What Does Administration Think?

I recently had an opportunity to interview the head of a Cancer Center here in Ontario. I have been conducting these types of interviews over the past several months with a view towards developing an understanding of how Health Care Institutions view industry and how we in industry might be able to provide added value to these organizations.

The conversation I had with this administrator - we’ll call him Dr. Bob for the purposes of this article - was very interesting and revealed a consistent problem that I believe my medical clients are creating for themselves.

During the interview, I asked Dr. Bob to share with me the three most significant trends that he felt would drive his institution’s decision making in the next 12 months. He revealed that capital funds were more readily available, that operating budgets were currently the most squeezed and that the government is changing it’s methodology of evaluating centers like his with respect to waiting lists (a big issue in Canada). For those of you who are purists, you are correct; these are not trends, but responses to trends.

I had become aware of Dr. Bob because one of my clients had just recently lost a sale at his institution. Without revealing my client, I asked Dr. Bob about the decision making process that they followed and the criteria that they used in determining which vendor to proceed with. Dr. Bob asked me, “Of the three vendors bidding on this four million dollar contract, how many do you think met with me?” The answer? ONE. I asked him if the successful vendor was the one who met with him and he smiled and said yes. I inquired about the final decision criteria. He said that despite the fact that the other two vendors had technically superior solutions---yes he actually said that for those of you who sell on features---the chosen vendor had built their proposal in such a way that the entire acquisition, including training and service, could be funded with the capital budget, not the operating budget. In other words the successful vendor asked great questions and then built their solution around what the Economic Buyer needed.

Dr. Bob was incredulous that more medical device and Pharma reps didn’t call on him. “I make a lot of these decisions.” He said. “Why would they not want to understand what my needs are from an institutional perspective?”

So what is the key learning for all of us in this?

1. Meet with administration.
2. Ask them what their ideal solution looks like.
3. Formulate the solution to their needs.
4. Don’t depend on product superiority to do your selling for you.
5. Don’t depend on your clinical contacts to do your selling for you.

Have a great week. Good luck and good selling!