Marketing and Sales for HME

I have had the privilege of working in the post-acute care industry in a variety of capacities for 20 years. During the next four months, I will be providing a series of articles on a variety of relevant HME topics. My goal is to share best practices and lessons I have learned along the way that in turn will help you and your team to stimulate business growth.

I have experienced many ups and downs throughout my career. Each experience has helped me to grow and learn more about the HME industry. While working for a national HME and home respiratory care company, I built and managed a team of more than 100 people by implementing proper territory alignment, educating doctors about our services, providing a hands-on management approach, adopting ride-alongs with representatives and instilling a never-let-up mentality with a strong focus on return on investment (ROI).

A strong focus on improving the business ROI starts with understanding the numbers, knowing the market and using a customer relationship management (CRM) software. The right CRM will help streamline your team, from identifying the most productive physicians, monitoring and assessing your sales team, recruiting top talent and reviewing your sales team’s activity in the field to properly aligning territories and improving accountability. I hope these articles shed some light on best practices and provide new ideas for you to implement within your sales and marketing teams. Following is a brief synopsis of upcoming articles.

• Sales Management:

Learn some of the most effective strategies to use when managing an HME sales team, including: consistent monitoring and assessment of your team’s activities and results, constant recruitment of top sales talent and tactics for being aggressive while remaining ethical. In addition, I will discuss developing accountability throughout your organization, providing continuing education on the market and disease states and putting in place strategies to get to decision-makers.

• Growth Techniques:

By creating a narrative around one of the patients that a physician works with, a sales rep is able to overcome the perception of simply being a salesperson to becoming a trusted partner in patient care. Doing this can build or strengthen the relationship with that doctor, resulting in a long-term customer. I will also touch on how a CRM can help sales reps effectively manage their referral source interactions.

• Creating a Productive Sales Team:

The article will provide proven methods for building and maintaining an efficient, productive sales team. I will discuss my approach to compensation plans that work to motivate your team, where the rule is always, “the simpler the better.” By clearly stating what a sales rep can earn based on established goals, as well as providing team performance awards, you create an environment that encourages teamwork and strengthens your entire organization.

• Performance Indicators:

The final article in this series will identify key performance indicators to keep a close eye on as you steer your sales team to exponential sales growth. I will tell you how a CRM can drastically reduce the amount of time spent creating reports and monitoring the success of your team.

Throughout the publication of these articles, I encourage you to contribute to the conversation through our social media channels (LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook) or on my company’s blog. I want to hear about your best practices and the lessons you have learned.