Amplify Your Sales Team's Effectiveness in Managed Markets

Managed care is the process of delivering health services based on agreements made between an insurance company and a network of healthcare providers. Under this agreement, insured patients receive care at a lower cost than they would if they were treated by a provider outside of this network.

This type of care has become extremely popular in the US market, particularly in the context of employer-sponsored plans. As of 2017, more than 70 million Americans rely on this type of coverage for at least some of their healthcare needs.

This high market penetration signals the need for healthcare providers to satisfy the demands of managed care providers in order to receive payment for their services. This has significant implications for how account managers should approach sales proposals when managed care plans are a factor in their clients' decision-making processes.

How Managed Care Changes Sales Dynamics

In addition to a thorough understanding of the pharmaceutical market in general, a specialized approach is required when working with accounts that depend on managed care billing. These accounts have unique concerns that influence their purchasing decisions. If they purchase a drug that is not adopted by many managed care plans, they risk being unable to generate a profit from that purchase.

Which types of drugs are favored by managed care plans? Budget is often a major factor in this decision. Managed care plans emphasize affordability and must stretch a relatively small pool of funds to cover all the drugs and treatments they will offer.

Managed care insurers are also much more likely to be interested in drugs that can be prescribed to a wider patient base. Niche solutions are rarely appealing to this type of payer. On the other hand, drugs that can be used to treat a wide variety of conditions may be more attractive.

Why Managed Care Training Matters

Developing a deeper understanding of what drives this market is critical to successfully pitching products to providers who operate within it. Account managers and pharmaceutical sales representatives must demonstrate that they are familiar with the decision-making process within managed care contexts to gain providers’ trust and match them with profitable solutions.

In recognition of this knowledge gap, healthcare management consulting firms have begun offering specialized training to help account managers adjust their approach to better suit the needs of this segment of the market. For instance, our upcoming Managed Care 101 training course offers an overview of managed care markets and the information needed to make a convincing proposal that will secure new business. Topics covered include:

• Who pays for healthcare products and services in the US market

• How pharmacy benefit management and integrated delivery networks work

• How to use evidence-based criteria and player guidelines to determine appropriate product suggestions

• How to establish a pull-through relationship with clients to promote the use of your products in the context of managed care

Perfect Your Managed Care Sales Tactics

Managed care market dynamics will only become more important in pharmaceutical sales in the coming years. Deepening your sales team's knowledge of managed care now is key to maintaining your competitive advantage.

The Brooks Group offers a full catalog of account management training courses designed to help sales representatives hone their skills, as well as instructional design services for creating custom training content. Contact us today to sign your team members up for our Managed Care 101 training course (currently scheduled for May 30) or any of our other industry-leading courses for account management professionals.

This blog was originally posted in https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2022/03/amplify-your-sales-teams-effectiveness-in-managed-markets/

Relationship Building for Key Account Management

 

Being a leading Healthcare management consulting firm, at The Brooks Group, we understand that successful account managers do more than simply meeting sales goals. This critical position serves as an intermediary that must balance not only internal growth strategies, but also meet and exceed your clients’ needs. To do this, you need to have an understanding of client needs and a strong relationship with key stakeholders within their firm.

Understanding Client Infrastructure and Organization

Your primary contacts for an account may not be the final decision-makers in that company. Consider that there are three main knowledge levels in an organization:

- Governance

- Formal organizational structure

- Networks within the organization

By knowing who possesses the mission-critical information and who is authorized to give final approval, you can present solutions that are effective for your client and that they would be receptive to. This may require networking with individuals outside of your primary points of contact.

The Importance of Integrating with the Governing Body

Healthcare organizations rely on a governing body to manage oversight as well as key business decisions. This group may be composed of physicians, non-physicians, or a combination of the two. Building relationships with these individuals is critical for ensuring that any recommendations you give to your clients are more likely to be not only considered, but approved.

The Organizational Component

While having a strong network with individuals at the governance level is important, you still need to have alliances with client members who manage the day-to-day tasks. A key account management training program can train you to identify the various organizational levels within your client’s company and leverage those relationships.

In general, most healthcare organizations have three key levels: strategic, operational, and tactical.

Strategic Level

These members are entrusted with making decisions that directly impact not just your account projects, but the profitability and viability of their company. Typically this segment makes up five to 10% of the total workforce.

Operational Level

The operational team members are the individuals that strategize and manage the daily oversight for projects. While they still report to people at the strategic level, these people have a greater understanding of the company’s objectives and current pace at a macro level.

Tactical Level

Members at the tactical level are the people implementing any changes approved by the strategic team that are later organized by operational members. Although not as influential as the other levels, this segment understands the company’s pain points at a granular level.

Identifying Key Targets for Networking

Knowing your client’s organizational flow and governance component are important. Healthcare executive coaching helps you to identify the core roles account members play as this will impact your success. Typically, every client organization will have a decision-maker, information provider, influencer, and gatekeeper.

While the decision-maker may seem like the only important role to befriend, note that this member may rely on the expertise or opinion of others before making a choice — so you can’t neglect the other roles. For example, a gatekeeper is someone who screens information before sharing it with a more influential individual. Building a relationship with this person ensures that your communications are consistently heard by the right people.

Prioritize Relationship Building for Success

Understanding how to effectively build relationships not just with your account team, but external influential members is essential to success. A good account manager is trained to be able to balance internal company sales goals with their client’s needs in a way that not only builds trust but also eliminates the risk of losing an account to a competitor.

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2021/04/relationship-building-for-key-account-management/

Market Research in Healthcare: A Must for Avoiding the Blind Spot

 

Healthcare is all about helping people and providing the highest level of care. But, if you don’t know what people need, how can you best serve their interests?

Market research is a must for healthcare and biopharma companies. It’s an in-depth dive into the trends in the industry and the needs of the patients to help organizations make educated decisions about where to direct their budgets and the directions they need to take their organization to. Without adequate research, valuable opportunities might be missed and important customer relationships might be lost.

Instead of reacting to market changes and merely surviving, companies need to be proactive in order to thrive. Market research is essential to learn what the market wants, to avoid blind spots, and to create effective strategies to grow your healthcare practice.

What Is the Blind Spot?

A blind spot is an overlooked opportunity. Whether it’s a missed demographic or misplaced funds, a blind spot is essentially an inefficiency in your business strategy.

In a study, managers were asked which stage of the buyer’s journey is most important for driving revenue. Over half replied that attracting new customers was the most important, which is where they spent most of their budgets.

Only after in-depth market research was it discovered that a 5% increase in renewals from existing customers would boost profits by 25%, and acquiring a new customer is between five and 25 times more expensive than keeping an existing one.

What was the blind spot? Their existing customers. These companies were spending a large portion of their budgets on attracting new customers, when retaining existing customers would have earned them much higher returns on their investments.

Blind spots aren’t only about funding the wrong buyer’s stage. Here are some of the most common blind spots companies overlook:

- Not understanding the real reason prospects make decisions.

- Knowing which marketing incentives are most effective.

- Using the wrong strategies.

- Not knowing where your customers come from.

- Chasing the wrong demographic.

- Misunderstanding perceptions of your brand.

While there’s no finite list, it’s easy for healthcare companies to fall victim to any one of these blind spots.

Benefits of Performing Market Research

To avoid blind spots, you need to know what they are. And the only way to do that is with proper market research.

Healthcare market research is the epitome of the phrase “knowledge is power.” With in-depth analytics, healthcare companies can easily see how to maximize efficiency and best serve their patients, leading to numerous benefits:

- Identify the core factors that drive customer decisions.

- Better understand a patient’s experience.

- Bolster marketing strategies.

- Identify gaps in service.

- Stay on top of market trends.

- Optimize R&D investments.

- Learn how customers perceive your brand.

Without market research, healthcare businesses would have to react to changes after they happen instead of being proactive and getting ahead of the changes.

The Brooks Group: Healthcare Market Research Specialists

The Brooks Group is one of the leading healthcare management consulting firms that specializes in market research. We perform in-depth research for healthcare, pharma and biotech companies to help them create effective business strategies. Some of the services we provide to our clients are -

- Survey organizations to identify the voice of the customer.

- Review responses to identify helpful themes, comments, and messages.

- Conduct internal and external gap analyses

- Provide tools to support patient advocacy in the pharmaceutical industry.

- Perform specialized research into case studies, retrospective analysis, and market trends.

- Create marketing or R&D strategies based on response data.

- Concept testing.

Armed with a thorough understanding of how to optimize your operational strategy, companies can avoid blind spots and grow their brand. If you’re ready to take your business strategies to the next level, contact us to get started.

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2021/01/market-research-in-healthcare-a-must-for-avoiding-the-blind-spot/