Most doctors I know dislike writing inventories and buying dental equipment to support new, remodeled, or upgraded facilities. They are concerned about being exploited by unscrupulous salespeople who over-use unnecessary parts and products with the largest distributor's profits. In the last days of dental school, I was advised not to believe that dental equipment suppliers are acting in my best interest. It is not fair to say that these negative evaluations may be related to the people and companies that sell dental equipment, but these positive emotions are not prevalent in dentists when prescribing a positive course of action (which is the goal of this paper).
A large part of the difference between dentists and equipment representatives comes from the dichotomy of sales and marketing, and the dentist's technical training is based on years of deductive reasoning. This leads to a multi-layered principle of thinking process and accumulated information. Sales and marketing literature often says, "Our product is the best, and you should buy it because we say so!" This abbreviated thinking process is detrimental to most dentists and often requires a lot of information and Theoretical reasons to make major purchase decisions. My experience is that oral surgeons, with their advanced technical training, have conducted the most research on sales and marketing issues when forced to consider the environment lacking useful information in equipment and equipment decisions. Regardless of what some staff members may tell you, dentists are human beings, and most people get upset or upset in a process that needs to invest a lot of money into products that they think are ambivalent.
Ok, so how do you buy and buy important dental equipment? Gathering information and taking positive, goal-oriented steps will always help overcome the fear of dealing with the unknown. We start with some background information on the dental equipment manufacturing and sales process. As a young practitioner with a rich undergraduate background in frog anatomy, I barely know anything about the business world and know nothing about how typical business models are built. Here is a useful primer -
Dental equipment manufacturers such as A-dec, Pelton & Crane, Sirona, Gendex design, develop, manufacture, assemble, transport and sell equipment. Some manufacturers have only one device, but most major corporations have several different products to choose from for each particular product type. For example, A-dec offers three surgical instruments - the A-dec 500 Series, the Radius Series and the Performer Series. The available options and related costs drop proportionately from the A-dec 500 series to the Radius series, from the Radius series to the Performer series.
Patterson, Sullivan-Schein and other independent dental supplies companies resell the manufacturer's equipment to you. Dealers, often referred to as dental distributors, interface with the manufacturer through the manufacturer's representative. The representative assists your local equipment dealer in selling and marketing their equipment and trains the dealer's technician to repair and repair the equipment on site. The dealer's technician is also the person most likely to install the new equipment in your facility, although it is not uncommon for a manufacturer's representative to access large or complex equipment for his equipment in his area.
My experience in the process is that distributors can not financially support and successfully sell their products unless they have a sales margin of at least 20%. Great and enduring manufacturers can find the right balance between providing quality products to end users and providing market, financial and technical assistance to their dealer network. At major dental shows, including Midwinters, Xinman and ADA annual meetings in Chicago, you will often see exhibits by major dental equipment manufacturers located near their equipment dealers. The A-dec booth is usually located opposite the Patterson booth, which is usually located just below the aisles and next to the Sullivan-Schein booth. For a variety of reasons, manufacturers often choose not to be consistent with all potential resellers. The previous example is the most advanced example of this limitation - you can not buy A-dec devices via Sullivan-Schein and you can not buy Pelton & Crane devices via Patterson.
