Repertoire: What two or three things do you offer your distributor rep partners to enhance their sales?
Ian Rodenberger: As distributors are experiencing more pressure on margins, and purchasing channels are becoming more sophisticated, we can provide a comprehensive portfolio of products and services that span across the ambulatory market to enhance the healthcare experience for the customer. We have the opportunity to identify and improve critical business drivers that support quality patient care metrics. This in turn builds credibility with our distributor partners, and allows them to influence the opportunity as a trusted consultant, and not as a price agent. Getting a Midmark rep involved early in the sales process builds continuity in the selling team, typically leads to higher volume sales through a stronger mix of products, and most importantly, allows us to solve real concerns that our stakeholders and customers are dealing with.
Repertoire: Name two or three ways your distributor rep partners help you add value to your accounts.
Rodenberger: Our distribution channel is vital to our relationship with customers because they will bring us into meetings based on their rapport with the customer. The best distributor reps can deliver Midmark’s value proposition at a high level and help us navigate to key decision-makers within an account so that we can mutually grow our business together. They also can deliver intel on the daily business decisions occurring in their accounts so we can provide the best solution to help enhance their practice. In addition, our dealer partners can provide value by managing the sales process from point of sale to the delivery and installation of our equipment, ultimately serving as an extension of us for a positive customer experience.
Repertoire: What is the biggest change you anticipate in medical product sales in the next five years?
Rodenberger: As reimbursement models continue to drive business strategy for our customers, there will be continued consolidation in the market and increased value-based purchasing channels for capital equipment. Healthcare organizations will be making purchasing decisions based on data supporting the effectiveness of the product to enhance care, increase patient/staff satisfaction and help remove cost from the system.
Repertoire: Do you think distributor reps should embrace ride days? If so, why? If not, why not?
If ride days are qualified and planned at a strategic level by both the manufacturer and the distributor partner, then they can be very effective in driving results and strengthening relationships. Generally speaking, traditional “cold call” ride days are less effective today because of the complexity of customers’ decision-making and purchasing processes.
Repertoire: Can you share a favorite ride-day story?
Rodenberger: Steve McNeal, with Henry Schein in Cincinnati, asked me to call on a couple of accounts that were expanding. We met with one of his CHCs, who was trying to renovate two rooms in their clinic. They asked for a manual exam table and a stool. After we were finished with our meeting, they committed to purchasing two comprehensive exam rooms from us with flexible casework, computer carts, Barrier Free Exam Tables with built-in scale to eliminate conveyance, side chairs/stools, and automated vitals and digital IQmark ECG devices for point-of-care testing to integrate within their athenahealth EMR. The next account asked to look at procedure lighting, and we took the sale from one light to a light, procedure chair, stool and mobile treatment cart. Our sales grew exponentially based on our customer engagements. The first sale grew over 2000 percent, and the second sale was over 1000 percent growth – which paid for Steve’s gas that day!