Repertoire: What two or three things do you offer your distributor rep partners to enhance their sales?
Ryan Ward: As the healthcare industry continues to shift toward value-based medicine, it’s more important than ever for the manufacturer rep to serve as a consultant to the distributor rep and his/her customer. Gone are the days of selling to a feature or a promotion. It is imperative for the manufacturer rep to be an expert on his/her products, and specifically, how the product/solution provides better patient care, to meet HEDIS and quality measurements, while increasing revenue. To mirror the industry’s shift toward value-based medicine, we must engage in value-based selling. I’m working with my distribution partners to think differently about how we approach a prospect or customer, changing our mentality to value-based selling. I’m utilizing avenues like social media to prospect for new business. These avenues have helped me to provide more qualified opportunities to my distribution partners.
Repertoire: Name two or three ways your distributor rep partners help you add value to your accounts.
Ward: Many of my distribution partners have done a wonderful job to position Welch Allyn as the brand that accounts think of first for solutions to their biggest clinical challenges. Also, my distribution partners have utilized the trust they’ve built with their accounts to expand Welch Allyn’s product mix. The number of contacts a distribution partner has with customers each day (telephone, email, in-person), has in effect, expanded our sales force.
Repertoire: What is the biggest change you anticipate in medical product sales in the next five years?
Ward: In the next five years, the biggest change in this industry will be how physicians are measured and paid. I also believe the rate of consolidation will increase at a more rapid rate in every segment of our business – customers (national/regional IDNs), manufacturers, distribution partners, design/consulting firms, and payers.
Repertoire: Do you think distributor reps should embrace ride days? If so, why? If not, why not?
Ward: I think distribution reps should embrace ride days. I’m not in favor of a day of cold calls. We can cold call over the telephone versus driving to an account, hoping the person we need to speak with is in the office and has time to speak with us. A ride-day must be well planned by both the distributor and manufacturer rep, with an objective for each meeting. We should have a commitment from the appropriate stakeholder(s) that they will attend the meeting. Too often, people do things to check a box. The most important asset that we have today is our time. We need to work smarter.
Repertoire: Can you share a favorite ride-day story?
Ward: Several years ago, a customer asked a distributor rep and I to stop by one of their rural clinics to present a PC-Based Spirometer. I often carry an additional product into a meeting. If time permits and the customer accepts, I’ll introduce additional products. The distributor rep and I carried in an automated vital signs device. This customer was part of a very large health system. Over the last 8+ years, the customer has invested in hundreds of our automated vital signs devices, deploying them in their clinics and hospitals. Ironically, they decided not to purchase the PC-Based Spirometer.