Medical Distribution Solutions, Inc. (MDSI) was formed in 1993 by Brian Taylor and his partner Chris Kelly with the creation of Repertoire Magazine. Prior to starting MDSI, Taylor and Kelly were independent manufacturer reps based in Atlanta, Georgia.
The precursor to Repertoire Magazine was a faxed newsletter sent out to their dealer reps. The idea started when colleague and mentor George Blowers suggested they find a way to stay connected with their dealer reps so as not to be “out of sight, out of mind.” Taylor explains:
“We had a big area, and we had good relationships with the dealer reps, but trying to stay in touch with all of them was tough. Blowers said, ‘You know, when you guys aren’t riding with these reps, they’re selling somebody else’s stuff. You know, out of sight, out of mind. You need a way to communicate with these folks when you’re not riding with them. The fax machine’s a great way to do it.’ So we started faxing our network of reps when we had a new product line or if we learned of a new billing code that something was reimbursable for docs.”
The response they received from the faxes was overwhelmingly positive, encouraging them to continue leveraging the idea. At the same time, with the changes that were occurring in healthcare in the early 90s, Taylor and Kelly had a growing concern that as the “middle middle men” their value in the industry might no longer be perceived very well. This confluence of factors prompted them to enhance and expand their publication in order to promote awareness and understanding and help secure their place in the industry.
Though neither Taylor nor his partner had any experience in publishing, they decided to run with the idea. Approaching businesses like Welch Allyn and Midmark, they were able to get enough interest and commitments to launch the first edition of Repertoire, trading space for free products. Taylor explains,
“We said, ‘Well, look, we don’t take advertising. What we do is we take your message and we put it into a sales format for these guys so they understand the value of how to sell your product.’…and then they go, ‘Well, look, we don’t have any budget’ and so we said, ‘Well, that’s not a problem. Just give us free goods.’ We would take product from manufacturers, and because we were reps and had relationships with distributors, we would take X amount of the value of the ad in product from a manufacturer and sell it to the distributor at a little below what they would pay for it normally.”
It was an unconventional way to get started, but it worked, and with the success of the first editions of Repertoire, they had the momentum to keep going. Ironically, in an attempt to secure their advertisers’ loyalty, their major competitor, Medical Product Sales (MPS), was responsible for bringing them significant exposure early on:
“Lo and behold, after the second issue of Repertoire, we started getting calls from all over the place from potential advertisers asking, ‘Who are you guys?’ So we told them who we were and then asked, ‘Well, how did you get our number? How did you ever hear of us?’ It turned out that MPS had sent out, to all their advertisers, a comparison chart between their publication and the fledgling Repertoire… it was crazy. It was the worst thing they could have done—they put us on everybody’s radar!”
Eventually Taylor and Kelly were convinced to start taking actual advertising, and with the additions of a publishing expert and a professional journalist to the team, Repertoire slowly developed into a legitimate magazine that is still going strong today.