Believe it: Dr. Ben has a serious side
Tony Melaro
Door-to-door insurance salesman Angelo Melaro knew practically every one of Olean, N.Y.’s 20,000 citizens. His wife, Gloria, raised three kids, went back to school when she was 50, got an RN degree, and worked as an OR supervisor till she was in her 70s. No wonder their kid – Tony Melaro – turned out the way he did: energetic, hard-working, focused, enthusiastic, born to sell…and funny.
Melaro, who is director of national distribution accounts for Welch Allyn, is a recent inductee into the Medical Distribution Hall of Fame.
“Tony finds a way to get people to completely trust him, because they know he cares about their business as much as his,” says John Moran, who, before his recent retirement, was vice president of corporate distribution.
Box-mover
“I didn’t care for the insurance business,” says Melaro, reflecting on his father’s career. “But I was attracted to the people part. He had so many friends. He went door-to-door selling life insurance, like the Fuller Brush man. That’s a tough job. I always respected that he was pounding the pavement. I think he was successful because of his personality. He was outgoing, wasn’t afraid to talk to people. He engaged himself with people.
“And my mom waitressed early on, to make money. Then she got her RN and served as OR supervisor at the local hospital.”
Melaro got his start in medical sales in 1979. He had graduated with a biology degree in 1979 from Potsdam State in Upstate New York, and was living with a couple of friends in an apartment in Syracuse. To make rent money while mailing out resumes, he got a job with North American Van lines, the moving company. One day he found himself with two or three other guys moving George Blowers, who had just retired as executive vice president at Welch Allyn and was moving to North Carolina.
“I asked him, ‘What do you do?’ ‘Tell me about Welch Allyn,’” recalls Melaro. “He said, ‘We manufacture medical equipment.’ I told him I had just gotten out of college, and he said that as it happened, Welch Allyn had two openings – one in Houston and one in Tampa. He gave me the names of a couple of folks – Lorne Elder and Lew Allyn – and said, ‘Call these guys; tell them I talked to you.’” Melaro did just that, and in November 1979, began his training at Welch Allyn’s facility in Skaneateles, N.Y.
“I really didn’t know what I wanted to do, but when that opportunity popped up, I thought about how successful my father was in sales,” he says. “I had nothing holding me back, so I decided to take advantage of it.”
One of his trainers was John Moran. “He was regional manager out of Chicago,” recalls Melaro. “He was very thorough; had been in Vietnam; was ‘by the book.’ He used to talk about ‘Lombardi time,’ which meant getting where you were supposed to be five minutes early. He was very good, thorough, fair, disciplined; a great guy who helped me get off on the right foot.”
So, in December 1979, Melaro moved to Houston, with responsibility for South Texas and the state of Louisiana.
Fostering relationships
Getting used to Houston traffic, its heat and humidity, and a different pace of doing business took some getting used to. “Coming from New York, I would want to talk fast; I would want to get down to business,” he says. But his customers in Texas and Louisiana often preferred to talk about family, the weather or the weekend before talking product.
“Welch Allyn had a great name, so I was in a good situation,” he says. In fact, his task was largely a matter of getting to know the distributors he called on, and allowing them to get to know him. “I was fostering relationships.”
In 1984, he was promoted to regional manager, and then, in 1995, area manager – a promotion which necessitated a move to Gaithersburg, Md. His wife, Beth, had worked for IBM in Syracuse, and was able to continue working for the firm in Houston and Gaithersburg. Melaro maintained the area manager job for several years, then moved into his current role, as director of national accounts. He and Beth moved to Greensboro, N.C., in 2002.
Onstage
When asked about a mentor, Melaro quickly points to Moran. “Without a doubt,” he says. He taught Melaro some simple concepts: Show up, follow up, and always be straight with people.
“We spent a lot of time together,” he says, speaking of him and Moran. “He would travel with me to my larger accounts. He has a fabulous sense of humor; he isn’t one of those guys that you have to be afraid of what you say. He always listens, even if you have a crazy question or comment. He is a great people person, a great listener. He was the glue…and we had so much fun together.”
One thing they did together was Dr. Ben skits. The “proctologist” character was – and occasionally, still is – Melaro’s alter ego. Dr. Ben and Moran have bantered onstage at countless distributor and industry meetings, communicating the company’s message in a funny way.
Melaro says he got the inspiration to create an alter ego from Midmark. “Back in the day, Midmark set the bar on being creative,” he says, recalling one show in which all the Midmark folks dressed up as brides. “Each year, they had a new theme; they set themselves apart.”
One day, at the Welch Allyn factory, Bill Allyn was toting some clothing to be given to charity. Among the clothes was a blue-and-yellow checked sports jacket, and pants – which had belonged to Allyn’s father. “We had the Welch Allyn Video Endoscope; we wanted to talk to distributors about our rectal products; so we created this Dr Ben character,” recalls Melaro.
“We started doing skits. John was my straight man. We would write our skits together, and each year, we’d come up with some new lines. We always wanted to get some message across.”
Melaro might look like he was born to perform, but he really wasn’t. “I guess I was kind of the class clown,” he recalls. “I wasn’t all that serious. But I never did anything like drama or plays in high school or college. Moran and I just got together, and it kind of happened. Our timing and chemistry worked well.”
Follow-up
“Tony has a very workmanlike personality, which people don’t see in the skits,” says Moran. He has used his strengths in terms of organization and follow-up to service Welch Allyn’s biggest distributors for a couple of decades or more, he continues.
“Follow-up is something people take for granted – the constant keeping track of priorities, who’s doing what, what’s going on, reminding people, keeping everything in the forefront in real time,” Moran continues. “It can be boring – kind of the opposite of what Tony does in the skits. But he never lets anything slip through the cracks, and he does it every day of the week with his customers. And they really, really appreciate it.”
And because of his experience, conscientiousness and concern for his customers’ success, Melaro has served as a de facto mentor to many young, talented marketing people on the distribution side, says Moran. “They’re bright, but they don’t necessarily know the business when they start; some don’t even know how to navigate their own companies. Guess who mentors them? And they don’t forget it.”
Tons of opportunity
In today’s digital age, Melaro calls himself old school. “Even though the business has changed, you still have to go out and see people,” he says. At the same time, salespeople need to adapt if they want to be successful. So, if a customer wants to communicate via text or email rather in-person, “you need to step up.”
“Healthcare is a great industry,” he says. Given MACRA, compliance and concerns about quality of care, the healthcare world is changing. “There are tons of opportunity – if you’re able to keep up with it.”