For over 11 years, Barton Associates Senior Account Executive Michael Nich has been a go-to resource for United States medical facilities in need of locum tenens providers, building not only successful business relationships, but also meaningful personal connections along the way.
Nich holds the record for the highest sales of any Barton Associates employee in the company’s history—an accomplishment that recently earned him the honor of being named the inaugural inductee in the Barton Associates Hall of Fame.
“I don’t think the agency that you work with necessarily matters—I think it’s the person that you work with at that agency that is going to determine your experience,” Nich said. “It has to do with building a relationship, knowing what you’re doing, and being able to explain what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. It’s about having your mind in the right places.”
Nich doesn’t just talk the talk at Barton—he puts these values into practice, forging bonds with facility managers while simultaneously acting as a mentor to colleagues, pushing them to be the person that facilities and providers want and choose to work with.
“One thing I have become very good at is understanding the type of person my clients are trying to hire and then directing our recruiters to go and find that right fit,” Nich said. “At the end of the day, staffing is playing matchmaker. So I’m always fine tuning my process to try to play matchmaker as best as I possibly can.”
Building Meaningful Connections With Clients
After earning his MBA from Endicott College and spending his last year as a star pitcher on the baseball team, Nich joined Barton Associates in 2013 as an entry-level account manager. From there, Nich put everything he had into becoming a successful producer for the company, working longer days and putting in more calls than his colleagues to ensure he was at the top of the billing leaderboards every month.
“I was just a hard worker who enjoyed competition,” Nich said. “I enjoyed the hustle and outworking everybody. I want to work harder than everybody else because I know that it’s going to produce results.”
And produce results he did—Nich hit sales milestone after sales milestone, outperforming all of his colleagues and reaching billing numbers faster than anyone in the company had up until that point.
Nich has partnered with healthcare facilities of all shapes and sizes, helping them maintain continuity of patient care with locum tenens providers. Some of his clients are large health systems, while others are smaller Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities in underserved areas of the country.
“I enjoy the rural health side of it because I’m able to make an impact on an area of the country that is ignored,” Nich said.
Nich points to an IHS facility that he’s worked hand-in-hand with for almost his entire career as an example of one client where he knows he’s helped make positive change.
“Out there, it’s about quality: it’s about making an impact, and that’s what a lot of providers want to get into,” Nich said. “They want to care for the patient and do a good job. They don’t want to just see somebody, enter them into their notes, and move on to the next one.”
He also enjoys working with the larger healthcare systems—Nich said he enjoys seeing professional sports team rep a company logo on their uniforms and being able to say “That’s my client.”
To Nich, it doesn’t matter whether his client is small or large—he’s focused on building trust and a personal connection with every client so that they come back to work with him. He even sends out family Christmas cards to some of his closest clients, not just because he wants to maintain the relationship, but also because they’ve become a big part of his life, personally and professionally.
“At the end of the day, the clients I do best with are people I can form some sort of personal relationship with,” Nich said. “I want them to get to know me.”
If you’re a facility manager who’s looking for locum tenens solutions, reach out to Michael Nich at mnich@bartonassociates.com.
