Dr. Stewart’s staff working with a vendor rep to get trained on a new medical eyecare product. Dr. Stewart says that vendor reps are essential business partners. One of the most important things they can do for you is help you train staff.
By Jennifer L. Stewart, OD
Feb. 15, 2023
Your vendor reps are essential partners in helping you build your practice. They ensure that you and your team have the tools you need to serve patients, provide a high level of care and continue to grow your business.
Here are several ways I learned over the years to optimize my relationship with reps to set my practice up for success.
View Them As Business Partners
I paid close attention to my relationship with all vendor reps who served my practice, including those providing frames, ophthalmic lenses, contact lenses, medical equipment and those from pharmaceutical companies, who provided the medication many of my patients relied on to make their lives more comfortable, and, in some cases, to preserve their vision.
With such important functions, I viewed my vendor reps as business partners, and treated them as such. I let them know that I saw them as essential to the care I provided to my patients and my ability to grow my practice.
I let them know I was counting on them to keep me updated about industry trends, help me manage my business and make recommendations that would support my patients, and, ultimately, my business.
I didn’t think of my reps as a product salespeople, but as business partners and consultants who were focused on helping me be more successful and grow my business. I was extremely respectful of them and their time (as they were of mine). They helped me stay tied to my local community in sales trends and news, and were a lifeline to knowing what was going on in our field.
Meet with Reps In-Person At Least Once in a While
I tried my best to meet with reps in-person. I would set aside a window of time at lunch to sit down with them and go over new products, industry trends and local news. We also reviewed my practice and goals and looked at our progress selling, or using, their products or services in our office.
Many of my reps would also text me if they were nearby to see if I needed anything. I tried to take them up on the offer to meet in-person whenever they were nearby because there is a quality of interaction you get in-person that can’t be replicated online or over the phone. If they come to your office, for instance, you can show them how their products are on display in your optical, or, in the case of medical equipment, they can check on how the instrument is functioning.
If they visit during a day when you are seeing patients, they also can get a feel for the demographics of your patients and the culture of your practice, which can help them give you more on-target recommendations for new products and services.
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I let my reps know how I like to communicate and meet best, and I found that this helps immensely. It can be hard to meet with reps during the day when busy with patients, so I asked them to schedule a lunch meeting ahead of time, so I had dedicated time with them. Being open and upfront with the communication you want and like is essential. They want to help us be more successful, so I always made sure to give dedicated time to them.
Setting up expectations and goals early in the relationship will definitely help it be mutually beneficial.
Enlist Them to Help You Meet Practice Goals
I worked closely with my contact lens reps to track, manage and grow my business. My CooperVision and Alcon reps both knew we were a daily disposable practice, heavily focused on toric lenses and multifocal lenses. When a new daily disposable lens came to market, we determined what patient it would serve, and how to transition current wearers into that lens.
We carefully tracked the metrics to make sure that we were seeing growth in the new lens (and know that it is OK to see decline in another!) The goal was to get patients in the healthiest, best lens and continue to wow them with comfort and vision. Both of these contact lens reps knew my practice philosophy and kept me updated about how we were doing.
If they noticed I was slightly down in multifocal sales, they reminded me to make sure I was offering all presbyopic patients multifocal contact lenses as an option. They also reminded me when it looked like I wasn’t doing as good a job as I should educating astimagatic patients about toric lenses. We all are busy in the exam room, and sometimes fall into habits- they kept me reminded to stay on top of everything!
Ask Reps to Help You Train Your Staff
Lunch-and-learns are a great way to share the expertise of your reps with staff. For example, we had a great lunch and learn with our Tyrvaya (Oyster Point) rep. I first met with him, along with my associate, to learn more about the product, which patients would benefit, how to prescribe it and how to use it.
With a unique delivery system, via the nasal passage, I anticipated that patients would be calling the office with questions about how to use it. I wanted my entire staff to be able to answer any question they had (we had 10 full-time team members), so I set up a second lunch and learn during which the rep took them aside in small groups to explain more about dry eye, the product and give them detailed training and instruction on how to use it, and how to answer patient questions.
After this training, I knew that if there were ever a question about use of this product, any team member in our office would be able to assist that patient without having to come find me or have the patient wait for an answer.
We did something similar with our ophthalmic lab partner. Once a year, we met with a consultant from our lens vendor to review our utilization of lenses, price points, insurance billing and ideas for improved service to patients and profitability. Not only did we learn about the products available, we learned ways to be more successful in using lenses with managed-care plans, and ensured we were billing and pricing correctly and appropriately.
They were always there to help us do right by both our patients and our practice!
Jennifer Stewart, OD, provides advisory services and consulting to the optometric community through her company, OD Perspectives. She is also the co-founder and Chief Vision Officer of Performance 20/20, a sports and performance training center. In addition, Dr. Stewart was recently named professional editor of Independent Strong. She can be reached at jennifer.stewart@odperspectives.com.
