Territory Manager
MedPro Associates
Silver Spring, Maryland
Eight and a half years in medical sales
Snapshot:
- Born/raised: Skaneateles, New York
- Undergraduate degree: BA, English major, Loyola University Maryland
- First “real” job: I was a sports/news writer for a small newspaper in Upstate New York for eight years.
- Favorite restaurant: Outback Steakhouse. For my money, you can’t beat a BBQ combo platter.
- Family info: My wife is Dawn, and I have three boys: Ryan (12), Colin (9) and Brendan (7).
- Hobbies/activities. I love being outdoors and being active, so camping, hiking, jet skiing, snow-boarding.
Repertoire: What are the most important things you do for your distributor reps to enhance their sales?
Piper: The more you know about your products, the more of a resource you can be for your distributor rep and their customer. The basics – like product numbers, pricing, etc. – can help, but knowing how to position the products and how best for the customer to optimize those solutions can be helpful for both the end user and the rep. As a manufacturer rep firm, we can offer multiple product lines outside of the original opportunity within the call. Doesn’t happen all the time, but occasionally, one demo can lead to other opportunities at the same account.
Repertoire: Name some ways distributor reps help you add value to their accounts and increase sales.
Piper: The biggest thing a distribution partner can do for a manufacturer rep is ask questions of his/her accounts. The distributor rep inherently has a more intimate relationship with the end-users, so their opinions and suggestions carry more weight, which makes for a more meaningful conversation. The other key is understanding what makes your product/product line a potentially beneficial option for the customer. The rep doesn’t need to know the finer points of every product, but a solid understanding of what makes the product/product line unique is a huge help in terms of qualifying the opportunity.
Repertoire: What is the biggest change you anticipate in medical products sales in the next five years?
Piper: It’s hard to say. It’s pretty clear that distribution is given more corporate direction on what the preferred products are to sell, and we are seeing that IDNs are making continued efforts to control the purchases in the outpatient offices. There are also other parties.
I would think medical products will become part of a larger solution sale given the consolidation of end-users under larger IDN umbrellas, the increased direction given to distribution on what products to sell, and the entrance of entities like Amazon into the medical sales market. There will always be opportunities to sell individual product lines, but I’d assume manufacturers will be fighting to align themselves with these larger entities at a corporate level.
Repertoire: Ride-days with distributor reps: What do you like? What don’t you like?
Piper: Traditional, open-ended ride days don’t happen as often. Ride-days are more effective when they are structured around a couple of qualified opportunities. Those discussions tend to be more fruitful, and the opportunity to build off those discussions and broaden the potential sale is easier when there is a concrete basis for the appointment itself.