In a recent blog about the increasing power of group purchasing organizations, blogger Brian Johnson http://bit.ly/MMEeIV refers to a poll of endovascular specialists who were asked how much their product decisions are influenced by medical device sales reps. Only 14% said that medical device sales representatives had a strong influence on their product decisions. It […]
Weird title for a blog about medical sales, huh? Well, medical selling is a lot like dating—you need to capitalize on the “opportunities.” Let’s skip dating for a moment and talk selling. Your job is to grow your business, both for yourself and also for the companies you represent. There are essentially two ways to […]
It can be difficult to sell a technology, procedure, or product that is similar to one with past failures. Salespeople hate this scenario, especially in healthcare where failure is a dirty word. But what if you have a product or service that you know works and the customer believes otherwise. How do you change the […]
When medical sales reps hurl excuses at their managers and others (including me) as to why their sales numbers are flat, I tell them N-O-R-C. I like these four letters because they are easily text-able (today’s medical reps like to communicate with their thumbs, and that’s a separate issue I will address at another time) […]
I have all of my wellness checkups done in June. It’s not fun being a patient, but it is fun to observe sales reps who come into the doctor’s office while I’m in the waiting room. Pharmaceutical reps all seem to sound alike. Their short conversations sound like this… “Hi. Barbara with [name of company] […]
Have you ever approached a healthcare customer to present a new technology? You feel a strong level of confidence; after all, your competition doesn’t have anything like it. You are excited and you expect your customer to be excited too. You tell the customer, “I’ve got something new to show you that will knock your […]
…and then work your tail off to sell as much as you can while your competition coasts for a few months! There is some accepted wisdom that healthcare customers, especially physicians, are difficult to call on and sell to during the summer months. I’ve heard the excuses and so have you: “The doctor is more […]
Most medical sales professionals can answer the following question with little problem: What do you get paid to do? The answer of course is: To sell! Why is it then that I often find medical sales representatives performing low-wage activities instead of what they were hired to do? What concerns me more is that they […]
If you sell medical devices, there are times when mistakes, oversights, and failures will have fingers pointing in your direction. Your company ships the wrong product or a defective product. You relay information to a customer that’s incorrect. You forget to bring something that a customer or patient needs. You fail to show for a […]
If you sell to doctors in the U.S., it’s probably no surprise to you that many are not happy with their jobs and who can blame them. They are losing control of how they treat their patients, the government and insurance companies are telling them what they can charge for what they do, and the […]
After penning the title for this article, it occurred to me that some medical sales representatives probably have no idea what I’m referring to. You might be thinking that the key to success that spends time in your pocket is: Your car keys: Wrong by a long shot. What you drive has nothing to do […]
More and more products in healthcare are being viewed by decision-makers as commodities. In an era of accountable care, products that are good enough are displacing those regarded as the “gold standard.” Selling commodity-type products can be a challenge, but the bigger problem is when you, the sales professional, are a commodity yourself. Hopefully, your […]