One rep takes an athlete’s mentality into the arena of veterinary product sales

During his two-year stint with the Detroit Lions in 1974 and 1975, Bruce Arthur got some valuable input from one of his coaches. “He would say, ‘Bruce, make something happen every play. Make it positive.’” It’s advice that he has heeded throughout his life, including his 30 years selling veterinary products with Columbus Serum and then Webster Veterinary Supply.
“Sometimes you find yourself in some really difficult situations,” he continues. “It’s easy to get frustrated, but you have to stay positive and overcome those frustrations with positive energy and positive plays. If you turn the ball over, if you throw an interception or fumble the ball, you have to forget about it and make up for it on the next play.”
So it is with veterinary product sales. “I try to be my best every day,” he says. “I am constantly working to improve and grow my territory, because you either get better or you get worse.”

In the blood
It’s no wonder Arthur sees the world from an athlete’s perspective. His father, Bill Arthur ” who died in March 2008 ” lettered in football, baseball and basketball at Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio (the town where Wilson Sporting Goods makes the NFL’s footballs). He was head basketball coach at Archbold (Ohio) High School from 1954 to 1966, and he coached two undefeated teams and had a career record of 218-60.
“As a coach’s son, I learned a lot about athletic competition at an early age,” says Arthur. “I used to travel on the bus, sit at the end of the bench, be the towel boy. I learned the value of hard work and practice, and what it takes to win. That had tremendous influence on me as I grew older.”
In high school, Arthur started three years at varsity quarterback at Archbold High. (Today, Bill Arthur, Bruce Arthur and Bruce’s brother, Jeff, are all in the Archbold High Hall of Fame.) As he approached graduation in 1969, he considered his options and decided to attend the University of Toledo. He was drawn there in large part by the Rockets’ coach, Frank Lauterbur.
Lauterbur had come to Toledo in 1963 and faced a couple of rough early years. But by 1967, he had turned the program around, and the Rockets finished 9-1 that year. By 1969, the team was poised to make history. In fact, they were about to embark on a 35-game winning streak, the second longest Division I winning streak, the first being Oklahoma’s 47-game streak from 1953 to 1957. That streak extended from Sept. 20, 1969, to Sept. 9, 1972. (Lauterbur left after the 1970 season to become coach at the University of Iowa. He was succeeded by Jack Murphy.) By the time it was over, the Rockets had won three conference titles and three Tangerine Bowls, now called the Capital One Bowl. (The 1970 Tangerine Bowl victory came at the expense of William & Mary College, whose head coach was future Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz.)

Following in Ealey’s footsteps
A huge contributor to the Rockets’ success in those years was quarterback Chuck Ealey, who started for the team in the 1969, 1970 and 1971 seasons. He was an All-American and a Heisman Trophy finalist in 1971. “Many of us consider him to be the greatest football player of all time,” says Arthur. Ealey didn’t get a chance to quarterback in the NFL, largely because he was black, and blacks weren’t considered pro quarterback material at the time. But he did go on to have a successful career in the Canadian Football League.
There were other successful components of those championship teams, however. For example, Curtis Johnson, who played wide corner, was a 4th round draft pick by the Miami Dolphins in the 1970 NFL draft. And in 1971, Toledo’s defense was ranked No. 1 in the country, led in part by Mel Long, a Vietnam vet who was named Mid-American Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 1971. (Long was an 11th-round draft pick in 1972 by the Cleveland Browns.)
Arthur stepped into the starting quarterback role in his senior year, 1972, following Ealey’s departure. And he played well, starting 10 games and leading the Mid-American Conference in passing yards. A newspaper account of a 35-21 Toledo victory over Miami of Ohio described his performance this way: “Senior quarterback Bruce Arthur stepped out of Chuck Ealey’s shadow to riddle Miami’s defense with passes. Thirty-one times he threw, and 20 times he connected, amassing 332 yards ” the second greatest passing exhibition in [Toledo] history, bettered only by the 381 yards Ealey totaled in the 1971 Homecoming game against Western Michigan.”
“Playing college football is a huge commitment,” says Arthur. “There are daily practices, meetings, film study, scouting reports. And you have to go to school too!” In 1969, Arthur and about 30 other freshmen reported to football camp. By their senior year, only eight of them remained on the team. “We all shared a passion for the game,” he says. “Football is a very emotional game, as well as physical and violent. You have to be physically and mentally tough to play it.”
Being quarterback brought its own challenges and learning opportunities. “As a quarterback, you have to be the leader on the field,” he says. “You have to know and understand the game plan each week. Then on game day, you have to make adjustments. All of these decisions are made very quickly and under pressure. You have three or four seconds to find who you need to find. You have to know what the play is, the down and distance, and what the defense is doing.
“In a game, you might get 60 plays, but only four or five big plays can be the difference in winning. So there’s a fine line between winning and losing. My college experience was beyond expectations.”

Detroit Lions call
After he graduated, Arthur thought his football career was over. But an NFL players strike before the start of the 1974 season changed that. “I got a call from the Detroit Lions asking if I would come up and play quarterback for them in the preseason.” Needless to say, he did. He started four preseason games for the Lions, including one game against the Oakland Raiders, whose free safety at the time was Jack “The Assassin” Tatum. Arthur ended up staying with the team for the 1974 and 1975 seasons, but didn’t see any playing time. Instead, he practiced and traveled with the team.
He left the Lions with a goal ” to become a Division I college football coach. He went back to Toledo, where he coached receivers and quarterbacks for two years. But he learned that he enjoyed playing the game of football more than coaching it. He saw firsthand the hard work that college coaching involves. “They put in tremendous hours, seven days a week, from August through December,” he says. “Then they recruit in January and February. And besides the meetings and practices, they study film. It takes a special family to have a man involved with college coaching.”

A career in veterinary sales
After two years of coaching, Arthur decided to pursue a career in sales. He met Bob and Bruce Peterson of Columbus Serum. For the next 21 and a half years, he was a distributor sales rep in Northwest Ohio. Then in 2000, he and his family packed up and moved to Florida, where Arthur began a career with Webster (which, ironically, acquired Columbus Serum in 2008). He figures that over the past 30 years, he’s driven over a million and half miles and sold around $100 million of veterinary products and equipment.
Those past 30 years have proven to be interesting, challenging and fulfilling, he says. “I totally enjoy this industry. Veterinarians are very intelligent and successful. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
Like all reps, he has had to adjust to challenges in the industry. For one thing, the products and equipment that reps sell today are more sophisticated and complicated than they were 20 or 30 years ago. And the personal technology available to today’s reps ” including cell phones and the Internet ” have changed the sales rep’s life as well.
But through it all, he has continued to learn. And many of the lessons he applies to his sales job are the same he learned on the football field.

Lessons learned in athletics … and sales
The first lesson is that, just as a football team must have a strong infrastructure ” coaches, players, boosters and alumni organizations ” so too must the successful sales rep.
The second is that distributor reps ” just like professional athletes ” have no guarantees for tomorrow. “You have to make the most of today,” he says. Distributors must sell what’s on their shelves today, just as football players must work with the team and coaching staff that’s on the field today. “You can’t worry about tomorrow.”
The third is that competition is fiercer today than ever before. “Years ago, if you worked hard and made your calls, you were successful,” he says. But today, with competition from other distributors, the Internet and other sources of products, distributors face “all kinds of competition everywhere. So you have to work harder, make more sales calls and better sales calls. Just like an athlete, you have to improve every day. And you have to work harder to earn the business.”
The fourth is the necessity of having a game plan ” and of being ready to ditch it when necessary. “You have to be organized,” says Arthur. “With all the lines we handle and the different products we carry, you have to have a game plan. You can’t wake up anymore and say, ‘I wonder what I’m going to do today.’”
At the same time, the sales rep has to be prepared to make on-the-spot adjustments, just as a quarterback must, he adds. The quarterback may call a certain play in the huddle, but when he walks to the line of scrimmage, he may ” depending on how the defense is lining up ” call for another play.
The fifth lesson? Communication. Just as the quarterback makes decisions in concert with his coaches, so too must the sales rep stay in constant contact with his managers and his customers. “You can’t assume [your veterinarian customers] will continue to buy from you, with all the competition out there,” he says. “I think you need to ask them for the order after a good detail. Then you have to thank them, and never take their business for granted.”
Finally, the successful rep, like the successful athlete, must have the desire to succeed. “Desire is what motivates players to work hard. The goal is to win a championship and get a ring. That’s what everybody wants.
“You better never get satisfied, because that’s when you’re done ” as a rep and an athlete. I made 10 sales calls yesterday, and I’m 58 years old. Is it easy? No. But you do it because you have to do it.”

Gratitude
A key to Arthur’s life is an attitude of gratitude. “I’ve been very blessed,” he says. “I have a great family. I’ve worked for two excellent companies. I’ve achieved a lot of things that have even surprised me. I have a lot of wonderful friends in the business. It’s been a really nice lifestyle.”
He’s grateful for his family, as well ” his wife, Wendy, and grown daughters Allison, a dermatologist; and Ashley, an independent businesswoman. What’s more, he and Wendy have two mixed-breed dogs, Chloe and Emmy; and a black cat, Willy. His girls have inherited his love of football. Allison, for example, has a dog named Tebow (after University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow). And Ashley “knows football inside and out.”
“I’m thankful for my athletic background,” he says. “I think it helped prepare me for my life. It’s amazing the hard work, the teamwork the communication, the desire.
“You don’t have to be an athlete to be successful today in sales or business, but you sure understand there are a lot of similarities.”

1. Liz Voelpel Says:
   January 26th, 2010 at 8:14 pm

   Bruce has been a rep for the animal hospital I worked at for many years. He is a true and genuine individual with so much compassion that I am proud to call him a friend.