost-saving efforts.
Face the new reality of surgical sales in the 21st-century and the age of affordable care. Your job may evolve to more of an account manager than a sales representative/case coverage technician, but your longevity in this business will be based solely on the value that you provide long-term.
If you are no longer convinced that you need to spend less time in the operating room and more of your time engaging customers and driving business, this should be a sign for you. Healthcare is not going away, but the role of the sales representative will look very different in the years to come. You can start adapting and adding value now, or you can wait for the ax to fall.
I discuss this topic in more detail on The Medical Sales Guru Podcast.
If this is a message that your healthcare sales team needs to hear, I’d be happy to deliver it at your next National Sales Meeting. Give me a call at 561.333.8080 and I’ll discuss exactly how I can help your sales team to drive profitable sales into the future.
Please comment with respect to the changing model for OR medical sales reps in the comments section below.
@ 7:21 pm
I got a call the other day from a spine doc who did not know what system was in the patient and none of the “Scrub Tech Reps” knew either.
The younger kids know nothing of surgery and what happens nor what to do when things go south.
How your product works doesn’t always translate to what needs to be adapted to in the OR
I think that is hospitals want to go this route then I will provide consultative services to them for training.
@ 9:28 am
James, thanks for your comment. At this point, the staffing who will replace reps in the OR don’t have the experience or technical expertise. That only comes with time. It’s no different than when a new rep is hired by a device company. You hit on an important need though, and that is the need for training. That training will likely come from the device manufacturers when their products are contracted with hospitals at a deep discount.
@ 11:22 am
I agree with your article. The sad thing is the reps are young kids themselves usually who are overpaid, but will have no skills once this is eliminated.t
Dan Pastrick – THE IMPENDING CHANGE OF MEDICAL DEVICE SALES REPS
@ 7:30 pm
[…] THE ANSWER – highly educated sales professionals. No more recruiting “minimum experience required”. Companies must move in a fast forward manner with their hiring process. No more recruiting your local surgical tech or only “2 years of experience needed”. The Medical Device Sales Rep will not go the way of the dinosaur; we must continue to evolve. […]
@ 8:38 am
As a new upcoming medical sales representative no matter how the hospital try to save money by having a tech in the OR room to replace the medical sales rep input its only fair to say that each part of a patient surgery by addition of sales rep is rightfully needed to help give the best advice of the equipment for the patient; its not fair by cutting cost on the patient health no matter how you put it. The sales rep knows his product being sell and use for the patient during a surgery. It doesn’t pays to be cheap not on health.
@ 8:26 pm
Jeffrey, thank you for your comment. While it makes sense today that having a sales rep present at surgery is an advantage, it is not unrealistic to be able to train a staff OR tech to a competent level, assuming the surgeon has competent knowledge as well. There is so much more to the job than just covering cases, in fact, case coverage in my opinion is not primarily what a medical sales professional is paid to do. Case coverage is “sales maintenance work.” Converting and closing new business must be the main focus of the medical sales professional. As time progresses and distribution models evolve and change, it is primarily sales competency that will equate with job stability. Technical competency is more easily obtained.