The federal government presents a massive opportunity for vendors. It also presents a tremendous challenge. Companies will need the right partner to help capitalize on the opportunity, and MedPro is just the partner.
The U.S. federal government is the largest buyer of medical supplies globally. It presents a huge opportunity for organizations to sell their products and services to military facilities, VA hospitals, prison systems and a myriad of assorted agencies and entities.
However, selling to the federal government isn’t easy. Access, compliance, contracting and sales calls are all out of the norm when dealing with the government as a whole and at each of its numerous facilities.
In a recent podcast, Repertoire Publisher Scott Adams discussed the intricacies involved in doing business with the federal government with several industry veterans who have experience streamlining the process – Manny Losada, CEO of Optimal and president of MedPro; Pete Junge, vice president of government services for Optimal; and Tim Driver, national sales director of government care for MedPro. The following were some key takeaways from the conversation.
The federal government is made up of several different entities
When selling medical supplies, the primary federal agencies involved are the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DOD), which is the military health system. The VA has about 170 medical centers, and triple that as far as clinics. The DOD has 56 to 60 military treatment facilities, of which 27 of those would be considered major facilities.
The Indian Health Service (IHS), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. The IHS provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for approximately 2.6 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who belong to 574 federally recognized tribes in 37 states.
There is also the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), which has 120 different hospitals.
Different agencies, different ways to contract
Each of those entities contracts in different manners. “So the DOD will be contracting one way, the VA will be contracting another way, the IHS will be working in much the same way as the DOD and VA, but they’ll have subtle differences – and the same with the BOP,” said Junge. “And then you have the other governmental agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).”
Calling on each location has its own challenges
It’s quite a different call point, said Driver. “It’s the one medical sales call point where you pull up and there’s a guard with an assault rifle at the welcome center. So, it can be a little intimidating.”
Each branch, and each base within that branch, usually has different requirements. For instance, at Fort Bragg, an army base in Fayetteville, North Carolina, as long as you have your car insurance and driver’s license and you can prove who you are, then you can come on base. At Navy facilities, usually you need to have an appointment set and a sponsor to let you through the guard gate. “So it can be a little intimidating, but our team is used to going through those steps needed to get on base,” said Driver.
When procuring medical supplies, the federal government is going to want to compete for every piece of business it does
It’s both an art and a science to be able to find and zero in on the solicitations that the federal government is looking for, said Junge. The government will send out a solicitation saying they are looking for certain types of things and they’ll ask which vendors/companies are out there that can fulfill certain requirements. Then they’ll bid it out, and companies respond in the prescribed channel. The agencies want their medical centers to have a methodology of buying regularly-used items on an ongoing basis without having to go and do the due diligence to determine fair and reasonable pricing. In those instances, they’ll put schedules or contracts in place with vendors, and the vendors will pre-qualify the items and the pricing for all sorts of different things with either the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) on the DOD side, or the National Acquisition Center (NAC) on the VA side.
MedPro’s system simplifies the process
Even large companies are under-resourced when it comes to the federal opportunity with medical supplies. MedPro has simplified the process for manufacturers of all sizes to be able to reach out to one company and work through that one company to service all the branches of the federal government. “The process saves the manufacturer a ton of time and years of setup to work with these institutions to get their goods or services into military treatment facilities, VA med centers, or large organizations such as the CDC and NIH,” said Junge.
MedPro’s trained sales representatives know the nuances of getting access into the facilities, and the do’s and don’ts in that very unique environment to elevate awareness of their manufacturer partners’ products and make the clinicians aware of the value prop of those products. “And not just that, but then also allow the contracting folks and the purchasing folks to know that those items are on the proper contract to make it very easy for them to do,” said Junge. “So from a manufacturer standpoint, you can get your items onto the contracts and get a whole field sales team plugged in so you’ll be able to transact much, much quicker.”
To listen to the entire podcast, visit http://repertoiremag.com/want-to-sell-more-to-the-dod-and-u-s-government.html
For more information on MedPro and Optimal, visit www.mproassociates.com or www.optimalmax.com.