Have you ever had a customer say something about you or your product that isn’t true? Maybe it’s even slanderous or bordering on slander. Or perhaps the customer informs you that if you don’t lower your pricing, you’re going to lose the business. You’re used to dealing with difficult situations and you’re ready to charge in and address the issue head-on. Stop! Confronting customers on delicate situations is a high-wire act–one wrong move and you’re on the ground with that customer, maybe forever. There is an effective way to confront customers on situations where they may not be pleased with the message. It worked very well for me throughout my medical sales career and I advise you to stop and consider it before you erase any opportunities to ever do business with valued customers again.
As Marshall Goldsmith says, “what got you here, won’t get you there.” The ways that the health care industry buys goods and services are changing, and you can either thrive on the new opportunities or get crushed while waiting for things to return to “normal.” In this episode of The Medical Sales Guru Podcast, Mace Horoff discusses the results of a recent physician practice survey along with the obvious ramifications. Included are some suggestions on how to adapt your medical sales business and selling approach if you plan on continuing in this profession. If it seems like common sense, then why haven’t more medical sales professionals adapted yet?
I had a student who was concerned about one of his doctor-customer’s opinion about the value of a good sales presentation. When you deliver a good sales presentation, your customer should not recognize it as you trying to sell him/her something. Here’s why it doesn’t matter what the doctor thinks–what matters is the outcome.
The medical sales landscape is changing, and it is critical that you change along with it. One of the more pressing challenges for medical sales professionals is the increasing need to sell to the C-Suite at the hospital along with the complexities of selling to product evaluation and technology assessment committees. In this podcast episode, Mace Horoff describes why this change is occurring and what you must do to not only grow your sales, but also to hold onto the business that you have.
Have you ever walked into a customer and demand that they buy your product because it’s on a GPO or IDN contract? If you have tried to do this with a physician, the response you received may have left a visible mark! In this episode of the Medical Sales Guru podcast, we discuss an approach to avoid angering your physician customers when your sales efforts are supported with a buying contract.
Medical sales professionals see themselves as wearing many different hats. Most people, including your customer, really have no idea as to what your entire day is like. Your customers often see you in the way that you engage them most regularly. So, what business would they say that you’re in? In this podcast episode, I discuss the answer to this question along with a reminder to the “other business” you had better be in as well.
Medical sales professionals wear many hats, providing a multitude of services for their customers and their customer’s patients. If you had to choose one area to focus your energies and attention in order to achieve the greatest return on your effort, what would that be? In this episode of The Medical Sales Guru Podcast, Mace Horoff discusses the one area where you must maintain a focus because this is the one area that won’t take care of itself.
Consultative Selling — the term has become cliche…everyone in medical sales knows the term and says it, but the reality is not everyone is doing it! The challenges of selling to healthcare customers can create an environment and mindset where consultative selling is difficult. In this edition of The Medical Sales Guru Podcast, Mace Horoff addresses the main cause of “the gap” and talks about what you need to do to avoid being perceived as just another product-pusher as opposed to a valued link in the chain of patient care.
We hear this question often from people who are just beginning their medical sales careers: “What do you do when customers act like they’re better than you?” If you have never had it happen, you’re probably doing all the right things…or you just weren’t paying attention! It’s not necessarily a bad thing when it happens, in fact, it may be an opportunity. Mace Horoff discusses the frequent causes when medical professionals attempt to let sales people know who the real authority is and how to handle it.
If you are a medical sales professional, at some point in your career you have either dealt with or will be dealing with these destructive attitudes…but will you recognize it before it’s too late? In this episode of The Medical Sales Guru Podcast, Mace Horoff shares with you how his own attitudes in one of his hospital accounts cost him ten years of stable, recurring business. He is certainly not proud of what happened, but Mace hopes that hearing his story will help you avoid rolling out the red carpet to your competitors like he did. If you don’t recognize the warning signs, your business is in big trouble! Arrogance never goes unpunished.
