Repertoire: Can you talk about how you navigate your way through group purchasing contracts? How can the sales rep remain an important part of the customer’s decision-making process, even with GPO contracts? Sam Marshall: I'm still new to the industry. This answer is easy because of my limited experiences with GPO contracts. I use my manufacturer reps when trying to close … [Read more...]
The Reason: On Top of Time
Repertoire: In our survey, we asked, “What is the greatest obstacle to providing great customer service?” Forty-one percent said “not enough hours in the day.” And in another question, when asked “What is the single most important thing I can do to improve my sales?” 42 percent said “manage my time better.” How important is time management to you? Can you share your greatest … [Read more...]
The Reason: Grading the Affordable Care Act
Repertoire: How would you grade the Affordable Care Act (A, B, C, D, F)? Regardless of how you would grade the Act, what aspects of it are having the biggest impact on your customers…and hence, on the way you approach them as a salesperson? Sam Marshall: I honestly haven't noticed a big change overall. Dan Hilton: The greatest impact on me and my customers is that the ACA … [Read more...]
The Reason: Current State of Affairs
Repertoire: What makes you optimistic about the current state of medical products sales? What causes you concern? Sam Marshall: I continue to be optimistic about the current state of medical product sales because of the champions. There are champions in every healthcare facility that understand the medical sales rep. The champions care about nothing other than patient … [Read more...]
The Reason: From the Start
In the Repertoire questionnaire, readers were asked, “If you had your career to do over, would you choose to be a medical sales rep?” Eighty-one percent said “yes.” Why do you choose to be a medical sales rep? Sam Marshall: My job is unique due to the fact that I'm able to work as a clinician [air EMS technician] and salesman together. The jobs complement each other and … [Read more...]
The Reason
Repertoire asks, Why are you in medical sales? Your mom or dad might have told you there’d be days like these. Tough ones, where every call, every audience, seems to be hard-fought. But in the end, if you had it to do over, would you? Most Repertoire readers who responded to a recent questionnaire said “Yes.” In November, Repertoire asked readers to respond to a … [Read more...]
Purchasing Coalition Profile: Amerinet Eastern Alliance
In little over a year, the Amerinet Eastern Alliance has experienced significant savings and standardization among its members. The Amerinet Eastern Alliance (AEA) may be one of the industry’s newer purchasing coalitions, but it certainly hasn’t wasted time finding its foothold. When it formed in 2013, it was with the intent “to bring the purchasing power of all of the … [Read more...]
Consensus Builder
A unique perspective has enabled one supply chain leader to identify with his clinical customers and bring consensus to the table By Laura Thill Providing leadership for supply chain is challenging at any IDN, but perhaps especially so at New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NY, NY). The IDN is reported to be one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive hospital systems, … [Read more...]
HIDA Health Reform Update
By Linda Rouse O’Neill Your customers and traceability Phase I of the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) begins Jan. 1, 2015, and requires pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers, and repackagers to comply with national prescription drug traceability requirements; dispensers must comply by July 1, 2015. The law establishes for the first time ever a system aimed at … [Read more...]
Delivering efficiency to healthcare
NDC’s rebranding initiative reinforces its big view of supply chain NDC’s rebranding initiative is more than a new look…though it is, indeed, that. And it’s more than a new name (“NDC” rather than “National Distribution & Contracting”), though it is that, too. The real key to NDC’s initiative – launched this summer – lies in its new tagline: “Delivering Efficiency to … [Read more...]