In the competitive environment that HME dealers find themselves today, it is imperative that they find ways to reach new customers. This requires cultivating product niches in nontraditional markets. Marketing standers to public schools has paid off for two dealers in Texas, allowing them to develop potentially long-term, profitable relationships with the students and their families—and creating goodwill in the community.

Establishing business relationships with schools makes sound business sense. According to the US Department of Education, from 1993 to 2006 school expenditures have increased by 32% and funding will increase overall. Special education has outpaced this growth. Spending has increased from $450 per student in 1993 to somewhere between $1,100 and $1,400 in 2003, according to www.sellingtoschools.com. From a statistical point of view, pursuing a school contract seems like it should be as easy as simply making a phone call.

This is not the case, as Efrain Guerrero, RTS, of Border Mobility, McAllen, Tex, and Armando May Billarreal, owner of Wheelchairs N’Stuff, Corpus Christi, Tex, have found out.

Guerrero, spent 2 years visiting schools, building relationships with school physical and occupational therapists (PTs and OTs), and offering free service to the school district. His persistence has paid off. Guerrero provides standers to about 40 schools in the McAllen area’s 33 school districts.

The key to both Guerrero and Billarreal’s success was enlisting the school PTs, OTs, and special education teachers as allies. This helped leverage their position with the school district’s purchasing directors.

Guerrero emphasizes the importance of going to the therapists first. “[Dealers] should never omit speaking with the PTs or OTs of the schools,” he says. “They should never try to go above them immediately or go through the special ed teacher. PTs and OTs are our main referral sources, and you cannot alienate them.”

The biggest obstacle to Guerrero and Billarreal’s successful bids to get contracts was the bureaucratic nature of the school districts. Most schools simply order standers and parts out of catalogs—usually at inflated prices. “School districts like to order through catalogs and don’t stop to think who is going to deliver them, who is going to do the setup, who is going to do the fitting, and in the future who is going to do the growth adjustments and the maintenance,” says Guerrero. “All these things are not considered. They just look at the catalog and order.” Part of the challenge of working with the bureaucracy is that tradition often rules, with vendor lists containing organizations that may have a long familiarity with the schools, and not the best prices.

Proving that it was an advantage to work with him over just ordering from catalogs was part of Guerrero’s efforts. This included in-services and fix-it clinics, which went a long way to establishing his relationship with the schools’ therapy staffs and proving his reliability. “I normally respond within 24 hours about 90% of the time [to an in-service request],” he says. “They love it, because our competitors who are out of town come down only once a month. They normally don’t do fix-it clinics, they come down to get new business. So I’ve been able to pick up a lot of business just by the fact I’m local and I’ll go in and do repairs, and when I do my marketing, I’ll tell [the special ed teachers] how quickly I can respond. And I’ll have a few teachers who will roll their eyes…but I challenge them. I say, ‘Try me.’ And they’re pleasantly surprised because I take pride in what I do and how I do it. When I make an appointment, I keep it.”

Another advantage Guerrero brings to the table is his National Registry of Rehab Technology Suppliers (NRRTS) certification, which has been a big selling point, he says, in successfully getting school stander contracts.

Guerrero has seen first hand the disastrous results of not having a dealer—certified or not—handle the assembly and fitting of a stander. “One school district that I was working with the first year, the therapist wanted to go with me, but I wasn’t on the vendor list yet,” he says. “They went through the catalog, ordered two standers—it took 6 weeks to get them—where I could have gotten them in 10 days. They had the janitor put them together. The therapist called me a week later and asked if I could look at the standers. The janitor had unfortunately pinched one of the cables and rendered it useless. On the other stander, the pads were put on backwards, so the child was very uncomfortable. I offered to fix the unit—I believe the part was $87 retail.” The school’s purchasing people told Guerrero that, since he was not on the vendor list, he could not work on the standers, so they sent the systems back and had them repaired at a cost of $800. It took several more weeks to get the repaired units back. To their credit, the therapists wanted Guerrero to service the units.

All this effort to build relationships with school districts and navigate the bureaucracy is worth it to Billarreal and Guerrero for both the sake of their business and the sake of the students.

Why Bother?
According to Guerrero, one of the biggest advantages of having standers available in schools is the psychological well-being of the students. “When we put [a student] in a stander, we change his view of the world,” he says. “His psyche is immediately elevated, because he feels equal to everybody else his size, and he can [look] people in the eyes. And that’s extremely important.” There are other benefits to using standers in schools, including improving upper body balance and strength, assisting with skeletal development, and alleviating pain caused by inappropriate positioning.

And helping kids are among the motivations for both Billarreal and Guerrero to pursue stander contracts. “It’s not a matter of making money, because I sure as heck don’t make that much money when I do standers for the school district,” says Billarreal. “As a matter of fact, part of the disclosure that I put on my bids is that I’ll do whatever it takes as long as that equipment is still being used for the children. The only thing you do pay is the initial charge for the equipment. If there are some adjustments that need to be done, if there is some maintenance that needs to be done, I’m there.”

While the dealers offer the schools and the students tremendous advantages in personalized, continuing service, having a presence in schools has helped both Billarreal and Guerrero’s business with referrals to parents resulting in equipment for home use.

When evaluating a student for a stander, Guerrero meets with the parents in addition to the student and therapy staff. This helps generate referrals as does Guerrero’s persistent marketing. “Part of the thing I do when I provide equipment to any child, as I’m doing the fitting, I’m also marketing,” he says. “I’ll tell the parents if they have any friends, neighbors, relatives with special needs children, ask them to call me.” In addition to selling equipment, Guerrero also acts as a conduit to donate used equipment to any needy children he is aware of.

Guerrero does make money supplying standers to schools. He claims that Border Mobility was among the top 25 vendors of standers in the nation last year. He says the success that the company has had in getting good, consistent reimbursements has to do with simply using the coding manuals properly.

Getting into the schools is only part of the battle; dealers have to be prepared to support the standers as well.

Supporting Good Works
Guerrero says that training is an ongoing process. “Every time I go into a school, any school, I ask the person in charge, ‘Do you have any questions, do you need a refresher course?’ I’m constantly asking if they hired a new assistant that needs training, so the special ed teachers feel that I’m watching out for them and the children, of course,” he says.

Aiding in the support of the standers are manufacturers. “I’ve shown the manufacturers how serious we are, and they know that if I ask for 100 catalogs or brochures, it’s for a very good reason,” says Guerrero. “We have an excellent rapport with our manufacturers.”

Even with the challenges inherent in breaking down the doors of bureaucracy, Billarreal says that it is worth the effort to pursue stander contracts in schools.

While Guerrero recommends just being persistent when pursuing school contracts, Billarreal offers another piece of practical advice. “I think in this business you should treat people the way you would like your family to be treated,” he says.

C.A. Wolski is associate editor of Dealer/ Provider.