Manufacturer Reps to Watch
Peter Sanda
Manufacturer Rep
Amplify Rep Group
Plympton, Massachusetts
12 years in medical sales
Primary call point: Hospitals, physician office/clinics, surgery centers
Snapshot
Born/raised: Boston, Massachusetts/Pembroke, Massachusetts
Undergraduate degree: BS in business administration, marketing concentration, Merrimack College, North Andover, Massachusetts
First “real” job: Restaurant manager for two years after college.
Family info: Married to Heather for 10 years; three children (Norah, Lily and Myles).
Hobbies/activities: Most of my time these days is dedicated to work or my family. Whenever possible I enjoy traveling, almost all sports (go Patriots!), and I like to consider myself an amateur chef.
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Repertoire: When, how and why did you get into medical sales?
Peter Sanda: I started in medical sales 12 years ago after selling copiers for a couple of years. Many other reps I was working with had transitioned into medical sales and it seemed like a natural progression. There seemed to be many different avenues to go down and a lot of opportunity for success if you were willing to put in the work.
Repertoire: What are the 2-3 most important things you can do for distributor reps to enhance their sales?
Sanda: First: Respond. Quickly. It may not sound like much, but every question an end user has about your products is an opportunity to make an impression both for you and the distributor rep. Time is critical, and if you are not responding and moving a sale along, you are increasing the chance of losing out on sales – and making a poor impression for your distributor rep.
Second, provide enough knowledge to the distributor rep that they can identify opportunities, but they are not inundated with unnecessary specs they won’t remember.
Third, foresee challenges/opportunities before they present themselves. If you act more as a consultant than simply a rep trying to push product, it greatly increases the end users’ comfort level and chances they will purchase from the distributor.
Repertoire: How can distributor reps help in your sales efforts?
Sanda: All I can ask from a distributor rep is to give me a chance to present the products I represent to their customers. Some distributor reps are simply order-takers, but the more successful reps present different options and let their customers make informed decisions. When a facility is looking to purchase dozens of exam tables or supply carts, it is a significant investment, and it makes sense for the customer to do their due diligence. The distributor rep can make that process easier for the customer and get me in front of them.
Repertoire: What is the biggest change you anticipate in medical products sales in the next 5 years?
Sanda: First, healthcare policies and reimbursement will always be a determining factor to changes in the industry. The importance of patient satisfaction scores affecting reimbursement has a substantial effect on the equipment that I sell.
Second: Consolidation. The fact that hospitals/IDNs are merging, and the fact that manufacturers are merging or being sold, will continue to have ripple effects through the industry. I believe larger hospital groups will continue to explore self-distribution, although I don’t think it will be successful on a large scale throughout the country.
Repertoire: Ride-days with distributor reps: What’s to like? What’s not to like?
Sanda: They absolutely can be valuable if the day is planned out and scheduled appropriately. Simply walking around knocking on doors is not something I find productive. However, if the calls are targeted and meetings are scheduled based upon opportunity, a ride-along can be a perfect way to build relationships with both customers and distributor reps.
Repertoire: Care to share a memorable ride-day story?
Sanda: A couple of years back I went on a ride-along out to Nantucket Hospital with a distributor rep. They were interested in seeing supply carts, so I brought two demo carts along with me. It was too expensive to bring my car on the ferry, so I ended up just pushing them right onto the ferry with me. When we arrived on the island and started looking for a cab, I realized that I would need to push the carts over a couple hundred feet of cobblestone – not ideal for those casters. I needed to pay a cab a few extra bucks to try to meet me as I was carrying a cart. It was an interesting day, and we even missed our scheduled ferry back home. We did end up getting a nice sale, which is all that matters!