By Scott Adams
“For the first time in my career, I feel like I’m making a difference in the lives of Americans,” one rep told me during a recent conversation. The comment caught me a little off guard because of who it was coming from – a 20-plus year veteran of the industry, who has made all kinds of contributions to his organization and the med/surg community overall. “I always felt like I made a difference, but now I know I am making a difference by getting people gloves and COVID testing and all the stuff they need right now.”
I wanted to explore this idea further, so over the last several weeks I reached out to a half dozen sales reps and sales leaders from national and regional distributors to give them an open forum. I asked them about the first half of the year, whether their accounts were allowing vendors back in, the PPE situation, and their hopes for the rest of 2020. The following are insights from those conversations:
Year-to-Date
If 2020 was a pendulum, it might be in danger of breaking with all of the wild swings it has incurred through the first six months.
I asked each individual to walk me through their year-to-date. Despite being spread across a wide range of regions throughout the country, what they told me was very similar. It was almost eerie, like they were singing from the same hymnal despite not knowing one another.
The first quarter was record-setting for almost every individual. I heard eye-popping numbers from several reps who were well over 100% January through March. “We were on fire,” one sales leader told me.
Then came the spring.
March and April were like “someone turned the water off,” one rep told me. Reps that were on record-setting pace saw sales dip to 60% of their budget, or worse. It really varied, but it was all well below budget for everyone. Physician offices, pediatric offices and specialty centers were simply shut down. Healthcare, besides COVID care and emergencies, was not happening.
Fortunately, sales began to creep back up in May as some physician offices and specialty centers reopened. I heard from many reps that June started to feel more normal, and they were optimistic about July and August.
Calling on Accounts
Calling on accounts was a mixed bag for the reps I talked with. Some reps were able to call on accounts, while some customers still had not opened their doors to vendors.
One problem reps are running into with accounts is the request for certain PPE items from providers who never used them before. Think specialties like ortho and OB/GYN, or even pediatric offices. They may have used them in a limited capacity before COVID-19 hit, but now through state mandates and their own precautions they are putting in requests for these PPE items in record numbers.
One rep talked about a large health system shutting down some of its practices, including family practices, but they are expanding and still in building mode for specialties. That will be something to watch.
Collaboration
Distributor reps and their manufacturer partners are having to rethink how they work together. It’s still difficult to do ride-days, and we don’t know for sure when that will change. That’s why it’s important for manufacturer reps to utilize things like video support and being efficient in how they handle calls via Zoom or Microsoft teams.
New ways to sell. New things to sell.
If you are a rep, you must be thinking outside the box. Think about selling things you’ve never sold before. What items can help a practice with infection control protocols and rapid testing?
Think of different ways to sell. Tools like manufacturer videos or Zoom calls will be critical for the foreseeable future.
The good, progressive reps I talked to are not only surviving, but thriving. They’re using different technology, thinking outside the box and thinking about selling different things to different types of accounts like university systems and boarding schools. There are so many new markets that haven’t purchased PPE before. Think of a barber shop and masks and gloves.
Caregivers have to get ahead of their COVID test orders
Physician offices that aren’t testing for COVID now may regret it later, according to the reps I spoke with. If a physician office is sending patients out for COVID testing, what’s stopping those patients from finding another provider who is or will be providing COVID testing at the office? Convenience and trust with the practice will come into play.
Practices that aren’t doing COVID testing in the summer may be in trouble come fall when we get into respiratory season just by sheer demand. Their patients will not want to come to a practice that sends them away when they’re sick.
Plus, the reps and sales leaders I talked to said reimbursement on COVID testing is good. If providers wait too long to make their orders, there will be allocation on this stuff like everything else, and if you weren’t already buying you may find it difficult to suddenly sign up and have access to it.
When it gets CLIA-waived, COVID testing will be very interesting to watch. It could be in every hotel and before people board a cruise ship.
Morale
The people I talked to were more positive than I had anticipated. They’re exhausted, of course. All of them are working crazy hours. They’re spending a lot of time chasing down allocation and PPE, but despite those dynamics, the reps and sales leaders I talked to remained positive.
Maybe the right word is determined. They’re making a difference and it shows.