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As originally asked by Dean E.

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Patrick Henry
President at PanTech Inc
I have been selling advanced technology since 1967 as a rep as well as a dealer. Don’t know how successful I have been? However rough estimated sales over that time has been thirty five million $ and I am still damn good at it. What you got to move??? Advanced technology means getting paid for products that when you begin your prospects don’t know how if work or what it does. You win through your part in his or her education od same. Simple an it works

Jacob Rowe
Medical Device Distributor
As a 1099 sales professional, I can say there are many, many product lines that I “could sell.” In actuality, my time is limited and I try to focus on products that I can sell to customers that are already in my call pattern. Otherwise I must develop new inroads past the gate keepers, and develop new relationships. So my advice would be: identify the customers you want to influence, then identify 1099 professionals already calling on those customers. Easier said than done, I realize as I search often myself.

Tom Manos
Regional Sales Manager – Danaher / Beckman Coulter
@Todd Staples. Todd, you are correct. There is nothing specific about hiring 1099 reps. There is, however, quite a bit of insight available about getting at the strengths and hidden weaknesses of salespeople that many selection processes overlook – whether they are salary and commission or straight commission isn’t the point. This is all based on Kurlan & Associates’ experience over the past 30 years in sales force development across all industries including med device, and OMG’s experience in sales candidate assessments over the past 20 years.

Mary Hollner
Medical Devices Professional
After 20 years as both a mfg rep and 1099 rep, I can add that one does not survive in the field without a warrior determination and a lot of hard work. I have represented many products and different companies through the years and some of them over promised, undertrained and underpaid as well! You get what you pay for. I agree with the person who said go where the money is and give it your focus. There are still quality people out here, most of them under appreciated and because a lot of companies want something for nothing.

Dean E.
North East Regional Sales Manager, ESCO Technologies, LLC
The company I work for is what I call a, ” Contract Medical Sales Company As Well As Consultants.” I have been lucky enough to have had the chance to bring a number of fantastic (1099) reps to work/sell for us & our product lines. We give all of our (1099) contractors protected markets, in addition we give them field support & training. My issue or should I say, original reason for starting said discussion was to ask if anyone out there knew of a more effective way to find quality (1099) reps. As a number of you pointed out … one does invest a rather large sum of ($) to train & bring a rep up with the product & services that said company offers ,,, thus the reason for my question.

Thank you all for you time & thoughts.

Dean

Greg Paino
Anclote Surgical SCANLAN INSTRUMENTS Distributor of Specialty Surgical Devices
Well put Tom! You can tell who the 1099 reps are and who isnt. A lot of ignorance and words. As polar as out two political parties

Andrew Merkle
Senior Sales/Operations Leadership | Go-To-Market Strategy | Turnaround & Rapid Growth | Sustainable Revenue Generation
I agree with Mr. DiLiddo. I have wasted a lot of time/money with distributors only to be over promised and under delivered. Some don’t even know how to sell or position products correctly. Frustrating!

Tom Thomason
President. Justin Medical
Wow, great conversation. I myself have been a 1099 for 30 years. Like most 1099’s I was a distributor from a large company. I currently have 10 associates working with me. Our job is to take a product to a surgeon, get a evaluation at the hospital and get it in. More often than not, no one has even heard of the company, they are relying on our name, reputation to get it in. The problem I run into is that once the product is in and inservice, the product must sell itself. There, lies a common problem. More often than not, the surgeon do not like it then It becomes our fault. The product did not work as we were told. The common remark WE HAVE NEVER HAD THAT PROBLEM BEFORE!! We do not have large company contracts and now can even be shut out from some hospitals that are not allowing any new products in. Many of the new quote great products, do not even have the proper coding for hospitals to bill on. The easiest and cheapest thing they do is to get 510K for approval. This means that it was equivalent to something that was manufactured prior to May 1977. We can sell 10 products to a surgeon and will be remembered for the one that failed not for the 9 that worked well. We also have to be aware that most of the time when a company approaches us, they want us to build it so they can sell it off and make a lot of money. Thus we have to carry several lines to protect ourselves and associates from these sudden firings. Then, if you do trauma, you are only as good as your last case so you do not take vacations for several years. You cannot miss out on a case. There are some things we are very good at and somethings I can’t get a surgeon to trade me my dollar for his 50 cents. To stay in the business for a long time, you must be good and willing to work long hours. Regarding reps, it takes me 2 years to get a rep trained. That is a lot of money and time. If they are really good, the large companies can come in and double their income as they are now experienced. The mediocre ones will quit after or before one year. Bad products do that. Loyalty simply does not exist like it use to. You screw one case up and they ask for who ever is next in line. I get calls all the time on new products. These all come with the promise of great money. Naturally, there is no business, we must work for 6 months for FREE trying to build it up paying our own expenses. More often than not, there is little interest and we wind up opening 6 months of wasted time. If you are looking for a good 1099, ask for references and how long have they been in business. What is ironic, is that I have been the distributor of the year for two years with a large company and just suck at a couple of other lines. It is all the same people selling the products. Quick easy note to manufacturer’s REPS GO WHERE THE MONEY IS!! That is my 30 years wrapped up into a couple of paragraphs. 1099 is a tough way to make a living. It is not for all!

Janice Cowan
Represent Aesthetic Medical Device and Treatment Products for Plastic & Cosmetic Surgeons, Dermatologists, Medical Spas
Quality 1099 reps are motivated by success therefore reward!!! right? What I think discourages the good ones is the lack of (consistent) marketing as Kevin Bustco mentioned. Secondly the lack of job security. For example: as a 1099 field rep I have worked with three start up companies in the past four and one half years…. only to build their business and have the territory divided or all accounts taken in house without compensation. If start up companies offer job security to the successful 1099’s I think it would contribute to the development of a stronger overall sales team.

Greg Paino
Anclote Surgical SCANLAN INSTRUMENTS Distributor of Specialty Surgical Devices
I agree with Kevin Jones very much. Todd you made a lot of sense in the first half of your first comment section then you insulted most 1099 reps by putting us all in a worthless stereotypical category. Theres good ones and bad ones… just like every direct sales force. Look at their numbers, their total income, and ask for references then you reduce the guess factor and they should have a resume if they are worth hiring. Some products stand no chance because they solve very minor problems or are me too. Some are very easy to sell and some require hard work. Here again much like a direct sales force some good some bad some need work by good reps to reach their potential.

John W. Koon
Your backup writer on technical articles, white papers, eBook, online materials, custom publications & projects……..
Depends on the product offerings. Easier to find QUALITY tech rep than reps for consumer products.

Dean E.
North East Regional Sales Manager, ESCO Technologies, LLC
I would like to thank everyone for their thoughts on this topic. We have been lucky enough to find two top notch (1099) reps that have been with us for some time now, but are in need of (4-6) more quality reps (we have kissed a lot of frogs!). Both the CEO of our little company & I have been able to gather some great information from what you all have had to say…. and we will follow-up with a number of your ideas. Thank you again for your time & fantastic input.

Dean

Todd Staples, MBA
Account Representative, GYN at Medtronic
I think the difficulty with FINDING the good 1099 reps (as was the original post topic) is that if you walk into a room full of 1099 reps, or any reps at all, and ask who is a super star? Everyone raises their hand. In a direct hire situation, there are multiple interviews, resumes, references, and work history to check. With a 1099 not so much. It is usually a few phone conversations and possibly a face to face meeting, but it just isn’t straightforward or easy to select and retain quality talent, not to mention track performance and continually incentivize. I had several good 1099s working with me at one point – the tough part was it took me a few years of source, hire, train, mentor, wait, and replace, over and over before I would find a good rep for a territory and in some areas it was tough. I even had several different “staffing” companies that helped source the reps too and that didn’t really seem to matter.

I have nothing against folks trying to make a living and providing value to their customers, I am simply expressing my own frustration from a manufacturer’s view as to the challenges around building a solid indirect channel that delivers consistently.

Bill Smith
FWD Mobility
Thank you Kevin, I know we have some incredible 1099 reps in place for our products and are expanding them across the country.

Kevin P. Jones
President | Senior Vice-President | Entrepreneur | Executive Sales & Management Leader
I disagree with Ryan Diehl’s comment about 1099 reps and his comments about “Gold Standard” products and 1099 rep knowledge being far from par. Given that he sounds like he’s never been an independent contractor, how exactly would he know about product training, product knowledge, and manufacturer support provided? We represent a number of “Gold Standard” product lines and have done so for the last 13 years. We are a very professional organization and provide an environment and sales structure that rewards those individuals with the skill sets and abilities to sell multiple lines throughout the hospital and ASC markets. There are a large number of highly successful distributors/independent contractors throughout the country that provide high levels of service to their customers and an expertise for those manufacturers who have chosen for one reason or another to not employ a direct sales force.

Todd Staples, MBA
Account Representative, GYN at Medtronic
@Tom Manos there are no resources that help companies find 1099 commission only reps on your site that you listed. This discussion thread isn’t about hiring practices in the traditional sense – it is about 1099 independent contractors.

Tom Manos
Regional Sales Manager – Danaher / Beckman Coulter
Dean – Here is a link to a resource you may find useful for finding the best-fit candidates for this position.

[http://www.omghub.com/SalesSelectionSalesRecruiting/Whitepaper?utm_campaign=Tom+Manos&utm_source=LinkedIn%2FBlog|leo://plh/http%3A*3*3www%2Eomghub%2Ecom*3SalesSelectionSalesRecruiting*3Whitepaper%3Futm_campaign%3DTom%2BManos%26utm_source%3DLinkedIn%252FBlog/bYAC?_t=tracking_disc]

Regards,
Tom

Bill Smith
FWD Mobility
We are currently contracting independent representatives all over the world for our Freedom Leg and have had an incredible amount of referrals from the medical professionals we have here on LinkedIn. I can not vouch for their productivity at this point, but they are very experienced and professional people. I have heard back from several physicians who have said they were sorry, but did not like any of them that called on their office. I simply offered to connect them with mine once we find one we know is good.

Ryan Diehl
Anesthesia at Florida Anesthesia Assc.
As a top manufacturer field rep, I can tell you why myself nor my colleagues would ever consider a 1099 position. Bottom line- support from the company and expert in the field. You sell a plethora of devices, none of them are the “Gold Standard” and the knowledge of the reps selling them is far from par compared to manufacture reps who are experts, well trained and fully supported. Invest in your sales force and the benefits would follow. 1099 reps are going to be just that- 1099 reps.

Todd Staples, MBA
Account Representative, GYN at Medtronic
I hear alot of good points in this discussion that resonate with my own experiences and topics that I discuss in my blog regularly. I think the ideal product profile that matches up well with the 1099 sales channel is shrinking somewhat due to increased regulation and expense as Tom Marsh mentioned – but also because in this increasingly technical space products are not as straightforward in their value propositions as they once were. With the added elements of reimbursement, CMS coverage and exclusions, changing FDA regulations and the phasing in of the UDI (unique device ID) most sales reps simply do not have the luxury any longer of being “off the grid” when it comes to CRM accountability and lead generation and capture. For Class 1 commodities that is probably ok for another few years, but I doubt newer devices will be accessible to 1099s without increasing capabilities which is hard in an independent territory by territory model.

The real question in my mind is HOW do small start up manufacturers get everything they NEED, like CRM, a structured sales process, vendor credentialing costs covered, expenses including gas – covered, sales management and training program that includes certification, yet still deploy a dedicated sales force on commission only basis? This is the model that will change how small start ups launch, and it is already in the building phases now.