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DOTmed 100 Spotlight -- Aries Medical, Syracuse, NY

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK -- Aries Medical is a used medical equipment dealer specializing in bone densitometry units (ranging from small portables to the full six-foot tables), X-rays tubes, and refurbished X-ray heads and inserts. They also sell new equipment such as Kodak digital imagers and portable X-ray equipment. Their offices are in Syracuse, Virginia, and Florida.

The company's president, Michael Hudson, recently spoke with us about what he has learned over the years about doing business internationally. While most of their customers are in the United States, Aries Medical does some business overseas as well. They have sold to customers in Mexico, the Philippines, and Europe. Hudson has found that in these dealings, concerns about fraud are more prevalent. He takes care to make sure that his international customers feel confident that they will get the equipment they expect.

Aries Medical deals with customers one-on-one so they can be sure they know exactly what the customer wants. Then, when a deal is ready to go forward, they draw up a detailed purchase order agreement that spells out as clearly as possible what the customer will be getting, including serial numbers, pictures, information on the warranty, what happens if the equipment needs to be returned, and the timeframe for the deal. This document is agreed upon and signed before any money changes hands. After the equipment has been shipped, Aries Medical follows up with the customer to make sure that they've received what they expected. Hudson has found that this approach eliminates a lot of problems: "I haven't had any returns of any kind in the past six years."

Hudson also offered advice to those who are new to selling equipment internationally. He feels it's very important to get payment up-front. "There are a lot of con-artists out there, a lot of people who are not 100% honest," he said. "If the deal smells too good to be true, it probably is." Hudson says he has actually walked away from more deals than he's put together: "If you can do that, you'll be extremely successful. If you don't do that, you certainly will dig yourself a hole from which you'll never get out."

Hudson has found that DOTmed has been a big help with creating more trust in the industry. The Blacklist has made it much more difficult for those with bad intentions to do business. "DOTmed has done a really, really great job of addressing [issues of fraud], not only through the forums, but also by asking other people for suggestions about how we can stop this bad part of the business," Hudson said.

Hudson himself has tried to do his part by contributing advice to the forums about how to make sure deals go through without problems. He hopes that others will heed his advice and that it helps their transactions go through smoothly and successfully.