The medical sales world is always evolving, and staying on top of the trends and developments allows you to be better prepared for what is happening within the industry. One of the greatest qualities any medical sales representative can possess is to be adaptable.
You need to adapt your sales pitches and strategies to what is going on within the industry. There are a few changes, or trends, that have taken place over the course of 2023 that medical sales professionals should be aware of.
These trends will change how they approach the stakeholders that hold the power of purchase. Here are the top trends and a few suggestions for handling them with poise.
Lack of Access to Doctors
Most doctors had their own medical practices years ago. As a result, they controlled their schedule because they got to determine what time in the day they were allowed to have appointments with both their patients and their medical sales representatives. The bad news is that those times have been taken away from most of them.
Most doctors don’t have a practice of their own anymore because of financial reasons. Between the cost of running a building, monitoring employees, and the price of malpractice insurance, and so much more, they’ve decided that it’s easier and makes them more money to work for a bigger medical corporation, like a hospital group.
As a result, these doctors are basically employees of the hospital group and have to comply with the requirements of the corporation. The number of patients they see and the time available for meeting with the sales person from the medical companies lies outside their discretion. And this means that today, when the salesperson is coming to close the sale; he needs to talk directly to the lead of acquisition team or a member of equivalent committee.
The Solution
How do you plan on selling your products if you can’t get to the doctors that will benefit from your product? You have to go through the acquisition process. You’ll have to alter your pitches to show them how it is needed and make a more universal language, so the acquisition team would understand. Tailoring them for them will work much better.
Pricing Has Started to Matter More Than Anything Else
Yes, hospitals still require products, whether the newest pharmaceuticals on the market, groundbreaking surgical tools, or simply bandages and crutches. But with the shift from physician-centric sales to acquisitions teams, other priorities have taken center stage.
They look at the other things like pricing rather than just patient needs. Therefore, it is whoever has the best products at the best prices who will get the order. Consequently, it does not matter that you have known people for many years within the acquisitions team if you do not have the best prices.
The Solution
A multi-prong approach would be the best solution here. Emphasize the importance and need for your products and state why they are better than your competitors while, at the same time doing everything you can to offer the best prices.
You may not win every battle, but if you can come up with a package deal that works for everyone on the acquisitions committee, then you’ll be the one who gets the sale. This combination of emphasizing quality and working with them on price is the best option in these situations.
Vendor Contracts Limit Options
Some hospital groups, faced with the need to save money, decided to purchase only from a few selected vendors their medical supplies, equipment, and other supplies. The vendors have exclusive contracts; meaning that the hospital acquisitions committee cannot buy these goods anywhere else.
In return, the hospital group gets a discount in exchange for exclusivity and guaranteed volume of purchases. So the sales representatives working for the other firms appear to have lost the battle. They wouldn’t be able to sell anything to those customers without the company being brought aboard into the exclusive deal.
The Solution
One of the most apparent answers is to work hard with your managers and the acquisitions committee to make sure that your company gets one of those select vendor contracts. It will likely take some give-and-take between the two groups, but it can be done if you have a good working relationship with the people on the acquisitions committee.
Another alternative could be to bypass the special contract by providing other pieces of equipment, drugs or other products that the other firm sells; you will be able to bypass the special contract as long as you have the product they need but are not in a position to obtain the product from the other firm.
Trends in Medical Sales
By staying up to date on these critical trends, you will better be able to handle the situation at hand proactively and keep on track the right path in this ever-changing and exciting world of medical sales.