Why the WIN/WIN is key in Medical Device Selling

How does the Healthcare Sales Rep create a win/win relationship when trying to educate the Primary Care Physician in the community?

The Primary Care Physician (PCP) is the real “driver” when it comes to distribution of patients in the healthcare marketplace. These physicians are overlooked in many cases, however, they truly are the HUB of the “Hub & Spoke” model of patient distribution in healthcare. Also, think about the way healthcare insurance coverage is changing; more and more often we see PPO insurance plans disappearing with the entrance of more HMO type plans. In HMO plans it is very commonplace that a patient HAS to have a referral from their PCP in order to see a specialist. These docs really are the “Gatekeepers” of patients…

Power of the Gatekeepers

The majority of patients see a PCP when an issue of some kind occurs. Those PCP’s then distribute the patients to specialists based on the issue. Of course, there are variations of the example I just described; however, this example seems to be the most overwhelmingly common example of the Primary Care referral. So, what does this mean for you? How does this, or can this, impact you?

Not Obstacles – Opportunities

There are a few problematic aspects of this process. Outside of making sure the patient gets the best care, there’s little to gain for the PCP by referring the patient. They simply lose a patient, potentially, by referring them out (or that’s the fear at least). Joe Hage of medicalmarcom.com considers himself a pioneer in the field of medical device marketing. A bonafide medical device sales person informed him of the challenges associated with establishing a win/win relationship with PCP’s. Creating referrals from Primary Care for the specialty product reps sell can often be seen as an obstacle. Any sales rep worth their salt knows that there are no obstacles: only opportunities. Two statements from the blog post highlight key facets of developing a PCP win/win relationship:

Joe Hage (to the device rep): So, if you are calling on interventionalists, who is creating primary demand for consults among primary care physicians?

Med Device Rep: Me. That’s a large part of what I do. Help create awareness within the referring community for my interventionalists.

– #MedDevice “Selling ‘Through’ Physicians”

This is a solid strategy and one attempted by many, just… without a solid strategy in place. There are many questions unanswered.

So, what motivates the PCP? The specialist potentially gets a new referral, but what about the PCP? All they did was lose a patient to another specialist right? Or no?

Game changer: what if they DID have something to gain? Better yet, what if it made complete sense for the PCP to refer? What if it was actually BETTER for the PCP to refer the patient out? What if they never realized it, until of course, you taught them…? How would you be perceived then?