56 Today's Veterinary Business Merchandising
There it was: a cover featuring
an adorable, heart-tuggingly cute
puppy with an ice pack on his head.
The cover story, titled "Pets and
Vets," explained how a pet owner
could save thousands of dollars by
finding cheaper veterinary drugs.
For those of you who remem-
ber, the story felt like the end was
coming for veterinary medicine,
but more specifically for retail
and pharmaceutical sales within
our practices.
Jump ahead 14 years and our
industry is still going strong. Our
swift thoughts of demise were
quickly proven invalid. With that
said, retail and pharmaceutical
sales in veterinary clinics continue
to be one of the most emotional
and passionate topics within our
industry. Attitudes toward box
stores and online retailers are all
over the place — anger, helpless-
ness, frustration, jealousy and
revenge, to name a few.
Consumer Reports wasn't at
fault. The cover story happened to
be a visual milestone that would
mark a future of change.
Yes, It Can Be Done
I'll let you in on a little secret: Plenty
of hospitals are benefiting and find-
ing success from product sales.
I get frustrated when I see
energy and emotion wasted on
something clinics cannot change:
competition. Don't get me wrong.
I am well aware of the sales hard -
ships that clinics have experienced
over the years. But competition
isn't going away, and, in many
ways, it will intensify. We need to
focus our energy on what we can
control. Innovation and adaptation
I was traveling through the Salt Lake City airport in July 2003 when my flip phone rang. My colleague on
the other end insisted that I run to the nearest newsstand to pick up the most recent copy of Consumer Reports maga-
zine. I reluctantly complied.
Merchandising
SELLING POINTS
By Brian Conrad, CVPM
Compete and profit on product sales
Squeezing revenue from retail isn't that hard if you know what you're doing.