Common Ground
When distributor reps and manufacturers work together, good things happen
Picture a comic strip. Two guys - a manufacturer rep and a distributor rep - are standing next to each other. The first guy (the distributor rep) is thinking about the other, "Does this guy know what he’s talking about? Is he going to embarrass me in front of my customers? Is he going to tag along with me all day long? If I need help, will he return my phone calls? Will he - God forbid! - steal my job one day? Do I really need this guy?"
Meanwhile, the manufacturer rep is thinking, "Does this guy know what he’s talking about? What will he do with the leads I send him? Will he take advantage of the promotions my company whips up? Will he take time to learn my products? After we split today, will he even remember my product? Do I really need this guy?"
In their hearts, distributors know they need manufacturers. After all, manufacturers develop the products that dentists depend on to care for patients. And manufacturers know they need their distributors. The retail reps are in the dentist’s office every day. They have the relationships. They’re the ones the dentist goes to for advice.
Starts with the product
Yes, distributors and manufacturers would seem to be a match made in heaven. But as any married couple can tell you, a strong relationship takes work. And trust. And time. The distributor/manufacturer relationship is no different, according to those with whom First Impressions spoke.
It all starts with the product. "[Distributor reps] want to feel comfortable that your products work," says Andrea Grobe, Aurora, Colo.-based senior sales representative for 3M/ESPE Dental Products. "They want to know they won’t get calls from doctors with complaints about them."
Manufacturers may have to prove themselves on this one. "It seems like some manufacturers almost test the market with live product," says Bill Berry, vice president sales and marketing, Preventech, Matthews, N.C. Consequently, distributor reps have learned to stay away from first-generation products. Some manufacturers introduce new products before they are actually available. That can give a distributor rep pause. "There’s an old adage that says a retail rep won’t sell anything until he knows it’s in stock," says Berry.
Just as in any relationship, there has to be some pizzazz. And for manufacturers and distributors, that pizzazz often comes from exciting products.
‘Me-too’ products won’t cut it any more, says Doug Hawkins, North American sales manager, Sultan Healthcare, Englewood, N.J. "We don’t come out with a product unless it’s innovative and high-quality," he says. Sultan does one more thing to ensure buy-in from its distributors: It enlists them in the product development process. "It’s easy to sit in a room with four guys and say, ‘This is great,’ but we’re not the ones calling on the doctor every day."
With thousands of products in their bags, distributor reps could use a little help focusing. And that’s what New Castle, Del.-based Septodont tries to give them. "As a manufacturer, you have to focus in on what you do best, try to keep the message simple, and deliver that to the distributor rep," says Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Paul Mondock. That’s why, in 2000, the company decided to focus on categories of products.
"What’s nice about focus," continues Mondock, "is that you can take a product category and ‘brand’ your organization. We feel we are the pain control experts. What that does is give us expertise, which provides us more face time or phone time with the dealer reps."
Face time
Having an innovative product is great, but only if the distributor rep understands how it works and how to sell it. That’s why training is an important component of the manufacturer/distributor relationship.
"Training empowers you to be better than your competition," says Cameron Smith, a top-selling rep for Henry Schein Dental in Denver, Colo. "As a rep, I want to be … that educational source for the customer. They don’t have time to search out what’s new and great. I want to be the go-to guy, that wealth of knowledge …. Being able to get excited about something and bring to [the dentist] what you feel is a must. [If you can] deliver the product and talk about why it’s great, you become more embedded in the relationship."
Smart manufacturers understand the value of training. "We want to keep [the retail reps] educated about our products, and up-to-date on anything new," says Grobe, who works with Smith in the field. "We try to get on sales meetings, meet them 1-on-1 and communicate through e-mails. I’ll send an e-mail blast - short and sweet - on a product. And our main office sends out information on products all the time."
"The dealer rep is really my first customer, along with my own sales force," adds Berry. "If I want [a distributor] to go out and represent my product, I have to make him aware of what I’m doing, and when. That way, he doesn’t get questions from the doctor like, ‘What is this new Preventech product?’ which he can’t answer. Dealer reps require - and more important, deserve - advance notice on information pertaining to new products."
Co-travel
Many manufacturers take advantage of the Web to provide long-distance product training. But many still regard the gold standard of training (and relationship-building) to be the ride-along. "I want to be able to co-travel with salespeople," says Berry. "It’s important for [the distributor rep] to hear the sales pitch and how to detail the product.
"At the end of the day, you hope [the distributor rep] has learned your sales presentation," he continues. "They’ve heard the questions the end users are asking, and they’ve heard your answers. They’ve heard the comparison of my new brand to what they’re currently using. [As a result], they can represent the product better the next time."
"There are a number of things you want to establish [with a ride-along]," says Mondock. "This is a relationship business. First and foremost, you’re strengthening your relationship [with the distributor rep]. But you also want some take-aways from the day." There are two ways the manufacturer can get them, he says: First, focus on one or two core products; and second, ask the dealer rep how many of the product he or she will move over the next three days, two weeks … whatever the time period. "If you don’t get a take-away, it won’t stick with them. In our world, if they’re working with me one day, that’s great; but two days from now, they’ll be working with my competitor…"
The most successful co-travels are well-planned out, and the manufacturer and distributor rep know their respective roles, says Grobe. Ideally, before the call, the two will have conferred on what products the doctor is currently using, and the distributor rep has notified the doctor beforehand that he or she will have the manufacturer rep with them. If that’s the case, the doctor will presumably be better prepared for the joint visit, and will have set aside a little time to meet with both reps.
Breaking bread
Not all distributor reps see co-travel the same way manufacturers do. "When I first started, I got a lot of phone calls from manufacturers, wanting to get into the car and travel with me," says Smith, who has been calling on dentists for 15 years. "Their expectation was, if they were in your car and getting in front of doctors with you, that’s how they could make the most headway."
But with limited time, and unsure of each manufacturer’s ability and willingness to work closely with him, Smith over the years has opted for a different approach. "There will never be a situation where I won’t set up lunch or dinner and thoroughly learn about a product," he says. "I take notes and even send out newsletters. Sitting down at a meal is a lot better for me. That way, I’m not sitting in a waiting room [with a manufacturer rep], where we both have to be quiet, or where we’re skipping right to the main point because the doctor has mask in hand and two minutes for us."
That’s not to say Smith doesn’t make joint calls with Grobe and other manufacturer reps. In fact, these can be extremely productive, he says. But he seldom travels all day with a manufacturer.
Who can you trust?
Today, it’s not uncommon for manufacturer reps to call directly on the end user even without the distributor rep. But it wasn’t always that way, says Rick Cacciatore, co-owner, Iowa Dental Supply, Grimes, Iowa. Cacciatore has seen both sides. He began his dental career in 1981 as a distributor
sales rep. After several years, he went to the manufacturing side, and spent more than 12 years with Dentsply. He returned as an owner of Iowa Dental in 2001.
In years past, manufacturers fielded far fewer sales reps than they do today, says Cacciatore. And those reps spent much of their day in the distributor’s office and warehouse, making sure shelves were stocked, and meeting with operations people, purchasing agents, receiving people, marketing people, etc. What’s more, they often covered multiple states and called on dozens of distributors (many of which have disappeared due to consolidation). All these duties left them little time to call on dentists.
Today, manufacturers have much larger sales forces, and most of those reps are charged primarily with co-traveling with distributor reps rather than stocking shelves, says Cacciatore. "Fifteen years ago, a manufacturer rep hardly ever made a cold call on a dentist," he says. Today, that’s not the case. "They call it ‘pull-through marketing.’ They’re establishing relationships with doctors on their own."
Such activities may have been threatening to distributors years ago. And they still can be, unless both the manufacturer and distributor follow some basic ground rules. The first such rule is that the manufacturer rep keep in mind that he is a reflection of the distributor rep. "The person who stands out is someone who goes in with a professional attitude," says Smith. "They’re walking into a relationship I’ve nurtured and harvested, so the best thing they can do is treat it with professionalism and to do what they say they’re going to do."
Rule No. 2 is that the manufacturer keep the distributor in the loop. "They immediately fill me in on what happened, so that if there’s something that needs to be done on my end - e.g., pricing or a demo I need to be at - I’m in the loop," says Smith.
When it’s done right, both parties win, adds Cacciatore. Granted, the manufacturer rep can’t make the final sale. "But they get the pleasure of calling the distributor rep and saying, ‘Hey, while you were calling on your customers, I scheduled a lunch-and-learn [with one of your accounts], then I asked the doctor, ‘What distributor would you like me to run [the] product through?’"
Return phone calls!
Trust is the sine qua non of any relationship. And there’s one simple thing that a manufacturer rep can do to build a distributor rep’s trust: Follow-up.
"When I ask distributor reps what they want, 95 percent say ‘follow-up,’" says Hawkins. "‘I want a rep who will take care of problems when I need them to.’" That’s why Hawkins tells his sales reps, beginning from before the time they’re hired, "If you’re not there for that distributor rep, they’ll find someone who is."
"I tell newbies in my company that there are [two] simple things you can do that will keep you busy and successful," says Mondock. "Get up and go to work every day - and return all phone calls."
An effective manufacturer rep lets the distributor rep know what’s transpiring in his accounts at all times, says Cacciatore. "Let’s say the distributor calls the manufacturer rep and says, ‘I have a lead. Please call Dr. Smith and demonstrate your composite material.’" Ideally, the manufacturer rep picks up the voice mail, calls the doctor and schedules an appointment. Then he calls the distributor rep to tell him, and promises to call back after the sales call.
"By doing this, he’s taking care of both sides of the equation," says Cacciatore. "The biggest challenge for the distributor rep is that he has so many details to follow, so many balls in the air. The manufacturer rep has to help control some of them. In this case, if the manufacturer doesn’t call back and say, ‘I got your voice mail and I’ll call the doctor,’ the distributor still feels the ball is in the air and he may have to make a follow-up call. The distributor rep needs follow-up, attention to detail and reliability. That’s the only way the manufacturer will build credibility with him."
In today’s world, with cell phones and BlackBerrys, failure to follow-up is not so much an issue of technology as it is lack of will. "I’m always amazed that some reps don’t return their calls in a timely manner," says Grobe. "That’s kind of our rule of thumb: Get back to whoever called you."
Bringing value
There’s one more lesson that manufacturers and distributors can learn from old married couples: Relationships thrive on mutual respect. Distributor reps must respect the manufacturer’s expertise in product development and marketing. Conversely, manufacturers must respect the vital role the distributor plays in the dental supply chain.
Distributors multiply the manufacturer’s selling efforts, says Berry. After some training and co-travel, the distributor is comfortable presenting the manufacturer’s products to his or her customers. "The more people I have selling for me when I’m not with them, the better off I am as a wholesale rep," he says.
And manufacturers would be wise to consider the distributor’s broader function. "I tell our reps, ‘You’re there to make doctors more productive and profitable, to help them grow their business,’" says Cacciatore. "They … may be talking about how [the dentist] can see more patients or cut some fat from the bone, maybe by ordering products more efficiently. They can do things for the customer that show up on the bottom line of the practice."
Dentists go to dental school to learn dentistry, says Cacciatore. Then they open their practice and are thrust into the role of small-business owner, HR director and payroll clerk. "A good distributor rep will come in and say, ‘Doctor, let me help you run your business.’ But when the doctor asks you, ‘How will you do that?’ you’d better have something for him. It’s one thing talking about it; it’s another thing doing it."
Working side-by-side with the manufacturer can help distributors walk the talk.
Sidebar:
Beware the rookie?
Building trust between partners takes time. That’s why manufacturer and distributor reps are often wary if their counterpart is a rookie. In fact, some people compare the first four years of a distributor rep’s career with the four years of college, beginning with the awkward freshman year, says Rick Cacciatore, co-owner, Iowa Dental Supply. It’s not until he or she is a "senior" that they get the respect of the dentist and, perhaps, the manufacturer’s rep.
Conversely, distributors are wary of new manufacturer reps. If turnover is heavy on the manufacturer’s side, the distributor doesn’t know how long that rep will be in the territory, and therefore, how much time he or she should invest in building a relationship. Nor does the distributor rep know how well-trained the manufacturer rep is. For that reason, the distributor might avoid co-travels with him.
But dodging the rookie rep is a mistake, says Paul Mondock, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Septodont. "Dealer reps believe new [manufacturer] reps are green and not well-trained, so they won’t ride with them for awhile, because they think they’ll be teaching them the business. Maybe 15 years ago that was the case. But in today’s world, it’s not. There are so many new ways to get your reps to be effective immediately. So dealers are missing an opportunity if they’re not working with [new manufacturer reps] out of the gate, because they’re fresh, focused, dedicated."
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