The More Things Change
One distributorship’s success spans 100+ years.
Laura Thill
In 1896, President Grover Cleveland was finishing his last term as president. Utah became the 45th state. The first modern Olympics got underway in Greece. And in 1896, a dental supply company based out of Nashville started a model that is still going strong.
Nashville Dental (Nashville, Tenn.) has been in business for over a century, and for the last 78 years, the Brown family has had a hand in its success. Today, owner Michael Brown continues to oversee the dental distributorship, along with his sons, Todd and Kirk.
In 1896, the company started out as the Dentist’s Supply Company. Nine years later, it incorporated as Nashville Dental, and in 1929, Brown’s father, Vernon, joined the company. In the mid-1930s, he became the company general manager, and in 1960, he purchased it, along with a fellow employee. Ten years later, the younger Brown joined following his college graduation and a year-long stint with Dentsply (York, Pa.). In 1974, the Brown family became the sole owner of Nashville Dental.
Although the distributorship has been in existence for a long time, its goals have always been very focused, according to Brown. "Our goal has always been to be a regional dental supplier that can deliver a high level of service and a broad range of supplies and equipment in a timely manner to our dental offices and laboratories." That’s not to say the company hasn’t remained on the cutting edge with regard to new technology and products. "But, we will always stay focused on providing these services in a family-oriented environment, where the customer’s needs always come first," he adds.
An extended family
While the business has remained in the Brown family for many years, it has evolved into an extended family. That is, today Nashville Dental relies on a larger family of employees to provide a wider range of services and products to a broader territory. The company began as a local dental supplier and, armed with two sales reps, served central Tennessee and southern Kentucky, Brown says. But, it needed more salespeople and branches as its territory grew to include Alabama, southern Indiana, northern Georgia and parts of West Virginia, and its product line increased to include office design, practice management services, high-tech sales and integration.
Today, the family business has grown to about 90 employees, including 24 sales reps, with branches in Knoxville, Jackson and Chattanooga, Tenn., as well as Huntsville, Ala., and Lexington and Louisville, Ky.
Throughout nearly four decades of serving dental
customers, the Browns have always valued a "high level of service and fair and competitive pricing." At the same time, however, Michael Brown recognizes that his customers’ needs have changed over the years. "One thing that is different today is the need to help dentists implement new technology into their practices," he says. Also, it has become more important than ever to help customers "be successful in all aspects of their practices, from staffing to practice management
systems and meeting the demands of patients, who seek and demand more discretionary treatments," he adds.
Networking for customers
In an age when distributors must offer value-added
services to set themselves apart from one another, Nashville Dental has positioned itself as a resource for dentists looking to buy or sell a practice, or add an associate. "This is not a big part of our business, but an important service to our customers," says Brown. "We charge minimum fees for this service, including brokerage fees when we help an existing customer locate a buyer for its practice. Our primary goal is to serve as a network for new graduates or dentists who would like to relocate in our market area, as well as older dentists approaching retirement or looking to transition out of practice."
Indeed, the competition today is fierce, says Brown, who considers his biggest competitors to be large national distributors, larger regional distributors and direct manufacturers that excel as marketing companies. "Joining the American Dental Cooperative has been critical to our success and has helped us maintain a level playing field when it comes to pricing parity with key manufacturers and suppliers," he says. It also pays to be a family-owned business that offers its customers personal, family-like attention. "The most important thing that sets us apart from our competitors is that we are family-owned and we strive to treat our customers and employees as members of the family," he says. "We are a company that still cares about the well-being of the customers we serve."
Being a family-run business, all of Nashville Dental’s employees are also treated as family and expected to
treat customers as family as well. Brown himself sets the example. "Our customers can pick up the phone and call me, the president of the company, and know that I care about their concerns," he says. "Also, we make our business decisions based on the needs of our customers and sound business principles."
"In today’s environment of selected distribution by major manufacturers, I am not sure that beginning a new dealership would be as [practical] today as it was a few years ago," Brown continues. Nevertheless, "my advice to anyone is that if you have a dream, a vision or a passion, then try to make it come true." [FI]
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