Improve your results with inside sales calls to healthcare facilities
It’s the 21st century and technological advances abound, but there’s still no substitute in medical sales for the power of human connection. That’s why the telephone remains invaluable for any medical industry or B2B company interested in reaching healthcare decision-makers or generating medical sales leads.
In fact, outbound sales calls are essential for medical lead generation with healthcare provider buyers.
Why inside sales calls work well in the healthcare sector
One of the biggest advantages of making inside sales calls to generate medical sales leads is that unlike other industries, healthcare facilities are reachable. Hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and labs usually have a live person to answer your call. Even a conversation with a gatekeeper or administrative assistant can accomplish a lot that will support your medtech goals and generate medical leads.
Another reason why inside sales calls work well in healthcare is that business development professionals are adept at establishing relationships. And good relationships are foundational to complex sales cycles like those found in the healthcare industry.
Outbound cold calling also creates a positive touchpoint in the medical sales process. Studies show it can take six or more interactions with a brand before your target audience starts to recognize and react to your messages. Outbound calling resonates with healthcare organizations and helps shorten the medtech sales cycle.
Engage healthcare buyers with these 5 types of calls
Whether you offer a solution for clinicians, hospital administrators, pharmacists or healthcare CFOs (or any medical decision-maker in between), try integrating these five types of inside sales calls into your next medtech campaign. All will support stronger outcomes and result in more medical sales leads.
1. Research your target market
Market insights fuel effective campaigns. The more you understand about your target audience and their needs and roles in the buying process, the better you can support them with your product or service. How can you gather this information efficiently from healthcare audiences? Ask!
You can conduct an inside sales campaign specifically designed to identify insights about your healthcare market segment, or you can roll these learning conversations into your regular sequence of sales prospecting calls. In either case, the details you learn will help you hone your messaging and personalize your interactions.
At Volkart May, capturing market insights is a huge value-add with every outbound call we make. Whether we’recalling to generate leads, qualify inquiries, set appointments or grow relationships, we’re simultaneously collecting voice of customer information to propel our clients forward.
2. Create awareness of your solution
In complex sales cycles like those typical of medtech, it’s unusual for a single call to result in a closed deal. That’s where outbound calling to healthcare facilities plays a vital role: it adds a warm and engaging touchpoint that creates awareness of your solution.
Becoming known (and trusted) in any medical market is a necessary prerequisite for generating qualified medical sales leads and moving healthcare opportunities through the sales funnel. When you use outbound calling consistently, you can increase awareness, deepen your relationships and establish a strong foundation with potential healthcare buyers.
3. Keep your database current
Nothing wastes an inside sales rep’s time (and a medtech marketer’s budget) like an outdated and inaccurate healthcare prospect list. But unless someone is explicitly responsible for updating the medtech sales database, your data will decay quickly. Healthcare professionals change roles and titles regularly. With COVID-19 moving many roles to work from home (like administrative and back-office functions), phone and address data may also be in flux.
Fortunately, it’s fast and easy to obtain current information over the phone. Many individuals can help confirm and update records—not just the final healthcare decision-maker. Outbound calling is also a great vehicle for collecting new opt-in email addresses to amplify your digital programs. Your inside sales team or a healthcare contact center like Volkart May can execute these calls as a standalone campaign, or as part of an integrated lead generation effort.
4. Generate current and future sales leads
Most medical device and B2B companies rely heavily on digital methods to generate healthcare and medical sales leads. But, adding live inside sales prospecting calls can increase results dramatically. A multichannel approach helps break through the clutter (and spam) that fills a typical healthcare professional’s email inbox. It lets you conduct thoughtful, personal conversations based on each prospect’s specific needs.
Outbound calling in healthcare works at every stage of the sales funnel, but it can be particularly impactful at the top of the funnel. The business development team can contact large numbers of prospects, ask qualifying questions and generate sales-ready medical leads. Early calling also produces cooler healthcare opportunities that you can nurture for the future.
5. Optimize customer satisfaction
Even after you close the sale, opportunity remains. Outbound calling to healthcare organizations can grow customer relationships. It’s a high-potential area many healthcare companies neglect.
At Volkart May, we refer to these programs as “warm calling.” It’s “warm” because you’ve already established a solid and profitable relationship with the organization. Outbound callers can use periodic check-in calls to inform past and current customers about new products, notify them of training opportunities, invite them to events or even upsell/cross-sell solutions that complement their current offering. Keeping in touch goes a long way to generating new medical leads and securing referrals to other healthcare organizations.
Work with the healthcare lead generation experts
If you’re a medical sales rep or marketing leader, don’t underestimate what you can accomplish over the phone throughout the healthcare sales process. Contact Volkart May to learn more about our resources and approach, and how we can supplement your internal sales team.