Distributor reps must earn their veterinarian customers’ respect. It’s how they do it that counts
By Laura Thill

Your veterinary customers are watching you and, for the most part, they like what they see. They depend on you and trust you, but that’s because you’ve worked hard to earn their respect. “I have a great rapport with my sales reps,” says Richard Oglesby, DVM, and owner of Florida-based Greenbriar Animal Hospital. He depends on his reps not only to educate him about new products and equipment, but also to show him “which products can provide the best quality, the best patient care and the most profitability,” he says.

Important to our practice
Of course, price counts. But, Oglesby is often willing to spend a bit more in order to “maintain those good relations.” He supports his reps, and they generally support local continuing education groups, he explains. “We belong to a purchasing group,” he says. “So, first a distributor must work off of a contract with that group. “[After that], the rep must provide me with the great service I need.” Face-to-face meetings work best, Oglesby adds. “This lets me know my reps care about my business, much more so than shooting me an e-mail,” he points out.
In Conyers, Ga., Leslie Lathem, DVM, Honey Creek Veterinary Hospital, says she feels very much the same way. “We believe our sales reps – and the information they have to offer – are very important to our practice,” she says. “We tend to get very busy and sometimes have little time, but if our reps can wait a few minutes, we do like to talk with them. We feel they are very important in helping us provide value to our patients and clients.” She, too, prefers face-to-face contact with her reps. “We prefer talking to our reps and giving them our orders when they come in,” she says. “We use the phone, but don’t do much online ordering. We tend to see and talk to the same reps every time. They know us, and we know them.” They know the clinic’s needs and what solutions will meet those needs, Lathem adds. She and her colleagues work with three to five sales reps on a regular basis. “I don’t think you can find one rep to serve all of your needs,” she says. “We work with reps who we’ve known for a long time – the reps who call on our practice frequently and have proven to be reliable.”

Know your point of contact
At Central Animal Hospital, Savannah, Ga., owner Alex Hill, DVM, agrees that “face-to-face is good.” Still, reps routinely meet with staff, not with him. “For me, I know my reps’ faces, but not always their names,” he says. Indeed, every office works differently, and in some cases a designated staff member oversees the ordering and purchasing of products. “As a practice owner and practicing veterinarian, I don’t have a lot of time to speak with sales reps unless they make a special appointment,” he says. And even then, he prefers they work with his designated staff person. “So, it’s important that sales reps respect everyone in the practice, because often another person deals with this,” he adds. At the same time, it’s important for reps to call ahead, he adds. “Our practice is very busy, and our biggest issue is when sales reps show up unannounced. Our reps know not to do that to our [ordering person].
“My time is focused on running and managing my practice,” Hill continues. In fact, before acquiring his practice, he worked in several others and none of the owners or veterinarians worked directly with the sales reps, he notes. Today, whether his practice needs a new box of gloves or a large piece of equipment, he depends on his staff person to act as the go-between with sales reps. “I’m interested in a new blood analyzer and I’ve talked with my [staff person], who will help me narrow down my search,” he says. Literature is very helpful, he points out. His designated staff person passes it along. Then, Hill can review it and arrange a meeting with a rep. Hill’s clinic works with about four core distributor reps.
Foremost, Hill tries to honor a lease agreement he has with one rep’s company. But, he’s not adverse to price shopping, he says. “One of the biggest values our reps can offer is to keep us informed about good prices and specials,” he says. “Keeping our costs as low as possible is [one of] the biggest things for us.”

Going the distance
You can give your customers what they expect. Or, you can go the extra distance and provide that value-added service. For veterinarians, it’s that value-added service that separates one sales rep from the next. “I trust my reps and try to [work with] them, and they bend over backwards to help when there is a problem,” says Oglesby, noting that different reps provide different information and answers. But in the end it’s up to him to determine which solutions sound best. “I rely on my reps quite a bit to educate me about new products. Sometimes, I don’t even realize a new product is available [until the rep informs me]. Still, I look for a second opinion from another rep or veterinarian.” Indeed, he welcomes referrals to other veterinarians who have had success with a certain product or technology. “My reps are pretty good about giving out other veterinarians’ names,” he says.
For Lathem, referrals to other veterinarians are important. So is education and in-services. But, she needs to know her reps are giving her their all. “Timely service and delivery and reliable products are a minimum for us,” says Lathem. “If we don’t get this, we won’t work with that distributor. “We are looking for data, literature and educational seminars for our staff,” she continues. “We depend on our reps for education about new products and equipment. We love those who bring in vendors and professionals who can teach us how to utilize the products and equipment. And, we love reps who provide literature we can pass along to our clients.”
Attending trade shows is not high on their list of priorities, she adds. “We prefer dealing with reps who come into our office.” At the same time, she appreciates when distributor reps put her and her colleagues in touch with manufacturers who are willing to fly them out to educational meetings. “One of our technicians recently was flown out to a meeting,” she says. “Our doctors have had this experience, but this is a first for one of our technicians. It’s a great opportunity. She’ll come back and present what she’s learned to the rest of us.”
For Hill, value-added service means that his reps follow up with ongoing support after installing a new piece of equipment. “The support makes a big difference,” he says, adding that he appreciates when distributor and manufacturer reps follow up with a review on the upkeep and use of the equipment.

The power of experience
Professional appearance and attitude count in sales reps, but it’s their knowledge and experience that will sway a veterinarian to work with them, according to Lathem. “Distributors should hire veterinary technicians, who know the equipment,” she says, noting that she and her colleagues work with seasoned reps when they can. If distributors train their new reps by having them observe and spend time in a veterinary office, that increases their credibility as experts, she explains.
Oglesby agrees. “Reps that have had experience as technicians can share their past experience,” he says. They know what solutions did and did not work at their old practice, he adds.
So, in a nutshell, what makes a sales rep a winner in the eyes of the veterinarian? Frequent contact, says Oglesby. Don’t be shy about reaching out to your customers. At the same time, don’t drop in unexpectedly. “If there was one thing I could change about my reps, it would be to have all of them make appointments,” he says. “That way, we could put them on the calendar. Even if they said they would be here every third Thursday, that would help.”
In addition, reps should keep their presentations brief, he continues. “Do they have a new product or deal to tell us about? Give it to me in five minutes or less,” he says. And finally, they should always focus on educating the veterinarians, be it in the form of discussion about new products, literature or handouts for clients. “I’ve come to depend on my reps for this,” he says.
Lathem knows exactly what she would not change about her reps. “I like that they know our entire staff by name,” she says. “I like that they greet everyone when they come in the door and that they graciously step aside and let us do our job when they see we’re too busy to talk.” And, immediate service, while expected, makes a difference, she adds. “We work with one rep who, when we need a product, often has it to our office that same afternoon.”
That said, availability counts. “We value reps’ availability on the phone when we have ordering issues, when we need something quickly or when an item is out of stock,” says Hill.
But, no matter how many brownie points you score with your veterinarian customers, overstepping your bounds may cost you an account. “We don’t want a rep who doesn’t know when to back off,” says Lathem. “We won’t tolerate a rep who won’t take ‘No’ for an answer!”