Sales Force Effectiveness: Leading Healthcare Information Technology Company
C-Suite Resources worked with a leading, multi-billion dollar healthcare information technology distributor to assist them with improving their sales force effectiveness. The Company has a successful 20-year track record of serving approximately 50% of the nation’s hospitals and over 15,000 physician clinics.
The Company wanted to conduct an in-depth, interactive panel discussion between its top sales people (approximately 60 individuals) and hospital and health system Chief Information Officers (CIOs). The Company wanted CIOs, both customers and non-customers, representing a cross-section of organizations, from community-based hospitals to medium- and large-scale integrated delivery systems, across different geographies. The panels covered the following topics:
- Healthcare IT buyers’ goals, priorities, decision processes and how they evaluate the Company and its competitors
- Views of healthcare software application vendors and how to work with accounts that have relationships with particular vendors
- Key healthcare trends and issues that affect IT purchasing decisions
- How to approach prospects and build strong relationships with IT decision makers
- How to articulate an effective value proposition
In order to ensure high levels of interaction, C-Suite Resources worked with the Company to schedule two panel meetings of a half-day each, with four CIOs and approximately 30 attendees in each. They were conducted at the Company headquarters, leading off with an executive luncheon. The luncheon provided an excellent opportunity for relationship building between the Company’s sales and marketing leadership team and the CIOs. C-Suite Resources managed the entire process, including:
- Working with the Company to design the agenda
- Collecting discussion questions from the sales team in advance to prepare the panelists and promote pointed discussions
- Recruiting and securing the appropriate CIO panelists
- Organizing and leading a preparatory conference call with the CIOs and the Company’s sales and marketing leaders
- Facilitating the panel discussions
- Administering and compiling panel evaluations
- Conducting a post-panel call with CIOs and the Company
As a result of the session, the Company’s sales team gained tremendous insights to help them boost their sales effectiveness. On average, the sales people rated the overall effectiveness of the two panels at 4.7 and 4.6, respectively, on a 5.0 scale. Sample attendee comments included: “Great panel! Very informative. Very interactive. Great way to get in the minds of our customers, particularly the thinking of those who don’t particularly know our capabilities. Good way to bounce ideas of what would be best received.”
Also, the Company was personally invited to meet with several CIOs to discuss their IT needs and to explore potential solutions and ways of working together. The Company plans to conduct several additional panels as part of its ongoing sales education program.
