Posted by Michelle Flewell on Thu, Nov 04, 2010 @ 03:54 PM
In the world of healthcare selling, where barriers include limited access to customers, numerous me-too products, and a multitude of managed care restrictions, highly successful representatives are those who can differentiate themselves on three main fronts. These “Super Reps” can:
- build rapport and identify customer needs
- pull from a vast body of knowledge to identify potential solutions
- develop strategic plans that deliver return on investment for both themselves and their customers
The need for Super Reps has never been great, and creating a “Super Rep” requires training programs that address all three fronts.
Selling Skills and Business Acumen
Having the ability to build rapport, identify customer needs, and understand economic drivers requires keen person-to-person skills and business acumen, the most important of which (and often overlooked) are good listening skills. Too many representatives—pressured by time constraints during physician calls—launch right into selling their product without ever asking what the physician needs or taking the time to listen. While this approach may work occasionally on a short-term basis, it is unlikely to work on a long-term basis.
Long-term sales relationships require meaningful, productive dialogs between sales representatives and their customers. Sales representatives can learn to structure such dialogues during sales calls in a way that allows them to get to the bottom of “what ails their customers.” In a sense, this dialogue can mirror the strategy physicians use to assess patients. What is the main complaint? When did it start? What are the “symptoms”? What interventions have been tried? What works? What doesn’t? By asking such questions, and conducting a thorough “assessment,” representatives can truly determine the challenges facing their customers.
Identifying customer challenges is the first step for representatives. Understanding those challenges and pinpointing where their products and services can help is next, and doing so requires a vast body of knowledge—both clinical and managed care.
Clinical Knowledge
Most representatives have a good handle on the clinical basics. Those who can differentiate themselves, however, have a more advanced clinical background. While understanding the basics of clinical pharmacology and relevant disease states is crucial,
Super Reps go a few steps further. They understand the ins and outs of biostatistics, can leverage evidence-based medicine, can “paint a picture” of appropriate patients, and can hold detailed discussions around package inserts and clinical data, while remaining within compliance.
Managed Care Savvy
Most representatives can provide formulary updates; however, Super Reps go far beyond that. They understand the exceptions in reimbursement, help physician customers see the value of writing products that require prior authorization, and can make a pharmacoeconomic case for their products, even when they are not preferred on a particular formulary.
An Integrated Strategy
Perhaps the greatest skill Super Reps possess is the ability to integrate all of these capabilities—sales skills, business acumen, clinical, and managed care savvy—to develop strategic plans to uncover and meet the needs of their customers.
Consider these capabilities as the legs of a stool. Separately, they cannot hold up the seat. Unless the representative puts them together properly, step-by-step, in a logical, methodical way, the stool will not stand firm. By formulating a strategy and implementing that strategy to build the “stool,” they can, upon completion, offer their customer a place to sit … and hopefully have a substantive discussion about their products and services.