When I was a region manager at VWR, I coached my reps to keep an eye out for customers who were in financial difficulties. A good way to determine if such troubles were occurring was to check out the landscaping in front of their facilities. If it was overgrown with weeds this was a sure sign that they might be a bad credit risk.
It’s somewhat more difficult to spot a bad vendor by looking at their website. Some really snazzy looking websites can impress you. But a shoddy website can also be as telling as the weeds in the flower beds.
At LPS, we deal with many manufacturers, big and small. A very few earn my “Michelin Star” for outstanding performance. One who has earned that reward is Mr. Steve Levine of MTC Bio.
So why did MTC Bio get my top rating?
- They stock and ship products promptly and reliably.
- They continually add new, innovative products to their product offering.
- They do not charge any “hidden” fees for drop ships, minimum orders, tariffs, expedited orders, etc.
- They communicate regularly with their distributors and provide a full range of marketing support tools - FREE!
- They don’t have a MAP (minimum advertised price) policy.
- They employ very knowledgeable people who, atypically, ANSWER THE PHONE!
Many of my Pulse readers are vendors who send price files this time of the year. If you are a vendor, and would like to “up your game,” I encourage you to read “The Do’s and Dont’s of a Distributor Price File,” then pass along these ideas as your own to your head of marketing.
War Story #7
The API 20E bacterial identification system was invented in the 1970s, and has been used for decades as a standard in clinical microbiology. The test system is currently manufactured by bioMérieux.
Of all the new products that have been released over the last 50 years I’ve been in this business, the API 20E is the only product that resulted in a sale nearly every time it was demonstrated. It revolutionized bacterial identification, and had a “wow!” factor like no other.
The API 20E rep I worked with was a man named Bill Motto, He is currently the founder and CEO of Meridian DiagnosticsHe is also the single best manufacturer's representative I’ve ever met.
In the 1970s the internet was still in its infancy, using dial-up technology that used a telephone receiver in a holder to communicate with a computer via modem. The wow! part of the demo was when Bill would take the results of a panel, put the data into his primitive handheld device, dial up API’s modem, and wait a few seconds, his portable printer (also a novelty no lab person had ever seen) would spit out the identification of the bacteria, It was like a magic trick - nearly a miracle!
Bill and I traveled all over Louisville, KY with my fellow sales rep Bill Reals as well. It is the only product that had a nearly 100% success rate. Every demo turned into a customer, I cannot name one single product that even comes close to that success rate, nor can I name another product from the 1970’s that is still in use today in its same unmodified configuration.
Can you name another product like this?
War Story #8
A pathological liar is someone who habitually lies, often without a clear reason or benefit, creating complex and exaggerated stories to the point that it impairs their life. This is a behavioral pattern that can be compulsive, and may cause distress for the individual, even though they may not be able to control it.
People fall for pathological liars' stories due to a combination of the liar's manipulative tactics and the listener's psychological vulnerabilities, such as a desire for attention, sympathy, or a belief in the stories' compelling nature. Pathological liars often craft their narratives to be emotionally appealing, making people want to believe them because they fulfill a need for something extraordinary, or they are skilled at creating a facade of charm and confidence that makes them appear trustworthy.
There were two people competing for a sales position at VWR in 1998. I was one of them. My competitor, as it turns out, was one of the few pathological liars that I have ever met. Why did the management at VWR select him over me? Perhaps it was because he stated he played center for the Tennessee Volunteers football team in the mid-1980’s? Team rosters are online and if anyone had bothered to check, his name appeared on none of them.
When he was caught bid rigging at a major account, held by security and picked up by VWR senior management you would assume his career would be over. Instead, he was promoted.
The lies he told and the stunts he pulled could fill a book. I am not really sure if he was ever fired or he resigned. The last I heard of him was that he was in jail in North Carolina for check kiting. I learned this from the owner of a liquor store in my home town who had hired him and from whom he had stolen money out of the cash drawer.
The Sales Pitch
Way back in 2009, I decided to focus on pipet tips. I created a website, www.pipettipfinder.com which for years has helped customers figure out what tips fit on what pipettors. That website is now being phased out and we have implemented our pipet classification system into www.labproservices.com. You can read how this works on my blog post “A Pipet Tip Classification System.”
Rather than having a website dedicated to matching tips and pipettors, you can now easily search on www.labproservices.com for the tip you want. Let’s take for example, that you are looking for a 200uL, universal fit tip in racks that is low-retention, sterile and is filtered.
Enter in the search bar: 200-R-F-S-L. The search results will display every tip, from every supplier that meets your criteria! What does this code mean? Read the blog post for full details! Of course, you can always contact our experts for assistance as well.
