Making A Splash In Sales
The world of medical sales is a fast paced, constantly evolving sector where the
need to source new leads, meet with customers and close deals often means that the finer points of customer relationship management are neglected.
Salesmanship is the ability to engage with and persuade people, and therefore understanding how people think and act in general can give you a competitive advantage, and increase your success rates. Customers will deal with individuals and companies that they feel they can trust, that they are comfortable with and that they feel will deliver on promises. Studying how people as a whole interact with each other, and taking steps to optimise these factors will enable you to far more effectively push the right buttons, equating to an increased number of successful medical sales contracts for you and your organisation.
Customers are driven by language
Open-ended questions are the mainstay of every salesman, but have you ever thought about the words you are using in your meetings? Repeated use of positive phrases within a discussion can have a profound effect on the outcome of that meeting. Structure your sentences and phrases to include more positive statements and youll leave a positive impression in the mind of your customer.
Often more than 55% of your communication is non-verbal, communicated through your body posture. Adopting a non-threatening, open body language is key to making your customer feel comfortable in your presence. If the customer doesnt feel comfortable then they wont trust you. If they dont trust you, they wont buy from you.
Using the right words will also help you to take shortcuts into a customers psyche. In medical sales, doctors, GPs, and nurses have a particular set of terminology, and using the same words as your customer can help to position you as part of a group, one of the pack. Using the right terminology indicates that you understand your customer and are not an outsider.
Customers are visual
When meeting clients dress for the occasion, show that youve made an effort. Humans put a lot of importance on what a person looks like, and tests have shown that a well presented person is instinctively trusted more than their more dishevelled competitor. Making a powerful first impression is crucial to getting the customer to trust and engage with you later.
Customers can detect deception
Its very easy to try to adopt a persona that you think a client will like, but be aware that false personas are very easy to spot since they are so very unnatural. Humans are very adept at spotting deceptiveness in each other, even if that observation is just a feeling that something isnt right. There are natural body language pointers that identify if you are lying or being deceptive, and adopting a false persona will start setting off these signals. Dont try to be someone that youre not, but instead focus on being someone that the customer feels they can talk to.
Customers value knowledge
Knowing your products inside out and being able to answer any questions about your product will set a very professional impression with your customer. If you are selling medical devices take the time to understand the situations in which that device is used. For pharmaceuticals be prepared to reel off the benefits, conditions for which the drug can be used and potential side effects. Also take the time to understand who can and cannot take that drug.
You customers need to buy into you before they can buy into your product. If you dont know what youre talking about then your client cannot trust that what youve told them is what they need to know, which makes buying from you far more difficult.
Keep abreast of medical news. Not only does this give you something to talk to your customer about, but demonstrates that youre thoroughly interested in the sector as a whole.
Customers like to feel valued
At the start of any sales process customers will naturally be guarded and distrusting, its natural human behaviour. You can disarm this reaction by having free resources on hand for that customer that might be useful to them outside of the sales discussion. This might be news articles, web links to useful information or other such resources, but they should all be relevant to your customer. Freebies make people feel valued, so use them to break the ice and add value to your customer relationship.
Enhance the perception that your customers have of you by doing that extra little bit more to gain their trust and their respect. Deliver on all promises, answer communication in a very timely manner and spend a bit more time finding out about your customer and their hospital or practice before attending a meeting.
Customers prefer to talk
When it comes to medical sales, face to face communication is still the outright winner. Email and social media are useful to help you find and manage customers, but nothing trumps a good old conversation. Try to get all communication onto the phone or into a meeting as soon as possible.
Customers have their own work to do
Medical professionals are busy people! They dont always have time to listen to sales pitches. Make it easier for them, and for you, by learning about typical days within the industry and how people function. Time your contact points to coincide with natural quiet times, and do your sales prospecting and paperwork when your customers are likely to be busy and unreachable. This way you maximise the time in your day, and each activity has maximum value.
by: Nate Wood
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