In recent research, nearly 80% of physicians reported a permanent change in their third-party vendor interaction preference.
Born from necessity during the pandemic, healthcare providers changed the nature and mix of their interactions with both patients and those organizations supporting their patient care efforts. Shifting provider priorities and expectations directly dictate investments and actions necessary to thrive as a supplier of devices, services and/or technologies within the healthcare ecosystem.
Along with investments in technology and enhancing digital content and capabilities, the most effective and efficient healthcare commercial models have moved away from the single-seller or “lone-wolf” model and embraced a model focused on alternative roles. Healthcare companies are now surrounding their primary seller with key account managers, inside sales, customer success reps and junior reps to help drive productivity.
In 2020, Alexander Group observed expense to revenue ratios for healthcare companies fall to historic lows. This low expense to revenue ratio is likely not sustainable long-term and should stabilize as T&E associated with travel, meetings and conferences return. This pressure on expense to revenue in the face of supply chain cost increases, the need for technology investments and rising labor costs brings an associated increase in rep productivity expectations.
Failure to adjust to these ongoing and lasting changes will lead to commercial obsolescence, under-served customers and market share degradation. Making the necessary changes to your commercial organization means shifting your investment profile, increasing rep productivity expectations and augmenting traditional selling motions with the necessary tools, capabilities and auxiliary roles.
Four Key Levers to Transform the Go-to-Market Model
- Enable and re-deploy your traditional field resources
Leading organizations are making the effort to understand potential productivity gains in a “more virtual” selling environment and making the effort to realign these resources based on a more comprehensive understanding of customer attributes. - Add auxiliary and non-traditional sales roles
Organizations are supplementing the traditional rep field force with non-traditional auxiliary roles including inside/hybrid sales roles. While there are countless ways to deploy inside sellers, individual ownership, where the inside sales team covers a specific set of accounts based on revenue, is the most common form. However, they can also be used for lead generation and own a specific set of products or to drive post-sale utilization and engagement. - Actively evaluate and manage the (shifting) buyer journey
It is becoming more critical than ever to actively evaluate, and maintain, a comprehensive understanding of buyer needs and preferences (often referred to as the buyer journey). Executing regular customer research and updating buyer personas provides the basis for calibrating your commercial go-to-market tactics to best meet specific customer needs. - Create and execute a digital strategy
Organizations need to properly plan and execute a digital strategy with a focus on customer engagement and seller enablement. For our purposes here, we are primarily referring to digital tools and technologies used to improve customer engagement and seller enablement.
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Alexander Group works closely with healthcare revenue leaders to identify critical actions for profitable growth. Experience shows that these leaders can miss untapped potential unless they have a clear go-to-market strategy, backed by aligned sales motions and appropriate compensation. We’re ready to help you build a solid go-to-market model.
For more information on developing and implementing changes to your healthcare commercial model, please contact an Alexander Group Healthcare practice leader.
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Not What You Were Looking For? Explore More…
Healthcare Leaders: How We Help
Recommended Insights:
Whitepaper: Non-traditional Investments to Meet Evolving Provider Needs
Article: New Go-to-Market Investments to Drive Business Performance
Authors
Doug Beveridge is a principal in the Atlanta office and a leader of the firm’s Healthcare practice. Doug brings a wide range of experience working with clients who serve the healthcare industry including biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, software and service providers, and insurance companies. Doug also brings significant cross-industry experience and leads complex engagements including organizational mergers and integrations, global go-to-customer transformations and comprehensive change adoption programs.
Jeffrey Danes is a consultant in the Chicago office. Jeff is part of the Sales Analytics and Benchmarking team that provides analytics and benchmarking insights across many of the firm’s projects and initiatives. He conducts data analysis, applies Alexander Group methodologies, and participates in client interviews and related fact-finding initiatives to provide recommendations to clients.
