INSIGHTS

A New Sales Battle Plan for Healthcare Services and Solutions Companies: Fill the Sales Pipeline with the Right Leads

Healthcare disruption, fueled by the industry’s goal of creating better outcomes for patients and the organizations that serve them, is leading to increased competition, creating a dominant sales culture in many healthcare companies. Nowhere is this more true than in the healthcare services sector, including health IT, revenue cycle management, patient management, healthcare analytics and consulting among many other types of organizations. In the race to build their businesses, these healthcare service companies place weight on sales to bring in and close leads. Sales people, however, need the right tools for success. The right communication is a powerful asset to target and close leads because the truer the message, the truer the leads that are put in the pipeline.

What are Healthcare Services Companies Missing in Their Sales Battle Plans?

Some organizations choose not to communicate. They focus on sales. It may be a conscious and strategic-choice. But what happens? The market shapes them. They do not shape the market. Sales efforts are inefficient. They produce unqualified leads. They waste time. With the right message, the right leads are put in the pipeline. The sales team’s ability to close valuable business accelerates. Getting to the right message and giving sales people the tools they need offers a winning battle plan for both emerging and established healthcare companies who are building their businesses in a competitive and quickly changing marketplace.

How to Create a Sales Battle Plan for Your Healthcare Services Company that Fills the Pipeline

Communications tools should be ready-made and available to quickly provide potential customers with key information. Messaging has to be packaged so the market, including buyers can quickly discern value. This starts with understanding and providing solutions to customers’ short and long-term needs. Effective messaging should also pre-sell the marketplace from above while developing and converting leads on the ground.

How to Give Healthcare Sales People the Battle Plan They Need

Sales people, novices or veteran need a go-to-market message. Where there are scaled sales forces, junior level people need a script. The marketplace is changing and every sale is different, so updating messaging regularly and turning to top sales people for input as they are closest to customer needs, can keep messaging fresh. Don’t underestimate time for introduction and adoption for messaging. Putting the right system in place to train and roll-out tools is needed.

Checklist for Sales Battle Plan

✓ Identifies a customer problem

✓ Provides solution steps

✓ Makes sense of solution

✓ Provides the specific answer through company’s own products and services

✓ Introduces referenceable examples, data and anecdotes from business that demonstrate need and validate company

✓ Offers implementation plan

Sales people need communication tools. Missed market opportunities happen through poor messaging. If the messaging is off, too wide or vague, it generates too big a response. Time is wasted chasing bad leads. With the right messages, the real opportunities emerge. Companies in the healthcare services sector need sales communications support so they can be more efficient. Relying on sales efforts alone is a common behavior of these organizations which is driven by their need to build sustainable revenue. The search for sustainable revenue, however, can be made more efficient when the right communications tools are put in sales people’s hands.