Most vendors you hold accounts with offer a dealer locator / authorized reseller finder on their website. They want consumers to find their products nearest to them and by selling their products you should be findable. Over the years the practice I work at has received a countless number of phone and email inquiries about the products we sell that they learned of on the manufacturers website. People have come from hundreds of miles away for said product and have parlayed into patients who have returned time after time.
Before I continue I must say that you should not be intimidated by this task. Most often you can do this once and it’s done forever. If you do not have the time to do this, give the task to anyone in your office that has some spare time. This can also be chipped away at and does not need to all be done in one day.
Gather a list of all of your optical related accounts. Include frame lines, lens manufacturers, accessories, non-rx items and insurance companies. Printing out a list or making a spreadsheet will help keep track of which vendors you’ve worked on. First visit their website and see if they have a locator, if they don’t, update your list and move on. Most frame and lens vendors DO have locators. On the next vendor that does have a locator, type in your info (zip code most likely) and search. If you appear, great! Make sure your information is accurate while you’re here. If your information is inaccurate or non-existent, contact your rep and ask them how to get listed or update your profile. If you don’t have a rep or aren’t sure who it is, contact the 800 number on the vendors website and ask!
I have come across a few vendors who require a minimum piece quantity of sales to get listed. Also, some vendors have multiple types of listings for different things so make sure you get listed for all you offer.
Generally, once you complete the list once you’re done. When you setup a new account with a vendor do this at setup and you won’t have such a large task next time.
Have you verified you are on all of your vendor directories?