Who doesn’t love a good lunch with friends? And if you can expense that lunch and have the potential for sales, that’s even better, right?
People who sell medical equipment know this first-hand – their success is based on a series of touches. Doctors don’t come in and say, “Oh yeah, I need a portable ultrasound machine!” (In fact, their ultrasound machine could be on fire and they likely still wouldn’t admit they need it!) Doctors only see vendors during “lunch-and-learn” types of meetings.
Why Medical Equipment Salespeople Need A CRM
As a medical equipment salesperson, you have to plan accordingly. You know you won’t get a sale on the first meeting. Instead, your approach is all about stopping in and building relationships so that you’re the first call when they’re ready to buy.
You do that by hosting lunch-and-learns, stopping by, and following up. And since medical practices are all grouped together, you do this for multiple prospects at a time.
But how do you keep track of it all? They didn’t hire you because you were awesome at data entry. They hired you because you’re awesome at relationships. So you need CRM sales software to keep track of it all rather than making data entry your full-time job.
What’s the Alternative to Using a Sales CRM?
Here’s what most salespeople are doing in an attempt to prospect without spending all day recording data. They stop by a new place, grab a business card on their way out, make some notes on the back, and try to remember to type it in somewhere when they get back to the office. Eventually, they build up some clients, and they only focus on the ones who are buying. Then they spend all their time on those 10 clients.
Later, the salesperson may get a new job. They just bring those 10 clients with them, until their new boss figures out they aren’t finding new clients. So they move to the next job with the same 10 clients.
It’s not pretty, but it’s reality. Too many medical sales reps have limited their sales because they’ve spent too much time on too few clients.
How to Calculate the Size of Your Medical Equipment Sales World
So how do you get out of the rut? It’s tempting to stop prospecting if you don’t have a system to keep you on track. Or you waste time meeting prospects because you forget to follow up.
But when you calculate your potential, you’ll see just how many sales opportunities you have. And if you add them to your rotation, your sales potential skyrockets. Here’s how to do it.
1. Figure out which practices could possibly buy from you.
In a perfect world, who would buy from you? How many practices are out there? How many gastroenterologists could use your product? Grab a phone book, google it, or find a medical directory and make your list. When you know your numbers and start to see your potential, prospecting gets new life.
2. Figure out how to methodically contact them.
There has to be a method to your system. Why? It keeps you consistent. When you consistently contact prospects, you build trust.
Compare that to an unorganized approach. First, doctors may not remember who you are if you never stop by. Plus, if you’re unpredictable when you’re selling to them, they’ll assume you’ll also be unpredictable on the delivery of the new beam transformer for their ultrasound machine.
They need to know they can count on you — which means you need to be reliable and consistent from the beginning. So plan your follow-up. When will you contact them again, and what does that look like?
Related: How to Prospect Smarter and Bring in More Sales Leads
If you’re not tracking this stuff methodically, you’re wasting your time. You have to build your world bigger than what you can remember in a day. You need to be able to quickly input contact info into CRM software for sales and marketing so you can do something worthwhile with it.
3. Inspect what you expect.
How many times have you visited Practice A vs. Practice Z? Why? Did you visit A more because they’re a higher-value prospect? Is it closer to your house? Is Practice Z out of the way?
You have to know the reason. Then you can be more intentional with the frequency and cost of each visit.
Most medical equipment salespeople see the same clients and prospects over and over again. You build your sales on lunch-and-learns. But with CallProof, you can maximize how much return you get from these lunches and make sure you visit more potential clients.
Let’s say you’ve got a lunch-and-learn budget of $20,000 for the year. And every time you host a lunch, you spend $75 at Moe’s. So, as long as you stay in budget for the year, you’re good. But are you maximizing those funds?
How often are you buying each client lunch? Are you concentrating that money on 10-20 of your best clients? Maybe you visit your favorite practice every Wednesday — they love Moe’s and you have fun hanging out with them. You know Sally at reception and have great conversations with Joe. But why are you going every week? Chances are, you could have a better return on your investment if you expanded your rotation.
What if you spent that same amount on 50 clients and prospects instead of 15? Your “regulars” won’t be mad. They have other people buying their lunch too. Plus, you’ll still maintain that relationship — you just won’t see them as often. Sales CRM software like CallProof helps you broaden your prospect base. Then it connects your meetings to follow-up activities and helps you track what to do with each client.
Lunch-and-learns are a great thing — you just have to spread them out! You want to spend your money on practices that will actually buy — not just places that are easy or close. You want practices that bring new business. So use a mechanism that calculates where your time and money is best spent.
It’s natural for us to make decisions about where we visit based on how much we enjoy it or how easy it is to stop by. But an app like CallProof helps you automate those decisions based on logic. You’ll be able to recognize where you’re getting the most return, who you need to contact more frequently, and where you can find new prospects. Then you’ll spend your time where it’s most valuable and the size of your world (and sales) will only get bigger!
