When selling to large healthcare organizations, it’s crucial to recognize that multiple decision-makers are involved in the purchasing process. Most sales teams recognize (and focus exclusively on) the clinical audience, like a surgeon champion. However, in today’s environment, there are often at least two other groups to consider. Financial and operational stakeholders, each with their own set of concerns and priorities, are involved in nearly all decisions. Additionally, for solutions involving the EMR, IT is a powerful stakeholder.
Let’s look at a robust strategy for winning business in an environment where multiple decision-makers must have their unique concerns addressed before a contract is signed. Each has a very different perspective depending on their role in the organization – and one “no” vote can torpedo the entire sales push.
Building a Winning RFP Strategy
In light of the divergent concerns of decision-makers, creating a strategy that consistently wins RFPs and secures contracts with prestigious healthcare organizations involves the following key steps:
1. Map out Micro-Decisions
For each decision-maker persona, start by identifying 10 – 15 micro-decisions they may need to make before choosing your product or service over a competitor’s. Under each of these topics, there are subtopics that are concerns for each:
Clinical Stakeholders:
- Chief Medical Officer (CMO): Concerned with improving patient outcomes, reducing medical errors, and ensuring compliance with quality care standards.
- Department Head (e.g., Cardiology): Focused on acquiring cutting-edge equipment to enhance diagnostic capabilities and treatment options.
Financial Stakeholders:
- Chief Financial Officer (CFO): Prioritizes total cost of ownership, return on investment, and impact on the hospital’s financial performance.
- Procurement Manager: Interested in value-based procurement, considering both outcomes delivered and total cost of care.
Operational Stakeholders:
- Chief Operating Officer (COO): Concerned with improving operational efficiency, staff productivity, and patient throughput.
- Chief Information Officer (CIO): Focused on system integration, data security, staff availability / project prioritization, and minimizing disruptions to existing workflows.
2. Align Marketing Assets
Once you’ve mapped out these micro-decisions, assess your existing sales and marketing materials, which might include printed or e-brochures, PowerPoints, white papers, email campaigns, and other marketing assets. Determine which assets address each persona’s questions and identify gaps in your content, where issues important to one or more of the personas are not addressed adequately.
3. Create Targeted Content
Develop new marketing assets to fill the gaps identified in step 2. Ensure that at least one piece of content directly addresses each potential concern of every persona. For instance, you might create a comprehensive total cost of ownership analysis for finance leaders or detailed integration guides for IT stakeholders.
Or, you might create a targeted e-brochure that covers all 10 – 15 of the micro-decisions of just one of the personas.
4. Optimize Content Delivery
Determine the most effective way to deliver each piece of content to its intended audience. A range of options is open to you, including email campaigns, personalized direct mail, in-person presentations, LinkedIn ad campaigns, and conference presentations with associated materials.
The goal is to ensure that each persona receives the right information through the most appropriate channel. Remember that not every prospect is on every channel, so it may be prudent to utilize multiple channels for each piece of content.
5. Integrate with CRM
Map all of this work back to your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This integration allows your entire commercial team to track engagement across different personas within an account, identify areas of strong interest or potential roadblocks, and coordinate efforts to drive the sale forward.
At Jairus Marketing, we specialize in helping healthcare innovators implement customized versions of strategies such as this one to secure valuable contracts and drive growth. In addition to other marketing and consulting services, we help formulate a methodical approach to address the needs of each decision-maker in pursuit of sales.
Success in healthcare sales is about more than just having a great product or service, or even having the right message and marketing materials. It’s about understanding and addressing the unique concerns of each decision-maker involved in the purchasing process. By implementing the right strategy and execution, you can enhance your opportunities to secure major accounts and build a diverse client portfolio.
Conclusion:
In today’s complex healthcare purchasing environment, success hinges on understanding and addressing the unique concerns of multiple decision-makers. By mapping micro-decisions, aligning marketing assets, creating targeted content, optimizing delivery, and integrating with CRM systems, medical sales professionals can significantly improve their chances of winning valuable contracts. This comprehensive approach ensures that each stakeholder’s needs are met, creating a unified buying vision that drives successful outcomes for both the healthcare organization and the vendor.
Ready to revolutionize your healthcare sales strategy? At Jairus Marketing, we specialize in helping healthcare innovators navigate the complex decision-making landscape. Contact us today for a personalized consultation on how we can help you implement these strategies and drive your sales success.
