Optimum Sales – Selling clinical diagnostic solutions through LinkedIn
The companies and laboratories that sell diagnostic solutions (equipment and consumables) in hospitals, clinics, and specialized centers have their main target audience defined as the managers and technicians of the laboratories.
The commercial approach for these target clients is focused on:
- The sale of the equipment. (Approval and acquisition)
- The implementation of it.
- Validation of the reagents.
- Defense of the purchase of original reagents.
- Direct sale and execution by the manufacturer of preventive and corrective maintenance contracts.
- Training in equipment handling by the technicians
Increasingly, the elements of economic profitability in hospitals, clinics, and specialized diagnostic centers are becoming more decisive when acquiring new equipment or solutions. The administrators want to ensure that the investments they make have a high return or that the equipment or solution is used to its full capacity.
For these parameters to become an absolute reality, a fourth target is needed (so far we have the head of the diagnostic center, diagnostic technician, and administration manager) to come into the focus of diagnostic solution sellers: “the doctor who requests the diagnostic test.” It is obvious that it depends on him whether the equipment sold at the center is used or not.
When considering our overall commercial strategy, this fourth target, the prescriber, the potential customer market grows exponentially since each medical center has different doctors from various specialties who can request diagnostic tests and can increase the profitability of the sold equipment.
The question we are asking in this post is: Do the companies selling diagnostic solutions have their sales teams sized appropriately to sell to the four mentioned target customer profiles? From our point of view, the answer is NO. Most companies are focused on the natural targets, which are the managers and laboratory technicians, so we can say that they are undersized commercial networks.
How do we think that salespeople can effectively work on the targets of administration and prescription of diagnostic tests?
We consider that one of the ways to act is to incorporate LinkedIn into the commercial processes of diagnostic solution sellers as a tool for sales, influence generation, training, and communication.
The adoption of LinkedIn as a tool that provides these sales capabilities should be carried out from a corporate systematic approach, establishing clearly defined action processes with all their phases and KPIs. Salespeople should not be allowed to act autonomously.
The commercial processes that need to be established on LinkedIn for salespeople to primarily increase their results are:
- Generation of influence at the pre-sale stage of an equipment tender or reagent supply in the management target.
- At the time of the decision on the tender for the equipment and reagents in the administration target.
- Generation of influence during the replacement and updating of equipment in the administration target.
- Generation of influence in the different specialties of prescription targets through the pursuit of usage and training commitments.
- Generation of influence and training for the targets of laboratory managers and technicians.
For the implementation of this new commercial methodology, which is essentially the implementation of a digital transformation project for sales teams, the marketing and compliance departments must be involved and aligned in a clear manner, as the former must provide all the content the salesperson needs, and the latter must ensure that this content meets all legal requirements. (Compliance must lead the digital transformation of the sales departments in the pharmaceutical industry)
The benefits that companies selling diagnostic solutions will obtain if they incorporate LinkedIn as an effective sales channel for their salespeople are:
- Increase in the commercial productivity of your sales teams. More impacts to more targets without increasing the team.
- Focusing the personal selling activity of the salespeople on high-value clients and projects.
- Generation of a greater number of commercial impacts on buyer targets and natural users.
- Increase in the prescription of diagnostic tests, which will lead to an increase in the use of equipment and reagents.
- Increase in the commercial productivity of your sales teams. More impacts to more targets without increasing the team.
- Focusing the personal selling activity of the salespeople on high-value clients and projects.
- Generation of a greater number of commercial impacts on buyer targets and natural users.
- Increase in the prescription of diagnostic tests, which will lead to an increase in the use of equipment and reagents.
- Increase in the knowledge and use of the products sold by the diagnostic solutions company.
- Detection of prescribing doctors for diagnostic tests who do not yet demand them.
- Increase in the perception of R.O.I by the management target audience.
Ultimately, not incorporating LinkedIn into the sales processes of the commercial teams in companies that sell diagnostic solutions limits their results.
| David Galve | General Director www.linkedin.com/in/davidgalve |  |
