AJ Pumphrey
Health Systems Sales
Sekisui Diagnostics
Repertoire: What are the two or three most important things you can do for your distributor rep partners to enhance their sales?
AJ Pumphrey: Make sure they are armed with the right information about our company and products. Ensure we maintain a regular dialogue of offering support and collaboration of mutual opportunities.
Repertoire: Name two or three ways distributor reps can help you add value to their accounts and increase sales.
Pumphrey: Focus on the needs of their customers and how our solutions can be in alignment with improving patient care. Qualifying opportunities, providing good contact details on decision-makers within the laboratory and purchasing. Beyond the decision-makers, it’s also good to discuss a proposed change with the techs, so they have buy-in and understand the benefits of changing their workflow with something new.
Repertoire: What is the biggest change you anticipate in medical product sales in the next five years?
Pumphrey: More and more automation. This is both a benefit and concern, with many med techs retiring. To some, automation is seen as a benefit to offset the loss of quality techs. To others, it is perceived as a threat to their livelihood and contribution to laboratory medicine.
Repertoire: What do you like/not like about ride-days with distributor reps?
Pumphrey: It’s great to have a day where reps are focused primarily on your products. In most cases, the byproduct of a ride day is the distributor rep coming prepared, and the manufacturer having more of their attention during the time together. It’s really a win-win for both.
Repertoire: Do you think distributor reps should embrace ride days?
Pumphrey: Yes, I do. I think riding with a manufacturer has the added advantage of not just introducing a new product solution, but also offering technical expertise.