Sanara MedTech Inc. (NASDAQ:SMTI) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Ian Cassel: And my last question is, I know, you guys spent a lot of time and resources on the comprehensive wound care offering. You know, I’m wondering, you know, I know a big, big part of that is getting payers to sign up to this wound care offering. I’m curious, Ron, if you think that’s still doable in 2023 or do you think that happens in 2024? You know what — how should investors be thinking about that opportunity and monetizing that?

Ron Nixon: Yeah, we think it’s going to happen in 2023. We have surveyed many of the payer participants in the field and we know that wound care is top of mind for them and they know it’s been a fee-for-service solution and that no one has been brought a full comprehensive strategy to the table. So we believe that we still will be the first to market with that and we think it will be well accepted. As you know, getting the diagnosis is a key component to that because it’s very hard for us to be able to prescribe what we believe needs to be done with the wound without having that data. And so that’s why waiting on our Precision Healing and getting the Imager to be done has been critical for us and we’re hoping to get that through the 510(k) very quickly. And then secondly, the LFA will just add that much more data which will give us even more Precision and no pun intended in our healing process.

Ian Cassel: Excellent. Well, thanks and great quarter and great year. Thank you.

Ron Nixon: Yeah. Thank you, Ian.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Chris Plahm with Tall Pines Capital. Please go ahead.

Chris Plahm: Hey, guys. Great year. Actually Ian asked two of the questions I was going to ask, but one Zach, maybe for you on the sales side, how do you guys feel about the sales force currently? I know you discussed it a bit. You have enough traction within the existing hospitals, so there’s no need to go after approvals at this time. So how should we think about growing that sales force? And also the, I guess, the push pull of selling in the existing hospitals and going out and getting new approvals and going after those?

Zachary Fleming: Yeah, we have a laser focused team, which I think makes us really unique. You know, our structure is a little bit unique I think as well in the industry and that we deploy regional sales managers as well as of course they manage the 1099 in their local vicinity. And what that allows for is great visibility, continuity and pressure on the market. So I think that’s an important part of how we go to market and we’ve hired the best of the best. We get some of the better, most well trained people from other large companies that have been in this space, whether that be in the orthopedic spine, wound care, those types of groups that we hire out of. And then they come in with existing relationships and are able to tap into those very quickly.

The 1099 agents, of course, as well, they allow for a person into the room where the operation is going on sort of eyes and ears and the ability to bring the product in with a friendly face. So that’s extremely helpful. You know, we are expanding. We have been expanding. We’ve hired quite a few people. We’re right on schedule for how we’ve wanted to hire. We’ve always wanted each territory to gain profitability in the waves that we hire them. So you might hire three or four at a time. You want to see that profitability be achieved in those three or four then hire the next group. So we’ve never — we’ve been very conservative in how we’ve gone about that hiring approach. And as you may have seen in our previous slide decks, you know, we are trying to do an expansion of states that we occupy and that’s gone very well as well.