Excellence In Sales Award 2009

Edition: October 2009 - Vol 17 Number 10
Article#: 3284
Author: Repertoire

Excellence in Sales Award: Distributor

Rich Bilz: Stretch

For Rich Bilz, selling is a stretch for himself, his manufacturer partners and his customers

It is said that when Rich Bilz sells something even as small as a paper towel holder, he’s there with a screwdriver to install it.

It’s true that Bilz, field sales consultant for Henry Schein Medical in Atlanta, knows a thing or two about remodeling projects, having flipped a couple of homes and rental properties in his day, a skill he learned working alongside his dad when he was a kid. But that’s to miss the point. “Rich goes the extra mile for his customers,” says Joe Clark, regional sales manager for Henry Schein. “He is very much customer-centric, if that’s a word,” adds Faith McKinney, RN, a Midmark Diagnostics rep. “He’s very consultative, instead of just selling the easiest thing and moving to the next person.”

In short, Rich Bilz cares about his customers, as well as his distributor and manufacturer colleagues, and for his work in the field, he was awarded the Repertoire/HIDA Excellence in Sales Award for a distributor rep.

Born and raised in Rockville, Md., Bilz was a versatile athlete at Woodward High School. He attended the University of Maryland, graduating in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in business management and a minor in transportation (his father’s specialty).

Copier salesman

Bilz learned sales the hard way – as a copier salesman for 3M. “Selling copiers really opened my eyes to sales, and what it was like to get up and create new sales every day,” he says. He was calling on virtually anybody who had a business and who had a need to make copies – from gas stations and repair shops to multinational corporations. “If it was anyone in my territory who had a business or could make a copy, I would call on them.”

In fact, the experience showed him the amount of contacts necessary to be successful in sales. His rule of thumb: 20 contacts equaled one sale. “The cold calling mentality was etched into you,” he says. “You had to get out there and turn over every stone. That stayed with me for years.”

But selling copiers was “a non-relationship-forming business,” he says. “If they absolutely love you, they’ll see you in five years – if they remember you.” So, after about nine months, he went to work for Medline Industries, calling primarily on directors of laundry and housekeeping in hospitals. Selling consignment linens was different than selling copiers because he was able to form relationships with decision-makers. But it was a new territory for Medline, so he had to start from scratch. That meant more cold calls – something for which he was well prepared. Overall, it was a good experience. In fact, he took the territory from zero dollars to a million dollars in one year.

To Atlanta

Twelve months after joining Medline, his brother-in-law, who was in management and sales for a medical distributor in Atlanta called Atlanta Medical Supply, convinced him to come south to join him. He began working his territory in that city in January 1989. He hasn’t left since. (Atlanta Medical subsequently went out of business. Bilz took a job with Roane-Barker, which was acquired by Henry Schein in 1997.) In fact, he still calls on some of the doctors he called on 20 years ago.

It didn’t take Bilz long to figure out that selling to doctors was much different than selling either to gas stations or hospitals. For one thing, the sales cycle was much shorter, particularly when compared to the hospital sales cycle, which typically involved multiple decision-makers, committees and chains of command. “I didn’t have to chase down three or four departments, then go through the committee and work out pricing,” he says.

Sales then and now

Reflecting on his first years in the business, he is struck with some big differences between selling then and selling now. “It amazes me, the numbers that reps put up today, and what we were doing back then. We thought we were working really, really hard. We didn’t realize we weren’t working as hard as we thought!” But it was hard enough, and Bilz built his territory.

Another thing that strikes him about today’s medical sales process is the degree to which successful sales reps rely on their manufacturer partners. And there’s good reason for that. “The products are so much more technologically advanced today,” he says. “Back then, we weren’t selling bone density, digital X-ray, ultrasound, digital EKG/Holter/stress.” Indeed, for sophisticated technologies, the manufacturer is the product expert, he says. The distributor rep’s job is to know what the customer needs and, together with the manufacturer, figure out how a technology will fit into the practice. From all accounts, Bilz has mastered the art.

Working with manufacturers

“Most manufacturers figure they have a sale when Rich lines them up to call on one of his customers,” says Clark. At the same time, “Rich follows up when he gets a lead from a manufacturer or when there is an opportunity for a sale,” he says. “He understands when there is a sense of urgency to get a deal done.”

Bilz describes the procedure from his perspective. “I’ll go in and either create or find the need, and kind of pre-sell the customer on it. I won’t necessarily try to close that day, but instead, make them feel comfortable with it. Then I’ll say, ‘Let me bring in the expert to answer your questions.’ By the time the manufacturer gets there, I’ve gone over many of the things [with the account], except maybe the technical aspects of the product.” Except for very sophisticated equipment, such as chemistry analyzers, he will have reviewed the product’s potential return-on-investment, how the product might be integrated into the office’s workflow, the kind of employees who will be needed to operate it, and the price. “When the manufacturer gets there, he helps them feel at ease with [the product], and gives the customer a chance to kick the tires. When I line them up, it means we’re close to making the sale.”

“He sets the expectations,” says McKinney, who first started working with Bilz about five years ago. “He’s very good at painting the picture of what we’re up against or not up against, or what the solution is and what his needs are. He gives me a lot of freedom about where to move and in what direction. He sets the expectation of what the lead is, then we work very well together.”

Taking customers one step beyond

Bilz is extremely EMR-savvy and knows his customers’ EMR strategies, she adds. It is part of his strategy of staying one step ahead of his customers and anticipating their needs. “He doesn’t just go in to make a sale,” she says. “If someone says, ‘I need an EKG and spirometer,’ he takes it to the next step and tries to educate them on the changes in technology.” He stretches himself and nudges his customers in the same direction. “He’ll say, ‘I can sell you a box EKG, but I really want you to see the PC-based system, because I know you have an EMR coming and this is the right direction for you to move,’” says McKinney. “He recognizes what the customer needs and helps them find the best solution.

“At Midmark, we call it the ‘I got it’ moment,” she says. “Rich truly gets it.” What’s more, his approach demonstrates what his customers know: “He’s very caring,” she says. “People love seeing him.”

Says Clark, “I asked one of his good customers why he does business with Rich. His reply was that Rich always takes care of them. He brings in new ideas for revenue-generation along with finding ways to give them options on saving money on supplies …. He goes the extra mile for his customers.”

Lessons learned

When asked what advice he would offer young sales reps, Bilz – who serves on Henry Schein’s Physician Advisory Board – talks about the need for persistence, the need to resist taking things personally, and the need to stay focused on those things that constitute one’s bread and butter.

You can’t treat every account the same, he says. It stands to reason that bigger spenders deserve more attention. But the rep has a balancing act to maintain. “I tell [new reps] that you’ve got to treat every account and every phone call as if it is 100 percent important to the person making the call,” he says. “If someone calls to tell you their table paper is the wrong texture, you’d better call them back and get it straight, because if you don’t, they won’t call you at all next time. Even if it’s a $20 sale, you have to treat it like it’s a thousand-dollar sale. If you’ve got the repeat business but you can’t help them out [with a problem], they won’t call you for the more expensive purchases. So treat that toilet paper that was the wrong ply as if it were a chemistry analyzer.

“Guys who have failed are the ones who didn’t stay focused on what was true customer service,” he says. “It may not be a priority for you, but it might be a priority for your customer.”

Bilz, who lives in Loganville, a suburb of Atlanta, has two children: Jessica, a high school senior; and Chris, a 9th-grader.

Excellence In Sales Award: Distributor Runner-up

John Schmertzler: Sales Guide

John Schmertzler considers himself a guide, working with manufacturers and the medical community to promote high-quality service and patient care

A camp counselor is a guide, a coach, a motivator, a teacher. He uses experience, resolve and leadership skills to help his young charges navigate thickets and ford streams. He offers them tools they can draw on to succeed even when he is not with them. John Schmertzler was a YMCA summer camp counselor years ago, and he’s still a camp counselor at heart. But now, his charges are physician office staff, many of whom are struggling to keep up with economic, technological and regulatory changes. Schmertzler, an ambulatory care rep for Cardinal Health in New Hampshire and eastern Massachusetts, was named Runner-up for the Repertoire/HIDA Excellence in Sales Award for a distributor.

A higher calling

Schmertzler, who grew up in western Massachusetts, became interested in sales while doing an internship in a trout hatchery near Amherst, Mass. At the time, he was studying to be a fisheries/marine biologist at the University of Massachusetts. “It was my senior year, and I was working in the lab doing water testing, mortality ratios, learning how to run the fish farm,” he says. One day, the owner of the hatchery asked him to man a booth at a big food and restaurant show in Boston. At the show, Schmertzler helped pick up a handful of new accounts – restaurants and food stores. “The next day, [the owner] said to me, ‘I think you may have a higher calling to do something different,’” recalls Schmertzler. “That’s the last day I worked in the lab.” He had found sales.

After getting his degree, Schmertzler moved to Vermont to pursue his dream of joining the U.S. Ski Team. It didn’t work out, but he did stay on, teaching ski lessons and selling equipment at the mountain ski shop. He was also a fishing guide. “Then one morning I turned 25, and decided it was time to get a real job,” he says. “The ski bum thing was fun, but….”

He moved to Boston and got his first outside sales job, selling contracts for Aramark coffee and refreshment services to businesses in the area. After two and a half years, he joined Iron Mountain, a Boston, Mass.-based provider of data storage and records management services.

Schmertzler recalls walking into the offices of one of his clients on Sept. 11, 2001, only to be greeted with an eerie silence. Vaguely aware of what was transpiring in New York, he soon learned that the client had an office in the World Trade Center. “Among all the thoughts I had, I thought [Sept. 11] would change how the world was and the life we had,” he recalls.

Change in direction

The experience led to reflection on his part. “I didn’t know for sure, I just thought there was something more I should be doing with my life,” he says. He posted his resume on Monster and heard back from Allegiance Healthcare (now Cardinal Health), an acute-care distributor that had just acquired the med/surg distribution business of Bergen Brunswig Medical Supply. The non-acute-care market was new territory for Allegiance, and the company was looking for dynamic sales reps to help penetrate it.

Like a true guide, Schmertzler set about exploring the market. Though he didn’t know medical products distribution, he did know the medical office market, having sold coffee services and data-storage solutions to physicians for seven years. So he started calling on his old customers. He also called on the handful of offices that were owned by Allegiance’s acute-care customers.

He turned to his customers for more instruction on the market. “I thought, ‘I need my customers to train me,’” he says. “I knew it was imperative for me to rely on the skills I had already learned as a sales representative, and foremost, to listen to my customers’ wants and needs, [so I could] bring value and provide solutions.”

And it was hard work. “You do it the old-fashioned way – beat the street, bump your nose, trip and fall, but always keep a positive, can-do attitude,” he says. The approach worked.

“This was a start-up territory for Cardinal, and in just seven short years, John has built that territory to over $4 million in annual sales,” says Ivan Shore, Northeast region director for Cardinal Health.

Ask for the order

Shore points out that early in his medical sales career, Schmertzler learned that one of the keys to success in medical distribution is building strong relationships with his manufacturing partners. In fact, in the past year, Schmertzler outfitted more than 220 exam rooms with Midmark and Welch Allyn colleagues, says Shore.

“When John gives you a lead, it’s very qualified,” says Derek Thompson, ambulatory care sales rep, Welch Allyn. “He has already discussed the product with the account, talked about what it will cost, maybe even talked about return on investment. None of this walking into an account and the customer telling you, “This costs WHAT?!?” says Thompson.

“We have a lot of trust in John’s closing skills too,” Thompson continues. “He’s not afraid to ask the account, ‘If you like the product, are we OK to go and deliver next week?’ In John’s theory, if you ask them and get a ‘No,’ at least you’re getting somewhere. That’s instead of rolling the dice and seeing if they’ll call you back in a month.”

Nor is Schmertzler afraid of tackling big jobs. Last year, for example, he was asked to help a customer replace torn exam tabletops in 89 exam rooms in 11 locations, says Shore. “Realizing that his customer was overwhelmed with the size and scope of the project, John took the lead to plan, organize and implement. This included collecting the serial numbers of every exam table in order to identify whether or not the tops could be replaced, consulting with each location’s nurse manager to determine specific clinical and décor needs, and organizing a detailed implementation schedule that included onsite delivery and installation that would not conflict with patient office visits.” Schmertzler coordinated and participated in all the deliveries, which took place over weekends and during evening hours, and helped the customer donate old tables to a charitable organization.

Adds Thompson, “He has a boldness about him when he attacks projects,” particularly with the big, hospital-owned practices, in which not only the practice managers, but the hospital purchasing and biomedical departments are involved. “It can be a long process,” he says. “But once he’s on it, it’s amazing how many meetings he sets up. He’s in there every week, making sure the project is moving forward, the way he wants it to.”

The guide

Schmertzler was the recipient of Cardinal Health’s Northeast Teamwork award, which recognizes the individual who generates significant territory results in the physician office and surgery center markets by leveraging company resources. In addition, he was appointed chairman of the National Ambulatory Care Sales Advisory Council. And he was hand-picked by executive management to serve as a Mentor in Cardinal Health’s Sales Development Program.

“I look back at the progression of my sales jobs [and see] an evolution, not only of relationship-building, but learning how to be a better consultant,” says Schmertzler. “Learning not just to listen better, but to hear what people are saying.” Selling coffee is relatively simple: The customer either likes the dark roast or not, he says. Selling data storage services was definitely more consultative, given the regulations surrounding it and the crucial role data storage can play in the management of a business. But with medical products, the sale was – and is – more consultative still. Today more than ever.

“Our customers are relying on us,” he says. “Their core job is to provide healthcare. For distributors and manufacturers, it’s a full-time job to keep up with new products, procedures, regulations and changing reimbursement schedules. When our customers look to us, they’re saying, ‘I don’t have the time to keep on top of this; that’s why I rely on you. How do I see my way through this maze of trees?’ The more you can see the forest for the trees and be a good guide, the more valuable you are.”

Seeing beyond the present moment – and helping customers do the same – is an integral part of adopting that “guide” mentality, he says. “Our customers know that changes are always coming, but they still have a full waiting room to take care of. They’re looking to us to guide them through the trees.”

Schmertzler, an avid outdoorsman, resides in southern New Hampshire with his wife, Melaney, and younger son, Dylan. He also has two adult children who have recently moved out to begin building their own lives and careers.

Excellence In Sales Award: Manufacturer

Tommy Whitehead: Big on Relationships

For Tommy Whitehead, successful selling is all about forging ties

Mike Hughes, southern regional manager, medical division, Midmark Corp., pretty much says it all about Tommy Whitehead, recipient of the 2009 Repertoire/HIDA Excellence in Sales Award for a manufacturer:

“Tommy Whitehead has many skills and attributes that we associate with the best salespeople in our industry,” says Hughes. “He is loyal to his company, customers, and our distributors. He is a great listener as well as a talented and creative problem solver. He holds vast product knowledge. He is very energetic and is a hard worker. Anyone who knows Tommy – and this is an enormously large group of people – knows that he possesses all the technical skills and attributes of a great salesperson.

“They also know something else: That while all these ingredients are important, this is not what makes Tommy so special. Tommy has the ability to connect with people in an extraordinary way. His world is one where everyone is a close friend. This ability makes him one of the most effective salespeople that I have ever seen.”

Whitehead is a native of Charlotte, N.C., and today lives in Waxhaw, about 10 miles from his childhood home. He graduated from Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., in 1989 with a major in business administration, and immediately landed a job with a medical products distributor. It might be too much to say he was destined for such a career, but certainly, the stars pointed in that direction from an early age.

Role model

Whitehead’s father, Howard, worked for Mill Power Supply (now CED), an electrical distributor, selling everything from light bulbs to electrical components. He was a role model for young Tommy and his older brother, Kent (who today is a sales rep for PSS). “He was a huge influence in my career direction,” he says. First and foremost, he could see that his father had mastered the art of balancing family and work. “It was a good balance,” says Whitehead, who is married and a father of three girls. “It’s how I have tried to live my life.”

A 38-year employee of Mill Power, the elder Whitehead “was just like I am – big on relationships,” says Whitehead. “When we would go out, whether we were at a ballgame or church, he would greet people in a friendly way, shake their hands and introduce us to them. He was like that with his customers and the manufacturers he worked with.”

Summers at Winchester Surgical

In 1986, during the summer between his freshman and sophomore year at Appalachian State, Whitehead took a summer job at Winchester Surgical Supply in Charlotte. He got the job through his brother, who had gone to work there as a sales rep several years earlier. He worked in the warehouse that summer and the next two, doing everything from unloading trucks to filling orders to going on deliveries and setups and yes, delivering Midmark tables to customers. It was an education. “I learned the business. I learned what the salespeople did, what the customer service reps did, what it took to receive the product and put it on the shelf, what it took to fill an order, box it and ship it.”

Several months prior to his graduation, Whitehead was formally offered a job with Winchester. He went to work there in August 1989, reporting to sales manager Yates Farris (who today is vice president, primary care markets, for IMCO.) Ironically, he went back into the warehouse and relearned the warehouse routine, customer service, etc. “I got to see all the business operations within the business prior to going out on the road in January 1990,” he says.

New territory

Farris sent the rookie rep to Knoxville, Tenn., to build an expansion territory for Winchester. “I still have the first order I ever wrote as a sales rep hanging in my office,” he says. “Yates had it framed for me.”

It was the first of many. “I was a cold call machine,” says Whitehead, recalling those first months in Knoxville. “I’d go to the top floor of a medical office building and start at the office at the far end of the hall and work the entire hall; then I’d go down to the next level.” After he left each office, he’d dictate a few brief notes into a Dictaphone, noting the name of the person he had spoken to and perhaps even a brief physical description, as well as what happened on the call. Then, at night, he’d write down those notes so he could refer to them next time he called on the account.

He was well-suited to building a new territory. “I really enjoyed meeting new people,” he says. “I didn’t so much enjoy getting the door slammed in my face, but I knew that was part of it.”

Year One was lean, but Year Two was better, as were Years Three and Four. Then life intervened. In November 1991, Whitehead married his college sweetheart, Elizabeth. The two actually had known each other since the first grade, but didn’t form a mutual attraction that way until they both were at Appalachian State. Because both were from the Charlotte area, they had a desire to settle down there. Whitehead faced a hugely difficult decision. “Deep down I wanted to go home too, but I didn’t want to leave my job. I loved Winchester, I was proud of what I had built.” And he had formed an attachment to Knoxville. But Winchester didn’t have any openings in Charlotte. So in November 1994, Whitehead and his wife moved to Charlotte, and he tried his hand at selling insurance. But it didn’t take him long to realize he belonged in medical sales, not insurance. (In March 1995, Winchester was acquired by PSS.)

Once again, Yates Farris was there to help, making some calls on Whitehead’s behalf. Among those he called was Dick Moorman of Midmark, whom Whitehead had known through Winchester. In May 1995, Whitehead joined Midmark as regional project manager, with responsibility for calling on large end users (e.g., IDNs, government facilities, big multispecialty clinics) in the South and Southeast. Turns out he loved the job. He loved traveling throughout the South. He loved working on the manufacturing end of things. He loved working with distributors to make sales. And he loved Midmark.

A product expert

Today, as a Midmark rep, he calls on distributors and end users in North Carolina and South Carolina. Unlike the distributor rep, who must know a vast range of products and product applications, Whitehead considers himself a product expert on a relatively small segment of products. (Still, with the number of exam tables and other products Midmark makes, the rep must be proficient on a variety of specialties and applications.)

He credits his experience with Winchester as heightening his awareness of the needs and expectations of the distributor rep. “I appreciate the role that [distributor reps] have with the nurses and doctors, and the constant balancing act with the relationship and price, [particularly as] a competitor comes in with a competing price on supplies.” He knows that distributor reps expect their manufacturers to not only be product experts, but to provide protection in the event another distributor rep calls on an account pursuing a similar sale.

Whitehead has an impeccable reputation in his territory, says Paul Whitaker, regional sales manager, North Carolina field sales, Henry Schein Medical. “He’s one of those guys you don’t hear anything bad about. He’s always there when you need him. Some manufacturers will come in, check off the box and they’re gone. But he’s a relationship guy, and he’s there for the long term.” And he’s responsive. “You call him and you get a call back within an hour.”

Says Hughes, “Tommy is the type of person, and sales rep, who cares about what is best for you. When we make sales calls together on our distributors, everyone knows who Tommy is.

“You will often find Tommy hosting a tailgate cookout before Carolina Panther Football games on Sunday with one of our distributors. When calling on our customers, most of them know Tommy for the many years he has been calling on them representing Midmark. He always brings a great attitude into the account and they are always happy to see him.”

Whitehead and his wife, Elizabeth, have three daughters: Emily, age 11; Addie, 9; and Katie, 6.

Excellence In Sales Award: Manufacturer Runner-up

Harry Goldsmith: Follow-through

Harry Goldsmith knows what it takes to achieve success through distribution

Every distributor’s dream: Identify lead, call in the product expert, close the sale. Every manufacturer’s dream: Educate the distributor on uncovering opportunities, get lead from distributor, make presentation to customer, and close the sale.

Now, it might not shake out like this all the time. But it can so much of the time, even most of the time, provided the distributor rep and manufacturer rep know their stuff, respect and trust each other, and execute. Ask the distributor reps who work with Harry Goldsmith. Goldsmith sells diagnostic equipment for Midmark Corp. in the five boroughs of New York City, and Westchester and Rockland counties, and was named Runner-up in the 2009 Repertoire/HIDA Excellence in Sales Award for a manufacturer.

Dreams of making films

Goldsmith, who lives in Flushing, N.Y., was born and raised in Middle Village, Queens. He attended Emory University in Atlanta to take advantage of its business school, and graduated in 1998. He was interested in pursuing a career in filmmaking and producing, and had, in fact, interned at some film companies, such as New Line Cinema. But he wanted to do something first. He traveled to Israel to explore his heritage. “I felt like I spent so much time preparing myself professionally, that I wanted to delve into my personal and spiritual growth,” he says. He stayed in Israel six months, then came home to figure out his next move. Nine months later, he returned to Israel to study the Talmud, which is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. He stayed for two more years.

“It had a major impact on my life,” he says of the experience. In fact, it helped him decide that rather than live the nomadic existence of most filmmakers, he wanted more stability in his life.

Unique moment in history

August 2001 was a unique moment in America’s history. “The economy was already in a strange place following the Internet bubble,” he says. And in the very next month, the World Trade Center was destroyed by an act of terrorism. “I knew I would need to choose something that would allow me to weather bad economic times,” he says. He thought about possibly making videos or commercials for pharmaceutical companies, but even that life was unpredictable. “You work on the set of a television commercial, then it ends a month later,” he says.

He thought about sales. After reading books and talking to people, he concluded that salespeople who bring value and dollars to their companies have a more stable, secure situation than many professionals. Pharmaceutical sales was a possibility, but two firms turned him down, deeming him too “entrepreneurial” for such work.

Learning medical sales

So in January 2002, he got a job with a small pathology lab, trying to convince doctors’ offices to send their biopsies to this small lab. He did that for two and a half years. “That’s how I got to know this profession,” he says.

The job provided him challenges and learning opportunities. He learned, for example, how to compete against much bigger, national firms. “We were this small company that many people hadn’t heard of,” he says. He had to convince potential customers that his lab was faster and more accurate than the competition. He learned about his customers’ businesses and how to parlay that information into successful sales. He learned how to get past gatekeepers. He also learned that he enjoyed closing sales as well as the reoccurring income associated with the job. And he learned that he liked creating relationships with his accounts.

In 2004, having had a taste of sales and the medical industry, Goldsmith was ready for a move. He sought a job in medical products distribution. “I liked the idea of being able to build a business,” he says. “I’m the entrepreneurial type.” He thought that working for a distributor, building a base of customers and selling a variety of products, would offer that kind of experience. It so happened that Cardinal Health was looking for a territory rep, and Goldsmith got the job.

He worked for two years at Cardinal, and credits Ivan Shore (now Northeast region director for ambulatory care) and Rob Roche with teaching him a great deal about the industry. But he wanted to move away from being a product generalist and become more of a product specialist, something that he could only do by working for a manufacturer. “At Cardinal, I learned what it was to be a valued consultant,” he says. “But I thought I could build on the ideas I had learned: If I like to be a valued consultant, why not be one for a specific group of products? That’s the description of a manufacturer rep.”

There was another factor in his decision. “I’m kind of a gadget guy,” he says. So when he learned that Midmark was looking for someone to sell its line of digital diagnostics in New York, he seized the opportunity. But it wasn’t just the technology that attracted him to Midmark. It was the reputation of the company, something he had seen firsthand as a distributor rep. “[Midmark reps] were enthusiastic, positive, creative in their presentations, and amazing at being able to create relationships with distributors,” he says. “They have a great thing going.” He joined the company in October 2006.

Doing the simple things

To this day, he tries to be the kind of Midmark rep that he observed when he was with Cardinal, that is, one who knows how to build strong bonds between manufacturer and distributor. “Anyone can be friends, right?” he says. “You can make a friend here and there, and that’s important. But in business, the most important thing is that the manufacturer and distributor value each other’s relationship as partners – to build business.” Building strong relationships is actually pretty simple, he says. “It’s doing the basic things. You have to show up on time. When people call you for information, you get back to them quickly.”

Trust is a huge part of a successful relationship, and that is built over time. “If I show up [to an account] on time, do a good job and make [the distributor rep’s] customers happy; and if my product and I deliver, they will trust me.” Just as important, the manufacturer has to do everything he or she can to protect the distributor’s gross profit. “That has to be protected on a regular basis,” he says.

“If I am a good partner, the goal is to help each other get the business. Without [the distributor’s] lead, I’m not going into that account. And without the information I have, they might not be able to set up an appointment to get into that account.” Provided the distributor rep does a good job uncovering opportunities and needs, by the time he or she calls in Goldsmith, “there’s a good chance we’ll get a very high close rate,” he says.

Empowering distributors to make the sale

Laurie McGratty, sales consultant for Henry Schein Medical in Melville, N.Y., can attest to that. A telesales rep for almost 23 years (first with Darby Medical Supply, then with Henry Schein following the latter’s acquisition of Darby), McGratty recognized early on that Goldsmith was a rep with whom she could build business.

“He came into the office to do an in-service of the digital EKG, spirometer and Holter,” she recalls. Prior to that, she had been selling primarily traditional products. “He told us how the products work in layman’s terms.” That in itself was a refreshing change from the in-services of many distributors, who were (and still are) unable to communicate clearly to distributors’ sales teams. Because Goldsmith had given her and her colleagues a clear understanding of the technology, she felt empowered to present it to her customers.

What happened next was even better. “With Harry, you get an immediate response,” she says. “You send him an e-mail, he follows up immediately. And every time I send him into an office, he closes the sale.” Even customers who aren’t ready to make a purchase remember Goldsmith for his professionalism and ability to speak clearly about the value of his products, she says.

Because Goldsmith works at building relationships with distributors, his products tend to sell, says McGratty. “I’m working on a deal now on Holters and digital spirometers,” she says. “I’m certain it will close.

“I’ve been in this business all these years. I know who I can rely on and who I can’t. I can rely on Harry 100 percent.”

Says Midmark Regional Sales Manager (Eastern U.S.) Jeff Daner, “[Harry’s] loyalty to his distributor partners and to their customers is a trait that is not taught, but rather, one you just have from inside. He is a constant team player in his region, and never shies away from helping the team.”

Goldsmith has been married to his wife, Laura, for five years. They have two children: a daughter, Shoshana, who is 4; and a son, Ari, who is 9 months old.