Submitted by Andy Hoffmann, Key Account Manager, 9 Years 

Midwest Mindset 

I never saw myself working in sales. But that’s how life has turned out. I grew up in southeast Minnesota, on a small farm in a community called Welch. We had one bar and a ski hill. That’s the town. I’d do chores in the morning before and after school.  

When I was little, we raised sheep, but we later transitioned to Black Angus cattle. In the winter, the cattle had to be fed and their water checked. Summers were spent fixing fences, pulling thistles, running the tractor and moving cows from one pasture to another. 

My early years instilled a strong work ethic in me. There’s something about working outdoors and seeing your work come to fruition that translates to sales. It requires patience and long-term thinking. Sometimes, especially in the short term, the work may not appear to pay off, but eventually, it does.  

Building Trust 

In medical device manufacturing, trust is everything. If a component is not exactly to specifications, right down to the labeling, certification and expiration date, then it’s wrong. Lives are on the line, so there’s no room for error. Working in this industry requires strong attention to detail to be successful. 

Our customers are usually OEMs or component manufacturers supplying major device companies. Every component must be signed off by not only their own engineering team, but their customer’s engineering team. Their requirements can be extensive. Many products are spec’d into their processes and called out by name, so qualifying a new one can cost tens of thousands of dollars and take years.  

That’s why it can be challenging to convince them to go with an alternative product, even if there are significant cost or performance benefits. But it can be done. 

This is a relationship business. Most of my customers want somebody they can trust to pick up the phone, be hyperresponsive and get them what they need. That’s what I pride myself on. I’m never pushy with customers—I figure out the issues they’re facing, their concerns and how I can help.  

I often present it like this to my customers: “You’re using product A, but we do have an alternative through product B. We’ll have to do the math to figure out if that’s worth you making that change.” People still do business with people, even in our new age. I’m a little old school like that. 

Instead of focusing on products, I connect the dots for customers. I’m never going to make a recommendation on an adhesive, especially a medical adhesive, but I’m sure going to connect them with the right people who can. I’m a resource for my customers. They know I know who to connect them with for the applications and product challenges they’re facing. 

Building relationships with suppliers is almost as important as building them with customers. I have great relationships with my reps, especially 3M and Loctite. We’re a tight team. I used to be a 3M rep, so I understand their goals and struggles. 

Program Evolution 

Since joining R.S. Hughes nine years ago, I’ve helped grow my territory into a business several times larger than where it started. My largest customer is a global medical device manufacturer. Their program has evolved into something unique to the company. Every leader who sees it firsthand finds it eye-opening. 

We won that business off a national account bid back in 2018. It started out at about 100 items, and we grew it from there. Then we showed how we could save them hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual costs by installing on-site vending machines. Previously, we supplied them through a Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) program. We brought product into multiple stocking locations, and they paid for it when it was delivered. It was open-air, so anybody could take whatever they wanted. 

I put together the proposal for them and said, “Here’s what we’re seeing on some of your high-spend items. These are vendable. When we move to vending, it will be consigned inventory, so you’re not going to pay for it until it leaves the machine.”  

Between that and securing the inventory in vending machines so only leads and supervisors had access, it trimmed down what they were using and reduced wasteful usage on their end — their leadership was thrilled. 

That solidified our partnership for years to come. With the VMI program, they had over 30 stocking locations between five buildings. In 2024, we transitioned them to 13 vending machines through our  SupplySight program. Now we sell them everything from cleanroom PPE, gloves, hairnets and shoe covers to cutting tools, cutting oils and floor matting.