Bowling Green

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

Doors open wide for independent distributors probing this industry. To say that there have been a few changes within the independent channel in relation to the health-care industry would be a bit of an understatement. It is now well-known that in October of last year, American Solutions for Business, Glenwood, Minn., and International Business Solutions Alliance (IBSA), Bowling Green, Ky., pulled off a major coup by snagging Novation—the largest-volume group purchasing organization (GPO) in the health-care field. (Novation formerly contracted with major direct Moore Wallace, owned by RR Donnelley, Chicago, Ill.) This spells opportunity for manufacturers and independents affiliated with American Solutions for