Consider loyalty and performance when building physician outreach strategy

Part of an ongoing series of practical tips for evolving beyond the "milkman" commercial model in medtech*

​Medical device companies face significant headwinds with increased competition resulting in heightened scrutiny over price, preference and availability. 

​One way medical device commercial teams stand out from the competition is to prove to your healthcare providers that you are a valued business partner who understands and cares about their business… you aren't just there to drop off more inventory and provide a free lunch!

Savvy commercial teams are partnering with providers to help them sustain and grow their own practices.

Building and maintaining patient referral networks is a key driver in the growth and vitality of any healthcare provider's business. Hospitals, free-standing centers and medical practices all face intense competition in their markets to attract and retain patients. While some efforts are focused marketing directly to patients, it's important to market, educate and nurture physicians throughout the community.

Help your prospects and accounts develop a market development strategy. 

The following four quadrants summarizes a useful framework to help patient marketing or physician liaison teams prioritizes relationships in their community. The matrix capaures the intersection of physician performance and fit along with relative market share of that relationship.

The physician outreach quadrant represents a new way to visualize and segment referral relationships in any given market. Using referral data from an analytics provider like Carevoyance, divide the market into different quadrants to capture different outreach strategies. 

1. Not a focus. Providers who have long-ingrained relationships with your competitors and whose practice performance does not complement you own. 
   Action:  De-prioritize for now and focus on other relationships
2. Underachievers.  Providers regularly share patients but perhaps don't appreciate the full spectrum of services or potential for you to treat their patients.
   Action: Educate and discuss on how to improve patient satisfaction and outcomes
3. Sustain. Providers regularly share patients and understand the full spectrum of services and capabilities delivered by your organization.
   Action: Execute high frequency outreach to continuously nurture and build on already strong relationship.
4. High potential - Providers don't regularly share providers but deliver high quality care. Figure out why you aren't currently a partner of choice. The reasons could range from difficulty in booking an appointment to lackluster coordination to simply not being aware of your services and capabilities.
   Action: Seek feedback on how to improve referral relationship through enhanced services or improved communication.

With all physician outreach, remember some of the following best practices, sourced from folks executing similar market development activities.

• Ask key clinical leaders to dedicate time each month (or each quarter at a minimum) to get out of the office and visit physicians in your area.

• Reach out to existing providers who you refer to or who refer to you, but it is also vital to meet new physicians and healthcare leaders in your community to bolster your referral network and keep your business thriving.

• Block out an hour of time to spend calling physicians and personally saying thank you for either accepting your referrals or sending you referrals

• Ask for feedback from your existing AND potential referral network on how to be a better healthcare provider partner to their practice.

While it's useful to measure activities (i.e. number of meetings, etch), also measure each category's performance and ROI over time.

*Check out BCG's excellent research on the imperative for medtech commercial teams to evolve their business model.