By Chuck Cohen/ Managing Director, Benco Dental

On Friday, I had the pleasure of visiting with four terrific, long-term Benco customers in and around Philadelphia.  While the practices were of various sizes, and ranged from suburban (The Dentists at Brinton Lake in Glen Mills) to downtown (Jefferson Dental Associates and Dr. Scott Bonomo) to traditional South Philly (Dr. Steve Moskowitz), they all had one important person in common:  Marty Pascal.

Marty, 70,  is one of those guys you don’t hear much about.  After nearly 40 years as a dental sales rep, including the last 25 with Benco, he retired last year.  He came to the business with a background in dental laboratories, and leveraged that experience into a long, successful, and stable career.  He’s nothing like the ‘classic’ salesman profile:  he’s not flashy, or fast-talking, or even an extrovert.  Instead, Marty is like a character out of a 1940s serial Western:  self-effacing, dependable, honest, and hard-working.  He spent his entire career focused on solving customer problems and growing dental practices.

And here’s the terrific part of the story:  last week, when I visited four of the offices that Marty called on — some for more than 20 years — with their new Friendly Benco Rep, every one of the doctors raved about the role that Marty played in his practice.  Hearing those stories inspired me. Hearing stores like that always inspire me.

In the heat of the moment, it’s sometimes hard to know the ways that we influence the personal and professional lives of our customers and teammates.  When someone like Marty retires after a long career, it’s an opportunity to look back, and think about the opportunities that all of us have to positively impact those we touch.

In the immortal words of John Lennon, “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.”