October 23, 2019  |  Angela Ridpath

Tips for selling healthcare products

Whether you are selling medical devices, office supplies, or a myriad of patient care products or services, if you are a supplier, you understand that the U.S. healthcare market is a maze of affiliations, network hierarchies, and regulations that can be difficult to navigate. This unique industry is full of opportunities, with hospitals, physicians, and office managers seeking the best healthcare products for their patients. 

There is a growing market for healthcare products in the U.S.

Spending for healthcare products typically rise as the general population ages, and healthcare becomes a mainstream practice.  Today, the healthcare business in the U.S. is almost a $4 trillion business.  This means that there are ample opportunities to sell products and services to physicians, hospitals, medical and dental practices, diagnostic imaging centers and more.  Below, we’ve compiles some of the best practices and tips for selling healthcare products.

Demonstrate Value

The most effective way to sell into the healthcare industry is to demonstrate the value of your product to your audience. If you cannot clearly outline how your product, service or device will help a hospital or care facility meet its goals or improve in specific performance areas, your gatekeeper or initial point of contact isn’t going to understand the full impact of what it can do for their patients.  You need to be able to point out applications and impacts of using your product that your audience may not be aware of, increasing the value of your product.

For example, if you’re selling a surgical device that is easier to use or has a higher success rate than existing options, that would obviously improve care outcomes for patients.  Or, if you are selling medical supplies, and you offer volume discounts or other quality services that make it easier for an office manager to reorder when needed, that is also a benefit.  Differentiating your healthcare product from your competitors and pulling out key benefits will help break through the clutter and noise. 

Stay abreast of market trends

The healthcare industry is always shifting, and it is vital to educate yourself on the latest advanced treatment options, new market entrants, healthcare legislation, and other trends that impact the sale of your healthcare product. Though it can be overwhelming, this information is vital to understand what decision-makers want and need to stay competitive in the market.

Prove your knowledge

In order to properly demonstrate the value of your healthcare product and gain the trust of your point of contact, you must do your homework. Do your best to understand the pain points of a hospital, diagnostic imaging center, medical practice, or care facility.  Some facilities may struggle with readmissions, while others report high rates of infections. Having this understanding will enable you to show that you are knowledgeable on their unique circumstance and have catered a solution just for them. 

Demonstrate what success looks like with your healthcare products

Once you understand the pain points of a hospital, medical practice, or other healthcare facility, it’s easy to figure out what success looks like for the physicians and facility leaders. Demonstrate how your healthcare product or service can improve patient satisfaction scores or hospital-acquired conditions.  You may also benefit from offering comparisons of your target facility to other, comparable facilities.  Case studies work very well for demonstrating evidence-based results. 

Leverage data

Use data to help build the right insights for your target audience.  If you are working with a CRM or a MAP (marketing automation platform), chances are, you collect a baseline of information about your target—such as job tiles and contact information.  You can also use a third-party data provider, such as MCH, to enrich the data that you already have.  Append demographic and firmographic information such as the number of beds a hospital has, facility codes, or contact information of director-level personnel. Our data is phone-verified and frequently updated in order to provide our customers with the quality they want and need.

Popular MCH Data Sources:

Hospitals:  Access hospitals, system headquarters, hospital personnel, and more.

Medical Practices:  Access doctors by specialty, medical practices personnel, office managers, and more.

Dental Practices:  Access dentists by specialty, dental practices personnel, office managers, and more.

Nursing Home, Retirement Home and Assisted Living Facilities:  These include long-term-care facilities, retirement homes, corporate headquarters, and more.

Other Healthcare:  MCH also compiles data on other healthcare facilities such as ambulatory surgery centers, public health departments, urgent care centers, and more.

Would you like to learn more about how you can leverage data to stay more competitive in the healthcare industry? MCH’s Healthcare Data Solutions provides affordable ways to leverage data to analyze intelligence on hospitals, medical practices, dental practices, diagnostic imaging centers, nursing home, retirement home, assisted living facilities, and more.