SUPPLIER’S GOAL: FILL DENTISTS’ ADVICE CAVITY: ARRANGEMENT GIVES "FULL-SERVICE FIRM" A BRAND-NEW MEANING

Talk about one-stop shopping: A leading supplier of rubber gloves, drills and spit-sinks to dentists has added financial planning to its wares.

Henry Schein Inc. of Melville, N.Y., which also supplies veterinarians and physicians, is now hawking discount brokerage services, financial plans, estate planning, tax help, mortgage lending, insurance and various other investment advice to its 100,000 or so customers.

“They come to us for everything, why not financial planning?” asks Kristine Khederian, marketing coordinator at Schein.

Schein has hooked up with Prime Financial Services Inc., a Poughkeepsie, N.Y. broker-dealer with 300 reps in New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida. The company has dedicated 20 of them to providing advice to dentists, doctors and veterinarians.

A FOOT IN THE DOOR

Both companies are trying to exploit a market segment that is often wealthy and in need of advice on retirement, estate planning and managing money. Schein gets to share a continuing revenue stream from the sale of mutual funds, stock trades and insurance. And the reps at Prime Financial stand to get their feet into the offices of clients they might never meet otherwise.

The match between an equipment supply company and a brokerage is fairly unusual, but it’s not so far fetched: Schein already provides personal and commercial mortgages and leases offices and equipment to its clients.

Stiff competition from brokerages, insurance companies and banks has independent financial advisers scrambling for innovative ways to market themselves. So, if the marriage between Schein and Prime Financial works, similar joint ventures are sure to crop up, observers say.

“Most financial planners get clients through referrals,” explains Dennis Dolego, director of research and consulting at Optima Group Inc. in Fairfield, Conn. “So, if you can attach yourself to someone who already has a relationship set up, that’s attractive.”

To promote the service, Schein is planning a 36-week na
tional direct-mail marketing campaign, says Prime’s Alan Daniels, who is serving as director of marketing for the Henry Schein financial planning group. Health care professionals who want financial advice can reach a Prime adviser by calling a number printed on the marketing flyers.

No overnight success

Prime expects to expand to other states in its arrangement with Schein.

But will docs of all kinds, many of whom already have a broker or even invest on their own, trust a supply company to provide them with personal investment advice? Mr. Daniels says he believes Prime can get them to switch. Prime’s president, Michael Ryan, has already developed relationships with various dental groups by promoting his firm at trade shows.

Plans call for Henry Schein to peddle, among other products, the insurance of the Travelers Group and Nationwide, and Fidelity and Vanguard mutual funds.

Still, “to be successful, Henry Schein has to establish credibility and to create awareness,” says Mr. Daniels, “and those two things aren’t going to happen overnight.”