Today, product demand changes fast. Animal health product distributors don’t just have to keep up —they need to look ahead. Luckily, you don’t need a crystal ball to predict animal health industry trends, FDA approvals, and changes in veterinary operations. There are myriad resources, both out in the community and online, that you can use to stay current.
Join Trade Organizations
Trade organizations are founded under the notion that we’re smarter when we work together. The North American Veterinary Community (NAVC) is an important community to participate in. The publisher, who came from human health, tailors publications to distributors, to help them understand the industry on the same level that vets do.
Attend Conferences
Join fellow distributors, manufacturers, and suppliers at the United Veterinary Services Association (UVSA) spring conference to connect and exchange ideas. The UVSA prides itself on offering a relaxed, personal setting prime for collaboration. Participating distributors recently worked together to create a standardized product distribution request form for manufacturers to increase efficiency along the supply chain.
Read Animal Health Industry Publications
It’s important to step into the shoes of your target market to understand their pain points, needs, and desires. When you read like a vet, you can think like a vet. Check out these helpful resources to understand your target demographic better:
- Vet-Advantage is one of the industry’s top print publications. It also provides training videos and content for distributors online.
- Fountain Report is a weekly subscription service from Vet Advantage and Fountain Agricounsel that includes in-depth news articles and quantitative data on animal health.
- Animalytics allows you to access data from hundreds of veterinary clinics. View up to 50 million transactions involving 900,000 pets.
- dvm360 shares a broad range of industry news across veterinary areas, animals, distribution categories, and distribution roles.
- petMD is a great way to keep your finger on the pulse of what pet owners might be reading and what kinds of issues vets might be discussing with them.
- Veterinary Practice News offers insight into vets’ practice management and clinical developments in the industry.
- American Veterinary Medical Association hosts two landmark publications, the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Journal of Veterinary Research. These are standard reading in vet practices.
- Vetstreet features veterinary news and advice from vets to pet owners. Learn what vets are doing, using, and practicing in their day-to-day patient care.
- PetBacker’s blog is a great way to learn more about the end consumer — pet owners — if you’re considering direct-to-consumer distribution.
Explore EPiQ’s Offerings
The resources above can all help you understand the market better — but why do the research yourself if you don’t have to? At EPiQ Animal Health, we collect animal health industry data to record, analyze, and predict trends for you so you can focus on what you do best — distribute product.
Partnering with EPiQ affords you tons of industry resources:
- Understand market trends, from the health of the animal health industry as a whole down to the performance of a particular brand or product.
- Empower your sales force with the data they need to close a deal, including the features, benefits, and margins associated with products.
- Get the scoop on the competition. Learn how much of the market share your direct competitors are taking and what you can do to improve your sales in key categories.
- Become more efficient. We go to the sales meetings of our distributors and work with their leadership teams on a quarterly basis. Then, we share the information and insights we glean to help you become more successful in your everyday operations.
- Train on top industry products. We offer our distributors on-demand, on-site, and online training on industry-leading brands to set you up for success.
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