5 Reasons Your Company Needs to Invest in Key Account Management

Acquiring new customers is the most obvious way for healthcare organizations to drive growth, but it is not the only way. More and more healthcare consulting firms are offering key account management training, an innovative new approach to account management that teaches professionals to focus their efforts on a few key accounts in their portfolio. Here are a few of the benefits of investing in this type of training for your firm’s account managers.

1. Retain Existing Customers  

Keeping the customers you have is always easier than finding new ones. Existing customers know what you have to offer and have found your services satisfactory over the months or years they have been working with you. 

Key account management training can help you build on that existing trust to forge iron-clad relationships that benefit both parties. When customers know that you will go above and beyond for them, you can win their loyalty for a lifetime.  

2. Grow Existing Accounts 

It is easy to think that the goal of customer retention is to maintain consistent income from that account over time. This is not true. Your existing customers may actually have much more interest in purchasing additional solutions from you than either of you realizes.  

A well-trained account manager understands that key accounts in their roster have untapped potential. They should always be looking for opportunities to show their clients some new product or service your organization offers that will meet their clients’ needs, even before those needs have been expressed. Doing this will allow them to capture more revenue from these accounts and easily achieve sustainable growth. 

3. Develop Your Understanding of Your Target Customers 

When you know your current customers like the back of your hand, you also gain knowledge about what future customers will respond to. Products or services that are popular with several accounts will probably be appreciated by similar organizations and may merit greater investment from your firm.  

Key account management training teaches your staff to observe trends in their customers’ needs and apply them to later sales opportunities. This tactic is especially effective when excellent account management skills are paired with additional information from pharmaceutical market research companies and other sources of real-world customer data.  

4. Secure Long-Term Revenue 

No firm can rely on project-to-project income forever. Every organization must build long-term sources of revenue to continue to grow and expand.  

Key account management training gives your staff the tools they need to deliver outstanding service on a consistent basis. This keeps customers satisfied and happy to keep giving you their business for many years to come.  

5. Drive Word-of-Mouth Marketing 

When your customers know they can depend on your organization for innovative solutions and excellent service, they will happily recommend you to other organizations in the industry. This allows you to build momentum based on your past successes and organically grow your customer base. 

Key account management training helps your staff further develop their skillsets to meet the needs of even the most discerning customers. With this knowledge to guide them, they will have no trouble delivering the high-quality service that will get you those coveted recommendations.  

Get Key Account Management Training from a Top Training Organization 

Healthcare is a highly competitive field, and your firm needs every advantage it can get to stay on top. Key account management training can help your staff master the advanced customer service skills they need to make your biggest accounts even more lucrative.

The Brooks Group provides a full curriculum of training programs for account managers in the healthcare industry, including employee onboarding training and strategic account management training. Contact us today to learn more about how you can enroll your workforce in these programs and set your company up for success. 

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2022/02/5-reasons-to-invest-in-key-account-management/

Account Managers: Conduct Winning Meetings Starting Today!

Account managers regularly conduct meetings with some of the busiest professionals in the healthcare industry. These meetings offer a critical opportunity to exchange thoughts with clients, receive feedback, and explore new pathways to grow the account. However, it is just as easy for these events to go awry.  

As an account manager, you owe your clients the courtesy of proper preparation. Here are five easy steps you can follow to plan winning meetings that will deepen your client relationships and secure new business for your firm.  

1. Take Time to Prepare 

Every successful meeting begins with thorough preparation.  

First, decide who will attend. Keep meetings as small as possible. If possible, find out how many people the client is bringing and make sure to include relevant people from your own organization.

If you do not know some of the people in your client's party, be sure to check their LinkedIn page to learn more about them before you meet them in person.

Make sure that everyone who is set to attend the meeting knows when and where it will take place. If the meeting is online, make sure that everyone has access to the right software and has received any links or account access they need to participate.  

Finally, figure out how long it will take you to get to the venue on the day of the meeting, then add an extra half-hour or so to account for detours, delays, and last-minute preparations. This ensures that you will have more than enough time to arrive before the client and set up the room.

2. Sort Out Your Logistics 

Once you know how you want your meeting to go, think about what you will need to have ready to make things go smoothly.  

Do you have backups of all the files you need for your presentation? Is the conference room's equipment working properly? If there is an online component to the meeting, is the office's internet connection stable? Are there enough chairs for everyone? If you will be serving coffee and snacks, how will you get them to the conference room? Will someone be taking notes, and if so, who? 

Planning for all of these factors minimizes the number of interruptions you will experience during your meeting and makes you and your company look like consummate professionals.

3. Establish a Framework 

Before the meeting begins, ensure that everyone is on the same page by quickly reviewing your goals for the day and how much time you have allotted for the event. It may also be helpful for you to use your strategic account management training to create a brief elevator pitch for any products or services you are planning to bring to the client’s attention.

Laying these details out in advance gives your meeting some direction and a clear endpoint that respects everyone's time. Setting these guidelines in advance reassures your clients of your professionalism and makes it easy for you to keep the meeting focused and productive. 

4. Account for Different Communication Styles 

The way you present information in a meeting can have a significant impact on that meeting's outcomes. Some people enjoy some social chitchat up-front to break the ice, while others prefer to get straight to business matters. Know your audience’s communication style and adapt your presentation style to suit them. This will keep your clients engaged and reinforce their confidence in your skills.

However, remember what you learned about your company culture during your employee onboarding training; many organizations frown on taking too casual an approach, and your communications choices should remain consistent with internal expectations. 

5. Listen

Account managers typically come to the meetings with a lot of reports, presentations, and information that they want to share with the client. In their eagerness to offload all that information, sometimes they forget to allow time to listen and let the client share their most pressing concerns or ideas. Sometimes the reports you want to share are not as important as the new ideas the client might be thinking about, as it might uncover new opportunities for your growth together. So, make sure to ask the clients some open-ended questions and then listen!

6. Follow Up Afterwards 

Good follow-up after a meeting is critical for reinforcing the customer experience. 

Thank each attendee for their time and include a short summary of the key points covered during your time together. Doing this demonstrates that you are committed to understanding your customers' needs and are making the most of every learning opportunity. It also shows the kind of initiative and leadership That are hallmarks of good customer service.

Master Meetings for Account Management Success 

When your next meeting comes up, put these tips into action and witness the difference they make. With the right approach, you and your clients will all leave feeling focused and confident that you are on the right track.

Interested in further development? The Brooks Group is a leader among America's pharmaceutical market research companies and healthcare consulting firms. We provide training programs that help account managers sharpen the skills they need to succeed. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you develop your sales skills, market knowledge, and customer relationships.

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2022/02/conduct-winning-meetings-starting-today/

4 Keys to Driving Sales with Existing Accounts

Effective account management requires a careful balance of maintenance and growth. You must not only do everything in your power to retain the accounts you already have but also seek out new revenue opportunities to help your company expand. 

Both of these tasks require a significant amount of energy and focus from an AM, and the two priorities often compete with each other to the detriment of both. But what if you could serve both functions at the same time? The following four key concepts outline how you can shift your focus away from lead acquisition to make better use of the revenue potential of your existing accounts.

1. Shift Away from the ‘Anti-Shrinkage’ Model

For many years, the main goal of account management has been to avoid losing the customers with whom the firm is already doing business.

While it is always better to keep a customer than lose one, simply maintaining your existing accounts will never produce the growth you need. To do that, you need to add new business to your portfolio.

The most obvious way to do this is to secure brand-new clients you have never served before. However, it might be a better idea to look for new opportunities to upsell to the customers you already have. 

2. Customer Service is for Retention, not Growth

Many account managers assume that providing good customer service will automatically lead to growth opportunities. This is not always an accurate assessment. 

While customer service is extremely important in account management, it does not help AMs secure new business. Instead, its role is to keep existing customers happy with the services they are currently receiving.

A happy customer might be more inclined to purchase services from you instead of a competitor. The trouble is that if your company had something to offer that customer that they knew they wanted, they would already have purchased it. Unless something changes, that customer is unlikely to decide to become a greater source of revenue. Therefore, deliberate and effective upselling is important in order to generate more revenue from happy customers.

3. Leverage the Power of Customer Improvement

Instead of focusing on customer service, it is more useful to shift your attention to a different target: customer improvement. 

This model turns the idea of customer retention on its head by turning existing customers into new sources of revenue. Under a customer improvement strategy, your task is to suggest ways that the customer might grow or improve their business and let them know how your company can help them do it. As an example, for healthcare accounts, this might involve promoting a new and promising drug or therapy. 

If it is done tactfully and founded on solid evidence, customer improvement can benefit both you and your customers. You will secure the additional business you need, and they will gain access to a new tool that they can use to propel their organization's growth as well.

4. Improve Your Account Management Skills and Supports

To successfully implement customer improvement strategies, you will need in-depth knowledge of both your customers’ needs and the latest developments in the field. Pharmaceutical market research companies or other healthcare research groups can help you acquire the information you need to identify the products and services that are most likely to interest your accounts.

Further, it never hurts to have additional sales or customer service training during a significant undertaking like this. An extra round of strategic account management training can sharpen your skills and give you the confidence you need to make the most of this new approach. 

Bringing Effective Customer Improvement Strategies to Life

Customer improvement and similar upselling strategies are the cornerstones of predictable sales growth. Capitalize on your existing sales relationships first and you will quickly see how powerful established trust can be.

Healthcare consulting firms like The Brooks Group work with organizations to provide employee onboarding training, refresher training, and more. Contact us today to hear more about our account management training options and how we can help you better serve your existing clientele in the healthcare industry.

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2021/10/4-keys-to-driving-sales-with-existing-accounts/

PEST Analysis in Healthcare Market Research

 

There are countless reasons why a healthcare organization would want to perform quantitative market research. Top catalysts include a desire to pivot to expand market share or to review current performance and determine potential areas for improvement. In both scenarios, The Brooks Group is a top healthcare consulting firm that performs PEST analysis on a client’s behalf to aid in creating a roadmap with a holistic review of external factors that directly impact efficacy.

Utilizing PEST Analysis to Synthesize Information

Healthcare organizations don’t work in a vacuum. They’re often influenced by and have consequential influence over the communities they serve. Decisions made at the executive level not only determine employee performance but can also affect health outcomes in their communities.

PEST analysis strives to review the multiple external components that influence an organization’s future course of action. Key stakeholders can confidently draft strategies that are not only informed but beneficial both for the organization and the surrounding community, by breaking down the market research into the following four core pillars:

- Political factors

- Economic factors

- Sociocultural factors

- Technological factors

Understanding Each Component of PEST Analysis

Crafting a healthcare strategy that balances the needs of a community with those of an organization is a critical skill. The Brooks Group frequently performs PEST analysis that provides key insights into those individual factors most likely to impact business goals and operational constraints.

Political Factors

Political factors can vary by location but usually include government healthcare subsidies, employment regulations, and consumer protections. Understanding whether subsidies are growing or shrinking, or that a new employee tax classification is coming, can help pharmaceutical market research companies understand how payroll requirements will impact labor costs or general revenue in the coming years.

Economic Factors

Economic factors typically refer to internal costs that a healthcare organization must manage. Anything from benefits, to interest rates from a redevelopment loan, can influence long-term goals and spending strategies. However, external scenarios also exist. For example, massive layoffs in a nearby town might see patient behaviors shift from prioritizing preventative or in-patient care and instead divert to urgent care facilities.

Sociocultural Factors

As communities across the nation continue to diversify, understanding how to properly engage with them and effectively convey healthcare messaging is a priority. Engaging in a PEST analysis can aid healthcare organizations in better identifying communication gaps — whether referencing language barriers or cultural value shifts — to ensure that the community trusts your organization and has adequate access to care.

Technological Factors

The healthcare industry continues to make strides with cutting-edge technologies that can improve patient care, communications, and interoperability between healthcare networks. And as more patients are demanding direct access to not just healthcare workers, but to their medical records, organizations need to determine how best to integrate these features without violating privacy policies or reducing the quality of care.

Building for the Future

Creating a 21st-century healthcare firm that’s adaptive and responsive to the community it serves is what’s going to set successful organizations apart as leaders in their respective fields. PEST analysis is critical because it provides a comprehensive macro approach that ensures your organization can make informed decisions that continue to move your business forward. The Brooks Group provides holistic support for healthcare organizations that includes support for new hire onboard training and account management training to build a stronger workforce.

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2021/05/pest-analysis-in-healthcare-market-research/