Be Successful!

Grow Your Business.  Join IMDA.

IMDA can help --

-- Discover cost-saving business ideas.
-- Pick up new lines.
-- Find your $10,000 idea.
-- Help in a storm.

Discover cost-saving business ideas.

Five years ago, IMDA member Grandview Medical Resources had an enviable problem -- growth. The company, which was founded by Kevin Trout in 1996, had 18 employees, with more growth on the horizon. That meant that Trout was facing scads of human-resource issues, which threatened to take his eye off his true area of expertise – specialty sales and marketing. While at an IMDA annual conference, he learned of a company, Administaff, which provides outsourced human resource services. Several IMDA colleagues were using the company, and he met an Administaff representative at the conference. “The lightbulb went off,” he says. “The HR side of the business was something I was struggling with. Administaff came in and answered a lot of questions, not just payroll, but the entire HR function.” Today Grandview has 45 employees at three locations, and Trout relies on Administaff to help with recruiting, pre-hire screening, health insurance benefits, workers comp and legal assistance.

IMDA is dedicated to advancing the business interests of independent medical sales and marketing companies, and the manufacturers whose products they carry. Explore the opportunities. Together we are stronger.

If you’re a specialty distributor or rep, or a manufacturer in need of outsourced sales and marketing, visit the IMDA website today at www.imda.org. Or call us at (866) IMDA-YES (866-463-2937). And make plans now to attend the IMDA Annual Conference in June 2007 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The lightbulb just might go off for you too.

Pick up new lines.

Five years ago, Med Alliance Group faced a crucial juncture in its three-year history. The suburban Chicago-based specialty distributor had just lost a major line and was searching for another. Founder and President Jim Herrmann found it at the IMDA Annual Conference. That’s where he met Stan Tangalakis, president and CEO of Mercury Medical, a specialty distributor and manufacturer of anesthesia and respiratory supplies and equipment. Mercury was in need of independent specialty distributors around the country, and Tangalakis believed Med Alliance could fill the bill in the Midwest. Tangalakis got it right: This year, Med Alliance Group will sell more than a million dollars of Mercury Medical’s products. “That filled the void [from the lost line] and allowed us to keep moving straight forward,” says Herrmann.

A year or two later, Herrmann made another key contact through IMDA. At the IMDA Manufacturers Forum, he met Jim Thomsen, co-founder and executive vice president of Vidacare.

The San Antonio, Texas-based company was seeking specialty sales and marketing organizations to introduce its innovative EZ-IO technology, which rapidly delivers drugs and fluids to patients in whom vascular access is challenging or even impossible. In 2006, Med Alliance Group sold $400,000 worth of Vidacare’s products.

Herrmann has more stories to tell about the impact of his IMDA membership on his business. For example, there’s the manufacturer of a unique arterial-closure system that tracked down Med Alliance Group through the IMDA directory. It is testing the viability of specialty sales and marketing organizations in carrying its technology to the acute-care market.

IMDA is working for Jim Herrmann, and it can work for you. Visit the IMDA website at www.imda.org and reacquaint yourself with the resources IMDA can offer you. Or call headquarters at (866) IMDA-YES (866-463-2937). And by all means, plan on attending the Annual Conference, June 3-5, 2007, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. It’s the only place where specialty sales and marketing companies can network with each other and manufacturers of innovative medical technologies.

IMDA is dedicated to helping you enhance your company’s performance and profits. We are your trade association.

Find your $10,000 idea.

Are you a medical specialty distributor or rep who’s looking to protect and grow your business? Then look into IMDA, the nation’s only association for medical specialty sales and marketing organizations, like yours. Had you been a member, you would have taken advantage of IMDA’s recent Annual Conference & Manufacturers Forum, held in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in June. Here’s what some attendees had to say about it:

• “Joining IMDA and attending this conference was one of the best things that I have gotten involved with in years.” • “Excellent conference. Can’t wait for next year.”
• “[Keynote speaker] Gerry Layo provided a very focused presentation directed at this group; very helpful take-home information to help both our sales organization as well as operations.”
• “Great meeting for networking opportunities.”
• “I have a couple of $10,000 ideas.”

Joining IMDA offers many benefits: Your company gets exposure through the IMDA website; you receive regular communications from headquarters; most recently, members gained an opportunity to purchase affordable, comprehensive product and professional liability insurance. But there’s nothing to compare with the networking and idea-sharing that takes place at the Annual Conference. This year’s event in Coeur d’Alene was no exception. Nor will next year’s Annual Conference and Manufacturers Forum in Chicago.

Learn more about IMDA by visiting our website at www.imda.org, or by calling (866) IMDA-YES (866-463-2937). Make IMDA your trade association.

Help in a storm

Two years after Katrina ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, Duke Johns still recalls how much being an IMDA member meant – and continues to mean – to him. “I had lots of calls from my fellow IMDA members,” says Johns, who owns Medical Specialties in New Orleans. “People were willing to store products for me, ship for me, bill for me if necessary. Depending on how long it took me to get up and running, they were willing to share inventories and be my eyes and ears out there.”

IMDA is the nation’s only association for medical specialty sales and marketing organizations, like yours. To Johns, the Katrina experience crystallizes what belonging to IMDA means to him. “Not belonging to IMDA is like driving a motorcycle on a pitch black night with no headlights,” he says. “Before I got involved, I was doing OK, but I didn’t know why, and I didn’t know if I could do better or avoid mistakes other people have made.” By networking with colleagues from all over the country and Canada, however, and particularly by attending the annual IMDA Management Conference, Johns knowledge, wisdom, experience and expertise that he otherwise would miss out on. That’s important not just during cataclysmic events like Katrina, but during the everyday challenges of running a medical specialty business.