Archive for January 2012
What separates the “great medical sales reps” from a sea of “good ones?” Follow-up!
Follow-up is not "checking-in." This is "checking-in!"
When I ask a room full of medical sales representatives, “What is the part of the sales process that is almost guaranteed?” there is always at least one cocky, over-confident rep who responds, “Closing the sale!” If that were true, you wouldn’t be reading this blog and I wouldn’t be writing it.
Getting a healthcare decision-maker to “yes” frequently requires more than one call. That means you need to come back or re-contact the customer to follow-up.
How good are medical reps at follow-up? Unfortunately, not very, and that’s pretty sad because medical reps are likely to find themselves in a follow-up situation most of the time.
How does the typical medical sales representative arrange for follow-up? They leave it up to the customer and any part of the sales process that is controlled by the customer seldom works out in the salesperson’s favor. For example, a salesperson delivers a brilliant presentation on the Medical Widget 2000 and the call ends with the customer saying, “Thanks for coming by. Leave me your card” (that’s a bad ending on many levels…I won’t get into that here). Let’s focus on the typical sequence of events that follows such an uncertain conclusion to a sales call.
After months go by without hearing from the customer, the sales rep capriciously decides, “I need to follow-up.” So the sales rep either picks up the phone or drops by the customer’s office and delivers a carefully planned and executed follow-up sequence. It usually sounds something like this: “Hello Dr. Customer. You remember me… Bob from ABC Medical. We talked about the Medical Widget 2000 a few months ago and I thought I would stop by to follow-up.” Some reps, who are more evolved in their selling use other colorful terms in place of follow-up, such as touch base, stop by, or check-in. WTF?
How do you feel when a salesperson calls YOU in the middle of your busy day, taking up some of your valuable time to check-in? Unless you’re in the hotel business, I venture to say you don’t have time for people who want to check-in. You would prefer that they check-out because if you had any interest in what they were selling you would have called them. All they did by checking–in was to waste your time and tick you off.
Do you think your customers feel differently?
Follow-up is more complex than I have room to write about here, but I want to leave you with two important thoughts about following up with customers.
- Plan how you are going to follow-up before the sales call and get the customer to agree on a follow-up plan before you leave. If a customer won’t commit to your follow-up, it’s because the benefits of your product don’t outweigh the inconvenience of having you return or they don’t see any value in having you contact them again. Which leads to the second point which is…
- Always sell the value of following up with the customer. What’s in it for them when you show your face again (and it can’t be just to buy your product)? Unless they’re convinced that your return trip or phone call will benefit them and their patients in some way, you’re not coming back!
As a medical sales professional, I know (hope) that you’re taking the time to plan every sales call. Going in, you can be assured that one of three things will happen. The customer will agree to buy, reject you outright, or he will need more time and information to consider your offering which means you will need to follow-up. Of those three scenarios, which one happens most frequently?
The difference between a good medical sales rep and a great medical sales rep is not the ability to deftly handle objections and confidently ask for the business. Yes, those skills are super-important. But in a world where one-call sales visits are rare, those who achieve greatness have mastered the art of follow-up.
Would you like your sales force to become “Masters of Follow-up?” Let’s talk. Call Mace Horoff at 561.333.8080 or email Mace@MedicalSalesTraining.com.
What medical sales reps can learn from a flash mob
I thought I would share something with you in this post that is a little bit different, but very relevant. It’s a youTube video of a flash mob at a train station in Copenhagen. Notice that it begins as something we have all seen in public…one or two people assembling to play music. There are no great expectations—nothing more than some amateur musicians trying to attract attention and a few kroner (dollars). Watch the embedded video and then read the rest of this post.
The music begins with the snare drum beat of Bolero…interesting, but hardly unique. Then the flute joins in. The young woman plays the flute well and the melody starts to attract more people. Then the bass is added, and violins, woodwinds, horns, etc. until it escalates to a full orchestra. The people in the train station were absolutely delighted (as was I). They expected just music. Instead, they received a world-class performance! And notice something else from the video…when the music ends and the orchestra walks off, many bystanders remain where they are—waiting for and wanting more.
Okay, pretty cool, but what does this have to do with medical sales? Everything!
The business of healthcare brings expectations. Your customers don’t expect you to be world-class, in fact, today’s healthcare is being driven more towards acceptable standards than world-class standards. If you’re just meeting your customer’s expectations, that’s okay, as long as you don’t mind leaving money on the table and leaving the door open for your competition.
Healthcare customers expect their suppliers to satisfy their needs. They don’t expect to be delighted. But when you delight your customers, you raise the bar for every other company and sales rep that competes in your space. And you leave the customer wanting more, that is, you leave them wanting you to delight them again with your next product or service.
How can you be like the musicians in the video who promised only music, and then over-delivered with a world-class performance?
Make the sale. Set the expectations for the customer. Then decide how you will exceed those expectations and delight the customer. You get to choose whether to play as an amateur or to be world-class.
Undercover Boss – Medical Sales
Reality TV Medical Sales
I don’t like reality TV. When I watch TV, I want to escape from reality. There is a time to set aside and forget your problems and the way to do this, in my opinion, is not by living someone else’s.
One reality show worth watching though, is Undercover Boss. This is a show where the owners or CEOs of major companies don a disguise and assume lower-level jobs in the company. It’s a dose of reality for them as they learn about inefficiencies, unhappy employees, unhappy customers, and in general, how things need to improve.
Most of the medical sales reps that I know dread it when a manager calls up to schedule a ride-along. Who wants someone watching your every step and evaluating you? The next time you need to take a manager or visiting company dignitary for a ride, why not turn it around? Put him or her to work at your level, or at the level of someone else in your company on whom you and your customers depend.
I had a customer named Dr. Roscoe (I talk about him on a video on The Medical Sales Channel) who was difficult to work with and impossible to satisfy. He was so frustrating that just his name made my blood pressure go up. I made a tough decision, and it was one of two times I made this decision in my selling career—I stopped calling on him. Unfortunately, he didn’t stop calling me. And he would ask me for things that I could not deliver because they were either obsolete or I wore out my welcome by borrowing the same obsolete products from other customers.
Dr. Roscoe was not happy. He didn’t just call my boss—he called my boss’s boss. I got a registered letter from the Regional Vice President who “ordered” me to call on Dr. Roscoe and treat him the same as any other customer, that is, if I wanted to keep my job.
I was incensed to be accused of not doing my job, even if I wasn’t—I had a reason! I also believed that no reasonable person would expect me to continue to call on Dr. Roscoe if he had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with him. So when I was informed by my manager that Ed, the RVP would be speaking at our local monthly sales meeting, I “requested” that he spend an afternoon with me. I arranged to meet with Dr. Roscoe to “work out some details and avoid the problems we had in the past.” I did not tell Dr. Roscoe or Ed that they would be meeting each other.
As Ed and I drove to the appointment with Dr. Roscoe, he played the role of the typical RVP. He flipped through printouts of the sales volumes report for my territory as we did a verbal S.W.O.T. analysis of each customer. He didn’t know what was in store.
As we walked past the sign on the outside of Dr. Roscoe’s’ office, Ed shot me a surprised glance and said, “Isn’t this the guy who called to complain about the poor service you were providing?” I said, “He is indeed. I thought it would be a nice touch for you to make a personal visit.” Ed remarked in a cocky manner, “I think it’s a good idea. I would like to meet him.”
I was hoping that Dr. Roscoe would display his usual gnarly personna and he certainly exceeded what I hoped for. When Ed introduced himself, Dr. Roscoe, a very large and intimidating man, stuck his finger in Ed’s face and said, “Your company needs to stop trying to reinvent the wheel. Your new, fancy products don’t serve me or my patients particularly well. In fact sir, you owe me an apology for the crumby products your company makes.”
Ed tried to explain and reason with the doctor about how advances in surgical technology were driving the market. Before Ed could complete his thought, the doctor stood up and said, “Ed, it’s obvious to me that you’re not a smart man. I don’t have time for stupid people. Good day sir.”
If I had written a script, it could not gone been better. I wanted Ed to experience the wrath of a malignantly unreasonable customer to see if he would reaffirm the directives he gave me in his threatening letter a few weeks earlier. He did not.
Ed said, “Mace, I had no idea that this guy was such an ___hole. I apologize for the letter I sent you. In fact, I will draft another letter describing my experience with that jerk and recommend that we don’t do business with that SOB again.”
I felt vindicated. Naturally, every other customer I took him to see that day were my best customers, but I made sure that they told Ed how we could improve our products, our service, and be an even better company.
Ed was not undercover, but he got a dose of reality by spending a day at the sales level. I earned back Ed’s respect and he made sure I had what I needed to keep my customers happy any time I asked for it.
Medical sales would make a great reality show. Until that happens, try to keep it real for the “bosses” in your company who make decisions that affect your customers and you.
Medical Sales Reps: Why your healthcare customers should almost never think about you.
In a time when discounts and contracts seem more important than clinical outcomes, don’t lose sight of the differentiator that allows you to hold onto business. I’m talking about stellar service, that which occurs behind the scenes for the most part and doesn’t require your customers to call you to make it happen because you stay a step ahead of them.
Think about the service providers in your own life. Let’s take your internet provider, for example. How often do you think about them? Do you ever say, “I wonder how Bob, who hooked up my modem is doing.” Or perhaps you might utter, “I haven’t heard from Allison at Verizon customer service in a while. I hope she calls to say hi.” The truth is you’re happiest with your service when you don’t have to think about the people behind the scenes who keep it all running smoothly. When you do, there’s usually a problem. It’s the same with your customers.
Success in medical sales is partly based on your ability to stay visible, but not top of mind. Ideally, your name comes up either when there is an opportunity to solve a customer’s problem not caused by your product, or the customer wants to place an order or schedule the use of your product. If the customer is thinking about you beyond that, then your product or service is not doing what it’s supposed to do… or they have a crush on you, and either is bad for business!
Your job is to sell. In the medical world, quality, price, and customer service are a given. You shouldn’t ever be talking about those things as features that you offer because none of them are differentiators anymore. The term customer service is cliché. And if your customers think about “customer service” it’s because either you or your company are not providing it. Problems make you top of mind and the only time you want to be top of mind is when the customer is ready to buy.
Want to differentiate yourself today? Convince your customers that you can stay off their radar screens, except when you’re offering or providing a solution. Assure them that you’ll be delivering the best kind of service, and that’s the kind they probably won’t notice because few people notice when things work as they should.
If your customers only think about you when they see you, or when they want to buy, you’re doing a great job. Stay visible, but not top of mind.
Medical Sales Reps…Your customers are hurting! What are you doing about it?
An article headline in CNN Money should grab the attention of any medical sales professional: “Doctors Going Broke.” Factors such as declining insurance reimbursements plus rising business and drug costs are creating a serious cash crunch for physicians in private practice. These include family practitioners, oncologist, and cardiologists. Many doctors can’t make payroll without tapping into their personal funds, while others are closing their practices.
If you sell to independent physician practices, what does this mean for you? First, it means you need to be aware of potential cash-flow problems with your customers. Most physicians will not be wearing such problems on their sleeve, as financial problems are often embarrassing, especially when you consider the personalities of doctors. Don’t be fooled by appearances. If your physician-customers aren’t singing the blues out loud, it doesn’t mean that all is well in their world. How can you help them?
I’ve always espoused that focusing on your products is a bad way to sell. Better to focus on how your products along with the services that you and your company provide can help to improve the healthcare provider’s world and the patient’s condition. Don’t lose sight of the important issues that your customers are NOT telling you about. Physician practices, just like any business, need cash flow to survive. Do the conversations you’re having with customers suggest that you and your product can accommodate this need, or are you asking them to spend money that they don’t have?
And speaking of conversations, remember that a sensitive personal issue like money must be approached carefully with egoic customers. Don’t ever imply that a customer’s business is suffering or ask if his or her practice is in the toilet like some colleagues’ practices. Instead, tell the story as I discussed in my last blog post. Describe how your company and your product have helped similar practices to make or save money. Your ability to do this is more critical than ever and if you can’t tell this story, one of your competitors can and that competitor is going to eat your lunch.
Stanford economist Paul Romer coined the term, “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” Stop worrying about how all the changes are going to hurt your ability to close sales. Instead, think about the opportunities these changes are creating. The changes occurring in healthcare are neither temporary nor a onetime event. Those who win in healthcare sales from this point forward are those who can solve the customer’s problems, whether stated or unstated, and can turn on a dime to make it happen before their competitors can.
Reason Leads to Conclusion, But Emotion Leads to Action…Even in Medical Sales!
“Reason Leads to Conclusion, But Emotion Leads to Action[1]” …Even in Medical Sales
The practice of medicine is based on science, a body of knowledge accumulated through study and observation.
Do you think more data will make the sale?
Since science is factual and logical, it might seem that the best way to influence those who make buying decisions in the world of medicine is by selling with facts and logic. It’s not.
Selling in healthcare means selling to experts—people who know more than the salesperson about many things. The challenge is that these experts often believe that they know more than the salesperson about everything. The data and studies you might use in an attempt to influence healthcare professionals often encounter an impenetrable aura created by ego or a mistrust of salespeople. Try as you might, the journal articles and white papers you pile on your customers only get you so far, often nowhere.
So what works?
The story.
Customers can resist and ignore the facts and figures that you throw at them because in the brief moment of a sales encounter, it’s just noise. There is little time to analyze or think about it. Data often doesn’t connect. Yet a compelling story will. People cannot not listen to a good story, especially when it is about someone like them. Yes, I know that’s bad grammar but there is a very important message in it.
Sales managers can often be heard telling their charges, “The product with the best story wins.” I disagree. It’s not enough just to have a good story. You have to be able to tell it, and tell it well such that the customer experiences a level of emotion where he or she wants to avoid the pain or achieve the great outcome that the story personifies. Data makes them think. Emotions makes them act.
If you sell in healthcare, you’re an expert on your product. You’re intimately familiar with the clinical data that supports your product and you must be able to discuss it intelligently with intelligent people. But you are also a storyteller. Your job is to attach emotions to the possible outcomes and then to sell the desired outcomes. It sounds easy, but it’s not. Great stories can take days or even months to craft. And it can take years of practice and experience to become a salesperson who can deliver a great story.
It’s not the best story that wins, it’s the best story told by the best storyteller.
If you would like to find out how you can stop losing sales to competitors who tell better stories than you (and sleep better at night!), call Mace Horoff at Sales Pilot Medical Sales Performance 561.333.8080 or info@MedicalSalesTraining.com
[1] Quote by neurologist Donald Caine, “Reason leads to conclusions, but emotions lead to action.
The Best Gift to Give a Customer, Distributor or Salesperson is One That Helps Them to Succeed
I am glad to say that reps who work in most segments of the medical products industry can no longer lavish gifts on their customers. Up until a few years ago, a gift certificate, a bottle of wine, or even tickets to a sporting event were a way of saying thank you for the customer’s business during the year, and hopefully a way to obligate them for continued business in the coming year. The rules prohibiting gift-giving are good ones because none of the gifts that I described did anything for the customer’s business and the gifts were often quickly forgotten. What a waste!
There are still businesspeople and salespeople in the medical industry who don’t get it. Recently I had the opportunity to look at an acquaintance’s business who sells medical software. In an effort to endear himself to his distributor partners who sell his product, Ian spent several thousand dollars to send each of them a beautiful wooden desktop box. Oh yes, he also put a pen with his company’s name on it in each wooden box before shipping it. I asked Ian what he expected to get in return for the gift.
Ian said that his distributors represented many different products. Ian wanted them to realize that his company offered a “classy” product and by sending a “classy” gift they would think of his company and sell his product.
Really?
I asked Ian some quick questions to try and get him to realize the futility of his intentions. The wooden boxes were going to distributors, not the salespeople who sold his software. The salespeople got bupkis…nada! The people who need motivation to sell weren’t even considered. And had they been, a wooden desk box containing a cheap pen would have done nothing to inspire them to sell Ian’s product.
What would?
Salespeople take the path of least resistance. They will sell the product that the customer is most likely to buy (often described in the sales world as the low-hanging fruit) or they sell the product that they are most comfortable selling. Wooden desktop boxes don’t enter into the equation.
What would have been a better investment? Anything that a distributor could use to increase his sales and thus increase Ian’s sales. I suggested a virtual training program that would make the salespeople 20 times more likely to sell his product because they would know it better and feel more comfortable with it than any other product that they sold. And they would close more sales.
Ian wanted to know what the ROI would be if he gave his distributors training. I explained that it would be a multiple of what he invested. He wanted an exact number. I couldn’t give him an exact number.
Ian decided to go with the wooden box. What do you think the exact ROI on it will be?
The message to you whether you’re a distributor, a salesperson, or the VP of sales is to provide your salespeople and your customers with something that will improve the condition of their business, not the look of their desks. Salespeople and medical professionals don’t want wooden boxes. They want to sustain and increase their profit margins so they can sleep better at night. If you can’t specifically and tangibly explain how any trinket or program you’re considering will do that, save your money. A nice gift is nice, but most are unlikely to impact either a customer’s or your bottom line.
