Last month, Sandra Saunders from Wright Medical participated in my successful sales training webinar, Engaging the C-Suite Executive, geared to the medical device industry. 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. 

During our recent pharmaceutical 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.   

Great Sales Questions Lead to Great Solutions

What can you do to be more competitive and stand out when too many pharma sales reps are “pushing drugs” instead of solutions? Ask great sales questions, of course! Chances are you'll accelerate their need to make a decision sooner versus later.

I will be guest speaker later this month for a free webinar entitled Power Probing Secrets to Engage the C-Suite Executive. Hosted by SixOnSelling—an initiative of top ROI speakers and experts like Sam Silverstein, Keith Ferrazzi, Jill Konrath, and myself—this 60-minute program will tackle the challenge of how to engage C-Suite executives with 10 of my best power-probing questions. Check out the details below:

Power-Probing Secrets
to Engage the C-Suite Executive

Wed, July 21, 2010 • 1 pm Eastern (10 am Pacific) • 60 minutes • Register Here

Event Description

Unless you can immediately get into the mindset of today’s C-Suite executive, they’ll quickly dismiss you. Or push you down the organizational ladder forcing you to call on lower-level contacts that are afraid or won’t make a decision. As a result you’re dealing with individuals who can play games, bully you on price, prefer the status quo, or take a guarded position and not give you critical information you need to make the sale.

In our customized sales training, we help sales people understand that persistence and passion typically go hand in hand. A good sales person is passionate, backing up his business solution completely.

None of this “all talk, no action” stuff for this sales rep — he’s hungry, motivated and competitive. He doesn’t pass the buck and blame the economy or blame his product or blame the competition’s lower prices.