I see a lot of sales guys. I refer to them sometimes as the charts and smiles crowd.

(I have two very hard rules in my clinics. One, that there has to be a ready supply of Diet Coke, and two, that no one can give out my cell number to sales guys.)

A good sales guy is great, a poor sales guy is a liability. Chris Oordt is my Thermage rep in UT and he's on the good side (Hi Chris). He makes himself available when needed and is generally fairly attuned to my wants. The Botox guy's not in the same league.

Chris came into my Park City Surface location about three weeks ago and presented the clinic with the only Thermage's Pinnacle Award account in Utah or Idaho. Of course it's a made up award that Thermage gives to their larger accounts (I think $500k or more but I'm not sure.) and is based on how many of those $650 tips you buy a year, but it's still a feel good way to show a little appreciation. Chris and I talk and I get the feeling that he'd at least piss on me if I were on fire. I like Chris and people do business with people they lilke. (I'm guessing that I won't have a lot of business with DermaCare, American Laser Clinics, Sona, or Radiance Medspas.)

Contrast that with my Botox guy. (I won't mention his name.) Botox guy made an appearance after a few months absence and proceeded to complain to my staff that I didn't like him and that's why he hadn't been around. He wen't on at some length evidently, (I wasn't there) about how I'd laughed him out of the clinic when he presented me with his ideas about how to grow our business. Certainly I don't remember being that negative but occasionally I can be.... sarcastic. I guess Botox guy thinks I have it in for him which I don't. What I'd like is for something besides an appearance and useless information, not to mention less bitching to my staff about how I've oppressed him. I had to laugh at that. Jeeze Alergan, give me an award or something. Just the Park City clinic does 15k worth of Botox a month. Where's the love? At least Thermage gave me a big plastic thing-a-ma-jig to wow patients with.

And it's all about feeling good. Currently I feel good about Thermage since they shipped me ten pounds of award, and Chris now feels good that I mentioned him by name in a positive post and he can print it out for his quarterly performance review. How many other Thermage reps have gotten such positive press for their company?

Of course Chris and I have discussed Thermage or other technology vendors posting to and taking questions from this site. I've yet to hear how that has gone.  If he gets it done, maybe I'll send him a statue.