RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Sales update soon?WalkOverTheStrt wrote: GrahamB,
I personally do not expect any sales in Q3 aside from the two German sales announced in the summer.
There is a clear issue in getting decision makers )procurement/hopsital admin) after the clinicial evalution/demo (cardiac team/direct VMS users) to seeing this as a needed technology vs a nice to have (quote from Alvira two qtrs ago). This comes down to sales strategy techniques which to me (background in sales strategy tech/professional services) that they are still evolving/stumbling at times. Part of this is GA put too much on GE HC as a sure thing.
That stated the ASCEND Cardiovascular partnership likely has the best chance to spurn USA sales depending on the sales model which we do not know anything on. Example what we as investors/funds need to know on the partnership:
- Is it an added cost to the current Ascend's customer base subscription (assume that is their business model) or is it added to their subscription automatically?
- Or is it a pay per use model for VMS?
- Who is going to drive adoption of the VMS within ASCEND Cardiovascular systems? e.e How many Ascend sales reps will be dedicated to the rollout? How many Ventripoint sellers (internal employees) will be focused on driving sales within Ascend's customer base?
With 4.0 and the automation involved to reduce the manual placement it is one less challenge to sell to customers the VMS. I believe to this day 3.0 is good but not great due to the manual aspects but it is far above what previous versions were (IMO not ready for prime time).
I personally hold a little less than ~1M shares and have not added since the summer (German sales) and will decide on whether I hold or sell after March report.
Thanks for the response, and your detailed thoughts.
I agree with almost all of what you have said, and there just seem to be a lot of questions at this point,
At first review, it's hard to believe that the product isn't selling, since it does offer a cost effective way to analyze the heart in 3-D, from 2D images, with potential cost savings.
Having said that, it doesn't, make sense why it hasn't been adopted, is it as you say a sales issue or, is it that the cardiologists aren't convinced. That is, how much are the people that are even given the free placements using this? Why aren't they presenting in the conferences regularly, or are we hearing more about it in the medical literature after 10 years. I get that it needed to be advanced, and automated but still. I guess we have to separate the promotion that was made about it early on versus the reality, which seems to be more the case with the new CEO.
Any event, the question is whether or not, they really offer an advantage over what is out there, or what is evolving. After all, does the average Division want to have a GE unit, this unit, both,??
It's not clear to me, so I'm just relying on the objective data. I've been involved in a lot of these types of small caps, and the few that I've gotten right, I was fine to buy later, once they prove themselves, and yes, I didn't get as much upside, but I still got plenty of upside if it was a real story.
Thanks also for having objective discussion, which is data driven, and not intended to bash. It's just intended to discuss the facts and interpretations of it. Those that only want to promote the positive, And insult those who want to think objectively, do themselves, and newbie investors, a disservice.
Anyway, all IMO and good luck with it. You've got a fairly good stash, so if it does takeoff, you will do well. You deserve all the upside if it does pop. It requires patients to sit through and wait with this company.