Competition, Customer Relationship Skills, Professional Behavior

Dealing with competitors who are good-looking, former pro athletes, and have other “unfair” advantages

Have you ever had a competitor who was able to make inroads with YOUR customers quickly because he or she was good-looking, a former professional athlete, or had some other perceived advantage?  I hear about this concern on a fairly regular basis.  I understand it because I experienced it myself.  In this edition of the Medical Sales Guru Podcast, I describe a situation that I encountered where a competitor was able to take business because he was able to do something outside of the clinical environment that put him in a favorable situation with a customer.  It’s great to have talents and attributes that get you in the door, but in the final analysis, you need to have more…much more if you expect to win business for the long term.

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Medical Sales Skills, Presentation Skills, Sales Productivity, Uncategorized

Medical Sales Mistakes: Brief Encounters with Health Care Clinicians and Decision Makers—To Sell or Not to Sell?

What do you do when you have a chance encounter with a physician, nurse, materials manager, CEO, or any other health care decision-maker…do you go for the short, abbreviated sales presentation (e.g. the scrub sink sale), or do you wait for a better time.  I have done it both ways and I have worked with sales forces who have done it both ways and one way is almost always more advantageous.  In this podcast I recommend what works best in most situations, but of course, the final decision is up to you.  You may only have one opportunity—Decide well!

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Competition, Medical Sales Skills, Uncategorized

A Tale of Two Medical Sales Reps

Are you confident about the stability of the business in your territory because you have been in that territory for years?  Don’t be! There is either a new sales rep or an old sales rep with a renewed focus ready to take that business. In this podcast, I share the story of two different sales reps that I rode along with recently and what I learned is critical to the business you currently enjoy and the business you hope to win in the future.  Take 10 minutes and see if you are more like Glenn, or more like Donna and you’ll have an idea as to what your future in medical sales looks like and how to change it if necessary.

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Customer Relationship Skills, Professional Behavior, Sales Productivity, Uncategorized

An Unwanted Title in Medical Sales — The Professional Visitor

Do you ever visit customers just to “check-in” ?  What a colossal waste of your time and theirs!  If you don’t have a purpose for the call…I mean a real purpose…that serves you, your company, the customer and the patient…then don’t make the call.  But I’m going to help you avoid that situation with a simple question that I offer up in this podcast.  After you listen, let me know how you avoid being “The Professional Visitor” by clicking on either “comments” or “no comments” in the box below and sharing with the world at  https://medicalsalesguru.com .

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difficult healthcare customers, Medical Sales Skills, The Complex Medical Sale, Uncategorized

Healthcare Selling: Getting attention in the C-suite and other non-clinical departments even when your product or service is not a significant institutional expense

Maybe you sell to the C-suite and maybe you don’t.  If you don’t, maybe you should. But how do you get past the reception desk to discuss business with the CEO, CFO and others in the ivory towers of an institution.  In this episode of the Medical Sales Guru Podcast, I provide some things to think about that will help you to get the attention of the C-suite and almost any other decision-makers you should be talking to.

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Customer Relationship Skills, Medical Sales Skills, Medical Sales Tools, Uncategorized

Using Email in Medical Sales…Good Idea or Bad Idea?

There are more and more medical sales professionals gravitating to email as a sales tool.  Sure there are many benefits, but there are downsides as well. In this edition of the Medical Sales Guru Podcast, I discuss how some sales representatives use email as a way to create a sale and why it doesn’t work.  Are you guilty of misusing email in your medical sales efforts?

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Customer Relationship Skills, Customer Service, Sales Motivation

When Customers Just “Like You as a Friend” and Allow You to Service the Hell Out of Them: How to Take Your Medical Sales to the Next Level

If you’ve been providing your healthcare customers with great service and it’s not bringing you the business you expect, here’s what you need to do–STOP!….that is, if they won’t reciprocate with more opportunities for you to grow your business.  Service is critically important, but you’re in the SALES business, not the SERVICE business.  Maybe you just need to change your thinking and then change your approach so that you can go beyond just being a “friend” to your customer.  Start the year right by adopting a new attitude that will move your business in an upward directions.

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Competition, Medical Sales Tools, Medical/Healthcare Sales Time Management, Professional Behavior, Uncategorized

Medical Sales and Social Media — Don’t Shoot Yourself in the Wallet!

Facebook, LinkedIn and a host of other social media sites are now a part of every day life.  Almost everyone has a page on one of these sites and the postings, for the most part, are fairly benign.  However, in this edition of The Medical Sales Guru Podcast, I discuss how a recent applicant for a medical sales job blew her chances with her postings on one of these sites.  Could posting things about yourself on the Internet hurt your medical sales career?  The answer is yes.  Listen to the podcast and make sure it doesn’t happen to you.

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Medical Sales Planning, Uncategorized

Create a Medical Sales Plan Now to Prepare for the Uncertainty in 2011 and Beyond…Before the S#*t Hits the Fan!

Most medical sales reps don’t even think about sales planning until a manager points a proverbial gun at their head and says, “I need next year’s sales plan by Friday!”  Strange, that the most important activity that can save your business, put money in your pocket, and save your job has to be mandated under a management-imposed deadline.  Medical sales professionals need to be fine-tuning their sales plan constantly and it has never been more critical than it is now.  Why?  Because we’re going to see many changes in the healthcare system and how products and services are purchased.  You need to be prepared.   So…how do you prepare for all the changes when you don’t even know what they are?

In this podcast, I provide an example of how ignoring threatened change cost me over $1 million in business during a time when change was less certain than it is NOW.  I also discuss how to prepare for the uncertainty ahead  by heeding the lessons of a famous event where disaster was averted two years ago.  Okay, you don’t have a crystal ball, but you can still prepare for the future and optimize your chances for success before the proverbial you-know-what hits the fan.

If you don’t have a detailed sales plan that includes a sales process for your medical sales efforts next week, next month, next year…you’re not fully in the game.  Watch out for those who are!

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Customer Relationship Skills, Uncategorized

Building Relationships in Medical Sales–Stop Focusing on the Wrong Things!

Most sales reps would agree that relationships are important in medical sales.  Some even go so far as to say that relationships are everything.  I agree that relationships are important, but I have found that many sales reps, especially new medical sales reps, have a distorted view as to what constitutes a good relationship and how to go about creating one.  In this edition of The Medical Sales Guru Podcast, I attempt to dispel some perceptions that lead to counterproductive “bad behavior” when trying to build relationships and what I believe are the keys to creating constructive professional relationships with healthcare customers that support one’s sales efforts.

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