The healthcare industry seems to be in a constant state of change. The impact of federal and state regulations forces healthcare providers and insurers to be more nimble and agile than ever before. This makes successful sales execution seem like a monumental task. As I speak to more sales and marketing people in this sector, I sense the growing frustration just trying to keep up. So I thought I’d share a few tips from our customers on how they’ve been able to stay ahead in this environment:
Streamline on boarding and continuous coaching of sales agents
With the pace of information changing as fast as it does today, new hire training is outdated the minute it’s completed. In reality, you could consider seasoned agents “new” with the endless new regulations and compliance requirements to learn. Successful companies are using integrated systems to connect training, compliance, and product information in a way that is contextual to the sales person’s selling situation. This allows reps and agents to get just-in-time talking points, data, and content to stay up to date and move the sale forward.
Differentiate
Hiring and keeping good sales reps is challenging. And we’ve all seen the numbers on the costs of hiring new reps – $135k according to Forrester. Successful companies are getting creative with ways to help sales reps keep up their skills; this in turn keeps the reps’ job satisfaction high – all resulting in more closed business.
Monitor progress & activity
Information is power; the more you know on what is happening during the sales cycle, the better decisions you can make. When federal regulators and audits come up, knowing exactly what your sales team is doing and what content has been used is critical.
Keep agents in pace with updated content and selling documents
When federal or state regulations change, successful companies update and train agents in real-time – without disrupting sales. Who has time to be pulled out of the field to sit on a training session for updates? With any changes that impact content or forms, Qvidian customers streamline the delivery of updated content to sales agents through the opportunity in Salesforce within the context of each individual deal.
While none of us can predict what the state of healthcare and insurance will be in a year – or even the next few months! –we can be better equipped to be agile and adaptable for whatever comes next.
