Rep Corner: A Mission of Love

By Laura Thill

Cardinal Health rep Monty Wallin focuses on service to his customers, as well as those in need

When Monty Wallin joined the medical products sales profession 38 years ago, the industry looked nothing as it does today. “When I started, we were trained differently than today,” he explains. “Nothing was automated. We hand-wrote our orders. Inventory was kept in a ‘cardex system,’ which was also managed manually. Technology today provides reps so much data that was not available to us back then. It’s simply a different environment.”

Not only that, disposable products were a novelty, group purchasing organizations had yet to define themselves and a multitude of medical products distributors populated the healthcare landscape, he points out.

A college graduate with a degree in education, Wallin’s decision to forego teaching for a sales position was a leap of faith. “I found healthcare interesting, and I applied to a few hospitals for materials jobs,” he says. A friend who worked in distribution got him an interview at American Hospital Supply (now Cardinal Health), and he joined the company in September 1977. “There were very few disposable products at that time,” he recalls. “Exam and surgeon gloves were washed, powdered and sterilized. We sold glass syringes and reusable needles that had to be sharpened by hand when they got dull. Surgical drapes and gowns were reusable and had to be washed, de-linted and sterilized.”

Wallin spent much of the next four decades adapting to continuous changes in healthcare, from growth in technology to industry regulation and consolidation. “We saw the real birth of group purchasing organizations and watched as Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) changed the way hospitals were reimbursed,” he says. “Margins were driven down to all-time lows, even while customers expected the same excellent service they were used to.

“There are far fewer distributors now, due to increased consolidation,” he continues. “Manufacturers, too, are consolidating and becoming increasingly larger. Cardinal Health is a unique company in that we are both a distributor and a manufacturer. Of course, it is extremely important for us to maintain strong relationships with our vendor partners despite these ongoing changes.” In fact, while the Internet, email and social media have made it easier for reps to communicate with customers, they also have led to a decrease in face-to-face contact with physician and hospital customers – something he considers essential to building strong relationships.

Being a successful sales rep is about meeting challenges head on and learning from those challenges, Wallin points out – something that has “helped me become the customer-focused sales professional and partner I am today.”

A humbling experience
In 1989, Wallin and his wife, Nyla, took their healthcare connection to a new level and began mission work in Haiti, followed by 12 years of missions in Jamaica. In 2003, they joined a ministry called Savior’s Tear – an organization that provides free medical care to underprivileged people in Nicaragua. “We bus people to our clinic location and provide free medical care, medicine, glasses and food to everyone who comes,” he says. “Over the years, we’ve had hundreds of volunteers join our teams and have provided care to thousands of needy families.”

Each trip is eight days long, including a day of travel at the beginning and end of the trip. Wallin and his wife partner as team leaders. “We make all of the travel arrangements, book the hotel and organize our ground transportation during the stay. I order all of our medical supplies and pharmaceuticals for the trip, as well as make arrangements for the two to three tons of food we give away every year. A typical clinic day runs from 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 or 6 p.m. The last few years, we’ve been fortunate enough to have three doctors go with us, as well as four to five nurses. The rest of our team includes volunteers from all walks of life. On a typical day, we will see about 300 patients, which can vary from newborns to elderly.

“We host the clinic for five days and end the trip with a free day to relax and enjoy the local environment,” he says. “We stay in a nice hotel where the food is good, because the days are very long and very hot. Thus, it’s helpful to have a nice place to unwind, regroup and prepare to serve the next day.

“There is no describing the blessings we receive as team volunteers when we organize these trips,” he continues. “It can literally change a person’s life. It’s common for us to see some of the same people year after year, so many of our patients refer to our doctors as their ‘personal physician.’ That is pretty humbling. Plus, the Cardinal Health Foundation donated $2,500 to our ministry on my behalf when I earned the 2014 Cardinal Health Ambulatory Care President’s Award, which is an award that honors exemplary volunteerism in the community and a passionate commitment to serving others. I feel honored to work for a company that wants to support an organization that I’m so passionate about.”