TL;DR
Search the NPI Registry for the Community/Retail Pharmacy taxonomy and remove the chains. Confirm each store with your state board of pharmacy, then email the owner pharmacist.
Find pharmacies with ManyPIIndependent pharmacies are a good market for pharmacy software, front-store products, delivery services, staffing, marketing and financing, because the owner can usually say yes without a head office in the way. The hard part is the list: chains and independents look alike in most directories. Public healthcare data gets you most of the way. Pharmacists talk about their work in r/pharmacy, and r/sales is where sellers ask how to reach independent owners.
Start with the NPI Registry
Every pharmacy that bills insurance needs a National Provider Identifier, and the NPPES NPI Registry is free to search. Pharmacies are listed as organisations, and the taxonomy tells you what kind:
Taxonomy code | Meaning | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
3336C0003X | Pharmacy, Community/Retail Pharmacy | Most neighbourhood pharmacies, independent and chain |
333600000X | Pharmacy (general) | Catching pharmacies registered without the more specific code |
Search by taxonomy, state and city, and you get each pharmacy's name, practice address and phone number. Two cautions: big chains use the same codes, and the registry itself says an NPI doesn't confirm a provider is licensed. Our guide to medical billing clients covers the registry's search in more detail.
Remove the chains
This step decides whether the list is any good:
Repeated organisation names. Fifty records under one company name is a chain.
Names that match national or regional brands, including grocery and warehouse stores with a pharmacy counter.
The website. An independent usually has its own site, or no site at all. A chain store's page sits under a corporate domain.
What's left is a list of independents and small groups. The National Community Pharmacists Association represents this segment, and its events and state affiliates are good places to meet owners in person.
From an NPI export to a list of independent pharmacy owners.
Confirm each store is active
Your state board of pharmacy publishes a licence lookup. Check that the pharmacy's licence is active before it goes into a campaign, since NPI records can outlive the store.
Who decides
Role | What they decide | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Owner pharmacist | Almost everything: software, suppliers, services, staff | The main contact at an independent |
Pharmacist-in-charge | Operations and compliance at the store | Often the owner. Sometimes a separate employee |
Multi-store owner | Purchases across all their stores | Worth finding: one yes covers several locations |
Front-store manager | Retail products and displays, in larger stores | Only for retail-side offers |
What to say
Owner pharmacists are short on time and wary of anything that adds work at the counter. Lead with time saved or money kept:
Hi [Name], we work with independent pharmacies like [Pharmacy] on [what you do]. Most owners we talk to want [the specific problem, in their words]. [A proof point you can back up.] Would a 15-minute call after closing one evening work?
Doing it with ManyPI
Disclosure: ManyPI is our product.
Export your filtered NPI list, import it into ManyPI, and the agent finds each pharmacy's website and the owner's email, noting where each one came from. Map Search covers the local route too: draw an area and pull the pharmacies inside it from OpenStreetMap. Every email is checked against the receiving mail server before a campaign can use it, and sequences go out from your own inbox. The lead generation page shows the setup.
An NPI export brought into ManyPI, with websites and owner emails found and checked.
Check the chain filter twice before you send. A pitch meant for an owner lands badly with a chain store's employee, who usually can't buy anything locally anyway.
Written by
Ole Mai
Founder / ManyPI