Professional Offices Mean Healthy Profits
Even small accounts can yield big gains for enterprising distributors.
When targeting potential customers, distributors often think in terms of vertical markets, such as insurance, financial services and health-care. Within any vertical market, the biggest plums are presumed to be the larger businesses—corporations, hospitals and the like.
But, don't overlook the smaller operations, such as individual storefront insurance agents, solo practitioners, and small group doctors' and lawyers' offices. Many distributors have profited by pursuing smaller professional office customers.
For instance, when American Solutions for Business distributor Sherry Puckett Novelli, in Bowling Green, Ky., needed an orthodontist's services, she discovered that these specialists could give her steady business, as well. "Orthodontists have a lot of money to spend," Novelli said. "My customer has offices in four towns, and although they're not huge orders, maybe 1,000 to 2,000 promotional pieces, they are very easy and profitable."
Novelli gradually grew her business with the account, beginning with letterhead and adding basic forms, eventually supplying folders, labels, appointment forms and promotional products.
Novelli now provides orthodontists with checks, appointment cards, info sheets, postcard appointment reminders, pocket folders with informational inserts for new patients, and customized coupon payment books. She added, "They are very busy, so they don't price you to death. I'm fair and provide great service, so they've been very loyal."
Promotional products are a good chunk of her business with this account, Novelli said. "They do picnics twice a year for their kids, and they need giveaways when they give talks at schools and participate in other events." Pens, pencils and calendars are standbys, but the offices also order tickets for skating and movie parties that they sponsor, as well as customized giveaways for those events.
"For schools, we have offered a write-on/wipe-off board as a giveaway, and we've also done blue wristbands with their Web site printed on it," Novelli said.
In fact, distributors should get into the habit of looking at what's hip and enticing for kids when pitching promotional products, and even the design of stationery and appointment cards.
Novelli said that she also has regular dentists as customers, but they usually place smaller orders. Dentists may see regular patients twice a year; orthodontists frequently see them twice a month, so distributors should work harder to build a rapport. "I also have attorney clients for letterhead, checks and envelopes," Novelli said. "They're very loyal, but not as fun to sell to."
She advised distributors to look at doctors who steadily sponsor school fundraisers and events with booster ads in programs, signs at high-school football fields and skating rinks. "School students are their target market," she said of orthodontists. "So, any time that the school, band or a team asks for their support, they give it. It's a good potential market for distributors, as well."
Be an Octopus
Tom Tabor, vice president and director of marketing for DSI, Duluth, Ga., said that the best way to do business with medical clinics is what he calls "the octopus approach." Distributors should become more than just providers of printed products, Tabor said. "You've got to wrap your tentacles around them with a lot of different things. When you're able to add filing systems, office consumables, promotional products and cabinets of medical supplies, then it's harder for them to leave you."
DSI has partnered with United Stationers, a company that has recently reorganized its offerings into specific vertical markets, such as medical and legal. "These are high-value items, such as filing systems," Tabor noted, "and they cross-reference items in the catalogs to remind customers to buy everything they need."
A selected choice of specialized promotional products, usually 15 to 20 items, allows the distributor to offer a choice to the client, instead of the client directing the distributor to find a particular item. For example, "Syringe pens and stress squeeze balls are popular items for medical offices," Tabor said. "Try to offer unique promotional items that are really geared to the particular business."
DSI also promotes co-op solutions, such as rewarding patients who come in for a checkup with coupons to local fast-food restaurants. The distributorship has in-house production capability for personalized color postcards. "We provide 6x9˝ personalized postcards to senior citizens as a reminder, for instance, to come in for a flu shot," Tabor said.
Tabor observed that medical offices and clinics often don't get much attention from distributors. "Not a lot of people are beating down the doors trying to sell to them. The perception is that there's not as much volume there," he insisted. "But you can provide everything they need to drive their business."
Because medical offices are very high-stress environments, Tabor said, the fewer vendors they have to deal with, the better. "Your approach should be to ask what their needs are, and add value to the solution or differentiate yourself from competitors."
Automated Ordering
Helping medical offices streamline operations via an Internet-based ordering system is another good strategy for distributors, Tabor said—especially if the customer has multiple locations. "They tend to have high turnover in office personnel, so automated ordering is a good selling point. They don't have to rely on a particular person to know the ordering procedure because anyone can click on the photos to order what's needed."
Jay Myers, an American Solutions for Business distributor based in Orlando, Fla., said that using American's resources to offer Web-based ordering has enabled him to deal with chiropractors across the state. "It's been a godsend. They can access forms, supplies, furniture—it's a one-stop shop, and I don't have to order 5,000 catalogs," he said.
Myers approached the state's chiropractic association with a partner about nine years ago, offering to sell printed products at a discount as a member benefit. "We have a letter written by the CEO stating that we are a preferred member, so when we call on [potential customers], it's not a cold call—it's a warm one," he said.
Myers began with custom stationery and business cards, then added HCFA forms, moving on to office supplies, promotional products and furniture. He is now adding clothing, such as scrubwear and doctors' coats, or embroidered shirts for office staff. "I sell everything—exam paper, vials, labels, chart forms, scratch pads, magnets… and a lot of bent pens—chiropractors love them," he said.
Association Synergy
The Florida State Chiropractic Association has more than 4,000 members, and piggybacking on their member communications means efficient marketing for Myers. He said that only approximately 15 chiropractors are within easy driving distance of him; he has never met most of the customers that he's gotten through the association. "They're mostly one- and two-doctor operations; the biggest maybe has 10 doctors," he said.
To keep in touch, Myers takes a booth at the annual state trade show, and places ads in the association magazine or inserts in the bimonthly information packet. "I print the envelopes and a lot of what goes into the packet itself, so I do business with the association, as well as its members," he said.
Electronic Records
Saving money is one of the main selling points for software offered to doctors' offices by GBS, North Canton, Ohio, according to distributor Ray Esparra. The software, introduced nearly three years ago, offers two modules: one for accounts management and one for clinical practice.
Accounts management functions include managing office receivables by sending statements to patients and billing insurance companies. "It helps to bring efficiencies to managing how the practice is paid," Esparra said.
On the clinical side, the software helps provide better health-care through creating electronic medical records, or EMRs—a hot concept that Esparra noted is strongly supported by the federal government.
The concept is simple: Take the old-fashioned paper patient's chart and computerize it. Once a doctor becomes familiar with using the computerized chart, it should ultimately free up more time for patients, Esparra said. In addition, eliminating hand-written notes reduces transcription costs. "We've had offices that reduced those costs 95 percent or more, and in a group practice, annual transcription costs can be $300,000 to $600,000," Esparra noted. "The benefits are parallel, whether it's a one-person office or a 50-doctor practice," he continued. "Follow-up visits can be shorter, yet still provide quality," he said, noting that the software contains prompts for various aspects of patient care.
Other Benefits
Esparra said that some insurance companies are offering doctors reduced malpractice insurance rates if they implement an EMR system because the software includes checks and balances to establish a standard level of care, as well as providing an easily verifiable record of care.
Because of the automated record keeping, some doctors may benefit from higher insurance reimbursements for care provided, Esparra said. In many cases, he noted, doctors, leery of raising red flags with insurance companies who pay according to "reasonable and customary" service levels, may "undercode" the amount of care a given patient receives. "The software alerts a doctor to correctly code the visit," he explained. The software still allows for customization for each medical office's needs, he said. "Each practice can script how it practices. If doctors still want to use transcriptions, they can be uploaded into the module."
With any software, the sales cycle is lengthier than with less complex products—four to six months, Esparra said. But, EMR is an industry buzzword, so "Demand is high," he noted.
Whether a distributor elects to seek out professional offices with high needs for promotional products, delve deeply into their account, seek the efficiencies of association partnership or sell specialized software, it's obvious that the opportunities are endless in the professional market.
By Janet R. Gross