About two Fridays a month, we'll have "VIP" surgeons come to our office, so they can sit down with the engineers and product managers to discuss the different surgical instrumentation that we provide.

Most of the time, there is a larger underlying reason for the visit. These are either huge dollar-volume accounts for us, and the reps want to show them a little love with a trip to NYC, or they're high volume competitive targets, and it's an opportunity for us to get some of their business.

This past Friday, it was a little bit of both.

There's a group of surgeons in MN that do over $10 million in business with the different companies like the one I work for, meaning (per year) they will surgically implant $10 million in metal implants. My company gets about $2 million of that.

So last week two surgeons from that group came to visit for the day. They are new surgeons to that group, and have developed a pretty good relationship with our sales rep there. If we were to get their business, our sales there would double.

I got a copy of the agenda, and they put me down for an hour right after lunch. There was also a CV on these guys (kind of like a resume for doctors), so we'd know where they trained, any publications they'd written, etc.

As I was looking over the surgeons' information, I noticed one of them sounded really familiar and that he was my age. I was thinking that maybe I knew him from when I worked for a competitor a few years ago. Still, I couldn't quite figure it out.

When the two surgeons arrived, I KNEW that I knew him from somewhere. It was bugging the crap out of me.

As a side note, the rep (herein referred to as Rep Boy) that flew in with them used to "date" Kristine. (And yes, I do use that term loosely.) So I figured maybe she would know who some of his surgeons were.

Me: "Hey, Kristine... why do I know Dr. D?"

Kristine: (laughing) "South Beach!"

Me: "Holy Hell."

Two years ago, we had a surgeon meeting down in Key Largo, and when the meeting was over, Kristine, Rep Boy, two of his surgeons and I drove up to party in South Beach for one night.

Now, I cannot remember this night whatsoever - if that tells you anything. I know I didn't do anything too bad, because I woke up in my room alone, and Kristine was the one getting busy with Rep Boy. Still, it was unsettling wondering if he remembered me, and would say anything in front of anyone that mattered.

Luckily he didn't say anything (at least to my face), but he did give me a grin of recognition when I walked into the boardroom. I could feel my face turning beet red during our entire meeting.

Both surgeons ended up being really cool, and the meeting went very smoothly. Around five, Carl (my ex manager) asked Kristine and I if we wanted to join them for dinner in NYC. It was supposed to be this big "power" dinner, but a couple of suits had to cancel at the last minute. So, who better to fill two empty chairs than Kristine and me?

The problem is, nobody knew that every route into the city was out of commision. Route 17 was flooded, there were five cars on fire in the Lincoln Tunnel, and the George Washington Bridge had a truck explode or some shit.

What should have taken us 40 minutes, only 25 miles, took almost three hours.

By the time we all got to dinner, everyone was so punchy that the wine just started flowing. I think the "power" in the power dinner lasted all of about 20 minutes. At that point, the conversation turned to reality television.

We talked about the upcoming Amazing Race, Rupert's universal annoyance factor, and Omarosa's non-grip on reality. Rep Boy showed his "taste" by admitting that he watches Who Wants to Marry My Dad - (eyeroll) - and Carl even got into the act by describing an episode of Punk'd, but what shocked me the most was when the second surgeon, Dr. M, said, "I've watched every season of The Real World".

This is a guy who went through med school, five years of residency, then a surgery fellowship... and he's freakin asking me if I remember what a bitch Flora from Miami was.

I tell ya, that is my kind of guy!

Yes, he's cute... and YES he's married. Of course.

In the end, while I don't know that we've acquired all of their business or not, I do think the fact that we didn't force these two exhausted guys to talk business all night, and were able to just hang out... I think that was a real plus for us.

I'm going to observe a surgery they're doing in July, and who knows... maybe by next year our business there will double. Until then, I know I need to keep up with the current seasons of The Real World, Road Rules and Punk'd.

I do, however, draw the line at Pimp My Ride.

feeling... glad to be writing again
reading... Shogun
miss something?
goodbye my friend - 2005-04-29
out of the loop - 2005-04-09
a quest for clarity - part 1 - 2004-08-30
no plan for a sequel - 2004-08-27
slacker of the month - 2004-08-26