Selling in Healthcare: Prospecting, Pitching and Closing Strategies

This video provides an in-depth exploration of effective sales strategies specifically tailored for the complex business-to-business (B2B) environment within the healthcare industry. Dr. Eric Bricker, a physician and co-founder of Compass Professional Health Services, shares his personal journey and learned insights from thousands of sales meetings over a decade. He frames the sales process into three fundamental stages: prospecting, pitching, and closing, offering practical frameworks and methodologies for each. The discussion is grounded in real-world experience, highlighting the unique challenges and nuances of selling to diverse stakeholders within healthcare organizations.

The first segment of the video delves into prospecting, or lead generation, utilizing Aaron Ross's "Nets, Seeds, and Spears" framework. Nets involve broad inbound marketing efforts like blog posts, videos, advertisements, and conferences, attracting a large volume of leads but typically yielding lower conversion rates. Seeds represent nurturing existing relationships and contacts, which, while taking a longer time to mature, tend to have higher conversion rates. Spears focus on highly targeted outbound efforts, directly hunting for specific individuals at identified companies. Dr. Bricker emphasizes the importance of using the telephone for spears, even if it primarily results in voicemails, as the act of calling and referencing an email makes a salesperson unique in today's digital landscape, despite the inherently low initial reply rates.

Moving to the pitching stage, the video introduces the Miller-Heiman approach, which categorizes buyers into three distinct types crucial for complex B2B healthcare sales. The Economic Buyer, typically C-suite executives like the CEO or CFO, is concerned with the dollar value, return on investment, and budgetary alignment of the proposed solution. The User Buyer, often HR or benefits professionals, focuses on the tangible outcomes and benefits for their organization and employees, such as improved health metrics or reduced absenteeism. Lastly, the Technical Buyer, which could be a broker, benefits consultant, or a lower-level benefits manager, is interested in the practicalities of implementation, ease of use, and ongoing service details. Dr. Bricker stresses the difficulty of tailoring a pitch to all three buyer types simultaneously within a single meeting, a common scenario in healthcare sales.

Finally, the video addresses the closing stage using the "Fit-Risk-Price" model, derived from the book "Hope is Not a Strategy." This model suggests that the buyer's priorities evolve over time. Initially, the primary concern is "Fit"—whether the service addresses their specific problem. Once fit is established, the focus shifts to "Risk," where buyers scrutinize potential issues, data security (e.g., AWS, disaster plans), and compliance. Only after these two stages are adequately addressed does the conversation naturally progress to "Price," considering the cost relative to competition and budgetary cycles. Dr. Bricker notes that questions about risk and price during earlier stages are positive buying signals, indicating progress along the sales timeline. He concludes by underscoring that selling is a vital skill for anyone looking to drive positive change or introduce new ideas and solutions within the healthcare ecosystem.

Key Takeaways:

• Complex B2B Sales in Healthcare: Selling in healthcare is inherently complex, often involving multiple stakeholders and requiring tailored strategies beyond generic sales approaches.
• Aaron Ross's Prospecting Framework: Utilize the "Nets, Seeds, and Spears" model for effective lead generation. Nets (inbound marketing) offer broad reach, Seeds (relationship building) provide high conversion over time, and Spears (targeted outbound) require persistence but can yield specific, valuable leads.
• The Power of the Phone in Outbound: Despite low answer rates, making phone calls and leaving voicemails, especially when combined with a same-day email reference, can differentiate a salesperson in a crowded market.
• Miller-Heiman Buyer Categorization: Identify and understand the three distinct buyer types in healthcare B2B sales: Economic (focused on financial value), User (focused on outcomes and benefits), and Technical (focused on implementation and logistics).
• Tailoring Your Pitch: Be prepared to dynamically adjust your pitch within a single meeting to address the specific concerns and priorities of each buyer type present, from C-suite executives to HR and technical managers.
• Economic Buyer Focus: When engaging with economic buyers (e.g., CEO, CFO), emphasize the dollar value, return on investment, and how the solution aligns with their overall budget and strategic priorities.
• User Buyer Focus: For user buyers (e.g., HR, benefits staff), highlight tangible outcomes and benefits such as improved employee health, reduced absenteeism, or better management of specific health conditions.
• Technical Buyer Focus: Address the technical buyer (e.g., brokers, IT, benefits managers) by detailing the ease of implementation, ongoing support, data hosting, security protocols, and operational impact.
• "Fit-Risk-Price" Closing Model: Guide the closing process by first establishing how your solution "fits" the client's problem, then thoroughly addressing all potential "risks" (e.g., data security, disaster recovery), and finally discussing "price" in the context of value and budget.
• Positive Buying Signals: Recognize that questions about risk and price during the earlier "fit" stage are positive indicators that the buyer is progressing through their decision-making process.
• Persistence and Resilience: Sales, particularly in complex B2B environments like healthcare, involves frequent rejections and requires significant persistence, resilience, and a willingness to learn from failures.
• Selling for Change: Selling is not just about products or services; it's a fundamental skill for advocating good ideas, driving change, and implementing innovative solutions within any organization.

Tools/Resources Mentioned:

• "Predictable Revenue" by Aaron Ross (book)
• "From Impossible to Inevitable" by Aaron Ross (book)
• Miller-Heiman Group (sales approach/methodology)
• "Hope is Not a Strategy" (book, referenced for the closing model)

Key Concepts:

• Sales Funnel: A conceptual framework illustrating the journey of a potential customer from initial awareness to purchase, typically divided into stages like prospecting, pitching, and closing.
• Nets, Seeds, Spears: A prospecting methodology by Aaron Ross:
  • Nets: Broad, inbound lead generation (e.g., content marketing, ads).
  • Seeds: Nurturing existing relationships for long-term leads.
  • Spears: Targeted, outbound efforts to specific prospects.
• Economic Buyer: The individual in an organization with ultimate financial authority to approve a purchase, typically focused on ROI and budget.
• User Buyer: The individual or department that will directly use or benefit from the product/service, focused on outcomes and problem-solving.
• Technical Buyer: The individual concerned with the practical implementation, integration, and operational aspects of a solution, focused on feasibility and ease of use.
• Fit-Risk-Price Model: A closing strategy that prioritizes addressing the buyer's needs (Fit), mitigating potential concerns (Risk), and then discussing cost (Price) in that sequential order.

Examples/Case Studies:

• Compass Professional Health Services: Dr. Bricker's experience as CMO and co-founder, selling to over 2000 employer clients, including major national accounts like T-Mobile and Southwest Airlines, as well as mid-market employers (200-2000 employees).
• User Buyer Outcomes: Examples of benefits discussed with user buyers include better health outcomes for employees, fewer days of absenteeism, decreased musculoskeletal claims, and improvement in hemoglobin A1C levels.
• Technical Buyer Risk Questions: Examples of risk-related questions from technical buyers include inquiries about data hosting (e.g., Amazon Web Services), data center specifics, and disaster recovery plans.