DSR Radio Podcast 4-2-08 - Comes Down to the Rep

DSR Radio’s Dave Miesse and Steve Dahl chat with Caroline Kile of Marion General Hospital in Marion, Ohio about how a sales rep can make or break a relationship between a distributor and customer.  Caroline has had to ask for a different rep to replace a bad one and she has also stayed with a company because of a good one.  “When it comes right down to it, it is all about service,” Caroline explains in the interview.  In most cases, the reason a customer buys from a particular distributor ultimately boils down to the rep.    And for a rep to properly service Caroline and other hospital operators, they need to think about what kind of value they can add to the account and realize that hospitals buy more than just low-sodium soup.  Caroline tells us that patient meals used to be only 20% of her business and are now still only up to 37%.  And her particular facility did 60,000 special function meals last year.  Hospitals usually have an extensive spectrum of products they are purchasing because of the variety of customers they serve through all their different outlets.  From Jello to t-bones to PB&J, a sales rep has to realize a hospital can be a very complex customer but a very lucrative one too.