During our recent sales training webinar, Engaging the C-Suite Executive, Lisa Krapf, Manager of Merck Pediatric Vaccines, asked the following question:

“How do you get pharmaceutical customers to make decisions faster?”

Identify Motivations in the Customer’s Decision-Making Process

• Eliminate a risk they want to avoid.
• Help them gain greater recognition from their team or boss.
• Find ways to increase their bottom line.
• Make their job easier or productive.

Pharmaceutical sales training is more complex today. Sales reps have a more difficult time accessing physicians. Time is tight for doctors, and sometimes they resist change. New healthcare legislation is creating a fear of the unknown. Earning power of physicians is decreasing—especially considering the explosion of less-expensive generic drugs.   

Ken Roma is the Vice President Sales of Formedic Printing, which sells to the physician and healthcare marketplace. He recently asked me the following question:

“How do you handle getting passed from CFO to CEO to COO (C-Suite Executives) and back and forth among various decision-makers?”

Ken, this question comes up a lot in our pharmaceutical and healthcare sales training programs.

Facilitate C-suite Team Communication

Many times, C-suite executives are not very good at communicating internally with each other. Egos, conflicting priorities, and competing resources get in the way. That’s where you come in. You literally have to orchestrate the c-suite team and get them talking, if not to each other—then definitely with you.  

Last month, Sandra Saunders from Wright Medical participated in my successful sales training webinar, Engaging the C-Suite Executive. Sandra posed the following question:

“What is important to a C-suite hospital executive, and how can we best engage this person?”

Answers Hospital C-Suite Executives Are Seeking

This challenging question comes up often in our medical device sales training programs. Hospital C-suite executives are looking for answers on how to:

• Maintain/increase profitability.
• Differentiate themselves from other hospital choices (their competition), and trying to grow marketshare.
• Keep their board and shareholders happy.
• Better manage internal communications when employees don’t communicate well.
• Minimize risk and litigation.
• Adhere better to compliance and federal regulations.
• Improve employee morale and motivation.
• Hire and retain good quality workers from a limited pool and limited resources.

In one of our medical-device sales training programs last month, it was eye-opening how many seasoned medical device sales reps in a role-play session would attempt to talk to a C-suite executive about products, e.g. hip or knee replacements, plates, screws, fixation, etc.  If he/she tries to shoehorn a pitch into the conversation, all too often they find themselves quickly escorted out of the C-suite executive's office. 

After taking part in our recent Sales Training Webinar, Engaging the C-Suite Executive, participant Michele Anderson of Safemark Systems asked me this question:

“How do you handle a C-suite executive when they think they should be talking with other C-Suite executives at your company, and therefore view you as a low-level employee?”

Turn this into an opportunity, Michele. I think it’s great if a C-suite executive wants to meet the C-suite exec from your company. Make it happen!

YOU must be the one to have the initial meeting

Tell the C-suite executive that YOU are meeting with her first, because you value her time and want to best understand her company’s current…

I recently presented a sales training webinar entitled Engaging the C-Suite Executive, which generated a ton of interest.

One of my sales coaching clients, Homero Herrera, President of Latin American Cargo recently began cultivating a new prospect. Homero reached out to me:

“I get the feeling my prospect is interested, but we haven't made any progress to date. He has been receptive throughout all our communications. Finally we have scheduled a telephone appointment for tomorrow afternoon. How would you approach this conversation? Any questions that come to mind?”

In these situations, your first impulse might be to ask, “How can I help you?” or “What can my company do for you?” But that isn’t always the best place to start, because the prospect often doesn't know! You’ll come across like an uncertain customer wandering into a store, with a supercilious clerk coming up to you with a haughty “How can I help you?” If you ask a sophisticated C-level executive this question, you risk shutting down the conversation altogether; the C-level executive will show you the exit or quickly dismiss you over the phone.