By John Strong | August 20, 2021 – Thomas Paine had other things on his mind when he scribed: “These are the times that try men’s souls…” If you sell to healthcare providers post-pandemic, you may agree with him, however.
If you can’t get in the hospital to see customers, can’t find customers because they are working at home (or the coffee shop) and can’t get the attention of your customers when you succeed in finding them, you’re not alone. The rise of the Delta variant of COVID-19 has moved the needle back in the wrong direction in terms of America’s grand reopening.
The med tech industry was busy innovating during the past 18 months, and there are many valuable technologies that companies are trying to launch. These are not product-line extensions but truly new ideas that deserve healthcare provider’s attention. This article focuses on the things you should consider as a part of the “new” world of selling to healthcare providers, keeping in mind we may never go back to the old way of doing business as an industry.
No. 1: Identify the problem you’re solving
Seems basic, right? Providers are now well attuned to product line extensions and products that are simply “nice to have”. They can’t afford them. You need to quickly point out the problem—and what you’ve done to solve it. Get the buyer’s attention.
No. 2: Segment your potential customers and understand them
Everything seems like it takes longer during and after COVID. Therefore, target your most promising customers carefully, keeping in mind that bigger isn’t always better. Use meaningful data such as publicly available Medicare procedure data to target specific potential customers. Learn how they do business using their website and other publicly available information. Follow their rules. If there are supplier control policies in place, observe them whether you’re planning a live or virtual visit.
Identify who your champions could be, considering who is typically on the value analysis committee and where your product fits within the organization. (See below.)
Can’t find their names on the target’s website? If you have no contacts, start with the telephone, and obtain the name and email address of the sourcing manager or a clinical specialist in supply chain. Reach out and send a brief description of your product as described below. If you are thinking about email only, keep in mind that most administrative staff and physicians get hundreds every day. You need to stand out. Make contact by a personal email and see if you can obtain 15 minutes on the phone by sending along the value proposition described below.
If there’s genuine interest, see if you can obtain the name, their title and contact information of others, including physicians and other clinical staff you could approach and try to build an internal team of staff who could be interested in your product.
No. 3: Clearly tell your value proposition
This may be harder than it looks. The tendency by many companies is to create so-called “Vac-Packs” for the Value Analysis Committee to review that can run hundreds of pages and include dozens of scholarly articles proving the case for a product. It doesn’t work. No one is going to take the time to read it all.
Our recommendation is creating a 2- to 4-page document that clearly outlines the clinical value for the patient and provider on one page, and the economic and reimbursement value of the product on the other side. Why?
- Many busy value analysis committees receive more than 100 requests for product reviews every month. If you’re lucky, your material will get reviewed—but you must prove your point(s) quickly and clearly.
- The pandemic has put the work of many value analysis committees far behind. In some midwestern academic centers, the backlog stretches up to almost a year.
- Sales representatives need to quickly educate their product champions, since representatives generally cannot be present in the value analysis meeting. There are only so many bits of information busy people, no matter how smart they are, can absorb and talk about intelligently in a limited amount of time. Our suggested format creates a discussion outline that everyone can follow.
No. 4: Don’t focus solely on the physician customer
It’s always been nice to have physician “champions” for your product, and to a degree you may still need them. A group of decision makers are now involved in most product and technology decisions at the value analysis table, and many formerly independent physicians are now employees of the IDN. They now have a vested interest in revenue, profitability, and quality outcomes for their employer.
Well-functioning value analysis committees share several commonalities. Executive sponsorship, physician leadership sponsorship and participation (when required) and many others make up the committee: A purchasing or supply chain representative, administrative departmental leaders, IT representative, data analyst, controller (or financial representative), revenue cycle manager and others. Besides a physician or clinician, identify who else in the committee is critical to a successful review of your product.
No. 5: Stay in touch
Jumping on a plane to make IDN sales visits is becoming a thing of the past. A recent survey by the Strategic Marketplace Initiative indicated that road warriors are ready to get back in action—but their customers are not nearly as ready.
Virtual meetings have proven especially useful—and efficient. As a result, we recommend that sales leaders thoroughly understand how their team comes across and how discussion should be structured for such meetings on how your product looks for the camera, and concise visuals with no more than about 10 slides.
It’s not necessarily harder to find potential customers—just different. Adapting to the lessons learned during the pandemic can help you adopt new ways of selling in the future.
Contributing Writer: John Strong, Co-Founder and Chief Consulting Officer, Access Strategy Partners, Inc
John Strong has spent his entire 45-year career working across the healthcare supply chain. He is a co-founder, and chief consulting officer at Access Strategy Partners, Inc. ASPI simplifies the introduction of new and valuable technology for suppliers and simplifies the acquisition of new products with strong clinical and economic value for providers.