Answering the “It” Question

Day after day, year after year, healthcare professionals evaluate a myriad of new products and services for their respective institutions. From high-end imaging equipment down to bandages, the barrage of new items is never-ending, with each manufacturer claiming that its product or service is superior to all others on the market. This deluge of offerings has forced all stakeholders in healthcare – patients, clinicians, facilities and payers – to essentially answer what I call the “it question.”

By “it,” I mean the following:

  • Is “it” better than what you are currently using? There are constantly new innovations and/or additional features and services being added to what you are using. However, in today’s climate of healthcare reform, hospitals have to press companies to clearly and definitively demonstrate how the new bell or whistle (the “it” they added or created) will improve patient outcomes. If a manufacturer can’t answer this question, everything else is irrelevant.
  • Is “it” worth it? Great. … Now that you have established that this product or service has some definitive measure of therapeutic benefit/enhanced outcome, you must determine how it will affect the economics of the organization. Does it increase procedure cost yet decrease length of stay? Does it lower infection rates and help you with “never events?” Will it help you attract more patients? Does it increase patient throughput across multiple departments? Bottom-line: Will it be a net plus, negative or break-even across the continuum of care from a financial point of view (and keep in mind that the continuum of care could extend from the patient’s home to acute care to an alternate site facility)?
  • Is “it” evidenced based? Can you document or find enough unbiased, evidence-based information to validate therapeutic and economic claims to justify the decision to adopt or stick with a solution? Also, how do you make the process transparent and fair so that all stakeholders are in agreement with the validity of the data/evidence collection?

As healthcare reform continues to evolve and take shape, answering these questions, as simplistic as they may seem, will drive billions of dollars worth of decisions for decades to come. But when you stop and think about it, that’s what healthcare has always been about – trying to figure out what “it” is and what’s the best way to treat it.

That’s why I have always advocated the following approach to selling:

  • From the very start, adopt a collegial approach to the potential customer. Don’t show up with a 62-slide PowerPoint deck telling the customer what she needs. Have a conversation. Ask the customer what her primary challenges are. In the initial meeting (or telephone conversation), give a very brief “elevator speech” description of your firm and what it does. Spend the major portion of the meeting finding out the customer’s “it” – what challenge she faces, and only then describe how your products or services can help. You should spend five times as much time listening to the customer during this conversation as you do speaking. Take notes and ask for clarification as needed.
  • At the end of the conversation, sum up what you have heard and ask for confirmation.
  • Promise to get back to the customer within a couple of weeks with some suggestions to help with her problems.
  • Thank her and go home.

Later, you can follow up with the appropriate thank you note and ask for a time to come in for a face-to-face meeting to show her how your offerings can help with the “it” that she related to you.

In the interim, find out as much detail as you can about the customer and her organization and prepare your formal show so you can relate your offerings to her in the context of her specific issues. By taking this approach, your presentation will be relevant and effective.

It is key to remember that you don’t sell – the customer buys goods or services that most successfully address whatever “it” is that is giving her the most heartburn at the moment.

I always tell my sales team: “Sell value. Sell the customer what she needs. Don’t show up and throw up (a big presentation). You can do it this way or your way…”

It’s up to you.

Glen Hall is a well-known and highly respected sales professional with 30 years of diverse sales and sales management experience, from selling commodities to implants. Most recently, he was Vice President of Sales with the ECRI Institute. Currently, Glen is a healthcare consultant and speaker.

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