The healthcare industry is changing as rapidly as the ER moves on a Saturday night.

Pushed forward by the many technological advancements of the past several years, we are now in what’s called the 4th Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0.

The so-called Internet of Things (IoT) is making this transformation happen, merging the digital and the mechanical into one system that can be remotely operated, or even allowed to manage itself automatically. Unsurprisingly, these trends push for the entire business environment to change; causing some coveted jobs and skills to become completely obsolete, or at least less valuable and relevant, in the process.

The Old vs. New

With this turning of the tides, medical device salespeople need to redefine themselves and change the way they operate or risk becoming obsolete. (ie. RepLess Sales Model)

In the not so distant past, medical device salespeople were hired in overwhelming part on the ability to sell (which makes sense right?). With the new tactics and strategies in place by medical device firms the look and feel of the medical device salesperson is starting to change.

No longer are the “Relationship Rep,” or the “Competitive Rep,” considered the top candidate.  Are those qualities important? Of course, but not as important as they once were.

There’s an increased emphasis on metrics, data, and analytics, as well as the ability to pitch to CFO types.

These are skills the new Medical Salesperson needs to have.

Engaging Healthcare CFOs

Most salespeople are well versed in tackling the OR, but when push comes to shove, almost none of them are ready or willing to engage in an in-depth meeting with the CFO. Unlike the typical OR sessions, a one-on-one with the Executive Suite needs to address the financial concerns and priorities of the hospital and how your device will impact the overall revenue and expense forecast.

In an article by Health Leaders Media, it says that “CFO’s are feeling the pressure to trade in their spreadsheets for crystal balls, when what they really want is a good way to integrate long-range financial planning with the tactical cost reductions they are implementing every day.”

For salespeople to have a serious and comprehensive discussion with a CFO, they need to address pricing and reimbursement upfront but understand the entire market the hospital competes in.  Salespeople with a better understanding of stakeholders and how their product or company can impact the overall strategy of the Hospital are the one’s who will get Full Access and never be told no.

If you or your company is only worried about the product being approved by the Value Analysis Team, you’ve failed before you’ve even begun.

Can the current salesperson look beyond face-value of the price and look further into the long-term relationship with the hospital?  Most can’t, which is why RepLess or Rep-Lite Sales models even exist.

Analytics & Data Driven Decision Making

The next key skill set many medical device firms look for in reps is the ability to analyze data, understand their market, and make an informed decision based on numerous factors.  Less and less Sales VP’s and Market Managers are impressed with the “I trust my gut,” approach to the market.

The stakes are too high for the companies that are depending on market penetration to trust the gut of the salesperson who’s been in the market for 5 years.  These firms want their salespeople to partner with hospitals and surgery centers at the CFO/CEO level.

This partnership and relationship almost guarantee’s your product isn’t nixed the next time the hospital tries to “bid out” the service line.

Understanding the Market (Not Your Customers)

In many cases when a Sales Leader is interviewing a candidate for a sales position in a market the inevitable question about the market comes up.  It usually is stated in some fashion like this:
“I see you’ve worked in the Phoenix market for several years.  Tell me about the market.”

In the salesperson’s eyes, they think this is their time to shine about all the customers they know.  And in many cases, it is.  However, in the new Healthcare Market the customers are important, but what’s more important is where are those patients coming from and is there ample supply of patients for the market to grow?

The new Sales Leaders want to know that the salesperson they hire isn’t just plugged into the customer market, but the entire market.  For example:  Who are the largest Primary Care practices or docs in the market?  Which docs influence the market?  What underlying relationships exist where the company could gain an immediate foothold in the market?

These are the answers the Sales Leader wants to hear from the person they are interviewing.  They want a salesperson who UNDERSTANDS the entire market.

Are you prepared for that?

Are You Ready to Transform Yourself?

Most salespeople will openly say they’re up for the challenge but do so with hesitance.

Let’s face it, change isn’t easy. However, faced with extinction change suddenly seems like an easy thing to do.

The first thing reps need to do is truly get plugged into their market.  Start asking questions about referral sources.  Go meet with these docs. The easiest sales call you’ll ever make is the one where you’re not selling anything.  Go talk to the big hitters in Primary Care.  They’ll tell you exactly where you need to be!

Next, talk to your company about Financial Proforma’s for CFO’s.  Don’t ask for one so you can have it in your bag.  Ask for one so you can UNDERSTAND the financial position in the market.  Go meet with the VP of Finance at one of your hospitals. Don’t do it to sell your product.  Ask their opinion.  Ask them what keeps them up at night.  Ask what direction the hospital wants to go in the next 3-5 years.

These conversations will help you educate your customers but more importantly, position you in a great place when it comes to meeting with the CEO & CFO of the facility you’re working in.

Conclusion

This may seem like a tall order, which is why ProSellus is here to help.

ProSellus can provide the market analytics for you or your entire sales team all in a simple-to-use mobile application.  Never be caught on your heels again when talking about your market.

To learn more about ProSellus check us out at www.prosellus.com

With 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, another 4 years of residency, and another possible year of fellowship, there are at least 13 years of  training physicians go through before they officially start practicing medicine on their own. That’s a whole lot of school!

During these years of training, one would expect that physicians know everything there is to know about how to become a successful doctor.  Except for 1 tiny detail…

No one taught them how to run a business!

Now, in all fairness, learning how to operate a business successfully requires years of learning, and there are only so many years in a person’s life to spend on learning so many complex fields of study.

Nevertheless, this is the nature of the healthcare industry today and, for better or worse, many doctors need to know how to handle patient care and how to manage their business.

Period.

Running a Private Medical Practice

There are plenty of inherent risks when opening a private medical practice. Regardless of the variables and the specialty of that practice, one such undertaking is said to cost at least $100,000. It includes everything from contractors, equipment, other startup costs, as well as all payrolls and bills until a stable revenue stream is established.

David J. Zetter is a  lead consultant at Zetter Healthcare Management Consultants and a member of the National Society of Certified Healthcare Business Consultants. He said, “If you’re not independently wealthy, or you just have enough money to set out the cost to open but also need to have operating capital until revenue comes in, then you need a loan.” 

As reimbursement declines and physicians are taking the financial hit on the chin, it’s no wonder there has been such an increase of consolidation within the healthcare industry.

Doc’s simply can’t afford it, and typically they don’t have the business chops to find additional sources of revenue to off-set declining reimbursement.

The Power and Influence of the Salesperson

Do the best salespeople teach their docs how to make money?  You better believe it.  (And you wonder why that doc you can’t flip from the competition is SO loyal to the rep who has an inferior product.)

Due to the nature of their business, salespeople are presented with an excellent opportunity to show their real value to physicians. As what we’ve spoken about until this point is a definite problem for most doctors. Salespeople can help by providing valuable insight on how to enhance revenue and manage their practice.

The ‘currency’ of the healthcare industry is, without a shadow of a doubt, physician-to-physician referrals. No private practice can ever hope to be successful if its patients are only those who looked them up on the internet.

Listen up salespeople…

If you’re as good as you think you are, I’m willing to bet you’re pretty well connected in your business.  (ie. You know a lot of people.)  Monetize those relationships!

Become the building block for your physicians.  Introduce your docs to others and help them expand their network.  The value this can bring is immeasurable.

Additionally, keep your ear to the ground.  You’ll hear other reps or some of your physicians talking about “deals” they’re in.  Whether it’s a new imaging center taking physician investors, or some other healthcare related business, introduce these ideas to your customers.  Introduce All of these deals to your customers, let them decide if they want to be involved.

Become the GO-TO person for all things business related for your customer.  You will successfully transform yourself from salesperson to business consultant, and 100% of the business is yours.

Conclusion 

In the new healthcare economy selling a product, even a great one, isn’t enough.  If you can’t become a trusted business advisor to your physician customer, then you’re just like everyone else spitting out clinical studies.  Boring to your customer.

If you truly want to differentiate yourself and solidify your place in your market as the “Go-To” person… I challenge you to start approaching this business differently!

To learn more about becoming a consultant to your physician customers or to learn more about ProSellus, go to blog.prosellus.com

Like almost everything in the world today, healthcare is a full-fledged industry. And like any other industry, it must run smoothly and be connected enough to offer its services to those who need it the most.

The name of the game is patient care, and the commodity of the game ar the patients themselves.

Physician referrals are what keep this game going, as it were, creating business relationships, increasing revenue, and saving lives.

Think of it like this… any engine needs fuel to run.  If you have fuel in the engine, you go, if you don’t have fuel, you don’t. Whether the doc is an individual private practice physician or the largest Healthcare System in your market.  If there are no patients, there is no fuel.

With no patients, everything comes to a screeching halt.

This is where I challenge all the salespeople out there to stop and think about their business a bit differently.  You’re told to sell your product based on what the customer needs and wants. Have you ever stopped for a minute and REALLY talked to a customer about what they need and want, irrespective of your products?  Most haven’t. 

The overwhelming answer every time I spoke with a doc:  patients. 

So, how do patients get to a specialist? For one, they can look for a specialist over the internet which happens a lot.  In many cases though insurance programs create a barrier for the “self-referral” so many times the patient is referred by another physician.

Studies indicate that doctors receive over 45% of their patients by referral, usually from other physicians. This trend in the healthcare system is indicative of several factors: increased specialization, a lack of time for complex cases, and a fear of lawsuits for not consulting an expert.

In the end, patients need specialized care, and in many cases that means a referral to a specialist… but why are they referred to THAT SPECIFIC SPECIALIST?

Physician-To-Physician Referrals

Physician-to-physician referrals are, in a sense, the lifeblood (the fuel) of the healthcare industry, acting as a currency in the day-to-day transactions that happen in the medical world.

Common sense would say referrals should be based solely on the patient’s needs and the skill/reputation of the physician that the patient is referred to. But, since healthcare is a business, logic doesn’t always apply, or maybe it does, just not the way you always envisioned it.

What we’re saying here is this:  Most patients believe when they are referred to a “Specialist” they are referred to that specific physician because they are “best in class.”  And in some cases, that’s correct.  Unfortunately, the reality is, this isn’t usually the case.

In many cases patients are referred to specialists who have some sort of a relationship with the referring physician.  That may mean that a reciprocal referral relationship exists or maybe the recipient of the referral sends patients to the referring physician’s MRI Center or some other investment.  Whatever the case, it seems most referral relationships in Healthcare are part of the circular flow of commodities cycling through the system.

There also seems to be an interesting relationship between primary care and specialist physicians. On the one hand, specialists are better paid than their counterparts. It’s primary care that has the most versatility and autonomy.

They are the Gatekeepers of Healthcare.  They are the ones who refer patients to specialists, and its specialists that need to keep primary care physicians happy, especially those in densely populated and doctor-saturated metropolitan areas.

The Solution

It shouldn’t come as a surprise doctors are actively looking to form and maintain these physician-to-physician referral streams – they are the currency of the medical community. With the right tools at their disposal, healthcare salespeople can intervene in this previously-mentioned exchange and act as intermediaries to facilitate the creation of secure, reliable, and long-lasting physician networks.

The best salespeople in the Healthcare Industry aren’t salespeople at all… they are brokers, deal-makers, relationship managers and above all else they understand physician referral patters.  They understand where the patients come from, and most importantly to their business… where they need to go

Designed and created by the best salespeople in the industry for salespeople, ProSellus is a mobile sales tool developed after years of selling medical devices in the field. Its emphasis is efficiency and effectiveness, by providing salespeople with everything they need to help their physician partners build and expand their business.

In a sense, ProSellus is not a tool that sells medical products. ProSellus is the tool that catapults you, or your reps, from being the average salesperson to the most coveted asset that has ever walked through the customers door.

By making you an indispensable part of a physician’s practice and turning you into the most valued resource the customer has, ProSellus makes your job of selling medical devices a walk in the park.

Conclusion

Technology is completely changing the way companies conduct their business. Technology applies equally as well in the healthcare industry. Instead of focusing strictly on the sales of today, ProSellus empowers its users to create the business opportunities and loyalty of tomorrow.

If you would like to learn more about ProSellus request your demo today or feel free to reach out to me directly: scottwalle@prosellus.com

The traditional sales training you received at your first company, or subsequent companies, was either feature and benefit-driven, or in many cases… non-existent.

Typically sales training, even at the best of companies, is clinically driven. What does that look like in practice? You spend all your time learning about the product, a little about the businesses you are selling to, and then you’re taught how the product works. (In no particular order)

 Here is the hard reality when it comes to selling 100% clinically.  If you sell 100% based on clinical evidence and rely on the, “my product has all the evidence to prove it’s better than my competitor(s)” strategy and then the doc says, “I agree,” what are you going to do when your competitor actually has a better product? 

 You’re done.  Game over.

 Your customer will simply say, “you sold me on your product being the best… it’s not anymore… so I’m going to switch to your competitor…”  Done deal. You’re out.

 How’s that taste?

During all of this clinical training, it may have dawned on you that you were not receiving any sales STRATEGY. The closest traditional sales training gets to cultivating strategy is breaking out in role-play at a district or regional meeting. Which don’t get me wrong, is very valuable.

 Maybe a couple of associates share insight from their experience about what to say, or not to say, at certain times or what kind of tone to take in meeting with a reluctant client. But where is the REAL strategy? What are the proven methods to use when approaching a potential customer? And how can they be adapted to fit the unique needs of each client?

Where are you learning which KOL’s (Key Opinion Leaders) in your market ACTUALLY influence many others in the market?  You’d be amazed how far a loyal doc who has influence over others can take you…

The reality is this:  Most business leaders don’t know what your reality is…

Most business leaders are so far removed from the nitty-gritty world of sales that they don’t know what it takes to win over a customer. They can look over reports, strategize on long-term business maneuvers, and manage a diverse group of people just fine. These are, after all, the areas of expertise for a manager and business leader to excel in.

But when it comes to sales strategy which actually takes place in the field, in front of the diverse customer base, in many cases they know as little as the receptionist. (Sorry if that stings for some, but let’s face it… it’s true.)

The point is: everyone has their area of expertise, including those of us in sales. And it just so happens that the winners of today are 10 steps ahead of industry norms and traditional sales strategy. In each company, there are over-achieving salespeople hungry for success who deploy a unique strategy that will never make it into an industry survey or list of top 10 sales strategies.

Some call it being the “Alpha Salesperson” which can’t be taught… true or no?

The Alpha-Salesperson

Alpha-salespeople are the ultra competitors. They typically figure it out on their own, just get out of the way.

They are the people who see a potential opportunity and work tirelessly on every angle until they capitalize. Like a painter filling a canvas, a natural born salesperson will follow their intuition with each client because they trust themselves to make the right move, at the appropriate time. This proactive approach means they have found novel ways to drive referral relationships to their implanters and build lasting relationships with clients based on trust and results, not always based on clinical evidence or features and benefits.

So what is one proactive sales strategy deployed by the winners of today?

Finding ways to recruit patients who are candidates for your procedure or therapy into the hands of your surgeons. There are numerous ways to go about this strategy, depending on the type of procedure, product, therapy, etc you sell.

To give an example: let’s say you work in the ultra-competitive Neuromodulation market selling Spinal Cord Stimulation.

As one of several SCS systems on the market you’ve got your work cut out for you when selling to the fast-growing pain management space.  These docs have more options now than ever before and with systems selling over $25,000 per case, reps are fighting for every single one.

One of the ways is to perform research for your area of coverage with a Healthcare Hunting & CRM Tool to determine which physicians have the highest concentration of patients who could benefit from your procedure. And we’re not talking about the pain docs, we’re talking about the Gate Keepers of Healthcare, the Primary Care Physician (along with several other specialties).

Next, I would partner with my implanting physicians, Hospital and ASC marketing teams and put together a strategy to capture those patients.  After all, with ProSellus you can finally see who they are…!

In many cases these docs (the referral sources) don’t even know about your product or how it can help their patients.  Maybe you should take your selling road show outside of the feature and benefit parade and start talking to the actual source of these patients.

Folks, this is just one example of one product in one specialty.

This applies to the ENTIRE Healthcare Industry.  If you are tired of finishing somewhere in the middle of the pack at your company it’s time you start doing something different than what hasn’t worked in the past.

Conclusion

As you can see, non-traditional selling strategies are truly the key to success in the medical device sales industry.  To learn more about Non-Traditional Sales Strategies or to learn more about ProSellus, visit us at www.prosellus.com

Having the door closed in your face is one of the many character-building experiences you have to experience in sales. While salespeople go into every meeting assuming the customer will decide to give your product a try, the reality is that winning over the competitive physician is the exception rather than the norm.  It’s never as easy as it sounds…

We’ve all been there when a major physician’s office turns their back on you. They’re not interested in another meeting and are progressively shutting you and your company out of communication with them.

If the first harsh truth is that closing competitive customers is the exception, the second harsh truth is that you need sales to survive. It’s a sink or swim situation. Your business depends on growth to stay afloat, and without it, you are bound to be replaced by a smarter, more agile competitor.

So how do you grow your business when the biggest fish, or quite frankly any significant physician, won’t use your product?

Step 1: Understand the Physician you are targeting doesn’t have all the control

In healthcare today, specialty physicians depend and even rely on referring physicians to send them new patients (i.e. customers). It’s the only way they have patients to implant a particular product, write a certain prescription or request a certain diagnostic test or therapy.

The first step is tracking the circular flow of patients from one doctor to another. Where do they come from? Where do they go to? Realizing that the physician is in consultation with many other physicians about patient treatment will open up many doors for you.

In short… everyone answers to someone…

Step 2: Find the “Gate-Keepers” of Healthcare

In the general sales process, when we refer to the “gate-keeper,” we are typically referring to a person or entity that allows or blocks access to the target customer.  You know… the nice person at the front desk who doesn’t ever just “let” you in…

In healthcare, the “gate-keeper” of the healthcare industry isn’t the nice person behind the front desk at your specialists office… it’s the Primary Care physician who controls the circular flow of patients.

These physicians are not so much blocking access to the target customer as they are looking out for the interests of the physicians they refer patients to. If you are selling a specialty medical device, prescription drug, or even a diagnostic, chances are you have never been to a Primary Care docs office! (This is where ALL of the patients come from…)

The fact is that you have missed a tremendous sales opportunity. Primary care offices are usually where decisions are made regarding treatment options for their patients, who wind up being referred to the specialty doc you are targeting. It’s a full circle!

It’s vital that you isolate Primary Care offices and approach them for a product demo as soon as possible. Most of the time, the PCP may have heard of your product but have no idea who it can help or which specialty physician to send their patient to who utilize these new devices or therapies.

But rather than track down and meet all 3,412 primary care docs in your territory, shouldn’t you just talk to the few that are feeding that doc who won’t sit down with you? The answer is Yes, and the solutions is right at your fingertips.

Step 3: Growing your business from the inside out

Once Step 1 and 2 have been properly undertaken, it should only be a matter of time before you start seeing some positive changes. What if a major PCP starts sending their best patients to your loyal physician customer instead of the physician who won’t meet with you? They would have made the change after realizing, thanks to you, that there are other, and sometimes better, options for their patients.

Suddenly, the tide begins to turn.

There’s always more than one way to skin the cat!

Step 4: How do you find those big referring physicians?

Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… how in the world do I find out who these PCP’s are who control all the patients I’m looking for?

Well, first, you can always ask the competitive physician who won’t see you… (yep, you’re right… that’s a non-starter.  I mean really… what physician is going to print out a list of their biggest referring physicians?  You guessed it… non of them.) There aren’t many places salespeople can find some of the referring physician data.  It’s typically reserved for the company who has a budget in the tens of millions.  It’s certainly not an option for the small distributorship or individual rep… or is it?  One of the significant draws to ProSellus is that it provides a lot of this data, all in the palm of your hand.

ProSellus will also show you who the busy primary care physicians are who have relationships with the specialty docs you can’t get in front of. Often, you’ll find it’s a local Ortho, Neurosurgeon, or Neurologist sending patients. The perfect candidate to set up a meeting with.

Conclusion

The world of Healthcare is changing folks.

If you can’t get in front of the “whale” in your market or can’t fight the consulting dollars your competitor is paying, you can just give up right?  Your job depends on you finding a way to grow your market.

ProSellus is the tool more and more companies are turning to in order to shift the tide of competitive advantage.

Don’t get left out.

To learn more about ProSellus and our proprietary software platform go to www.prosellus.com

In recent years, the healthcare industry has been undergoing a general shift towards consolidation. Rather than let independent physician clinics go their own way, hospitals swoop in and buy ones that are struggling or choose to no longer be in limbo based on reimbursement rates to stay afloat.

The cause of this trend is a double-edged sword. The fact is physicians have seen declining reimbursement for clinic visits, surgeries, etc. for the past two decades.  This is why you see physicians looking for ancillary forms of income to boost their personal revenue.

The implementation of the Affordable Care Act has done little to improve the situation for physicians, as preventative care is now free for many. Some clinics are so close to the fritz that a choice has to be made: either stop the practice altogether or join the employ of a hospital.

Giving up independent control of how a clinic operates is never an easy decision for a physician to make. Hence the double-edged sword.

Hospitals, for their part, are willing to come to the rescue because it means a flock of new patients. So, it’s a win for the hospital – but is it always a win for the physicians?

Not always.  Here are two adverse side effects (from the physician’s perspective) of working for a hospital system.

1. Patients are kept within the system… no matter what

In many cases, the hospital insists that physicians keep all of their patients “in the network.” Rather than recommending existing patients to unaffiliated clinics or physicians, hospital physicians recommend patients to their hospitals instead. In this model, patients don’t ever leave the system, hospitals make more money on new patients, and the opinion of the physician is overruled for profit.

Now, what I just described is actually illegal, so hospitals can’t “force” physicians to only refer inside of its network, however it’s strongly encouraged by the people who pay them.  (You can make your own conclusion here.)

This is not something the majority of physicians are use too.  The autonomy they once enjoyed is quickly erased.

2. Less authority (if any) in the buying process

Choosing where patients get treatment is one thing. It’s an entirely different thing when a physician is not given the final say on what medical devices they use. In the past, if a surgeon wanted to use a specific product, they simply told the OR coordinator, and it was done (more or less).

Now, surgeons can ask, but ultimately, they don’t have the final say (which is a hard pill to swallow for physicians). In a hospital hierarchy, the physician is muddled somewhere in the middle, below the CEO, CFO and other hospital administrators.

Salespeople Must Adapt to the New Hierarchy

Given the evident limitations of the physician in a hospital, the salesperson must find a way to adapt. If they can’t get in front of the decision maker as quickly anymore, and that decision maker doesn’t have the influence they once did, a new approach is needed.

A new sales approach should take a holistic look at each potential client. Rather than seeing it as one person you need to convince, a salesperson should look at all the personalities at play and have a strategy for each.

To develop convincing strategies for each decision maker, the salesperson needs to become more analytical, more business-minded (Think like them!).

In many cases partnering with their surgeons to put together a plan that not only benefits the patient and surgeon, but the hospital or medical facility as well.

There is safety in numbers

There’s a lot of truth to this!

Individual surgeons may have been stripped of their original power, but a group of surgeons requesting a specific product be available is an entirely different thing.

Even in situations where the product may cost more, no CEO or CFO wants to take on a group of surgeons. If the surgeons ever decided to walk, that CEO is in a world of trouble.  There is simply too much revenue generated by surgeons to lose a handful of them to a hospital competitor.

Circle the Wagons

We’ve talked many times in our blog posts about selling in the new age and partnering with your physicians to help generate referrals.  This is your opportunity to take that the grand stage and have your surgeons fight for your product.

In a world where your end-user customer has less and less leverage you need to take advantage of every bit of leverage you can create… and folks this is the ultimate leverage in healthcare: patients.

Conclusion

The healthcare sales industry is at a pivotal place where the big players are consolidating power and negotiating hospital system-wide contracts. Sales reps need to realize that small players are being swallowed up, and along with them goes traditional selling strategies. What are you doing to change your approach to selling in the 21st century?

To learn more about non-traditional selling strategies or to learn more about ProSellus go to www.ProSellus.com

In case you haven’t noticed, the role of the medical device salesperson is changing quite dramatically.

Selling used to be all about creating a personal connection with the physician, who has traditionally made all the big buying decisions. Salespeople would buddy up with the physician and forge a relationship in the operating room that extended to fishing trips, sporting events, and birthday parties for the kids. Nurturing the relationship with the physician customer was, in some ways, the be-all-end-all of the seller’s strategy.

Today, the strategy of an effective salesperson is far more multi-faceted. The opinion of the physician is one of many links in the sales funnel chain, as key players have entered the decision-making process.

Salespeople need to consult with, and appeal to, the:

• Surgeon support staff
• Materials/supply manager
• OR nurse manager
• Other management stakeholders charged with running the clinic, ASC or hospital

An expanded list of stakeholders can be troublesome for the majority of salespeople because the reality is most are still relying on the buddy-buddy relationship model, except their “buddy” doesn’t have the influence they once had. (Think: Victim of Rep-Less Sales Model)

But when faced with declining sales and commission, in a fiercely competitive industry, how do salespeople transform from “Product Consultants” to full “Business Consultants”? How do they know who the biggest fish are in the market and what drives them?

Strategies for Selling Beyond the OR

Salespeople need to take a step back and shift their perspective of the industry. Healthcare is a business just like any other, except healthcare deals with real patients and their lives.

This is why healthcare salespeople need to be flexible. They need to keep the patients they serve in mind, while at the same time foster a new business approach to their craft.

Here are 3 strategies to consider when aligning your new sales approach:

1. Be Flexible in Your Plan

Have you adjusted your outreach efforts to match market trends? Research shows that doctors are very open to digital communication or in-person meetings, just not both. If you are not consistent and flexible in your approaches, client retention rates will start to fall.

2. Tailor Presentations to the Needs of Each Stakeholder

Relying on a generic pitch when presenting to a hospital administrator is not going to cut it anymore. According to a recent study, 51% of doctors say they already know the information being presented to them. The same goes for administrators, who have more time to keep up with industry news. Position your presentation about your product and how it will impact the entirety of the physicians and hospitals business.

3. Invest in Your Team

If you are using a conventional CRM, chances are it’s not compatible with the demands of the industry today. Salespeople need to be the first to know about clinical studies, research, physician records, and hospital spending patterns. An advanced tool like ProSellus will provide a higher level of data about physicians and hospitals in your region, offering crucial insight into opportunities for increased sales.

In particular, ProSellus generates the kind of information needed to understand physician relationships with their internal team as well as their physician referral relationships.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know what networks your targeted physicians are already plugged into?

Conclusion

These 3 strategies would drastically change the salesperson’s approach to each customer, or potential customer. ProSellus, an advanced tool designed to be a “Non-CRM” for medical device sales reps, does all this in the palm of your hand.

To talk more about the Changing Face of Healthcare or to learn more about ProSellus check us out at www.prosellus.com

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As a healthcare salesperson, the threat of losing customers is always there, simmering below the surface. You want to give customers everything they need to make the most of your product, but you also know that we have entered a world where manufacturers and hospitals will make the move that resembles less-reps if given the chance.

However, the threat of being dropped in favor of rep-less sales model should not be disheartening. It should encourage you to be a better salesperson by reflecting on your approach and finding ways to improve physician targeting and offer better value to each customer.

The Traditional Approach to Medical Device Sales

In medical device sales, there are absolute “bare minimums” salespeople have to achieve.

For example, you need to finish the year, quarter, etc., reasonably close to your sales targets. In striving for this goal, you wind up providing product demonstrations for customers, nurturing new targets via phone and email correspondence, and using some sort of software system to target physicians in your area.

But aside from hitting your sales targets, what kind of value do you offer customers?

The traditional medical device salesperson would say they provide value by:

1. Being on time
2. Being prepared
3. Being informed about the finer details of a surgery
4. Always having all products needed
5. Being “Johnny on-the-spot” during the case

While these qualities may have cut it in the past, in 2018 they are considered the bare minimum requirements of the job. (I train and work with healthcare companies of all shapes and sizes. You’d be amazed when I ask what value they bring to their customers and the first thing that comes out of their mouth is “I’m on time. I’m prepared. I have all of my implants. Etc.…”)   If you can’t offer more than the 5 simple things above, you may as well pack it up and find another job.

Those 5 things, that many salespeople believe is providing value, is the bare minimum. It’s simply the price of admission to a very expensive game.

If this is the value you or your salespeople bring, then you do have something to worry about when you hear rumblings of a rep-less sales model.

Period.

How Can You Differentiate Yourself?

The reality of today (and the future) is that hospitals and manufacturers are looking at cost-effective alternatives to the direct sales rep model. If you want to avoid becoming a victim of the rep-less sales model, you may want to try the following:

• Identify the most critical services each customer wants. It’s not good enough to be the salesperson who the office likes or is just “good” in surgery.
  • After working with the same customer for a some length of time, you should know what it is they value. Is it an ability to call you with any questions they might have? Great, then keep yourself available.
  • Or is it the fact that you offer them affordable product solutions to issues they did not even know they could solve? Even better. That means you are listening intently to their problems and staying on top of product development in the industry.
  • Bottom Line: the M.O. should be to find nuances in the customer relationship that competitors don’t notice, and exploit that.
• Look for a unique service you can provide that customers cannot live without. How can you show your value beyond the traditional model? It all depends on the needs of the customer and the insight you have in the industry. It also means looking outside the traditional purview of a salesperson and offering solutions to other operational issues.

 How To Offer REAL Value to a Customer: Patient Outreach

A rep is only as successful as the customers they keep.

If a physician is not adding new patients, their business death is an impending reality.  Not to mention if they’re not adding new patients they have no patients to prescribe a pharmaceutical for, provide diagnostic tests to, or implant medical devices in…

Patients are the lifeblood of any physician practice. (And I don’t care if their practice has been purchased by the hospital.  They NEED patients to survive. That will never change.)

They are the commodity that keeps the physician practice alive. If they are suddenly hard to come by, then everyone on the supply side is going to lose out.

An engaged salesperson should realize patient outreach for the physician, hospital, clinic, etc., is in the best interest of everyone involved. If the salesperson can influence where patients go, it means they enjoy significant influence in their region and can offer their customers unique value that no other salesperson can. (And quite frankly, this is what keeps the lights on.)

A physician will quickly realize the immense value of a salesperson who can bring in new patients and offer cutting-edge products for testing and surgical procedures.

Conclusion

Finding pockets of real human value in the sales process is incredibly important in this day and age – otherwise, you risk being replaced by some kind of rep-less or less-rep model that puts a premium on dollars, not you or your relationships.

If you’d like to talk more about not becoming a victim of the Rep-Less Sales Model or how to truly deliver value to your healthcare customer, check out what we do at blog.prosellus.com .

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The Medtech industry has been undergoing fundamental change over the past few years. In 2015, McKinsey & Company published an insightful article describing a new segment of the consumer market. Physicians and Hospital Administration were beginning to prioritize cost over innovation like never before. Part of the rationale for buying less innovative products came down to group buying decisions. Where no one single physician could sign off on a purchase, there were now levels of hospital administration who had to be convinced. (All of you in the industry know what we’re talking about: The Value Analysis Committee you have to put your product in front of for approval at your local hospital system…)

This segment of the market – what the McKinsey study refers to as “value customers” – has grown since 2015. What was once a small group of private clinics has developed into a general market trend. Here are a couple of changes to the market brought on by these value customers:

A Commodified Sales Process

Manufacturing companies are responding to market conditions by consolidating into larger entities. It is commonplace to see large companies offer every service under the sun for hospitals and surgeons. (You’re seeing this in the market now:  Medtronic purchased Covidian, Zimmer buys Biomet, Abbott purchases St. Jude and the list goes on and on.) The irony is that this approach is not responsive to the demands of hospitals, hospital systems, and surgery centers – the value customers described above. Medical institutions are moving towards quantitative testing measures to ensure they get maximum value for their investment. Coupled with small budgets, it means they are not looking to buy an “all-in-one” package. They are looking for individual products that are priced competitively, without any add-ons (Not your “Cadillac” product.)

A Race to the Bottom regarding Price?

A recent study from BCG found that the MedTech industry had “unsustainably high costs” and an old sales approach. BCG analysts predicted that, as the price for MedTech products decreases, companies would need to update their sales infrastructure or risk being priced out of the market. (Think about that for a second:  If companies don’t update their sales infrastructure, they are at risk of being priced out of the market.  How scary is that for a major medical manufacturer. How many of you are tired of nothing changing in your company’s approach to sales?)

Their predictions have come true. Today, medical manufacturing companies are finding it hard to convince hospitals and physicians that a premium package product is worth it. As a result, manufacturers are looking for any and all possible ways to cut costs and offer their product at a lower price than competitors. The reality is that the market sets the price, and hospitals are looking to cut back on expenses. (You probably see this in your decline in commission right?  There are certainly salespeople in Healthcare who make more and more every year, but I’d say that’s the exception to the rule, not the rule. We talk with salespeople all they time who tell us quota is growing exponentially, commissions are going down and what I sold 18 months ago for $6,500 now sells for $4,000.  Sound familiar?)

What Does A Salesperson Do In This Volatile Environment?

A follow-up study from BCG found that only those companies who developed a new sales approach are better off today. The top sales reps in the industry have already adapted to this brave new world of shrinking margins. How have they changed? By doing a couple of things:

• Going Beyond the Sales Pitch: Are you listening to what your customer needs? Ok, I said it, now I’m going to say it again: Are you listening to what your customer needs? (Get out of the box of thinking what YOU Get into their box.  What do THEY need?) Can you offer something meaningful to fill a said need? Listening closely is the hallmark of an excellent salesperson because it shows commitment to the cause.
• Finding Non-Traditional Selling Strategies: (ProSellus specializes in exactly this: Non-Traditional Selling Strategies.) Linking Non-Traditional Selling Strategies and Your Customer Needs; what if you could actually provide what the customer needs most all the while growing your business like never before? Not a bad idea, right?  Send a message our way… we can help with that. Another great place is finding out more about your competitors. In a commodified market with every company looking the same, there must be an opportunity to set yourself apart from the pack.
• Leveraging Physician Data: The best salespeople know how to use analytic software to build their network. A healthcare non-CRM like ProSellus will give you all the consumer information you need about current and potential customers. It’s the sales tool you need to show unique value in a commodified market.

Conclusion

Finding alternative sales tactics is the only way to persevere through current market conditions. As the McKinsey study of 2015 pointed out, a no-frills sales approach is one of the best ways to incorporate your products into your hospital and surgery center customer accounts.

Ultimately, the selling approach HAS to change.  No longer is it acceptable to sell products to customers without providing value beyond the product.  If you’d like to learn more about alternative selling strategies and how to bring the most sought-after value to customers visit our website: www.prosellus.com