“Doctor Ling.” As the gathering drew to a close, pharmaceutical sales representatives from Duco Medical Company caught up with Ling Ran. Huang Maoshi from Changxi Medical Company was walking along with him.
They fought for the chance to foot Ling Ran’s bill and made their presence known by giving him a toast. They even engaged the help of a pharmaceutical sales representative of a local pharmaceutical sales company. They did all of this so that Ling Ran would be more open to having a discussion with them.
“Let’s talk as we walk.” Ling Ran’s expression did not change the slightest bit. There were always people with hidden intentions around him. Even when he was in kindergarten, parents of little girls would try to bribe him with pork ribs so that they could betroth their daughters to him. Now that he had become a doctor, he did not have the capacity to care about the hidden intentions of pharmaceutical sales representatives.
When it came to this, he had always let things run its course. This was because he was unable to change people’s minds and stop them from doing things. Hence, he always made it a point to ask other people what they want, but not what was on their minds.
Duco Medical Company was a global pharmaceutical sales company, and it had made quite a name of itself in China. However, their pharmaceutical sales representatives always presented themselves with a humble and likable demeanor, even more so when they were dealing with Ling Ran.
They walked closely behind Ling Ran, and their leader went before Ling Ran and said, “Doctor Ling, I heard that you have performed an exceptional surgery today…”
“Which one?” Ling Ran cut him off and asked for details.
Doctor Ling had always taken other people’s comments about the surgeries he carried out very seriously.
The pharmaceutical sales representative from Duco was immediately at a loss for words. This was a flattery that could be used on doctors on every occasion, and this was the first time a doctor had asked him this question.
“The first… the first surgery in the afternoon.” This was the only surgery Ling Ran had performed today that he knew about, and he said it because he was afraid that Ling Ran would ask for more detailed comments.
Ling Ran hummed in acknowledgment and said nothing.
“Did… did I say something wrong?” The leader among the pharmaceutical sales representatives of Duco Medical Company was relatively old. He was about thirty-five or thirty-six, and he was no longer a hot-headed young man. However, even though his alcohol tolerance was now better compared to when he was younger, his IQ had shown no signs of increasing.
Ma Yanlin was the more amiable ones among them, and he was not as shameless as the others in Ling Treatment Group. He decided to treat the other party nicer because they had given Ling Ran and his entourage a toast. He said, “The first surgery in the afternoon was not live-streamed, and you were not present during the surgery either. Hence, this means that you have merely heard about it. Under normal circumstances, Doctor Ling doesn’t really respond to this kind of praise.”
“Oh, alright. I’ll pay attention next time…” The moment the pharmaceutical sales representative finished speaking, he wanted to give himself a slap across his face so badly. ‘What the heck was I saying?’
Ma Yanlin could not help but shake his head. “You’re not a doctor, and it doesn’t matter to him if you praise him or not. Just get straight to the point.”
“Alright, sure, definitely…” The pharmaceutical sales representative from Duco immediately agreed. He took a deep breath. At least he got to talk about something he was more familiar with now. “What I want to say actually has something to do with what we’re talking about a while back. The thing is, Doctor Ling, Duco Medical Company will be having an academic conference in Yun Hua City next week. We would like to invite you as a guest speaker. Of course, we would be paying you a token for preparing a speech and cover your travel expenses. Everything will be top class…”
“What kind of academic conference?”
“We’re mainly promoting our brand of surgical thread. Doctor Ling, you have used our surgical thread before, haven’t you?”
Ling Ran thought about it and said, “Yes, I have.”
“Yeah. Thank you for your support, Doctor Ling. We were thinking that if you are willing to attend our academic conference, you can use our surgical thread to carry out a surgery or two and talk about the surgeries. If you would be so kind as to talk about some good qualities of our surgical thread, it would be best. But if you can’t do that, it’s alright too.” The pharmaceutical sales representative paid attention to Ling Ran’s expression as he spoke, and he was careful with his words.
After a short pause, the pharmaceutical sales representative continued, “In conclusion, we are providing a platform for you to say anything you want. Anything, really. We just have a small request. Please try your best not to talk about our competitors. It would be best if you do not mention any other pharmaceutical sales companies. It does not matter if you talk about us or not.”
Beside him, Huang Maoshi added with a smile, “It would also be best if you don’t say anything bad about them.”
Ling Ran stopped in his tracks. “Is any topic okay?”
“Yes.” The pharmaceutical sales representative from Duco quickly nodded.
Pharmaceutical sales companies only gave renowned senior doctors this kind of treatment. In China, large-scale pharmaceutical sales companies such as Merck & Co. organized more than ten thousand so-called medical conferences every year. Since there were so many of them, of course not all doctors would be able to talk about anything they wanted. This would make it meaningless.
Rebellion was human nature. If a pharmaceutical sales company were to organize a promotional talk, young doctors might attend one or two of them out of curiosity or to get a free meal. However, more renowned and senior doctors definitely would not be interested in attending them.
Hence, the academic conferences organized by pharmaceutical sales companies nowadays were basically true academic conferences. Of course, they still had ways to promote their products.
For example, Duco was inviting Ling Ran as a guest speaker because Ling Ran often used their brand of surgical thread. Hence, by inviting Ling Ran to carry out demonstrative surgeries and give a talk based on that, they would be able to stealthily promote their product as long as Ling Ran talked about the surgical thread he was using.
This was also how things worked when it came to cooking videos. If a chef used soy sauce from Haitian and chicken essence from Taitile, the people watching the video who wanted to try out the recipe would definitely take these two brands into consideration as they purchase their ingredients.
And when it came to surgery, doctors had an even higher tendency to get influenced by the medical consumables and equipment that excellent doctors were using. If a beginner had the means to do so, most of them would use exactly the same medical consumables and equipment used by senior doctors. No one would invite trouble by choosing their own medical consumables as well as equipment since the beginning and starting from zero. This was especially true when it came to rookies. If they were to do so, they might end up like a baker who accidentally used low-gluten flour when he was supposed to use high-gluten flour. He would not be able to explain himself out of the situation if the surgery were to fail.
And after a doctor was familiar with a surgical method, he would start to think for himself and select equipment, facilities, and medical consumables that he preferred. Even so, pharmaceutical sales companies would not suffer losses because of this. This was especially true for large-scale pharmaceutical sales companies that offered a wide selection of products. The brand effect was definitely a real thing.
Ling Ran rubbed his chin a little hesitantly. He had the intention to carry out freelance surgeries in other hospitals during the weekends, to begin with, so it was a viable option for him to attend a local academic conference and carry out a surgery or two while he was at it. After all, he would not need to take a flight if he were to do so.
However, he would only get to perform a surgery or two if he attended the academic conference, and he would get to carry out more surgeries if he went to another hospital for freelance surgeries. Ling Ran could not help to start thinking about what he should do with all that free time.
“Doctor Ling, all the renowned doctors nowadays like giving speeches in academic conferences. It’s one way for people to get to know who you are, isn’t it? Doctors stay in hospitals where they work all the time, and it’s not easy for them to get to know doctors from other hospitals. If you get to know more doctors, those doctors might end up recommending you to their patients, and you will have more patients. You’ll also get more opportunities to perform surgeries used for educational purposes.” Huang Maoshi had been dealing with Ling Ran for two or three years, and he was immediately able to come up with a topic that Ling Ran was interested in.
To doctors, fame and benefits came hand in hand. Famous doctors would naturally gain a lot of benefits, but those who gain a lot of profit were not necessarily famous. This was why out of fame and benefits, doctors usually chase after fame from the very beginning.
But if they wanted to become famous, they must first build up their reputation.
In modern society, patients’ word of mouth would not help to make a doctor famous at all. And this might be the reason behind the deterioration in current doctor-patient relationships.
Huang Maoshi knew very well that Ling Ran was the type of doctor who liked to carry out surgeries. It only took a few sentences for him to convince Ling Ran that participating in the academic conference would bring meaningful benefits to him.
“Alright, I’ll go and take a look, then.” Ling Ran thought about it and asked the pharmaceutical sales representative from Duco, “Is any topic okay?”
“Yes, just go up and say whatever you want!” The pharmaceutical sales representative from Duco flashed a humble smile and gave a certain answer.
