What's the deal with Thommen?

A friend of mine is talking about his company and I can't help but feel jealous of his situation. Does anyone know the good the bad the ugly with them? QOL? Anything? There is an open position I may relocate for.

 

Tho-who?

 

Small player in the implant market = tough sell. They don't even exist in the West i don't believe.

I know one guy that worked for them and switched to Nobel.


That said.....any job is a good job right now with the way the economy is going.

 

Thank you for the insight. After reading some of the other posts on this board it seems no matter where you are it is a tough sell.

 

The world of implants is a tough sell no matter where you are. We are all eating each others lunch so to speak. Every company wants growth numbers, but much of that is dependent upon variables you can't control like....economy (local, and national), product mishaps, and whether or not the surgeons in that market are willing to give you any time.

Converting an Oral Surgeon is tough, and even tougher when you have a Nobel Rep in every town. Its also very expensive and time consuming for a surgeon to convert his entire referal base.....so you better bring some value to his office or he won't even think of it. How do you provide value? That depends, but its very difficult to do....especially if you have a huge territory like many Thommen reps probably do.

Try converting a Major account from a 3 hr drive or flight away, when that doctor has a Nobel Rep in their back yard every day.


But what do I know....I'm just a former Nobel Rep who got laid off.

But again....if Thommen hooks you up with a nice base, car allowance, mileage, 401k, med/dental......then you are ahead of the curve no matter what.

Just bust your but and make a name for yourself and you can sell for any company. Be you own marketing machine. Nobel accounts have holes in their armor.....trust me.

 

Go gettum tiger

 

Shouldn't you quit trolling message boards and go get employed

 

Thommen -

Small implant company attempting to impact US market.

Original business plan was to go after Straumann anterior business, then expand into other areas. Unfortunately for Thommen, Straumann introduced their Bone Level implant system that adresses esthetic areas - this killed Thommen's marketing strategy.

Additionally, numerous key clinicians in the Texas, Oklahoma, South Florida and Philadelphia markets originally placed the Thommen system and experienced an extremely high failure rate (since been corrected - surface & implant design) but damage was done and product reputation ruined.

Negatives -
Inexperinced management team, limited financial resources, high turn-over, no marketing, no podium presence at trade shows, very few 'key' clinicians, no CAD/CAM capability, continued problems with prosthetic screws breaking/loosening and surgical instrumentation breakage.

Positives -
Implant and prosthetics are reasonably priced compared to the main industry players, good implant surface, good prosthetic connection.

 

Its called multitasking. I'm holding an offer from another implant provider. Its going to be fun flipping my old nobel accounts.


You should simply hope you arent a Nobel rep in the area that I'll be covering. Now hurry along and sell your accounts 50 implants at 25% discount to try to keep me out.

 

"Flipping my old accounts" He, he, he, he. I'm sure that the line to jump on the Tho-who ship is long and distinguished. He, he, he, he. Please, keep the zingers coming.

 

Its going to be fun flipping my old nobel accounts.



If I had the task of flipping former Nobel accounts in particular this would not be my weapon of choice. Unless you have customers who just get off on being different I see very limited sales potential here.

If you really worked for Nobel previously and would seriously consider taking this position maybe you need to consider another field of interest all together.

 

Hey employee, your opinion matters why?

 

If anyone thinks they are going to make a difference in the implant world by selling Thommen implants to current Nobel doctors they are living a misguided fantasy. Thommen is a decent implant, but it is never a doctors first line armormentarium. Second line, third line sure. The problem with this Thommen is not the product but more the fact that the territories are so large it is almost impossible to service an account better than a Nobel or Straumann rep who has a smaller geographic territory. So maybe you will change the implant world, and its good that you are so motivated. But in the end Thommen does not have a differentiated enough product nor are the territories small enough to do any damage to anyone. You will get an occasional sympathy sale if you are a former Nobel rep who got laid off. But mass oral surgeon conversions, not happening my friend. Best advice, take the job, and pick up another product line to sell as an independent rep to supplement your Thommen income, you are not going to set any sales records. Let us know how you make out once you get out of your two days of training, and are set loose on the world.

 

Although my offer is not for Thommen it is for another implant company. Any great Rep. can be succesful in this industry. If you have to work for one of the big three I would suggest that you may not be one of the great ones but rather a hanger on waiting for the newest Mgt directive to define your world. You are like a single celled organism just reactig to your world. If you ever get bold enough to go your own way you might just discover you're more talented than you think. Even an average Rep can be successful being the anti-(insert big company here)

 

I suppose success is a relative term. You sound like you are coming straight out of pharma to take a job with a third or fourth tier implant company. In my book it only makes sense to work for the market leader no matter what you are selling or doing. I have years of implant experience, and I can tell you straight up selling against Nobel, Straumann, 3I, and Zimmer is somewhat an effort futility. But what do I know, I don't really sell because I work for Nobel. Nobel only hires inexperienced, low paid ineffective reps. That is the secret to their 40 years of success. They leave the really talented people to go to work for their competitors. You are very naive if you think working for a small implant company is the way to go. Sure compared to the jerk off industry of pharma maybe the correct decision. If you want to make money and be welcomed with open arms and be able to sell anything you present to a surgeon then the smaller companies are not the way to go. Here is a small list of who is in the market fighting tooth and nail for market share: Neoss, Implant Direct, Astra, BlueSky, Keystone, Biohorizons, Strauman, 3I, Nobel, Lifecore (now with Keystone) Dio, Zimmer, Dentsply, Ankylos, All calling on the same doctors you will be calling on. Good luck bro, these implants are no different from company to company. Its like trying to sell one brand of screw over another to Home Depot headquarters. They care about one thing, who is lowest price, and lowest headache. Let us know when you rule the implant world.

 

Oh I forgot to mention, with your grammatical and spelling talent it is clear you are a high performer who only cares about perfection and being the best at everything you do. Go get 'em. Definitely a pharma jerk off. No doubt.

 

Let me give you a big "Ease Down Boy"

Nobel promised me I would get in to heaven if I took their lame offer and suffered the new cruelty each time they felt like things were getting stale.

Oh yeah, they also promised me that if I commit to a mediocre life my bowel movements will smell like bakery fresh cinnamon rolls.

I think the "good luck" will be for you; you and your pharm-fresh colleagues battling against the heard of better competitors.

Although there are very few left there that I respect, I trust they too will move toward the light in the coming years as their income declines.

 

I don't know who you "you respect" here but you are pretty out of touch if you think things are that bad back at the homestead. I have made 87K ytd and this yr is way down from last year. Plus now I am getting the benefits from you getting left go as I just got an extra 4 k last week for covering the open territory. There is a lot more tenure here than you think. You must have been in a weak area of the country.

 

The people who were blow out made some decent money and they thought their "tenure" was secure as well. Nobel has you believin" all is well on the homefront. What is interesting is this guy admits he made more money last year than this year, but he is OK with that! Way to go! Its good that you are so ambitious that you accept a pay cut each year, great job Nobel Corporate in hiring super ambitious sales reps! Maybe in 5 years if things continue as they are you will be making minimum wage! Lets keep our fingers crossed.

 

Next stop for the Nobel Reps. is to back fill the open spots at Keystone where the first round of Nobel reps. were.

Start preping your doc.s now so that when you're selling the old Lifecore product after you leave Nobel they may actually buy from you, although I doubt it.