In times of transformational market change there are new winners and losers. If you are a Medtech company, a piece of the puzzle for being among the winners is making the investment in your sales team commensurate with the need for change and the opportunity to benefit.
As recently reported by Booz & Company, healthcare is a striking example of an industry that is undergoing unprecedented changes. Most healthcare organizations are uncertain about the best strategic path forward. However, what is clear is standing still is not an option. Among market leaders the journey of change has already begun and will continue as the future unfolds.
Although many of the long-term implications of the major drivers such as the Affordable Care Act are still vague, the article points out two mega-trends that will help shape the picture of the future:
- consumerization – patients will have greater choice and control
- risk migration – risk will shift from payors to providers
The article then identifies four considerations that hospitals will need to address as they respond to these trends and attempt to adapt to the changing business environment:
- What will be our operational focus? – For example will we focus on low-cost care and high volumes or opt to become a center of excellence in a specific medical specialty?
- How will we reduce the cost of care without impacting the quality of care? – It is clear that reimbursements will be declining so how do we transform both the clinical and administrative sides of the business to reduce costs and improve quality?
- How do we become more customer-centric? – How do we create an improved patient experience, not just deliver better outcomes at reduced costs. There are a wide variety of alternative care models presently be explored to achieve this goal –from Accountable Care organizations to Frontier Stay Clinics.
- How will we deal with the shift from fee-for-service to outcomes payment models? – This shift will not happen over night but it will happen. So how do we transition during the shift?
When hospitals change what they buy, how they buy, and what they are willing to pay for it that constitutes a clarion call to Medtech companies that every aspect of their sales effort needs to be revisited – from how they are organized, to their value proposition to their sales training.
Although again some of the specifics may be unclear, a wait-and-see strategy provides your organization no chance of being among the new winners. Because it is clear that top MedTech sales performance will not be achieved simply by selling to the same people, in the same way, with the same message as yesteryear.
To take a deeper dive into MedTech sales strategy, download the free white paper – 
Getting MedTech Sales Strategy Right – click here or visit http://www.salesmomentum.com/getting-medtech-sales-strategy-right-free-white-paper/.
