A physician relations/business development staff that is knowledgeable and capable of effective healthcare selling will maximize their value to targeted physicians and help meet your organization's goals. To find the right trainer and program to meet these goals, consider these key points.
Sales training is not information download. Learning sales is not about learning formulas or rehearsing a scripted speech. Nor is it about learning how one particular person exceeded goals. With a good trainer, your staff will learn how to sell using their own basic communication and behavior styles, not by becoming or imitating someone else. The best trainers will be trained themselves in how to teach others through adult learning methodologies and/or in train-the-trainer education. With that background, you will more likely find your staff engaged in the training, learning and confident they can get back in the field creating greater success.
Help new skills stick. If you,ve invested staff time and money in a sales training, you want to see new skills in action in the immediate weeks and continued months and years following a training session. However, without high in-the-classroom interactivity, and post-seminar reinforcement, people can quickly shift back to old habits. In-session practice and follow-up skill training helps new skills stick. These reinforcements can be in the form of webinars and distance coaching, or using your own supervisory staff in "ride-a-long coaching" or overseeing practice sessions among staff. These reinforcement sessions should begin about two weeks after formal training session and continue at regular intervals based on the needs of your staff.
Your training should be specific to healthcare. Healthcare and healthcare selling are unique, and general sales training programs will not address the important differences and challenges this industry brings. For example selling healthcare services is ultimately about helping your clients' patients—and improving their quality of life. Second, the payment system in healthcare differs from others, and the function of "sales" is less acceptable than in other industries, as well. Your trainer should understand these differences, should have experience in healthcare selling, and also be knowledgeable about the intricate legal regulations and the nuances of turf wars between hospitals and other providers.
Price or value? With training — especially in the nuanced field of healthcare sales — you get what you pay for. So don't make price your only consideration. Using the tips above, you can begin to evaluate the overall return on investment a particular trainer or training package offers you and your organization. If you are confident one firm is superior, but the price is higher, you’re better off asking them to adjust the deliverables — 1.5 days vs. 2 days of training, for example, or to focus on just the selling process and not other skills (such as prospecting, time management, etc.) Those skills can be gained once the selling process has been learned and is having an impact. First choose the best trainer, and then focus on areas that will give you the highest return.
You're ready to choose a trainer. When meeting with a prospective training firm, note whether they are engaging you and asking the right questions based on the concepts above. Are they more interested in helping you than in selling their services? Remember, a good presenter does not translate into a good teacher. Watch for all these clues to how they would train your staff.
Invest in training today to prepare your staff and organization for great weeks, months, and years ahead.
Kathleen Harkins is principal of Harkins Associates, a healthcare business development and sales consulting/training firm. As a career-long healthcare strategist, seller, sales trainer, manager and company executive, Ms. Harkins' has experience in several healthcare sector s— health insurance/managed care, capital equipment, professional services, information technology, hospitals and pharmaceutical. Prior to establishing the consulting and training firm 12 years ago, Ms. Harkins was employed as chief marketing officer for Progressions Health System, a managed inpatient and outpatient provider system; she also served as vice president of sales and marketing for Westmeade HealthCare, Inc.
Sales training is not information download. Learning sales is not about learning formulas or rehearsing a scripted speech. Nor is it about learning how one particular person exceeded goals. With a good trainer, your staff will learn how to sell using their own basic communication and behavior styles, not by becoming or imitating someone else. The best trainers will be trained themselves in how to teach others through adult learning methodologies and/or in train-the-trainer education. With that background, you will more likely find your staff engaged in the training, learning and confident they can get back in the field creating greater success.
Help new skills stick. If you,ve invested staff time and money in a sales training, you want to see new skills in action in the immediate weeks and continued months and years following a training session. However, without high in-the-classroom interactivity, and post-seminar reinforcement, people can quickly shift back to old habits. In-session practice and follow-up skill training helps new skills stick. These reinforcements can be in the form of webinars and distance coaching, or using your own supervisory staff in "ride-a-long coaching" or overseeing practice sessions among staff. These reinforcement sessions should begin about two weeks after formal training session and continue at regular intervals based on the needs of your staff.
Your training should be specific to healthcare. Healthcare and healthcare selling are unique, and general sales training programs will not address the important differences and challenges this industry brings. For example selling healthcare services is ultimately about helping your clients' patients—and improving their quality of life. Second, the payment system in healthcare differs from others, and the function of "sales" is less acceptable than in other industries, as well. Your trainer should understand these differences, should have experience in healthcare selling, and also be knowledgeable about the intricate legal regulations and the nuances of turf wars between hospitals and other providers.
Price or value? With training — especially in the nuanced field of healthcare sales — you get what you pay for. So don't make price your only consideration. Using the tips above, you can begin to evaluate the overall return on investment a particular trainer or training package offers you and your organization. If you are confident one firm is superior, but the price is higher, you’re better off asking them to adjust the deliverables — 1.5 days vs. 2 days of training, for example, or to focus on just the selling process and not other skills (such as prospecting, time management, etc.) Those skills can be gained once the selling process has been learned and is having an impact. First choose the best trainer, and then focus on areas that will give you the highest return.
You're ready to choose a trainer. When meeting with a prospective training firm, note whether they are engaging you and asking the right questions based on the concepts above. Are they more interested in helping you than in selling their services? Remember, a good presenter does not translate into a good teacher. Watch for all these clues to how they would train your staff.
Invest in training today to prepare your staff and organization for great weeks, months, and years ahead.
Kathleen Harkins is principal of Harkins Associates, a healthcare business development and sales consulting/training firm. As a career-long healthcare strategist, seller, sales trainer, manager and company executive, Ms. Harkins' has experience in several healthcare sector s— health insurance/managed care, capital equipment, professional services, information technology, hospitals and pharmaceutical. Prior to establishing the consulting and training firm 12 years ago, Ms. Harkins was employed as chief marketing officer for Progressions Health System, a managed inpatient and outpatient provider system; she also served as vice president of sales and marketing for Westmeade HealthCare, Inc.
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