Many many ortho sales pros are frustrated in 2026. This is a rant that I wrote last night, but some of this rant may resonate with you.
Listen up, ortho sales reps – if you're still hauling trays like it's the '90s Golden Age, chasing surgeons with steak dinners and hoping for loyalty, wake up.
That ship's sailed, sunk, and buried under a pile of VAC paperwork and GPO gatekeepers. The original ortho sales rep? Dead.
Beleaguered by bureaucracy, commoditized products, and hospitals treating you like a necessary evil. But here's the unfiltered truth: You can still stack cash in this game. It just takes smarts, grit, and ditching the ego. I've seen reps go from scraping by to six figures plus by adapting. No hype, no BS – just actionable plays to boost your commissions in 2025's tight market.
I'm Tiger Buford, orthopedics lifer, recruiter, and founder of BoneChat where we hash this out weekly.
Let's break it down: Why the old ways are killing your wallet, and how to flip the script.
The Old Rep is Dead – Long Live the Smart Operator
Back in the day, you were the OR rockstar: Delivering implants, troubleshooting on the fly, building unbreakable surgeon bonds. Commissions flowed like...
