​The bases are loaded. The batter steps up to the plate. Does he just wildly swing at every pitch? Of course not! He has been in the dugout, discussing the pitching stats with his coach — running the numbers to determine the type of pitch that will send all his teammates home. He eyes the ball approaching him. It abruptly curves toward the center of the plate. He swings and …

We evaluated the organic approach to territory alignment in Representing Your Sales Territory: Part One, Alignment. In this article, we will discuss the fundamentals of healthcare data analytics, why it matters, and how it applies to a sales and marketing process. 

Healthcare sales is similar to baseball. With the right team in place, and the right skill sets, your business can come out on top. Whether you are setting up a distributorship, working on your own, or managing a group of sales representatives within a large organization, it is important to establish representation that covers the desired physician population, in the most efficient and cost-effective ways.

There are two methods that effectively address the sales territory map. In this first blog, we are going to pitch the organic approach. In the second blog, we will discuss running Carevoyance data analytics and territory alignment software. Combined, these two methods are a grand slam when deciding how to best represent your given territory.

When using the organic approach to develop a sales territory map there are many factors to consider. These can include the size of the territory, the number of sales representatives within the organization, the number of physicians within a territory, current established rep relationships, the value of products in a bag, and the dynamic of change. The list is as specific or as vast as needed to achieve optimal territory alignment — and it is not exclusive to these factors alone. Use these as a starting point (or reorganizational point) of consideration. Incorporate territory alignment software. Then continue to re-evaluate as change occurs within your sales representation, physician population, product portfolio, and sales territory map. 

The role of the medical device sales professional is shifting and changing, mostly due to innovative technology. Instead of simply being reactive, you have the ability to be more proactive in a controlled manner that doesn’t eat up your time. The key to increasing touchpoints and segmenting leads? Sales automation software.

​If you aren’t sure what you should automate, start here. This article will take you on a tour of what’s possible and help you decide what’s best for your business need. Ultimately, you want to automate medical device sales in an approach that ensures your prospects get relevant information, and the breadth and depth of your sales conversions increase.

​A trend has been emerging in the healthcare marketplace where C-level executives are resigning or simply leaving without notice. There are a number of reasons why mid-level managers and below leave jobs without notice, including hostile work environments, unsafe work conditions, illegal corporate activity, and finding other employment during company layoffs. However, most of these don’t make logical sense for upper-level executives. 

Becker’s Hospital Review published a list of 57 hospital or health systems’ CEOs that resigned by the first half of 2018. This list does not include planned CEO resignations or retirements.

By the end of the first quarter of 2018, 56 healthcare executives had either left or had announced pending resignation. Becker’s indicates that one of the reasons why could be a simple mentality shift of executive tenure. Whereas baby-boomers generally stayed with organizations for decades, later generations of executives offer four to five year tenures before moving on.

There are several other reasons why top healthcare executives may be resigning in record numbers, including an increase in mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare market space, a growing number of alternative opportunities that offer career growth, reported tensions between organizational boards and their healthcare affiliated staff, and exposures of financial and quality-control issues.

Blockchain is best known by its association with bitcoin and other digital currencies. There are actually many more uses for blockchain, as it has unique attributes that make it different than a standard database. Simply put, blockchain is a ledger of transactions that cannot be altered or changed. A blockchain ledger is shared by all the entities who use it rather than one central owner.

​Healthcare organizations are beginning to formulate use cases for blockchain, leveraging its distinct, valuable attributes. Blockchain has the potential to address some of the healthcare industry’s biggest challenges, like interoperability, fraud, and verification of data. Let’s look at how this technology is evolving. 

If you’re brainstorming for content ideas before writing your next sales email to a prospective doctor or hospital executive, consider focusing on a current healthcare issue. Using current healthcare issues as the focus of an email is a great way to capture attention — after all, your potential clinical customers and administrative prospects are hungry for information. They need to stay on top of the latest regulatory announcements, research breakthroughs, population health trends, insurance and managed care news, and other healthcare issues that help them stay compliant and on the cutting-edge.

The challenge for healthcare professionals in the digital age is that it’s hard to keep up. Medical technologies are advancing quickly with regulations in the healthcare industry constantly evolving. Keeping current with all the news healthcare professionals need takes time — something most of them can’t afford to spare. Moreover, with all of the information that bombards them on a daily basis, it’s difficult to sort through it all to find what’s worth spending time to read. 

​Serving up relevant healthcare news in an email can have real value to your customers. If successful, writing a sales email focused on a current hot topic from the healthcare industry may further benefit your marketing and sales department — with a better email open rate.

According to the AMA’s Physician Practice Benchmark Surveys, over 47 percent of physicians were recorded as practicing medicine in a private medical group in 2016. While physicians have been increasingly abandoning private practice in favor of employment by hospitals and health systems, doctors in private practice still make up a significant portion of the medical population and can provide sales reps with a sizable amount of business.

Typically, hospital deals require long sales cycles involving multiple stakeholders and many touchpoints over months (or even years). The rewards can be huge — long-term purchasing agreements, commitments to purchase expensive capital equipment, strategic buying contracts — but these sales take a lot of time and resource. Selling into medical groups or private practices can often be more straightforward and less complex, leading to quicker buying cycles.