Thermage actually likes Medical Spa MD enough to buy me a coffee.

Clint Carnell, The VP of Domestic Sales for Thermage and I met for coffee to talk about a number of things, some of which relate to this site. I'd had lunch with Clint previously. Evidently my Thermage rep Chris likes me more than my Botox rep. At least Chris sent me a big hunk of plastic.

Here's a list of parts of the discussion I feel I can divulge.

• Thermage had some internal discussions about whether it was a good idea to approach or contribute to what amounts to a public forum (this blog) but they've decided to give it a trial run at least. I got the feeling that Clint and others at Thermage were willing to try something that's new in the marketplace on their feeling that I would be fair to them. (With the hammering that Dermacare and the other medical spa franchises
  have taken on this site I give Thermage a great deal of credit for that.) I think that out there. If you're a company and don't have a blog you're doing yourself a disservice. There's no better form of constant contact with your target market as long as you're not just publishing the same old lame press releases. There's a paradigm shift in marketing that changes the traditional way that's taught in schools and I think more highly of Thermage that they're willing to engage in it. It speaks highly of the brains running the company.

Chris Anderson has some feeling on business blogs; "the natural voice of the boss is fundamentally incompatible with the voice of the blogger, at least as regards their own company affairs.". But wait, there's still hope. Chris goes on to say "The best business blogs come from the employees, not the bosses. They have more time, and are less prone to marketing gobbledygook and gnomic platitudes. And those kind of blogs are on the rise, not the decline."

• Clint told me that a large number of Thermage's reps now read Medspa MD. I thought there was something going on when the Does Thermage Work Poll received 200 positive votes without any negative votes after it had been neck and neck for weeks. Surprise. Good work guys, but now the Cutera reps (they're here too) will probably start dropping that positive percentage. I'm going to have to block ISP's from tallying more than one vote. Perhaps I'll post a Thermage vs. Titan poll and let them battle it out.
  
  
• Thermage has been trying to track down the producers of the refurbished Thermage tips for a while. I gathered that the refurbished tip guys know this since they're changing PO boxes every couple of weeks. Thermage is going to post to this site their position that the study on reactivating or refurbishing Thermage tips is bogus and that the physician who is credited with authoring the paper doesn't exist. I'll be posting Thermages position on this as soon as they send it to me.
  
  
• Thermage is sitting on a number of new thermage tips until they're sure that all their efficacy problems are behind them. I can see that they don't want a repeat of Thermage's previous problems that caused a backlash among physicians. If they can crack the cellulite conundrum they'll be set.
  
  
• I queried Clint about Thermage and the competition from Cutera's Titan and/or Palomar's fractional IR treatment heads. He was reticent to say anything bad about competitors but it was obvious to me that Thermage really thinks that they've got this modality nailed down. I didn't detect any sweating which is good. The companies that focus on what the competition's doing inevitably wind up fighting the wrong battles. I expect to get hard and fast specifics from Thermage and compare the technology providers side by side. Perhaps a Palomar or Cutera rep will pass this up the food chain and we can get some info from them as well. Different strokes for different folks.
  
  
• Clint's smart and I liked him tremendously. Now that Thermage is a public company they face challenges that they didn't when they were private. If Clint is representative of Thermage's leadership I'm impressed.