Launching any business comes with its fair share of difficulties, and that’s doubly true in the field of medical supplies. Even though it can be challenging, however, the medical field is a very promising industry to enter into. In 2019 alone, wholesale medical suppliers made about 220 billion dollars in profit. Best of all, that profit was spread between only 13,000 companies, meaning that there’s not as much competition in this field as there is in other industries like software development or daycare. If you want to become a distributor for medical supplies, here are some tips to keep in mind.
Focus your efforts
As is the case with many businesses, choosing a niche can be a helpful way to differentiate your business from others. While some wholesalers focus on a wide swath of medical supplies, starting out, it makes much more sense to focus on a specific category of devices and build a catalog of clients interested in those products. This could be simple medical supplies like tongue depressors, syringes, non-latex gloves, and medical masks, or it could be higher-end technologies.
For example, if you’re focusing on field medical devices, make sure that you can find a reliable source of products. After all, since these sorts of therapies are often called upon to battle arthritic flare-ups. If a customer is counting on you to have something in stock during a flare but you don’t, you can really lose their trust. At the same time, having a distributor who always has the latest tech available can help you compete with other medical suppliers by staying on the cutting edge. Being able to reliably stock the products others look to you for will help you build your reputation in this burgeoning field. Remember, you don’t want to have to look for Pulsed Harmonix Electromagnetic field therapy devices for sale every time you need to restock on pain relief devices for arthritis and inflammation if that’s your niche. By building a relationship with and buying directly from a supplier like Pulsed Harmonix, you can increase customer satisfaction and ensure you always have what you need.
Make connections
Networking is a major component of starting any business, and is especially important if you’re diving into the medical supply business. One way to focus your efforts is to look for hospitals and doctor’s offices in your local area who may be interested in partnering with your business. Another way to find distribution channels is to go to trade shows and to table at medical events. This can be a great way for you to build your initial list of interested customers. From there, you can follow up with medical providers that seem to be a good fit for your niche and values. Make sure to bring business cards, brochures, and other literature about your products and services so that you can offer interested clients the full picture.
Hire team players
You won’t be able to succeed in a field as competitive as the medical supply industry if you don’t have a team you can count on. Especially at the onset of your business operations, you need to have employees who believe in what you’re doing and are excited about helping to grow your business. There are plenty of questions that you can ask in a job interview to determine whether or not someone will be a good fit for your company. Some of the most important topics to touch on, however, are years of experience, real-world application of a candidate’s knowledge on-the-job, and what their core values are as an individual.
Market your business
Once you have the above components in place, you’ll be able to start marketing your business. Marketing can be a great way to reach potential customers and continue to persuade interested clients that you may have already networked with. Best of all, digital marketing solutions are as cost-effective as they are powerful. Using email marketing tools as well as social media ad campaigns, you can reach customers in a far more personal way than just buying a radio ad or billboard and calling it a day.
For example, you can have customers opt-in to receive your email newsletter on your website based on which types of products they’re interested in. For a medical supplier who sells to ENT doctors, that can be a major boon since you can let all of your customers who have opted to hear updates know when you have a change in Tinnitus 911 price without also contacting anyone who cares more about the price of your eye drops. Segmenting based on conditions and past purchase history is another way to ensure that your clients who look to you for certain goods like tinnitus treatments are able to get what they need.
When you know that you’re able to target customers based on past purchases, you’ll be able to better market your deals on tinnitus treatments and other similar products. As a result, you can engage with the audience who is truly receptive to your messaging, which increases your ROI.