Sales Training Connection

AUGUST 27, 2014

The medical device market faces transformational market challenges – decision criteria shifting from clinical to economic, decision-making moving from local hospitals to IDNs, the rise of GPOs, and the dramatic impact of new governmental regulations. A Classic – ’63 Corvette. ©2013 Sales Momentum ®.

Health Care 82

Health Care Pharmaceuticals Territories Selling Skills 82

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

And with the ever-changing healthcare market space , selling to physicians is increasingly more difficult. So, let’s review a list of ideas for getting started: Determine how the physician wants to receive information – peers, company experts, journals articles. Easy to say, not so easy to do.

Health Care 99

Health Care Journal Demographics Face-to-face 99

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 29, 2012

Over the years we’ve surveyed hundreds of potential buyers across industries in the B2B market space. In the medical devices market , for example, we hear docs say that one of the reasons they use a particular device is because they like the sales rep or they use a device because the sales rep is always there for them.

Hiring 108

Hiring Vendor Training Survey 108

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 17, 2012

The article shares that hospitals actively hiring physicians will be well positioned to compete under various reimbursement scenarios. Physician relationships and preferences alone will not win the day in today’s market. More than half of practicing U.S. ©2012 Sales Horizons, LLC.

Health Care 108

Health Care Hiring Journal Networking 108

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 21, 2013

Review with Marketing the merit of offering basic and premium versions of your products. Technorati Tags: sales and profit , sales and profitability , sales best practices , sales strategy , sales training articles , sales training blogs. Help the sales team develop an understanding of the competitor’s products and pricing structure.

Compensation 108

Compensation Study Negotiation Training 108

Sales Training Connection

APRIL 9, 2012

At a minimum they will be entering the healthcare market with a different set of expectations around healthcare availability and a different point of view about their relationships with medical sales companies than their more senior peers. ©2012 Sales Horizons, LLC.

Health Care 120

Health Care Face-to-face Training Resources 120

Sales Training Connection

APRIL 23, 2012

This combination of trends is especially true in those portions of the medical device market that generate the largest profits: CRM devices, cardiology, spine-related devices, and orthopedics devices. At the same time physicians are more willing to accept a medical device offered at the lowest price as long as it meets quality standards.

Health Care 112

Health Care Decision Maker Training Benefit 112

Sales Training Connection

DECEMBER 11, 2013

The article addressed what successful people do in a variety of fields but the insights translate extremely well to the field of sales. From the list of behaviors in the article that successful people do, we selected five that pertained particularly well to the world of sales. Could they get there on their own? Keep it simple.

Sales Coaching 114

Sales Coaching Coaching Hiring Cancellation 114

Sales Training Connection

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

Building on this idea, recently we came across an interesting article by Samantha Howland that focused on strategic planning at the executive level. Although the article addresses strategy from a company-wide perspective, the points seemed particularly relevant to top-level sales planning.

Strategy 120

Strategy Exercises Competition Training 120

Sales Training Connection

JANUARY 23, 2013

Booz & Co published a particularly insightful article on a particularly important topic – Sales Force Design: Assessing Stark Choices and Getting it Right. Because of the dynamic changes occurring across markets, the assessment of whether the right sales force design is in place has become a priority for senior sales leaders.

Training 103

Training Pivotal Commission Quota 103

Sales Training Connection

MAY 8, 2013

An interesting article – Performing Best When It Matters Most – appeared in the Kellogg Insight (August 2011). The situations vary by market but include interactions such as: meetings with senior level decision makers, discussions with buying committees, and final shoot out presentations. A Classic - '63 Corvette.

Hiring 106

Hiring Decision Maker Case Study Face-to-face 106

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 1, 2012

When sharing the author’s recommendations, it is important to be accurate so take the wording right from the article. As the medical device market place changes hospital purchasing is becoming very different today from yesteryear. Selling with clinical data is becoming increasingly important. ©2012 Sales Horizons, LLC.

Health Care 94

Health Care Data Journal Study 94

Sales Training Connection

MAY 30, 2012

On the other hand, there are some basic best practices for selling in the medical device market that have been and will continue to be important. The sales rep who does not adjust and adapt to these changes is unlikely to prosper. In the future business-as-usual will be business lost to competitors.

Health Care 113

Health Care Decision Maker Cold Calling Training 113

Sales Training Connection

APRIL 17, 2013

In today’s competitive markets, companies cannot rely on Marketing as the sole source of leads – Sales needs to be in the game. Technorati Tags: business development , Lead identification , new business development , sales best practices , sales training , sales training articles , sales training blogs. Lead identification.

Leads 112

Leads Marketing Qualified Lead Training Account 112

Sales Training Connection

DECEMBER 21, 2011

Since starting the Sales Training Connection, we’ve written numerous posts about selling in the medical sales market. Besides the imagery created by the notion of doctors being wooed, the fact that the headline suggested hospitals were hiring sales reps made the rest of the article a must read. Medical sales - a new opportunity.

Health Care 98

Health Care Opportunity Hiring Referrals 98

Sales Training Connection

APRIL 3, 2013

Companies in the B2B market develop a dazzling array of new products. And some are extraordinary new products that are designed to be significant revenue producers or game changers or in some cases “bet the company” entries into the market. Five techniques to bridge the marketing-sales chasm. ©2013 Sales Horizons, LLC.

Ideal Customer Profile 108

Ideal Customer Profile Face-to-face Engineering Training 108

Sales Training Connection

AUGUST 20, 2012

Yet senior sales leadership would tell you there was market share left on the table … Accounts that could have been won – opportunities missed and revenue not captured. Recently we can across an interesting research article in a HBR blog that sounded that same note. Even a great sales team cannot do it alone.

Maximizer 101

Maximizer Sales Leadership Revenue Proposal 101

Sales Training Connection

APRIL 29, 2013

In any large company there are under-leveraged resources that could be helpful to the sales efforts – people in marketing, technical and engineering support people, implementation managers or senior sales managers. In today’s competitive markets staying in one’s comfort zone may avoid failure – unfortunately it may also prevent success.

Travel 107

Travel Training Engineering Strategy 107

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

being the largest market. . The global medical devices industry, while large, is very competitive. Worldwide sales for 2011 are estimated to be more $300 billion in 2011 with the U.S. Therefore, working with your internal champions to effectively present your solution is critical. . Rise of new influencers.

Health Care 99

Health Care Sales Process Decision Maker Influencer 99

Sales Training Connection

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Those who know the market best say the change is likely to continue. For example, an article in USA Today shares what hospitals are doing in relationship marketing. The article goes on to point out such marketing efforts are widespread – and highly effective in revenue terms. Collaboration. Sales Managers.

Health Care 72

Health Care Hiring Direct Mail Licensing 72

Sales Training Connection

FEBRUARY 10, 2014

Pick up any business magazine – or for that matter any self help magazine – and more often than not you’ll see an article about how to reinvent yourself. Recently we read an HBR article where the author addressed this topic from a personal perspective.

Competition 120

Competition Scale Vendor Influencer 120

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 7, 2014

Mark Roberge – Chief Revenue Officer of Inbound Sales Products for HubSpot – published an interesting article answering this question in the SMM Monitor. They’re entrepreneurial – In today’s market bring a business mindset to the engagement is exactly what customer are expecting. It’s definitely worth a read.

Hiring 108

Hiring Hubspot Inbound Analytics 108

Sales Training Connection

APRIL 22, 2013

In the major account market, miscalculations around qualifying leads can have significant consequences either due to opportunities missed or to wasted time and money pursuing bad business. Technorati Tags: Lead identification , major account selling , sales best practices , sales training , sales training articles , sales training blogs.

Sales Qualified Lead 105

Sales Qualified Lead Fashion Account Training 105

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

In a McKinsey article asked a fundamental question – Is the buying cycle linear? The study found that more than 50% of marketing spend is misaligned because of a misunderstanding how customers make buying decisions – as they say that is a problem worth correcting. In an HBR article Steve Martin reported on a win-loss analysis study.

Buying Cycle 120

Buying Cycle Study Sales Process Proposal 120

Sales Training Connection

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

These products will be expected to produce significant revenue and some may be “bet-the-company” entries to the market. . In the rush to market, all too often companies provide salespeople with only marketing materials, product training, and pricing information. . Yet history tells a scary tale. ©2011 Sales Horizons, LLC.

Training 100

Training Revenue Sales Conversion 100

Sales Training Connection

JANUARY 4, 2017

Recently we came across a great article in the Harvard Business Review by Mark Chussil about frameworks that can help salespeople to do a better job thinking strategically. The article was about business strategy in general but we thought it was particularly useful for those of us in sales. The notion of “could” asks what if?,

Decision Maker 73

Decision Maker Competition Account Fashion 73

Sales Training Connection

DECEMBER 21, 2012

Although the article was about employees in general, we thought it had particular application to sales people and the topic at hand. It is unlikely that winning in today’s market will simply be about doing a better job doing what you have done in the past. That’s why we like to revisit this topic from time to time.

Training 109

Training Call-back Lead Rank Lead Scoring 109

Sales Training Connection

JUNE 22, 2012

Taking this challenge seriously was reinforced when we recently read an article about successful technology entrepreneurs and a concept called – Pivoting. As the author noted: “ Technology entrepreneurs of past eras took years to build a product, hire a staff and figure out whether there was a real market.”

Pivotal 113

Pivotal Hiring Pipeline Account 113

Sales Training Connection

JANUARY 20, 2012

The first question is whether Ishrak’s comments would resonate with most VP of Sales in the medical sales market? The requirement for sales people to be able to have a wide variety of business and economic discussions with a wide variety of players is now a core sales skill in the medical sales market. ©2012 Sales Horizons, LLC.

Health Care 82

Health Care Policies Decision Maker Pivotal 82

Sales Training Connection

AUGUST 3, 2011

Their responses were insightful … and certainly generalizable to other medical device markets. Will there be a place for a relationship between surgeons with medical device companies in the future? It’s an interesting question that was posed to orthopedic and spine surgeons. Take a read ….

Health Care 60

Health Care Company Training Marketing 60

Sales Training Connection

APRIL 2, 2014

In times of transformational market change there are new winners and losers. Among market leaders the journey of change has already begun and will continue as the future unfolds. Transformation changes affecting medical sales. However, what is clear is standing still is not an option.

Health Care 96

Health Care Pharmaceuticals Customer Trends 96

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 5, 2012

In today’s business environment a number of markets are going through transformational changes. The organizations that comprise such a market are changing what they buy, how they buy, and what they are willing to pay for it. In a transformational market future success is about sales innovation. ©2012 Sales Horizons, LLC.

Positioning 95

Positioning Health Care Face-to-face Travel 95

Sales Training Connection

AUGUST 10, 2012

Review with Marketing the merit of offering basic and premium versions of your products. Technorati Tags: sales strategy , sales training , sales training articles , sales training blogs , selling economic value , selling value. Reexamine the sales team’s compensation structure and make sure it is align with selling profit.

Compensation 109

Compensation Study Negotiation Training 109

Sales Training Connection

OCTOBER 28, 2011

If you have the opportunity to read SPBT’s Fall 2011 FOCUS Magazine issue, you’ll see an article Dick and I wrote about sales training 2.0. The medical device market is in the midst of a transformational shift.

Health Care 58

Health Care Training Sales Competition 58

Sales Training Connection

AUGUST 13, 2012

While traveling recently, I read an interesting article by Holly Green in Executive Travel Magazine that introduce an interesting way of understanding an idea that poses a threat to that process – thought bubbles. Technorati Tags: sales best practices , sales strategy , sales training , sales training articles , sales training blogs.

Strategy 108

Strategy Travel ACT Account 108

Sales Training Connection

JANUARY 6, 2012

Capture larger market shares. In one study, the average hospital in concentrated markets received $32,411 for each commercially insured patient undergoing coronary angioplasty, or one and a half times the $21,626 received in more competitive markets. Improve negotiating positions with vendors and insurance companies.

Health Care 72

Health Care Lead Rank Strategy Insurance 72

Sales Training Connection

DECEMBER 3, 2014

Due to the transformational changes occurring in the market place, sustaining a superior sales team requires companies to adopt a culture where professional development is an ongoing effort. To the focus of this article, let’s talk about myths as another reason why sales training is not as effective as it needs to be.

Training 99

Training Survey Sales Coaching Report 99