Change of Plans
When Dwight Boysen, DVM, developed an allergy to swine, he faced a career altering decision

Dwight Boysen is a man who meets life’s challenges with relative equanimity. And when change isn’t thrust upon him, he seeks it out. Maybe those are skills you pick up being raised on a farm in western Iowa. So in 1989, when he realized he couldn’t continue practicing veterinary medicine due to a worsening swine allergy, he decided to do something different. “Although I had never known any veterinarian who became a distributor representative, I thought, ‘Why not?’” he says. Today Boysen calls on mixed-animal vets in Nebraska for Omaha-based PVP.

Boysen was born in 1946 on a farm in western Iowa, between Elkhorn and Harlan. (His wife, Teresa, was raised nearby, in Audubon.) His folks worked a 150-acre farm. “It was a small farm, but dad was able to scratch out a living for four kids and his wife.” The family milked cows, fed some fat cattle, and raised swine and chickens.
Dwight and his older brother Byron decided early on that they wanted to be farm veterinarians, like the vet who came out to the Boysen farm. So Byron went to Iowa State University to study veterinary medicine. Dwight followed three years later. (Byron is a board-certified pathologist who worked for Ayerst Laboratories in Upstate New York; he retired this spring.)

The good life for cows
Following his graduation from Iowa State in 1971, Boysen joined a dairy practice about 35 miles southwest of Green Bay, Wis. “It was a great practice; I loved it,” he says. That was true despite – or maybe because of – the fact that he was out on the farms all day and some of the night too. “I loved the country up there.” And he loved Wisconsin dairy farming. “It was great to see how well they took care of their cattle,” he says. Even though it might be 20 degrees below zero outside, those cows were comfortable in their 50-degree barns standing in two feet of dry straw, he recalls.
After being in Wisconsin for a year, Boysen was offered an opportunity to buy into the practice. “But I penciled it out and I didn’t think I could afford it,” he says. So he went back to Iowa, where he and a colleague bought a practice in Audubon. It was a mixed practice, mostly feedlot swine and cattle, with a little dairy. And it was full of opportunity. “We were the only two veterinarians in the county,” he recalls. The two hired another vet a year later, and by the time Boysen left 10 years later, the practice had four veterinarians and was seeking a fifth. (Today, 14 veterinarians practice there.)
After 10 years in Audubon, Boysen made another critical life choice. “I had always wanted to practice alone, and I decided if I didn’t find a practice on my own then, it wouldn’t happen.” So he gave his six months’ notice and began looking. “I looked all over Iowa and a lot of Missouri, and part of Kansas too, but I didn’t find anything,” he says. What was missing was what Boysen considered the perfect community in which he and Teresa could settle down. Not having found it, he took what he figured would be a temporary position in a 50-percent equine practice in Ada, Okla. While he enjoyed the practice, he didn’t like the weather – too warm. So he continued to look for the perfect place.

At home in Howells
“My wife and I took a couple of drives around, and we found Howells [Nebraska],” he says. “Just driving into Howells, we knew it was where we wanted to live – livestock all over, clean and well-kept, and you could tell the people in town cared about their community and their families.” They followed their gut instinct and, in 1982, came to Howells, population 640. “We were right in that decision,” he says.
Howells presented plenty of professional opportunity as well as a great place to live. There had never been a veterinarian in the community, “but you could tell there were enough livestock to support one,” says Boysen. An older vet lived six miles to the west, and another six miles to the east. But both were getting up in years and looking toward retirement. “We purchased a building and I hung out a shingle.”
Boysen enjoyed the work, his practice, the animals and his clients, but gradually, he encountered a difficulty. “By about 1986, when I had been just four years in town, I could tell that whenever I got close to hogs, I got sick.” It reached the point where he and Teresa had to sit down and seriously consider their options. “I was 43 at the time, and I thought that if I had to change directions in my career, this might be the time to do it,” he says.” But the ramifications of leaving veterinary medicine were huge, both for Boysen and his wife.
The couple considered moving to western Nebraska, so he could start a practice focused on cattle and horses. But they were looking forward to starting a family, and they knew Howells was the place they wanted to raise kids. Another option was to pursue a position with a pharmaceutical company. But the chances of staying in Howells were slim.
It so happened that the DVM Supply (now Walco International) rep calling on Boysen had been asked to take over the South Dakota territory, meaning that an opening existed in Nebraska. Boysen grabbed it. That was 1989. He’s been selling ever since.

From practice to sales
“There were advantages and disadvantages to doing something different,” he says. “I no longer had to get up in the middle of the night and pull pigs or calves. But as far as hours, as a salesman, I worked just as many – or more – than I had before, though I had more control of those hours.”
In some ways, the transition wasn’t as dramatic as one might think. “When you think about it, as a veterinarian, you’re seeking to satisfy the needs of an animal and an owner. Basically, as a salesman, you’re wanting to do the same thing. And as a veterinarian, you’re really a salesperson; you have to sell yourself to be successful; you have to gain trust and loyalty.”
That said, the transition had its challenges. “One thing I really enjoyed in practice was a diagnostic dilemma,” he says. As a salesman, no longer could he become engaged in his customers’ discussions about their own diagnostic dilemmas. “The first thing I had to learn was to back off, keep my mouth shut and listen,” he says. “I was no longer in practice. I was there to serve the veterinarian, so that’s where I had to put my attention – on the veterinarian and the veterinarian’s practice.”

Jeffrey Gitomer disciple
Not having been raised in a sales environment, Boysen had to learn how to channel his personal strengths into his new role. He did some reading. Among his favorite books is Jeffrey Gitomer’s “Little Red Book of Selling.” “I think it is his style I have adopted more than any others,” he says. “You learn to build a rapport with your clients and build respect for them; you want them to respect you. There are times when you need [the hard sell], because the next guy coming in the door will get it if you don’t. But what I found is that I was more likely to get the sale if I seemed to be less concerned about it, and not concerned about the next guy.
“Jeffrey Gitomer says, make your clients your friends, don’t be afraid to be funny, serve your client,” he continues. “Whatever it takes to satisfy your client’s needs, you take that extra step to do it.”
It’s true that with bigger instrument sales – in which Boysen is finding himself more involved as of late – a strong close is vital. And he feels compelled to bring to his clients’ attention new technologies that might truly benefit their practices. “If you have done your research, and you know this is something the veterinarian needs – and he knows it too – you need to strive for the close,” he says. That said, he always tries to let his clients draw their own conclusions as to whether or not they need a particular product.
Today, Boysen travels throughout Nebraska for PVP, calling primarily on veterinarians in mixed-animal practices. He maintains his DVM through continuing education. It’s definitely an advantage in the market, sometimes in unexpected ways. Last fall, for example, he stood in for one of his customers who had been called away from his practice for a week. At press time, he and Teresa were preparing to move to the Black Hills in South Dakota, where they have 20 acres. They love the area, and decided years ago to move there as soon as their son graduated from high school. That time has come.
He still enjoys being on the road, though some things about the industry worry him. For example, he worries that pet insurance will ultimately run up the cost of veterinary care, as health insurance has done on the medical side. He’s also noticed that food animal veterinarians are harder to find these days. Livestock management programs have adjusted, and managers are being trained to take on more of the duties that their vets used to.
“Livestock managers are much more knowledgeable than they were 20 or 30 years ago. I think the veterinarian still has just as much to offer them, maybe more; but it’s less his physical labor and more his knowledge.”
Boysen also expects veterinarians to take a larger role in animal welfare. “I think the public and the government are looking for overseers, regulators; I can see veterinarians become that overseer on matters of food animal medicine and animal welfare.”