An effective supply chain management system relies on a healthy manufacturer and distributor relationship in healthcare. Manufacturers and distributors are the first two parts of the supply chain before products reach the customer.

Investing in a relationship with your distributers benefits both parties because you can support each other. Ultimately, you will see a greater return in profits and experience fewer frustrations from supply chain disconnects.

Are you ready to learn how to develop this relationship? Then let’s get started.

Key Takeaways

• Effective communication is foundational for building a lasting relationship with your distributors.
• A relationship is built on both communicating and listening to the other party’s needs.
• You may often find your challenges align with your distributors’ challenges and mutually beneficial compromises are possible.

Use Effective Communication

Communication is foundational to building a manufacturer and distributor relationship. 97% of workers say communication impacts their daily tasks. For companies with over 100 employees, miscommunication costs them about $420,000 annually.

All the other strategies we will explore for building a manufacturer-distributor relationship will be pointless without first establishing efficient supply chain communication channels. These channels are the ways you contact your medical distributors, and they respond to you.

Some ways to foster open and efficient communication is through:

• Collaboration software
• Regular emails
• Company chat platforms like Slack
• Meetings either live or through video software like Zoom
• Direct phone numbers to contact management

You should use these communication channels regularly to keep both sides of the supply chain on the same page. When you reach out to one another, you need to remember to spend as much time listening to the other party as communicating your wants and needs.

In addition, keep your information in any shared systems up to date, such as your product data. In this way, your distributors know what products are available and the latest information about the supplies you offer.

Automation makes communication easier by sending alerts and regular emails to your distributors so they all know the latest product updates.

Support Each Other’s Needs

Manufacturers and distributors can come in conflict because you are often not exclusive to each other. However, you should still find ways to support one another to give the additional party flexibility to work with their other connections. For example, you may use multiple distributors, and your distributors sell products from several manufacturers.

For example, a sales tactic you would prefer might not work well with your distributor, who has multiple different types of medical equipment to sell. Both sides should learn to compromise so you can mutually benefit.

One way to foster a supportive environment is to take time to understand each distributor’s situation properly. This means that manufacturing should regularly visit the distributors at their physical stores to see how best to work with each distributor. These visits also allow each party to talk face to face about their needs and what the other person could do to support them better.

Understand Each Other’s Challenges

During your meetings with distributors, take time to know their challenges and share your marketing challenges. While both parties will have roadblocks that make their job more complex, you don’t need to compete with each other.

Sometimes you might find your challenges are similar, in which case you can work together to solve them in a mutually beneficial manner. For example, manufacturers struggle to keep their branding consistent. Since you often work with several different distributors, you may find that each distributor is promoting your products differently. Unfortunately, customers may lose trust in your company when you don’t have unified branding because they won’t know which message to believe.

However, you can resolve this challenge by providing all the marketing materials for your distributors. Doing this ensures a unified brand appearance while relieving some of the pressure on your distributors because they don’t have to create the materials themselves.

Other times, your challenges may contradict each other. For example, manufacturers focus on selling specific products and promoting new devices. In contrast, distributors want to raise their profit margins. Therefore, distributors concentrate on making sales rather than selling a particular product.

Effective communication can help you find a compromise where your distributor won’t lose money from old supplies they haven’t sold yet while still promoting your new products.

Provide Necessary Materials

You can avoid miscommunication in healthcare distribution by ensuring your distributors receive all the necessary materials for understanding and using your supplies. Creating materials to send over with products also saves your manufacturing team time as you will have fewer phone calls from distributors asking for clarification.

For example, you can create training videos and booklets on your products. This training material will tell your distributors what your product is, how to use it, and how to market the product. In addition, you can provide videos that your distributors can show healthcare workers when demonstrating medical devices.

In the end, your customers will be more satisfied with their experience because they received accurate information and thorough training straight from the manufacturer.

Other marketing materials you can pass along to your distributors include:

• Signs for their shops
• Product brochures
• PDF ads for their websites
• Product descriptions for their ecommerce shops
• Product images for their promotions.

Create a Lasting Partnership

Always remember that you and your distributors are on the same team. Ultimately, you both want the same results: to sell your products. While you may feel strongly about certain expectations, you should not push your agenda to the point of compromising your partnership with your distributors.

Not every interaction has to relate to work. Sometimes the best way to invest in a healthy relationship is by investing in your distributors personally. You can send gifts to your distributors, invite them to events, and take time to thank them for their work as a way to show you appreciate their support in your partnership.

Investing in Your Manufacturer and Distributor Relationship in Healthcare

Efficient communication with your distributors begins with quality content that gives a clear and concise message. Share Moving Media helps you develop a stronger relationship with your distributors through better communication like training videos, RepConnect, articles, and advertising campaigns. If you want to reach 95% of the distribution rep community, Repertoire Magazine and Share Moving Media can help!

Contact us for more information on how we can help you connect with your distributors.