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for a retailer to be price competitive with the internet, then that fight is over,” he says. “And we’re just showing those vendors the door now and moving over to vendors that are of higher quality and higher values.
“And that’s helping us to maintain a good steady stream of our traditional revenue and margins that we can use to keep ourselves open without having to go extremes, such having to furlough anyone or let anyone go, things like that,” Poonawala adds.
Another inventory strategy is to really drill down on inventory management as a means of managing overhead. This starts with decreasing order frequency.
“We’ve been really focusing on improving the efficiency on our purchase orders,” Poonawala says. “Where I might have had some vendors where I was ordering on a weekly, or even twice-a-week basis, I’m moving more towards a biweekly or monthly order.
“Because of that, we’re spending less time on the ordering process, less time on the receiving process, and also in a dollar sense,” he adds. “If I am subject to any fuel surcharges or freight charges or costs like that, those are getting reduced and
consolidated that way.”
An additional inventory management
strategy is that the Spring Branch Medical Supply team is also paying much closer attention to what is on the shelves and what isn’t. This helps them make sales on in-demand items and identify those items that aren’t moving.
“We’re keeping a closer eye on inventory and are taking greater responsibility as a team on managing some of the stable prod- ucts in our showroom,” Poonawala explains. “We’re checking items such as incontinence,
bath, safety, and wound care, for example, on a daily basis to make sure that they’re constantly stocked. ... It’s amazing how keeping them constantly stocked is helping to capture sales.
“On that same topic, I have one person now tasked specifically with checking product sales performance,” he continues. “And if we see minimal or no sales of certain SKUs over a determined timeframe, then that space is being cleared and we’re putting other items that have a higher frequency of sales.”
OUTCOMES-BASED SELLING
We’ve all heard of outcomes-based care, but Ty Bello, RCC, president and founder of Team@Work says that HME providers need to start engaging in outcomes-based selling. So what does he mean by that?
“We know that it’s coming very, very close to where Medicare is preparing for outcomes-based reimbursement, right?” he asks. “They’re trying to move from the fee- for-service model that they’ve got today.
“Well, providers have to have outcomes- based processes,” Bello explains. “They have to be measuring outcomes for their various
Ty Bello, RCC President and Founder, Team@Work
Management Solutions | Technology | Products hme-business.com | November/December 2022 | HMEBusiness 23 Untitled-2 1 10/10/22 12:00 PM