IMDA planning regional sales seminars. Looking for affordable, customized sales training for your reps? IMDA has an answer. John Ahern, charter IMDA member, was a bulldog. Founder and president of Surgical Specialties, and one of IMDA’s earliest members and recipient of its first-ever Ernie Douglass Award, died in Annapolis, Md., in March. IMDA listserv replaces bulletin board. Now it’s easier than ever to electronically communicate with your fellow IMDA members. IMDA’s listserv is up and running, and it replaces the electronic bulletin board. Private Line Medical is IMDA’s newest member. The company services Puerto Rico (where it is based) and Florida. New Orleans should be top of mind. Saving city is in all our interests, says Duke Johns. Reports of adverse events are way up. The number of medical-device-related adverse events reported to the FDA climbed to an all-time high last year. The reason is far from clear.
Looking for affordable, customized sales training for your reps? IMDA has found it. At press time, President Shawn Walker of Bay State Anesthesia and Executive Director Katie Swartz were working out the logistics of two sales-training programs – one in Atlanta, one in Scottsdale, Ariz. – to be presented by sales trainer, speaker and coach Gerry Layo, keynote speaker at the recent Annual Management Conference in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Both sales training programs would be held in January. The one in Atlanta would start on Thursday afternoon, Jan. 17, and conclude by 5 p.m. the next day. The one in Scottsdale would be a one-day affair, on Jan. 21. At press time, Swartz was working out the kinks of an agreement with an Atlanta-area hotel and meeting place. Rationale “During the annual conferences, when we ask people what they want to hear more about, ‘motivating salespeople’ always comes up,” says Walker. “They’re interested in things like how to get around GPO contracts, pricing issues, and getting salespeople focused.” Layo, who was extremely well-received at the Annual Conference, is a known commodity now among IMDA members. The sessions will be tailored for IMDA-member sales reps. “Gerry is interested in customizing the program, so the training will have added detail and relevance to IMDA members,” according to Walker. In Year 1, the programs will focus on the basics of sales: attitude and motivation, goal-setting, time management, pre-call preparation and closing. Moving forward, Layo will work with IMDA to offer training on a number of specialized topics, such as dealing with GPO contracts, obstacles presented by competitors’ bundled product packages, bloodborne-pathogen testing, and working through providers’ vendor certification programs. An investment in your people
“Sales training is one of those things that everybody needs,” says Walker. “It’s not rocket science. But you can learn new techniques, you can learn things you’ve forgotten, and you can become aware of the bad habits you’ve fallen into.” Although they are full of good intentions, small companies often eliminate sales training when time and money are tight. “Too often, we count on manufacturers coming in and training us on their products,” says Walker. “But what we fail to do is to invest in our salespeople by providing basic sales training.” As a result, sales reps fail to perform up to expectations, and they feel stagnant – a key reason why many leave their jobs. What’s more, small companies, such as many IMDA members, are unwilling to send their reps off to expensive off-site training without knowing how relevant the training will be to their businesses. That won’t be the case with Layo, says Walker. “They know what they’re buying into,” she says. Layo began his career 20 years ago in a business-to-business sales capacity. He has co-founded and run three companies, and served as vice president of sales and marketing for ITEX, Bellevue, Wash., a marketplace for cashless business transactions. His current company, Granite Bay, Calif.-based Sales Coach International, helps executives in the areas of sales, sales leadership and customer service. Sales Coach International also offers a coaching program, in which Layo and a group of coaches work with companies in an ongoing coach/consultant capacity. The tentative member price for the Atlanta seminar is $750, with an early bird registration fee of $650. The Scottsdale seminar is tentatively priced at $575 (early bird $525) for members. Prices are subject to change. IMDA members should watch their e-mail inbox, the IMDA website (www.imda.org) and this newsletter for further details.
Peggy Ahern recalls a story about her late husband, John, chasing a surgeon to an elevator in an effort to make a sale. “He was known as the industry as ‘bulldog,’” she says. “He accepted rejection well.” But apparently, only if he really, really had to. John Ahern, founder and president of Surgical Specialties, was one of IMDA’s earliest members and recipient of its first-ever Ernie Douglass Award. He died in Annapolis, Md., in March. Ahern was born in Brooklyn in 1933. He served in the Army and was discharged in January 1959. Soon after that, he and Peggy met at a dance in Manhattan – even though both were from Brooklyn. They married in September 1960. Answered an ad
He got his first job in the medical industry by answering an ad in The New York Times, and started out as a sales rep for Austenal, which later became Howmedica. Eventually, he left Austenal to work for Pilling Co. in Philadelphia. “All the while, his vision was to have his own business,” says his wife. The opportunity to do just that presented itself when Howmedica offered Ahern the distributorship for Maryland, the District of Columbia and northern Virginia. “Howmedica already had a distributor in place, but John, through creative methods, had more business in place than the distributor,” explains Peggy Ahern. “When the distributor didn’t pay its bills, an intelligent executive at Howmedica decided to put in place John and Surgical Specialties to replace them. After all, they already had the business.” Surgical Specialties was the Howmedica dealer for the next 25 years, increasing the orthopedic implant manufacturer’s business from $55,000 to $12 million, she says. At its peak, the specialty distributor employed 10 salespeople and 10 inside people. Meeting in Chicago Ahern was one of 11 distributors who met in Chicago in 1978 out of concern that Howmedica was about to terminate all of them. From that meeting was born the Independent Medical Distributors Association (now IMDA). Although the companies joined forces to protect themselves against termination, IMDA quickly grew into a full-fledged trade association, with educational conferences, networking and, eventually, programs to benefit its members, such as product liability insurance. “Thanks to Ron Lawson [owner of Professional Orthopedics Inc. and IMDA’s first president], the early meetings of IMDA consisted of excellent professional speakers, who instructed and taught the members on running businesses in the orthopedic industry,” says Peggy Ahern. “These talks would initiative lively discussions and questions among the members, and all learned from each other as well as from the professional speakers.” Eager to share his knowledge IMDA legal counsel Mitchell Kramer, who was at that first meeting in Chicago in 1978, recalls that Ahern was an enthusiastic participant at the early IMDA meetings. “He shared all his experiences with others,” says Kramer. In fact, it was Ahern who first uttered the now often-cited expression about the “$10,000 idea,” the point being that by attending an IMDA conference, you can learn something that will bring $10,000 to your bottom line, either in increased sales or operational efficiencies. “John was bright, had a good sense of humor, and was a learned man who shared his knowledge and experience with everyone,” says Kramer. Betchie Bistrom, who, with her husband, Frank, managed IMDA from its inception until 2003, recalls that at one or two early IMDA meetings, Ahern brought along his accountant to share his financials with his colleagues at the IMDA conference. “He always shared when he was at the meetings,” says Bistrom. Out front with computers
Meanwhile, the company that Ahern had started with $3,000 in the bank and another $6,000 from his brother continued to grow. “John was into computers back in the ’70s, when computers used cassette tapes,” says Peggy Ahern. And he was aggressive when it came to collections. “His philosophy was that accounts receivable should not be more than 45 days,” she says. “He had the right people in place, and they maintained this philosophy.” At one point, he hired a senior citizen whose only job was to get on the phone and call accounts until they paid up. “He was undaunted,” recalls Peggy Ahern. “His spiel was, ‘Hello, this is Roland Foran,’ droning on and on until the people gave up and paid.” But Ahern’s success, she adds, rested with his desire to make sure that people who were good at their jobs remained happy and productive. “He treated his people well and won their admiration and respect,” she says. “I remember overhearing one person remarking that they would help him out with no pay at all if he ran into problems. “He always helped his customers as well. If he couldn’t sell them a product, he would tell them where to buy it. He would answer any question a customer had, even if he didn’t make a sale.” Fearing that his business was becoming too dependent on just one manufacturer, Ahern formed two new companies – Biomedical Specialties and Optik. Together, these two firms and Surgical Specialties were known as The Specialties Group. (Peggy Ahern was president of Biomedical Specialties.) Then, in 1997, when Howmedica went direct, he sold his company. He and Peggy moved to New England so he could get involved in a manufacturing venture called Woodbine/Solos. But he found it difficult to compete with big companies, so he sold the business back to its original owner. In November 2006, the Aherns moved back to Annapolis, where they had lived from 1964 until 1997, and where they had raised their children. “When John wasn’t working, he was heavily involved in a local prayer group,” says Peggy Ahern. “He was a very spiritual person who believed the Lord Jesus Christ was his personal savior, and trusted Him in all he did – particularly his business.” When he fully retired, he became part of the Mission of Mercy, which provides medical help to poor families. “This was a clinic and heavily Spanish,” she says. “John, at one time, taught high school Spanish and always liked to use it, even though it was extremely rusty.” John Ahern died March 15, 2007.
Now it’s easier than ever to electronically communicate with your fellow IMDA members. IMDA’s listserv is up and running, and it replaces the electronic bulletin board. Instructions on how to use the listserv are in the “Members Only” section of the IMDA website (www.imda.org). But in a nutshell, members simply write their message, address it to the IMDA listserv address (found in “Members Only”) and click “send.” All your colleagues will receive the message. “The listserv will allow IMDA members to regularly network with each other and post questions, comments, tips and suggestions, as simply as sending an e-mail,” says IMDA Executive Director Katie Swartz. “We hope that members use the listserv to continue the conversations started at the Annual Conference and to keep in touch with each other all year long.”
IMDA welcomes its newest member, Private Line Medical, of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The company is just a few months old, and specializes in ob/gyn, laboratory and physicians’ offices. It services Puerto Rico and Florida. Welcome Private Line Medical to IMDA by contacting owner Richard Carfagna at rcafagna_wt@yahoo.com or by calling him at (305) 978-3191.
New Orleans is more than jazz, blues and fantastic restaurants. It’s a city on which the economy of the United States depends. That’s why it matters to all of us, according to Duke Johns, president, Medical Specialties. Two years after Katrina, the city still needs rebuilding. And there should be a sense of urgency about it, he says. New Orleans is in the heart of the U.S. energy coast, he points out. Half of the nation’s oil and natural gas refineries are located there. If they are destroyed, the country will pay for it in higher prices for its energy. While the oil industry’s activities have been good for the United States in terms of producing much-needed energy, it has been a mixed blessing for New Orleans, says Johns. Oil exploration has damaged the barrier islands, exposing the city to the kind of damage that Katrina visited upon it. “And everything is connected,” he says. The marshes around the barrier islands are breeding grounds for a large percentage of the seafood that Americans eat. They must be preserved. And should the mouth of the Mississippi River -- as it empties into the Gulf of Mexico – become clogged with silt, the United States would lose one of its most important ports, he continues. A healthy percentage of this country’s grain and coal travels through New Orleans to overseas destinations. “We are an economic machine for the United States, and people have to understand they can’t just pick it up and move it somewhere else,” says Johns. Contact your lawmakers to impress upon them the importance of restoring New Orleans to its proper role in the economy, he urges IMDA members.
The number of medical-device-related adverse events reported to U.S. Food and Drug Administration under the Medical Device Reporting (MDR) program rose last year to an all-time high, according to Medical Devices Today (www.medicaldevicestoday.com).
The Office of Surveillance and Biometrics in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) reported 325,742 reports of device-associated injuries, deaths and malfunctions in calendar year 2006 -- a 77 percent increase over 2005, when 184,222 reports were filed. Office of Surveillance and Biometrics Deputy Division Director Mary Brady was quoted by Medical Devices Today as saying that the spike in reports may have occurred because device firms have been reviewing and adjusting their reporting procedures. "Our compliance group has been working a lot with many different manufacturers over the last few months," she was quoted as saying. "We have been going through their procedures and [the firms are] saying, 'We need to change our decision-making tree for reportability.' I have a feeling that's probably a big part of it." Medical Device Reporting is the mechanism for the FDA to receive information about significant medical-device-related adverse events from manufacturers, importers and user facilities.
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