Stop selling to hospital executives and start engaging them
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Imagine the daily life of a hospital executive these days. There are few businesses in which every day can bring new urgent issues that must be addressed by executives. So it’s not surprising that when your sales people want to ‘sell’ something to a hospital CXO, they get neither their time nor interest. What hospital CXOs want, in fact, has little direct connection to what your people are selling. What they want is help; they desperately need and want the help that your sales people and organization can provide. Instead of thinking of how you could better ‘sell’ to the CXO, you need to figure out how to engage with the hospital executive. From there, the business will likely follow. You will learn: - How to develop the three capabilities that sales people need to engage with hospital executives - The four areas in their market environment that hospital executives care about - How to determine the advice, information and insights, and valuable connections that help hospital executives to address their key challenges, issues and opportunities - How to engage executives in a business dialogue that positions you as a Trusted Business Partner
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Stop selling to hospital executives and start engaging them
- 1. Stop selling to hospital CXOs and start engaging with them! Paul Hesselschwerdt President David Sanderson Director Healthcare
- 2. Your Challenges Value Messaging Transforming the Account Manager Gaining and Maintaining Access to the C-Suite
- 3. 1. CXO Selling vs. Engaging Executives 2. Engaging Executives, a New Mindset and Process 3. Engagement Tools 4. Business Dialogues – the Key Engagement Skill 5. Engagement Planning Today’s Agenda
- 4. 1. CXO Selling vs. Engaging Executives 2. Engaging Executives, a New Mindset and Process 3. Engagement Tools 4. Business Dialogues – the Key Engagement Skill Today’s Agenda 5. Engagement Planning
- 5. CXO Selling vs. Engaging Executives Value creation Relationship building Focus in meetings, discussions & presentations Outcome of meetings, discussions & presentations Your products, services, solutions Account Manager & your company Become a Trusted Business Partner Influence buying decision Your products, services, solutions Executive’s Challenges, issues and opportunities Action planning, collaboratively with Executive Move the buying decision, in your favor CXO Selling Engaging Executives
- 6. 1. CXO Selling vs. Engaging Executives 2. Engaging Executives, a New Mindset and Process 3. Engagement Tools 4. Business Dialogues – the Key Engagement Skill Today’s Agenda 5. Engagement Planning
- 7. It Requires a New Mindset Remember, if you are truly a Trusted Partner to your client, then the opportunities you are pursuing are theirs, not yours - Daniel Kirsch Trident Consulting
- 8. 8 It Also Requires a New Process Identify Challenges, Issues, and Opportunities Engage in Business Dialogues Map to Possible Solutions Build Trusted Business Partner Relationships
- 9. Engaging With the C-Suite C Suite Challenges, Issues, Opportunities Your Value Solutions Business Dialogues Patient record security Hospital Services IT Solutions Mobile health Healthcare System Growth Patient Safety Operating Cash Flow Cost Efficiencies Clinical Specialties Connectivity EMR
- 10. 1. CXO Selling vs. Engaging Executives 2. Engaging Executives, a New Mindset and Process 3. Engagement Tools 4. Business Dialogues – the Key Engagement Skill Today’s Agenda 5. Engagement Planning
- 11. What does the CXO care about? Financial, Operational & Clinical Results 2 Strategic Challenges, Issues & Opportunities1
- 12. Strategic Challenges and Opportunities Patients Economics StakeholdersTechnology
- 13. Use PEST for Macro Environment
- 14. Use CXO Profiler to Customize for Individual Executives
- 15. 1. CXO Selling vs. Engaging Executives 2. Engaging Executives, a New Mindset and Process 3. Engagement Tools 4. Business Dialogues – the Key Engagement Skill Today’s Agenda 5. Engagement Planning
- 16. Business Dialogue Step-by-Step Grab Attention Stay in Dialogue Add Value Action Plan • What topic will grab the attention of the Executive? • How can I create value for the Executive in the discussion? • How do I avoid ‘pitching product’ • What new information, insights or advice can I provide? • Who else can I connect him/her to that would provide value? • What actions can we agree on to move the discussion?
- 17. What topics will grab the attention of the executive? Grab Attention 1. Topics should be Relevant 2. Topics should be Discussable 3. Where you can be Credible
- 18. How can I reduce the very high rate of turnover among my nursing staff? What would be the impact on my budget if I could cut turnover substantially? Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
- 19. How can I stay in dialogue with the executive? Stay in Dialogue Add Value
- 20. How do I know the executive is ready for my value added suggestion? I have to admit we never thought of that.. Where we have struggled the most in this area is.. What else should we be thinking about? Is that something you people do? Look for Engagement Signals
- 21. How can I create value for the executive in this dialogue? Add Value HELP! New information and insights • Benchmarks • Industry trends • Innovations Contacts and connections • Other hospitals • Your company experts • Industry experts Credible Advice • Alternative approaches • Based on your experience
- 22. Action Planning Action Plan Summarize and confirm areas of interest • That sound’s valuable… • You would like more information Confirm the Action Plan • Why don’t we set up another meeting • Why don’t I connect you with… Agree on the Outcome of the Action • We can discuss the information in more detail • You can learn more about…
- 23. 1. CXO Selling vs. Engaging Executives 2. Engaging Executives, a New Mindset and Process 3. Engagement Tools 4. Business Dialogues – the Key Engagement Skill Today’s Agenda 5. Engagement Planning
- 24. Relationships Competitive Differentiation New Opportunities Penetration of Portfolio Executive Engagement Plan
- 25. Stop Selling to Hospital Executives Webinar Stop Selling to Hospital Executives Webinar: http://bit.ly/hcexecwebinar What hospital CXOs want has little direct connection to what your people are selling. What they want is help; they desperately need and want the help that your sales people and organization can provide. In this webinar you will learn how to engage executives in a business dialogues that position you as a Trusted Business Partner.
- 26. Ph. 781-352-2460 info@globalpartnersinc.com www.globalpartnersinc.com Global Partners, Inc. One Broadway Cambridge, MA, 02142 Contact Us for More Information
Editor's Notes
- Paul Intro, set up, etc.
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- Paul + 1 min. 5 topics we will cover in this webinar you will learn The difference between CXO selling and Engaging with. CXO selling has been around for a number of years. And CXO’s now expect that their suppliers will use this approach to ‘pitch’ their products. Engaging Executives and Becoming a Trusted Business Partner is based on many of the same principles as CXO Selling, such as Understanding the challenges of the CXO; identifying his/her unmet needs Positioning solutions, rather than features and benefits, etc. However, Engaging Executives goes beyond this by fundamentally changing the relationship between the executive and the supplier To achieve this, Account Managers must adopt a different mindset. As we will see, they must continuously be in the mode of a Trusted Business Partner. This means not only understanding the challenges of the executive at a deep level, but also, the Account Manager needs to expand his/her own scope of ideas and solutions about how to help the executive address them. In addition to a different way of thinking, new processes and tools are needed. As we will see, some of the tools, i.e. PEST analysis are based on ‘classic’ market analysis tools. Other processes, including the ‘sales meeting’ itself need to be fundamentally different. A major process change involves the meeting itself. Instead of thinking of the meeting with the executive as a ‘selling opportunity’, account managers need to use it as a way to build the trusted business partner relationship. We will demonstrate a new approach to an ‘Executive sales meeting’ which we call a Business Dialogue Lastly, we will present the four areas where companies apply Engaging with executives to drive measureable results Before we get started, we want to look at what you said were your biggest challenges in this area
- Paul click to next slide. In this webinar you will learn The difference between CXO selling and Engaging with. CXO selling has been around for a number of years. And CXO’s now expect that their suppliers will use this approach to ‘pitch’ their products.
- Paul 3-4 min / 10 min total We have found that people struggle with the difference between CXO Selling and Engaging Executives. Here are the 4 areas that we have found are different In CXO Selling, the positioning of Value Creation is that your products, services and solutions are the things that create value for your customer. While this is still important to consider in discussions with executives, it comes much later in the process In Engaging the Executive, the value comes from what the account manager and his/her company can do to address the executive’s challenges, issues and opportunities. The reason to build relationships with the Executive is also different. In CXO Selling, typically the AM wants to build relationships with Executives because the Executive is considered to be the decision maker, especially on bigger opportunities. First of all, that’s not always true anymore. Think of commodity products and services. Ultimately they may come under the responsibility of a CXO, but the decision is most likely made much lower in the organization. But in engaging executives, the purpose of relationship building is to become a trusted business partner in the eyes of the executive. This will certainly help influence buying decisions, but in very different ways Third is the focus of meetings, discussions and presentations. In CXO selling the focus is on your products, services and solutions. You may be presenting how your solutions address the executive’s challenges, but the emphasis is clearly on your solutions, not the executive’s challenges. In engaging the executives, the focus is primarily on the executive’s challenges first, especially in the first few meetings. The moment the executive think’s that you are ‘pitching’, the relationship falls back to salesman selling This leads to the final area, which is the outcome of those meetings. In CXO selling the outcome of the meeting is usually advancing the sale. In engaging executives, the outcome is actually an action plan, developed collaboratively between you and the executive.
- Dave clicks through, 15 min in at this point
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- Dave 3 min, 20 total Here is the simple model behind this process The first step involves first determining the challenges issues and opportunities of the executive. Things like… The second step is determining the solution or capability that addresses the Executive’s priority issues. So, for example they might be products and services like… And the new skill that brings these 2 parts together is what the business dialogue, which is very far from a typical conversation with the executive. It is also the most difficult part of Engaging executives Let’s look first at how companies identify those left-hand circle issues.
- Dave Click through There are 2 tools that account managers can use to discover what CXOs care about One provides the top down Macro view of the hospital’s environment The other is more bottom-up as it focuses on the specific concerns and measureable results of individual CXOs
- Dave 2 min Let’s start on the left-side, with the executive’s challenges, issues and opportunities. Typically when we talk about CxOs, we mean Chief executive officer, chief technology officer, etc. If you forget about the title, All CXO’s have 2 characteristics They have a strategic view of the organization. Although they may have a functional responsibility, like this CTO, they think about their function in terms of how it contributes to the overall strategic success of the organization Second they are accountable for delivery of financial, clinical or operational results So, when the Account Manager engages with the CXO, he needs to focus less in his functional area and much more in those areas that are: Strategically related, i.e. what is the impact of technology on patient experience, patient safety, new treatment areas, hospital growth, etc.? Impacting results. So the CTO is not only concerned with the costs of new technology, but also with the impact of new technology on process measures such as Emergency Department wait times, Operating Room productivity, etc. SO THE FIRST THING AN ACCOUNT MANAGER HAS TO DO IS TO: DETERMINE THE MACRO VIEW OF THE KEY CHALLENGES IN THE CXO’S ENVIRONMENT AND THE MICRO VIEW OR PROFILE THE INDIVIDUAL EXECUTIVE LET’S START WITH THE MACRO VIEW OF THE ENVIRONMENT
- Dave 1 min In our experience, there are 4 areas THAT COVER WHAT EXECUTIVES CARE ABOUT, which can be organized INTO A PEST analysis AND THE PEST ANALYSIS TOOL HELPS THE ACCOUNT MANAGER DETERMINE THE KEY ISSUES IN EACH AREA (NEXT SLIDE)
- 2 min – 20 min total There are 2 outcomes from this analysis. First is a deep and comprehensive macro, or top-down view of the Executive’s world, customized to individual customers. These issues can be used to gain access to the Executive, to engage initially with the executive by creating Grabbers and to formulate Engagement questions which enable the account manager to create and stay in the business dialogue with the executive. PAUL INTERUPTS: DAVE, JUST A COMMENT HERE… DAVE: Here’s how this works
- Dave 1.02-1.05 The second tool is used to Profile the executive at a detailed level by determining the specific challenges, issues and opportunities for that individual cxo. This information can come from hospital annual reports, websites as well as from new media, interviews, etc.
- Paul 1.05 A major process change involves the meeting itself. Instead of thinking of the meeting with the executive as a ‘selling opportunity’, account managers need to use it as a way to build the trusted business partner relationship. We will demonstrate a new approach to an ‘Executive sales meeting’ which we call a Business Dialogue
- Paul 3 min Most customer meetings or interviews, even those with executives follow a pretty similar process. They begin by establishing enough credibility and trust at the start to get the customer to be open about his/her needs, particularly unmet needs. The account manager then positions his/her product or service as the solution that best fits the executive’s needs The targeted outcome is to gain the commitment of the executive to support this link from his/her needs to the supplier’s solution A Business Dialogue is different First of all, the AM needs to grab the attention of the executive by proposing that they discuss an issue that is of critical importance to the executive, regardless of whether there is a link to the supplier’s solution. Second, once he has the attention of the executive he needs to stay in dialogue, until it is clear that the Executive is thinking of the AM, not as a sales person but as a trusted business partner Third, the AM does make a proposal. But instead of proposing a solution, he/she proposes something that will help the executive address the challenge they have been discussion This leads to the final step, which is not to move the sale by getting commitment it is to move the relationship by creating an action plan with the executive. Let’s look at the first step
- 1.07-1.08 Relevant means relevant to the specific CXO in front of you. So, if it’s the COO, he or she is thinking more in term of the Total Cost of Implementation, which can be more than simply the cost of your Discussable means that the Grabber issue is one where you can bring a new perspective or information, not one where you present information that the CXO already knows – And third is Credibility it needs to be a topic where you can demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about because somewhere you or your company have applied your knowledge and experience on this topic to help another customer address a similar challenge
- 3 min Take the example of a supplier of basic hospital services. This is pretty much a commodity business with very low margins. Therefore retaining customers and expanding the footprint of services is essential for making money. This is also the type of offer which is very competitive and is typically negotiated with procurement either at the hospital level or with GPOs (even worse) The good news is that this supplier, because they were on hospital premises, had great exposure to many managers, including CXOs But how do you demonstrate the impact of something like food services on the hospital’s business results? They connected several areas. First, they looked at a major problem with many hospitals and this was the cost and patient care problems caused by nurse turnover. In many hospitals the cost of replacing nurses was $80,000 or more. And the turnover rate was as much as 25%. And this doesn’t even consider the impact on the quality of care and patient experience. They then looked at what was driving nursing turnover, which was…? Non-nursing What they discovered was that nurses actually spend less time providing nursing care and more time responding to patient requests regarding such things as food, temperature of the room, comfort and numerous issues that had nothing to do with the type of patient care that nurses rightly thought they were paid for. So, this service supplier created a program to improve nurses satisfaction and reduce turnover. As a result, not only did they increase customer retention and loyalty, but they expanded their footprint of services at the hospital.
- Once you’ve grabbed the attention of the executive, the challenge becomes how do you stay in dialogue and avoid slipping into pitch mode Account managers and sales people are almost pathological closers, so when they are now in an interesting discussion with a decision maker, they automatically start listening for signs that the executive is ready to move on their proposal – and this is the danger. If at that point the Account Manager starts to, in effect, pitch by saying things like…” we have a solution for that…” the executive can lose interest in the dialogue and revert to thinking that this is after all a sales call. The key is to continue asking open questions about the the executive’s challenge until the Executive throws out what we call an Engagement Signal
- 1.30-1.45 for next 4 slides Ask, how do you know? Similar to ‘buying signals’, the discussion will get to the point where several things happen The Executive is giving signals that he trusts you and values your insights and the overall discussion. This is demonstrated by him revealing more about his situation, including gaps. For example: “I have to admit we never thought of that…” “Where we have struggled the most is in…” He asks for Advice, Information or a connection. Look for signals like “ What else should I/we be thinking about?” - Advice “How could I get more information on that?” – Information/data “Who would you suggest I talk to about that?” – Connections This not only tells you that the Executive is ready for your value-added suggestion, it also tells you what type of value suggestion to make. Need to be careful to recognize signals that you have not gained the trust and confidence of the CXO and not ready to move on. These could be considered to be Objections or Stalls. ASK; What are some of those signs? When the CXO refers you to someone lower in the organization, i.e. procurement When they tell you they have that area covered They tried everything you might suggest, nothing worked They simply don’t seem interested How do you handle each of these?
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- The final step then is to create a short Action Plan with the Executive in 3 steps You summarize and confirm You then agree on the next Action, which is based on the Value added from the Business dialogue Agree on the outcomes of that action, set up the expectation for the next meeting
- + 3 min. In this webinar you will learn Lastly we want to show you the 4 areas where Engaging the CXO can be applied to drive business results
- 2 min There are 4 areas where you can create Objectives, Strategies and Actions Relationships is the starting point. Objective is to increase number of TBP relationships This should lead to increased differentiation, which results in higher win rates Third is in the area of penetrating the account by selling more of your portfolio And we should be able to create new opportunities This requires a new way of planning and goal setting which we can address by brainstorming areas to the following 3 questions