RepCorner: True Partners

By Laura Thill

Amid change, one constant remains: the value of the distributor-manufacturer rep partnership

Since joining Medtronic’s extended care sales team three years ago, Yelena Brusilovsky has wasted no time learning the industry and forging relationships with her customers. She was attracted to medical products sales by her “desire to work with others to help improve the lives of patients,” she explains. “I wanted to help patients and their caregivers access products and services that would offer superior clinical outcomes, increase their access to care and improve their quality of life.”

Still, Brusilovsky quickly learned that with the rewards come challenges. In her first year, especially, she spent much of her time learning her territory and getting a sense of which accounts she could impact the most – something she likely couldn’t have done without the help of her distributor partners, she notes. She quickly learned the value of building strong relationships with her distributor partners. “I focused on ways that I could fortify their trust in our partnership,” she explains. That meant taking care of mutual customers and filling their requests in “a timely and effective fashion,” as well as delivering new opportunities to her dealer partners that could enable them to grow their business together.

Nor did it take Brusilovsky long to learn the importance of following through on one’s word. “As a new sales rep, it is easy to become overwhelmed by your daily responsibilities and obligations,” she says. “As result, new sales reps sometimes forget that success can often be achieved by simply following through on your promises. My distributor reps and customers always say they want sales reps who do what they say they are going to do. It is easy to underestimate the importance of reliability; however, following through on your promises makes you a trusted resource and partner.”

Teamwork
For Brusilovsky, providing value to customers calls for a joint effort between distributor and manufacturer reps. Particularly as she sees the relationship between distributor and manufacturer reps evolve, she believes it continues to be crucial to the ability to meet the customers’ needs. “Historically, I believe, there was the perception that manufacturer reps focused on supporting distributor representatives, and the distributor representatives were the ones that owned the relationship with the customer. However, I believe there has been a shift in this mentality; it is important for manufacturer reps to have a strong presence in customers’ accounts and to be seen as a vital resource to not only their distributor partners but to their customers as well.

“My distributor rep partners help me add value to my accounts by acting as their consultants,” she says. “They consistently strive to listen, uncover and understand the unique needs of my accounts. By taking the time to understand the needs of my accounts, my distributor reps can act as consultants to create and implement solutions that help them achieve their desired clinical and/or financial outcomes. For example, one of my long-term accounts came under new executive ownership and was informed they needed to drastically cut the overall expenditure of their medical supplies. Upon learning this, my distributor rep immediately began working with the account to implement a unique PPD program targeted at decreasing usage and spend within 60 days. The ultimate success of this customized and novel program enabled the account to avoid budget cuts and ultimately fostered efficiencies in its purchasing and supply management practices.

“Another example of one of my distributor reps partnering with one of my accounts occurred when the account had an immediate need for a feeding pump manufactured by my company,” Brusilovsky continues. “My distributor representative drove four hours over the weekend to pick up the feeding pump from his company’s warehouse and deliver it to the account the same day, demonstrating his partnership in promoting the health and well-being of the account’s patients.”

In turn, Brusilovsky works hard to support her distributor rep partners to enhance sales. “As a manufacturer rep, I focus on ways that I can generate creative and innovative solutions for the needs of customers,” she says. “By creating unique solutions that my distributor reps can present to their customers to address their clinical and financial needs, I enable my distributors to differentiate themselves from their competitors and help foster perceptions of them as consultants and partners. This shift in perception propels the loyalty and trust of their customers, which, in turn, cements, grows and enhances their business.

“As a manufacturer rep, I take great pride in ensuring that I execute all of the promises – big or small – that I make to my distributor reps and their customers,” she continues. “Whether this entails pricing requests, sample product orders, customer in-servicing or product demonstrations, I ensure that I deliver on their requests and my promises efficiently and effectively.”

In addition, to ensure her distributor reps are prepared to meet their customers’ needs, Brusilovsky works hard to keep them informed about new products and services. “Whether the education pertains to advancements within long-term care or launches of new medical products, I ensure my distributor reps are abreast of the changes and advancements that impact our industry and call points. By ensuring they have up-to-date information on products and services offered by my company and others, I enable them to consistently broaden and enhance the selection of products, services and technologies available to their customers.”

Her efforts have paid off, not only with regard to customer satisfaction, but in the way of “meaningful relationships with many distributor partners in my territory,” she points out. “My distributor reps not only are true partners, but also have become highly-esteemed friends and colleagues. Most recently, I was fortunate enough to be able to celebrate the birthday of a regional distributor partner of mine at a nice dinner with colleagues from both our companies. It was truly an honor to be able to share this special moment and celebrate his amazing personal and professional successes.”

Strategies for success
In her three short years as an extended care account manager, Brusilovsky has witnessed the impact of continuous declining reimbursement rates on one hand and growing attention to quality of care initiatives on the other. “Customers in our industry continue to be impacted by decreasing budgets, and they are striving to find ways to improve care while decreasing costs,” she says. “In order to help address this growing trend, I work with my customers to help implement programs and services that enable them to monitor their product usage and spend. In addition, I provide continuing education on Medtronic’s vast product and service platform to ensure they have knowledge of – and access to – the most clinically beneficial and innovative products.”

At the same time, the home care market has been characterized by its growing access to hospital-grade products and services. “To address this, I work with my home care distributor partners to provide our customers with education on products and services that improve the quality and effectiveness of care for both the patient and caregiver, within the home,” says Brusilovsky. So, for example, she works with her distributor partners to educate accounts about her company’s enteral feeding platform, and its ability to deliver both a feeding and flushing regimen. “This is helpful for patients, as it enables them to receive a truly programmable and customized feeding and flushing regimen to meet their individual hydration and nutrition needs. It’s also helpful to caregivers, as it eliminates the needs for them to deliver the flushing orders manually, [facilitates] more quality time with patients and provides them with peace of mind.”

Delivering consistent value to her accounts requires her to stay enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the industry, notes Brusilovsky. “I participate in associations and committees in order to stay connected in the industry,” she says. “My membership in Professional Women in Healthcare enables me to meet other women leaders in the healthcare industry who are able to share years of advice and knowledge. Also, my membership in the Georgia Healthcare Association enables me to stay updated on industry news and trends and allows me to network with many individuals across our industry.

“I manage to stay enthusiastic about what I do because of the amazing people I work with on a daily basis,” she continues. “My relationships with my customers, distributor partners and work colleagues motivate me to execute with excellence each day. I am very fortunate to work for Medtronic and to have a wonderful senior leadership team that lends unwavering support and guidance. They are eager to implement programs that enable us to be more effective, relevant and valuable to our customers.”

A look ahead
In the years to come, Brusilovsky anticipates substantial growth in the home care market, facilitating the availability of acute-level services to these patients. “Patients’ preference to remain in their own home; digitization of health records and reporting systems; expansion of access to medical staff; and implementation of acute-level services for use within the home care environment will be the driving factors behind the significant [expansion] of this market in the next five years. Additionally, it is through the combination of these factors that more individuals will have improved access to care within the most widely preferred setting – the home.”

As more and more extended care patients choose to receive care at home for as long as possible, case managers, nurse practitioners, and home health agencies will play a greater and greater role in their care, notes Brusilovsky. And, as monitoring tools and systems continue to be enhanced, these patients will be better served, she adds. “With healthcare reform continuing to focus on prevention, the importance of excellence in home care delivery becomes even more crucial. By focusing on expansion of this market, care organizations can prevent and reduce hospital admissions and readmissions.”

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A bilingual background

Perhaps one of the best tools sales reps can bring to a meeting with their customer is diversity. For Yelena Brusilovsky, account manager, extended care, Medtronic, her fluency in Russian has been an asset. “My bilingual background has helped improve the level of interaction I have with my customers and [their] patients,” she says. “Once, while completing an incontinence assessment at one of my long-term-care facilities, I had the opportunity to meet a Russian patient whose primary language was Russian.

‘I took the time to sit down with this patient, learn more about her interesting background and garner information about what additional needs she had that could help improve her care,” Brusilovsky continues. “I was then able to share this information with her caregivers, who immediately implemented steps to address her needs.”